Mr. Incredible

I'm off to San Diego in a couple of days. I hope that the smoke has mostly cleared by then, but in any case, from the news reports I've seen, the downtown and waterfront areas weren't too badly affected by all the fires. I get there late Saturday night, with lots of time to get ready for the Baja Ha-Ha kickoff costume party on Sunday night. Due to popular demand, I'm

resurrecting Mr. Incredible. For those of you who've forgotten about him, are still trying to forget, or never had the pleasure, here he is in all his glory!

The Baja Ha-Ha race starts on Monday. Here's a link if you want to check out what the Baja Ha-Ha is all about. http://www.baja-haha.com/ The 'Can't Believe We Cheated Death Again' party in Cabo is on November 8th, and assuming that I actually did cheat death once again, I'll be flying back to San Diego on the 9th for a week of sailing classes with Bonnie at the local J-School. We'll be back in Seattle November 17th.

With all the plane flights and airport down time, I should be able to catch up on some reading. I plan on taking Atonement, by Ian McEwan, and 1491 by Charles C. Mann. I started the year off reading like crazy, but for whatever reason, I haven't read a whole lot for the last few months. One book I did read in the last couple of weeks is On Chesil Beach, by Ian McEwan. It's a short book, more of a novella really, but what a delicious read! The story is centers on the painful wedding night of an English couple in the bygone era of the early sixties, a few years before the "sexual revolution" of the late 60's and 70's. It's a story of love, lost love and lost innocence. It certainly isn't a happily-ever-after story, but it is remarkedly well-told, and one I'd heartily recommend.

Musical Weekend

One of the many things I liked about Bonnie when we started hanging out together was the fact that she loved the same artists that I did, even though she'd never heard them or heard of them before she met me. She absolutely loved Greg Brown, Fred Eaglesmith (especially the train songs), Paul Kelly, Chris Smither, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Terry Allen, and almost any other male artist I played. For some reason, she wasn't so impressed with my taste in female artists, but I guess there have to be some disagreements just to mix things up. In any case, we managed to see two of our favorites just a few days apart. Last Thursday, Fred was playing at my favorite Seattle musical venue, the Tractor Tavern. Actually it was more like Fred "lite." He appeared with a drummer, a bass player, a guitar player, and himself. In spite of the fact he had no mandolins, no fiddles, no Washboard Hank, and only played a couple of train songs, he put on a pretty good show. He was in fine humor, and unlike the last couple of times I saw him, didn't insult his fans too badly. He kept up a patter of dumb jokes and stories between songs that sometimes made me think he really wants to do stand-up, but all-in-all, a good time was had by all.

On Friday, we went to Portland to see Greg Brown at The Aladdin, an aging neighborhood theater that couldn't survive the competition from the mega-mall cinemas. He too put on a pretty good show, even though I thought the sound was a bit muddled, making it hard to follow his lyrics. He didn't play much that I was familiar with, but he's such a prolific writer that it's not surprising he's got lots of songs I never heard before.

While in Portland, we visited two old friends I hadn't seen in years, and a good friend of Bonnie's whom she's known forever. We had a couple of great meals at interesting restaurants. One was at Andina in the Pearl District. They advertised their food as Nuevo Peruvian, but no matter how it's labelled, the lamb shank I had was one of the best restaurant meals I've ever had. The other memorable meal was at Toro Bravo, a Spanish place that had interesting tapas, paellas, and other good food. I'm sure there are out-of-the-ordinary places to eat in Seattle too, and I don't eat out a whole lot, but I haven't been anywhere in Seattle that compares with those two establishments in Portland.

Portland is a great city that in many ways is more liveable than Seattle. It's more affordable, it has light rail transit, the scenery is great, the traffic isn't nearly as bad as Seattle's, and there's nothing in Seattle that compares to the Pearl District. But it's also 100 miles from salt water, so I'd have a lot harder time satisfying my boating addiction. When I find the perfect place to live, I'll be sure to let you know.

Home for a while

For a change, I'm home for more than a few days. It's kinda nice to have extended morning net-surfs; to watch the talking heads on cable TV; to catch up on reading; to have the occasional nap, and to see my kids and friends.

The news of the world isn't particularly good. Iraq, Burma and Sudan don't look good. North Korea looks a bit better. The US dollar continues its slide. There was even a brief blub on NPR this morning saying that the dollar had affected the illegal drug trade, making Canadian pot more expensive than its Mexican counterpart to American consumers. I'm surprised that the dollar isn't even lower, given the budget deficit, the trade deficit (not to mention the Bush brain cell deficit), the price of oil, and the never-ending war in Iraq.

Global warming continues with record setting-shrinkage of the Arctic ice pack, and on the other side of the world, an early start to the brush fire season in Australia. Permafrost in the Arctic is thawing, releasing methane into the atmoshpere as the biomass in the previously frozen muck melts. I fear that the tipping point has already been reached and that there's not much that can be done to stop global warming from accelerating beyond what most scientists predict. I used to think that my generation would be spared most of the effects of climate change, but I'm not so sure anymore. It's easy to be a pessimist at times like this. A pessimist is right most of the time, and he's happy when he's wrong.

On the US front, Obama can't seem to get any traction against Hillary. I'd take Obama, Edwards, or Richardson ahead of Clinton any day, but I have to admit that inspite of my visceral dislike of Hillary, she's better than anything the Republicans have to offer. Maybe the polls are wrong. I've read a couple of articles on the polling errors caused by reliance of pollsters on land-line telephones, and I'd like to think that Obama's support comes from the younger crowd who often don't even have land-line telephones. Both Megan and Caroline have only mobile phones, so they and people like them will never be polled. But I also have to admit that Obama hasn't fulfilled his early promise of a different sort of politician. I just hope that next year when I get to vote for the first time (unless I end up in Guantanamo, I should be a US citizen sometime this fall), I'll get to vote for someone I believe in. I'd hate to have to make the choice between the lesser of two evils, or some wag once said, the lesser of two weasels.

Bush vetoed an extension of S-Chip, a government financed health care program for children. It's only the second or third veto he's ever used, so it's hard to believe that fiscal responsiblity is his prime motivator. There is enough support in the Senate to override the veto, but support is weaker in the House. I hope the veto is overturned, but I do have some problems with the bill. The extension of benefits will suppposedly be financed by a federal tax on cigarettes. Even though smoking is a filthy disgusting habit with no redeeming social value, as a former smoker I have a lot of sympathy for those who do. Smokers are disproportionally working class (OK, white and black trash) who don't have much of a political constituency. As a result, the ever-increasing taxes on cigarettes are extremely regressive, hitting the people hardest who can least afford it. If healthcare is going to be financed by sin taxes, at least jack up the price of booze too. That way, chardonnay and cabernet aficionados will pay their fair share too.

My schedule for the next few months is starting to fill in. Next week is music week, with Fred Eaglesmith appearing in Seattle at the Tractor and Greg Brown at The Aladdin in Portland. At the end of the month, I'll be in a sailboat, racing from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas. Following the race, Bonnie and I be taking a week of instruction in sailboat racing (yeah, I know it's ass-backwards) in San Diego.

In the meantime, it's good to be home for a while. I may even find the time to finish my blog on Matthew. (I know you're all thrilled about that)

Godless Faggot-Loving Commie Pinko Bastards

First it was socialized healthcare, then it was gay marriage, now this! This is not The Onion. This is not a joke. This is Canada's national magazine! (If you don't believe me, check out this link http://www.macleans.ca/) Just because the Loonie has reached par with the almighty greenback is no excuse. It's time to knock those pesky Canucks off their high horse(s). Now is the time for all Americans to unite and invade a country that is a far greater threat to freedom loving people everywhere than Iraq ever was. This could happen immediately. No planning is required. The blueprints for invasion are already there. Just watch Canadian Bacon, or South Park (the movie).

The cover story is actually a pretty good one, about how the American forces are now a aligned with the Baathist dead-ender Saddamist thugs from the early days of the invasion. I'm just absolutely amazed that an otherwise rather staid and conservative magazine would actually use this as their cover. I've been out of town (what else is new) for the last few days, but I can well imagine that more than a few on the American right-wing-whacko-lunatic fringe have gone ballastic. But then again, maybe they haven't. I keep forgetting that Canada doesn't really exist in America's mind.

I've been severely remiss in keeping my blog updated this last month. In fact I've been so busy the last while that I can't seem to find the time to write the occasional note. My apologies to all my loyal readers. All three of you.

Bonnie and I just got back from Whistler yesterday. We went up there so I could clean out the owner's closet and say goodbye to the place. It has served me well over the years, but today the sale closes (sale completion, as they say up North), and I'll take the money and run. I'm not sure what I'll do with all those loonies. I've always said I want to die broke, so I may just put the proceeds in my general fund. That would allow me to live a few more years. Or I may buy a more modest place in the Steven's Pass/Lake Wenatchee/Leavenworth area. We'll see.

Back Home

It's good to be back home, but what a trip we had! We traveled over 1400 miles, saw a lot of beautiful places, ate a lot of good food, and had an all-round great time. And yes, we're still pretty much smitten with each other!

We did learn a few things on the way: GPS is not infallible; diesel and water don't mix well; and my 45 years of experience playing crib wasn't enough to keep Bonnie from beating me rather soundly.

For all you boaters out there who have thrown out their paper charts and rely solely on GPS - beware! WaveGuide had three separate, totally independent GPS systems on board, and they all failed! First, the heading sensor on my Furuno system lost its head, and would let the display chart spin around mindlessly. So I fired up my laptop and used a CMAPECS system with a hand-held GPS unit plugged into a USB port. That worked fine until I had a freshly re-charged battery "explode" in the GPS unit, burning off the battery contacts. Then we used Bonnie's Nobeltec system, which really was the best of all until the ultimate Windows "blue screen of death" appeared. The computer never booted up again after that. Fortunately, I had replaced my handheld GPS unit in Port Hardy, so we went back to my CMAPECS system. We would have been fine in any case, because we had paper charts for everywhere we went, and Bonnie is a chart wizard.
Here's Bonnie lashing down her laptop to WaveGuide's dashboard. It didn't fit in the available slot quite as nicely as my Vaio does.












Speaking of good as new, I finally retired my SSYS burgee after four years and many thousands of miles on WaveGuide. I did find a suitable resting place for it - the pig roast tent at Pierre's marina in the Broughtons.









Here's Bonnie, with Pierre himself.














I've already written about my water/diesel issues, so I won't repeat the sorry episode other than to say that 99.99% of the diesel odor is out of the water. After a couple more flushes, it should be pretty much as good as new, so no long term damage was done.

I didn't have much time for reading, but I did manage to finish Waxwings, a book by Jonathan Raban. It was an entertaining, very readable book about three people and their intersecting lives in the booming dot com era of the late 90's in Seattle. All the local Seattle references made it especially interesting. I'm pretty sure that Raban used to be a smoker. One of the most memorable passages for me was when the protagonist Tom, who was under a lot of stress due to the breakup of his marriage, started smoking again after several years. This paragraph describes his second cigarette.

Wondering if a cigarette would taste differently in the open air, he discovered it did. This time, when he took the smoke deep into his lungs, trapping it inside his chest for a few seconds before exhaling, it was as if the last five years had never been, and he was back - in a feat of pure magic - to being himself again, at home after a long spell abroad. There was a fresh ripple to the landscape now, a sharpness of focus he recalled from the past, but which had eluded him through all the fog-bound years of his abstention. He smoked the cigarette down to the filter-tip, marveling at the sudden, intense lucidity that had come to him out of the blue, an unexpected gift.

I haven't smoked a cigarette in ages, but if I did, I would experience something similar, I'm sure.

Some of you have been wondering if my Himalayan adventure is still on track. Well, for reasons I won't go into here, Megan and I canceled our plans. We canceled before we spent any money, so no damage was done, and everyone is happy.

Speaking of the Far East, daughter Megan is in China right now! Yes that China. On business. She's been there all week, and will be coming back on Friday or Saturday. I'm sure she'll have a tale or two to tell.

Well, it about time I got off of here. I've got some of my world-famous ribs on the grill, and the folks I'll be sharing them with should be arriving any minute.

Vancouver, BC

We're having such a good time here that what started out as one night in Vancouver has turned into three. Tomorrow, we'll be leaving for Victoria, and then on to Friday Harbor the following day. We should be back in Seattle on Sunday or Monday at the latest. This has been an amazing trip. What started off as a few day excursion to Vancouver and Princess Louisa Inlet has turned into an almost month long adventure.

We're staying at the Quayside Marina in False Creek, near the heart of downtown Vancouver. Bonnie has fallen in love with the Granville Island Market, just a short water taxi ride away. In fact she is there as I write this update in a coffee shop not too far away. The market has a fabulous selection of fresh seafood, meat, produce of all kinds, deli meats and cheeses, and baked goods. Needless to say, we're eating really well. Tonight we're having New York steak, corn on the cob, and baked potatoes.

I still haven't really caught up on what's going on in the world, but somehow I don't think the world cares. Maybe I'll get back into my political junkie mode when I get back to Seattle, but I kinda doubt it. I'm having too much fun doing what I'm doing.

Kwatsi, BC

I never cease to be amazed at finding gems of "civilization" in the middle of nowhere. Here we are in Kwatsi, miles from anywhere, at a little gem of a marina that even has wireless internet! We got here yesterday afternoon in time for Happy Hour, where people from the half-dozen boats moored here brought their favorite appetizers to share as we sat around talking of our adventures.

On the way here from Waddington Bay, we followed a pod of several dozen porpoises who were on their way to a group of islands not far from here that they call home. I hadn't seen this many porpoises since the Queen Charlottes last year, and I've never seen so many jump so high out of the water. They put on one hell of a show for us, but unfortunately we didn't get any decent pictures.

Lacy Falls, around the corner from Kwatsi Bay. As you can see, my SSYC burgee has seen better days, but it has held up well for many thousands of miles. It think it will be time for a new one when I get back.

I loved this house on a barge at Echo Bay.

Fresh cougar sighting at Echo Bay!

Here's a photo of a totem pole that conforms my belief that totem poles were inspired by the reflections of the rocks and trees along a shoreline.

We'll be leaving here in another hour or so and do a bit of exploring before heading over to Pierre's Bay for a pig roast later this evening. Then we'll be heading north and west and probably back to Campbell River before we start thinking about heading home. What started out a trip of a few days to Princess Louisa Inlet has turned into quite an adventure!