Merry Christmas Y'All

Hey BG -- Here's Yer Sign *grin*

And Bobby--"this one's for you!!"

Block Island ------Again

Of all the places on earth that I have been privileged to visit [not a few], this tiny three mile by six mile piece of a tiny little state remains right at the top of my list. So it was indeed a heart- warming experience to take my favorite person to my favorite place. These clickable photos may partly explain why.

Old JS Entries

There is no way to say this without sounded conceited, but damn....I was just looking through some of my cached JS journal (with photos included) and I was honestly struck by how good some of it was! What a horrid thing to need to confess.

I mention it because I was looking for one particular entry, which I found, posted 6 Aug 2005, and equally as true today* as it was way back then.


"In a little over five thousand minutes [but who's counting], Fin Towers will have a first time visitor whose opinion of the place is of more than passing importance to me. Therefore, much blogging time has been spent instead in trying to change quite a few years of 'bachelor/comfortable/slovenly' ambience into 'almost presentable/at least sanitary/God I hope she likes it'. "

Safe travels, my precious Girl Blogger.


*except for 'first time'

Then




Now(ish)

From Mozart to Millionairs Mansions

The Magnolia state melds mighty miraculous mysteries.





Photos by the talented BethanyC

More cruisin'

Cruisin

It is a really big deal down here, and actually a lot of fun.

Police Blotter

In my younger days, I wrote a police blotter column for a local weekly newspaper. Over the intervening years I have encountered a lot of police calls which might be classified as humerous or strange, but these two from a local paper seen this morning in a doctor's office really struck me funny.

People Magnet

We took copper to the beach today for a walk along the Gulf shoreline.

During my lifetime, I have had lots of dogs, including several different breeds.

But I have NEVER, EVER had a dog that attracted a crowd the way this one does.

Everybody wants to know WHAT he is, and then wants to love him. Since he is a veritable love sponge, he has no objections.'

Here, he is having a very public and apparently entertaining drink from an open shower.

Remembering

Hot Here - Still

With severe weather alerts daily for heat index values in the triple digits, it is good to remember cooler times.

This picture brings back SUCH wonderful memories of walking in the almost cathedral like silence of fresh snow in the woods in NY with the woman who still makes my heart beat faster.

Good News

It seems the booms have saved the birds, at least on this perfectly lovely day on Deer Island, Mississippi.

Count 'Em

Hot Here Today

Perhaps clicking this will cool me off.........

Martha's Vineyard

One of the signs of aging, one supposes.....

.......is that an hour long chore takes most of the day and leaves one feeling like a truck ran over you.

My Deepest Sympathies

Bethany has just lost her remarkable Grandmother--her Dad's Mom. She has been written up before on her hundredth birthday and on the fiftieth anniversary of her son's wedding, but she was truly an amazing woman, who had open heart surgery in her nineties and raised seven children while living and working abroad, in South America.

Last week, Bethany and I both devoutly wished that she could be with me here in Yankeeland as I faced two medical appointments in a single day and surgery several days later. [OK, I won't whine about how I would have liked her with me as I took my first faltering steps into Windows-Seven land, but yes, I would have liked her here for that, too.]

But for very good and sufficient reasons, we both accepted that she could not be here, and both made the best of it. Now, I equally devoutly wish that I could hop on a plane or three and return back from when I just came, to be with her and her family for the funeral. But I very likely will not be able to, and it hurts. I hope we will both come to accept and make the best of it again. I certainly look forward to rejoining her and our strange dog as soon as my vision is stabalized. In fact I am still toying with the idea of trying to drive there...Yankee license plates and all.

Not sayin' it has been rainin' hard, but

at least no oil slick here, where I usually am mowing the grass in our yard.

Meanwhile, far far from the ash,

an old friend (thru the Panama canal together in Sept 04) made the news today by swerving to avoid a buoy and injuring 60 or so passengers.

I particularly like this shot (taken from a Robinson R-44 in Aruba) which was not altered nor cropped.

Another view

More Problems

Here is what is disrupting the lives of several hundred thousand people, so far.

Sincerest Condolences

Perhaps pilots have different feelings about airplane crashes than do non-pilots. And I suspect that with the exception of the very many Americans of Polish descent, my feelings about Poland are perhaps warmer and stronger than many of my fellow countrymen. [The fact that I just tuned in CNN and Fox news who were running commercials seems to substantiate this belief].

I have been very fortunate to have not one but two extraordinarily warm and utterly pleasant visits to Poland, with some of my happiest travel memories ever.

The dimensions of the tragedy in Smolensk will take weeks or more to untangle, as the Russians are apparently sealing off the scene and limiting or totally curtailing information from journalists.

The irony of the event however, is beyond description. Tragic, utterly tragic irony.

My very sincerest sympathies to everyone affected by this event.

No Old Bold

See comments for text.

After the Storm

As you approach Smith Point, the beach looks a little narrower than it used to be.



Yup...it is.

Hi

Spring

After

Before

Who remembers Vinnie Barbarino?

Dysfunctionality In Daily Life

A wise man once suggested [be being an engineer AND a relative] that one of my ongoing problems might be reduced or even eliminated by a few sandbags.

So, today one undertook to telephone to see where to get same. No more than a half dozen needed, with or without sand. Easy peasy.....

First call - County Emergency Preparedness. Nope. No sandbags. Need to call the Township.

First township number, local fire, totally befuddled, but tried to be helpful. No, nobody in her experience had ever asked for sandbags. She thought it might be the highway department and gave me two numbers.

Both were machines, announcing that their hours end at half past three in the afternoon.

Now it is Tuesday and I have tried a few more times. One Fire Department simply said "No idea" and hung up. Suggestions have included local potato farms or "sand and gravel places". One actually (untypically) helpful woman at the township level called every place at the township level she could possibly think of and suggested I try the county. I thanked her sincerely but had to point out that it was the county 'emergency prepardness' who had told me to contact the town.

Breaking the chain on my own, I tried a local Fire Department who had been helpful in the past. "Hey Murph, where would someone get sandbags to control flooding?" "Try a local potato farm". My copious tax dollars at work.

The local National Guard suggested "law enforcement section". Lowes sells "tube sand", whatever that is.

repost from JS

Fin and the (almost) International Incident
posted Fri, 20 May 2005 11:51:22 -0700

Because I was going to go for an 'E Ticket' ride in this [here should be a picture of me with a jet supersonic trainer; actually, there is one further down the page]

while I was in Capetown, I decided to wear this:

[here belongs a photo of a flight jacket with several military patches on it, including a four engine prop plane].

and thereby came involved in something which had a lot more people than just me smiling

The hotel where I was staying in Capetown was a lovely old one dating back to the time when Winston Churchill stayed there as a young reporter, and a famous teevee celeb had stayed there the month before my visit. Since my decision to go for the supersonic ride had only been made the day before I left NY, permission and waiver slips had been faxed to the hotel for me to sign, and as a consequence, basically, the entire lobby staff of the hotel knew what I was doing there. The jacket was, I thought, appropriate for the momentous occasion and I wore it without a second thought.

Upon my return from the visit to the top of Cable Mountain (and McDonalds) that afternoon, two buses loaded with very well dressed Orientals arrived, together with another bus full of luggage. I gave it not a thought, having seen it before (the last time, in Papeete, it turned out to be a Japanese spear fishing tournament). Somewhat gradually, however, I began to become aware of constant rather hostile glares from many of the new arrivals, but this bothered me not a whit, since most of them only came up to my chin. It is relevant to the story that this occurred in April 2001.

A short while later, one of the workers at the hotel came up to me and said “We think it’s very funny what you are doing, especially since they made us take down the American flag in front of the hotel”. I admitted my total puzzlement over the remark, and she said ‘the jacket – we think it is hysterical’. The mystery still not being remotely close to being solved, I queried whatever was she on about, and she said “Don’t you know who these people are?” “Nope”.

Well, it turns out it was the Premier of China and all of his top aids and generals. Further relevance, for those not inclined to google the date, was that the Chinese at that time in history had possession of an American military plane and crew which bore a strong resemblance to the plane on the breast pocket – a four engine propeller driven P-3 Orion spy plane. The staff thought I should go to the hotel manager and demand that the American flag be flown. I opined that perhaps I could have a ladder and some paint and write “Give us back our airplane” on their flag, but I did not. Which is probably just as well, one supposes