I'm Back

I'm back from a 10 day adventure to the wilds of Vancouver, BC and Whidbey Island Race Week. I had hoped to write a post or two while I was gone, but I was too busy having fun to mess with crappy internet connections. In fact, I didn't even get a chance to do my normal net-surfing and keeping up with the news. It's probably one of the longest stretches I've had in not having any clue what was going on in the world. A quick scan of the news when I got back indicated that I hadn't missed much. The war in Iraq continues, the stock market is crashing, Gonzales is lying, Hillary and Barack are taking swipes at each other, blah, blah, blah. Maybe I've been taking too much interest in stuff that really isn't all that interesting.

Granville Island is interesting. I thought I had been there before, but I was mistaken. It was all new and exciting to me. There are lots of shops and restaurants, but it's not all touristy retail stuff. There's a boat yard there, working marinas and even a microbrewery. It's a great place to moor a boat in the heart of a great city.

Here's the main drag on Granville Island. A shot from above would have given a better feel, but oh well. You'll have to go visit yourself.

Here's a view of downtown Vancouver from the island.

I really liked these cool water taxis. It made it really easy and fun to get across False Creek to downtown Vancouver and back again. John and I used them to get to downtown to get my passport and then we even got some culture and went to the Vancouver Art Museum to see their Monet to Dali exhibit. After Lorraine finished working for the day, we all met to see Michael Moore's film SiCKO (that could be the subject of a whole blog entry itself. I liked it a lot) and then had a dinner of fine Indian cuisine.

While there, I took a Hanse 400e sailboat for a test run. (This is the boat I plan to buy if I sell WaveGuide.) There wasn't much wind, but I got to try out the self-tacking jib and spend a leisurely couple of hours sailing around English Bay. Tom and Nancy came up for the day to check out the boat and ended up spending the night. We went to a pretty classy Italian restaurant and had to suppress our giggles when our lovely, but obviously new waitress couldn't get our bottle of wine open. She declined our offer of help, left the table for a minute and came back with it magically opened. I had the risotto, which was good,but not nearly as good as Bonnie's. A good time was had by all.

And here we are at Race Week. I didn't have much of a chance to take many pictures, but it was quite a sight to see almost 100 sailboats at one time. This racing business is hard work. My body took more of a beating after nine races in four days than it has in a long time.

Some of the crew relaxing on Surt between races.

I think I set a bunch of new records for the number of people on my boat. At one point, there were about 20 on board! Here some of us are camped out on Pam's bed (formerly the pilothouse table).

The races themselves were quite a battle. Here are the results http://cycseattle.org/2007_specific/wirw.php

Surt (named after a Norse god of some sort) is in Fleet P6. As you can see, it was a heart-breaking battle for last place in our group. Even though we beat our competition in the last three races, the best we could do was tie for last, or tied for 8th, as I prefer to say. We did however, manage to win the award on the first day for innovative sailing techniques. We crossed the finish line in the first race with about 3/4 of our spinnaker still flying. That would have been OK, except the last leg was to windward! (For all you landlubbers out there, spinnakers are the big colorful sails that get flown on downwind legs. After we rounded the last downwind mark, we got the spinnaker all snarled in the jib furler, and couldn't bring it down all the way.) Since I was running the foredeck, this was my bad:-( I didn't make that same mistake again, but instead found new ones to make. If nothing else, we kept the rest of the fleet well entertained.

Special thanks to Mike Sinclair, owner of Surt, for allowing a bunch of rookies like me on board. If he'll have me back, this will be an annual event for me.

This trip was fabulous in more ways than one. Even though I resolved when I started this blog not to mention my love life, I've been so smitten by Bonnie that I can't help myself. There, now the whole world knows.

Back to the Bible

I know all of you (well at least one) have been waiting with bated breath for the next installment. Here it is.


Chapter 15 starts off with those evil Pharisees pestering Jesus about breaking the traditions of the elders. Jesus rips them on the usual charge of hypocrisy. Jesus then explains things to his disciples in the form of a parable, with references to plants, the blind, and falling into pits. The disciples say, 'huh?' and ask for an explanation. Jesus gets annoyed with his stupid disciples, and then explains the parable anyway.

Not long after, Jesus runs into a Canaanite, and reluctantly heals her demon-possessed daughter. (Those must have been the Golden Years for demons. Everbody had one.) The reason he was reluctant was because she wasn't from the House of Israel and Jesus didn't want to take food (miracles) from children (Israelites) and throw them to the dogs (Gentiles). Nice guy! But he takes pity on her and heals her daughter anyway. Maybe he is a nice guy after all. Then he goes to the mountains, heals the afflicted, and does a replay of the loaves and fishes miracle.

Chapter 16 starts off with the usual bad guys, the Pharisees and Sadducees (P&S). He rips them for being too stupid to see the signs of the times. Jesus warns his disciples not to believe the P&S BS, but they don't get it because he talks in a parable again. Then they start whining about not understanding and not having brought lunch, and Jesus rips them for being so stupid. In an exasperated tone, he explains the parable and reminds them about the loaves and fishes trick. It must have been tough to get good help, even back then.

He asks his disciples who they think he is. Peter gets it right, and Jesus praises him saying, "...on this rock I will build my church." (Ch. 16, v.18) But then he tells his disciples not to tell anyone. Huh? Why not? Jesus prophesies his own death, but Peter objects. Jesus says to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan!" (Ch.16, v.23) So right after he praises Peter, he rips him a new one, calling him Satan and a stumbling block. Jesus must have been a tough guy to work for. Then he goes all apocalyptic, and says, "...there are some standing here who will not taste death before the Son of Man coming in his kingdon." Either some of Jesus' disciples are really old now, or this is the first case of many predictions of the end of the world that didn't happen.

In Chapter 17, Jesus scared the crap out of some of his crew by taking them into the mountains and having Moses and Elijah and the voice of God make appearances. Moses and Elijah weren't so scary, but the voice of God really did it to them. After they calmed down, Jesus told them not to tell anyone and that Elijah was really John the Baptist.

When they get back from the mountain, a man approaches Jesus and asks him to heal his epileptic son. The disciples had tried, but couldn't do it. Jesus rips into his disciples, "You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you? How much longer must I put up with you?" (Ch.17, v.17) He healed the kid, but he was some pissed!

Later in the chapter, Jesus and Peter run into a tax collector. Kinda like a present-day IRS audit, I guess. Jesus agrees to pay, and sends Peter off to catch a fish that has a coin in its mouth to give the tax collector for both of them. Why the fish was involved, he doesn't say.

Well, that's it for now folks. I should go and do something productive in preparation for leaving for Vancouver tomorrow.

It was tough duty

I was planning on updating the blog from Friday Harbor, but I was too busy having fun to spend much quality time sitting in front of the computer. I arrived on Thursday afternoon after a non-eventful and very pleasant ride up from Seattle. It was the first real outing WaveGuide had had in a long time, and she appreciated stretching her legs after a long time in the Seattle area. Bonnie was up there with DragonFly with Pam along for a visit. On Thursday we stayed around Friday Harbor, had a pleasant dinner, and then played some cards. After a few rounds of poker, I taught them both how to play 99 (also known to some as Bugger Your Neighbor). It's a fun way to get rid of all that change clanging around in your pocket.

The next day we went to Roche Harbor and had a fine day on the water. Pam left on the ferry that evening. Bonnie's friend Jean came on the ferry the next day, and we took off to Deer Harbor and then to Rosario where we picked up Megan (my Himalayan travel-mate), and her friend Jane. We putted around Orcas and East Sound for a while before dropping Megan and Jane off again. There was a definite shortage of testosterone in the mix, but I did my best to hold up the male end of the bargain. It was tough duty, but someone had to do it:-)

Here's Bonnie and Pam at Roche Harbor.

This is the view of Mount Baker on the way back from Rosario.

I had a great time there and was tempted to stay another day, but decided I had too much to do before leaving for Vancouver on Wednesday.

Oh, and due to popular demand (OK, I only had one request), blogging the Bible will soon return in full force.

Yesterday

Yesterday was notable for several reasons. First, it marked the one year anniversary of the passing of my good friend Angus, the best dog in the world. I still miss him terribly at times.




There was a party last night for Susan, a sweet beautiful woman who is moving to San Diego on Saturday. I first met her a few years ago at SSYC but we didn't really become friends until we were shipmates in the BVI two years ago. Shipboard amenities aren't exactly like home, so sometimes one has to improvise. Here she is, shaving her legs in the beautiful blue waters of the Caribbean. San Diego is a fine place, and now I'll have an excuse to visit. Bon Voyage, Susan!


And finally, it was HOT here yesterday. The official SeaTac temperature was a new record of 97F (36C for you Fahrenheit-challenged readers)

Travel Update

My dance card for the the next few months is filling up fast. Tomorrow I'm taking WaveGuide up to the San Juans to visit Bonnie on DragonFly for a few days. I'll come back on Sunday and then head up to Vancouver, BC, later in the week. On the way back, I'll stop at Oak Harbor for Race Week, a.k.a. Summer Camp for Adults. A couple of weeks later I'll be in Edmonton (by motorcycle, not boat) to visit family and take in some music at the Folk Festival. By the time I get back from there, I'll be in full planning mode for this fall's Himalayan adventure.

The Himalayan plan is taking shape. Himalayan Megan (as opposed to daughter Megan) and I plan to fly to Beijing around the end of September. After a couple of days of de-jetlagging and seeing the sights in and around Beijing, we'll take a two-day train ride to Lhasa. The train route goes through passes so high (over 5000m) that the cars have supplemental oxygen! After a few days in Lhasa, we'll join an overland Land Cruiser expedition to Katmandu, with a possible side trip to Everest Base Camp. We will spend some time in Nepal and hope to visit the host parents of Megan's daughter, who just came back from Nepal after a year there as an exchange student. This could be a very interesting part of the trip since she was staying in the hinterlands of Nepal, well off the beaten tourist track. We'll then travel across Northern India to Delhi (probably via the Taj Mahal) and then fly back to Seattle. An added feature of this itinerary is that for the first time, I will actually travel all the way around the world!

We've got to get visas and shots, and I've got to buy a bunch of stuff that a fat, out-of-shape, middle-aged, old fart like me doesn't have lying around in the closet. Megan is a serious climber and trekker with world-wide experience, so her list is a lot shorter than mine. As my expert on all things trekking related, she took me to REI the other day to buy me a decent pair of boots. We found the perfect pair and a couple of other odds and ends I'll need. In the checkout line, she ran into a couple of her super-buff, 30 or 40-something climbing friends, and they were soon comparing notes on recent and planned expeditions. Megan introduced me, and soon started talking about our Himalayan plans. Her friends asked who she was going with, and Megan pointed to me. The conversation carried on, but since I didn't have a lot to add, I was relatively quiet. A bit later they asked about travel mates again, as if the answer didn't quite register the first time. The look on their faces said Huh?! The next time that sort of thing happens, or if someone asks me what sort of climbing I'm into, I think I'll reply, "Oh, I'm not a mountain climber, I'm a social climber." (Hat tip to Hal for coming up with the line after I told him the story)

Mundane housekeeping update.....I managed to fix two of the three issues with my downstairs bathroom yesterday. It involved opening walls, moving the washer/dryer unit, sweating and swearing, giving a bit of blood to the plumbing gods, and I didn't finish until 10PM, but I think (hope) all's well. I've lived with the third issue since I've been here, so I can live with it a bit longer.

Hell in a Handbasket

The seige at the Red Mosque in Islamabad continues; the war in Iraq and Afghanistan is now costing $12B/month; the Iraqi government is failing to reach any of its milestones, and I've just discovered a water leak behind the wall in my powder room. The end is nigh.

I wonder what was going on in the minds of the neocon architects of the war when it started over four years ago, and what's going on now. Did they envision a permanent state of war? Did they envision costs that generations of Americans will have to pay? When they knocked down the hornet's nest in Iraq did they envision a war that would spread from India to Israel? Did they know their key (but reluctant) ally in the region, Pakistan, was an unstable dictatorship on the verge of civil war with its own Islamic fundamentalists? What happens if Musharaf falls and Islamo-fascists take over? They have the bomb. What will India do? Is Cheney really thinking of bombing Iran? That would stabilize the situation. That would show those towel-heads we mean business!

Oh well. All I can do is wear my Life is Good t-shirt and start ripping apart walls to find the source of the water that's starting to seep through my floor before things starts to rot. I wish someone would rip apart the walls of the Bush administration and tear out the source at the rotting core.

Closer to 60 than 50

How the hell did this happen? As of today, I'm closer to 60 than 50. When I next renew my drivers license and passport, I'll be 60. I'm not ready to turn 55 yet. Couldn't it wait until I'm more mature, like when I'm 70? Oh well, in the meantime I'll continue to wear my Life is Good t-shirts. Because it's true.

This last week was a pretty big week in terms of political news. Scooter Libby has his prison sentence commuted. The best punditry I heard on that was that Bush realized that no one with a name like "Scooter" could survive long in the Big House. At least peripherally related was the four part series that the Washington Post did on the behind-the-scenes power machinations of Scooter's boss, Dick Cheney. You can read the whole thing here. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/cheney/?hpid=moreheadlines
Cheney has always been the evil mind inside Bush's empty mind. Hendrik Herzberg of the New Yorker summed it up pretty well when he wrote:

He is pathologically (but purposefully) secretive; treacherous toward colleagues; coldly manipulative of the callow, lazy, and ignorant President he serves; contemptuous of public opinion; and dismissive not only of international law (a fairly standard attitude for conservatives of his stripe) but also of the very idea that the Constitution and laws of the United States, including laws signed by his nominal superior, can be construed to limit the power of the executive to take any action that can plausibly be classified as part of an endless, endlessly expandable “war on terror.”

That about sums up the whole Bush presidency, doesn't it? An what a great sentence!! I'd love to be able to construct a sentence like that. But that's what real writers get paid for. I think the difference between a good writer and a mediocre one is like the difference between a pro golfer and a weekend duffer. The duffer can pull off any shot a pro can, but only maybe 10 times out of a 100. The pro can do it 90 times out of a 100.

The ACLU lost a pretty big case they had against the government for their warrantless surveillance programs last week. The circuit court ruled that the ACLU had no standing in court because they couldn't prove that they were damaged by the program. That's pretty much a Catch-22 situation because the government has all the evidence, and it's all secret! Coincidentally, I went out for lunch with a couple of board members from the ACLU on Friday. I've given to them pretty regularly for the last several years, and I guess they figured they'd see if I was interested enough in their cause to contribute more or help out in some other way. I told them I had a lot more time than money and would be glad to help them in other ways, so don't be surprised if you see me manning an ACLU booth at some public event. The years of politics being my favorite spectator sport may be coming to an end. Assuming I don't get sent to Guantanamo for my political leanings, I'll be an American citizen sometime this fall and will even be able to vote!

HE'BREW The Chosen Beer

Right now I'm sipping on a Genesis Ale, a kosher beer made the Schmalz Brewing Company. It's pretty good! And no, I'm not making this up. Any beer with a name like this can't be all bad, but it does remind me of the beer my friend John used to brew. As I recall he printed up labels for his Barleyfartz Beer, Brewed with the Finest Tap water, Fit for Neither Man nor Beast.

For July 3rd, I took WaveGuide up to Poulsbo to watch the fireworks with a bunch of SSYC folks. The picture on the left is of our noble Raftmaster Hal diving the chilly waters of Liberty Bay in an attempt to unfoul his anchor line from his prop. If you click on the image to enlarge it, you can see that Hal is starting to turn a little blue, which is about as close to that liberal tinge as he'll ever get! (Note to my Canadian readers... Unlike Canada where blue is conservative and red is liberal, the American political colors are reversed. Hal's politics are a little to the right of Attila the Hun, but for some odd reason, we get along well anyway) We were rafted up close to the fireworks barge, too close as it turned out. My poor boat was covered with fireworks debris that took a couple of hours of hosing and scrubbing to remove. But that was OK too. WaveGuide needed a good scrubbing, especially since there are a couple of potential buyers who want to look at her this week.

Then on the 4th, I went to Lake Union to watch the fireworks there. There were literally thousands of boats on the water, most with drunken skippers and crew. It never ceases to amaze me that given all the alcohol, sun and water there aren't more casualties. I didn't hear of anything worse that a sunburn.

The weather here is great! I think I'll take advantage of it and take my boat up to the San Juans next week, and then the following week, I'll probably take it up to Vancouver to to get my passport. I've been in contact with the Hanse sailboat dealer up there, and he has a couple of clients who might be interested in becoming the first Canadian owners of a San Juan 38. They can take a look at the boat, I can take a Hanse 400 for a test run, and a good time will be had by all. The following week is Race Week at Whidbey Island. I'll be racing up there on Mike Sinclair's boat Surt and using my boat as a hotel. It should all be great fun! I'll keep you posted.