I just finished uploading my third series of travel photos to Webshots:
When I have even more time at my disposal I need to order them but at least this time I had the presence of mind to name most of them before uploading. If anyone can identify the flowers leave me a comment.
March 18
Now this is what retirement is all about. I’m propped up in my bed with the remote keyboard on my lap reading E-mail on my computer with a coffee on the night table beside me—I feel almost decadent. After the sun has had a chance to warm things up I plan to go for a shower; then I need to pump out my grey water holding tank. When I’ve finished that task I plan to cycle down to a local restaurant called The Chart Room for lunch. Life is good. The world always looks better when the sun is shining.
When Ol Sol finally peered out from between the clouds yesterday after the rain stopped I got my bike set up and went for a spin up the coastline 6 miles to the end of Pebble Beach Rd. The wave rollers wash in up to 10 at a time crashing against the rocks along the shoreline and the prominences further out. Several off-shore islands actually have grassy patches and trees clinging to the rocks. Everywhere the seagulls and shorebirds own the skies. There are a surprising number of oceanfront homes for sale along this roadway—a sign of the present economic times or in the case of homes on the Oceanside an attempt to unload homes in danger of being washed away by the sea.
I’m just back from that shower and although I managed to figure out how the present shower stall works and get hot water, after six months on the road there’s nothing I’d like better than a full length luxuriant soak in a bathtub. Whether or not it would be worth the cost of renting a motel room for the night for that purpose I’m not entirely certain. Perhaps I’ll wait until I can borrow a friend’s in Calgary. (Are you reading this in the birdsnest?)
March-19-2009
Just a twenty mile drive up the coast and into Oregon and the price of gasoline drops 50¢ a gallon. The Welcome Centre at the border, alas, proved just as impossible to locate as any in California. A sign on the highway is useless if nothing indicates exactly where the place is located. Given the importance of tourism to the local economy you’d think they’d make a better effort to be visible.
Gold Beach has a decent bookstore but alas they had none of the books I was looking for in stock. The people in the attached coffee bar were the only servers in sight and they seemed to know nothing about books. I’m reminded of the proprietor of the Lutheran Bookstore in Kitchener Ontario whose classic response to any book enquiry was a wringing of his hands and “We don’t have it but we can order it.” At least there is no tax on books in Oregon. The toothy grin on cover-shot of the then 18-year-old author of a collections of WW#2 letters home from the European Front so captivated me that I just had to buy this book by a local Gold Beach ‘boy’ who looked remarkably like myself at that age.
Having an exact street address for Honey Bear Campground made finding it easier than usual even if my GPS wasn’t exactly sure where the cut-off to reach it was located. I ended up retracing my steps slightly getting here. The proprietors Gary and Jeanett Saks are German and Gary has been making German Sausage since he was 14 and has two missing digits to prove it. I may have to stick around an extra day to enjoy their Blackforest Kitchen Restaurant Fare tomorrow night. The Oregon shoreline is just across two highways a short walk away and from my RV I can hear the Pacific’s crashing waves.
From my online CBC sources I learn that Standfield’s Underwear in Nova Scotia is shrinking the size of its workforce by instituting a 4-day work week to avoid lay-offs. As long as their briefs don’t shrink as well. Atlantic Canada has a glut of frozen lobster. It would seem that sales have been hit by the economic downturn. Plans are underway to find new and unique ways to market it.
In 2008 Toronto Police used Tasers once a day and in 1/3 of those occasions the person tased was emotionally disturbed--if they weren't before they certainly were afterward. Should police be using a tranquilizer gun instead? I still say that Taser use is replacing the need for proper training in the use of physical restraint and replacing the need for police to get in close and risk possible physical contact; or just good old patience, waiting for the individual to calm down and rationally assess his/her situation.
Beware the Ides of March Beware the day after as well. It’s been raining a monsoon here in Northern California since Saturday afternoon with no signs of letup in the immediate future. The cantankerous perpetrator of this blog is rapidly getting cabin fever cooped up in this 22-ft RV. Outside the flowers in the grass are floating in two inches of water.
Funny people’s priorities. Statistics report a frightening percentage of Americans have no fruit or vegetables in their diet but in the grocery store true 18% coffee cream is impossible to find. Surely it’s about the amount you put in your coffee, not the level of butterfat in it. I use only a drop of true cream but here I need to cool my coffee with a large finger to get the same effect. And just what is fat-free half and half? Still on the subject of food if you buy carrot and celery sticks, broccoli flowerets, sliced peppers remember you are paying four times the price for that convenience. If you like hashed browns with your bacon and eggs the price of frozen prepared is usurious compared to preparing your own. Also know that you don’t have to go to the work of boiling those potatoes the night before; simply peel and slice them into a bowl of water to keep them from turning black, then drain them just before you want to fry them and tip them into a hot pan of grease and cover, sprinkle with black pepper and turn once. If you like them hashed simply coarsely shred them just before you’re ready to put them in the pan. By not boiling your potatoes you preserve all the nutrients that would be lost in the water.
A week ago Saturday at Dolphin Isle I wrote this wail. For a week now I've been watching a veritable zoo of wildlife from my RV Windows but this morning I took a camera outside and everyone disappeared. I realize the outboard motor-equipped canoe didn't help but even my resident herring gull abandoned his favourite post. Hopefully tomorrow and I'll be able to start earlier. The sound of squabbling kids and someone mowing his lawn do nothing to improve the atmosphere.
Toronto celebrated it's 175th anniversary March 6. Muddy York or Hogtown, however you might remember it has come a long way but a look at any local webcam will show that it's still very much under construction.
Queen's Park, Ontario Legislature Tory leadership hopeful, John Tory lost his bid for a seat in a recent by-election. It would seem there's no hope for Tories. What with the shenanigans of Stephen Harper's minority Tory Government in Ottawa and long memories of Mike Harris and Ernie Eves Tory fortunes will likely languish a while longer.
Toronto driver clocked doing 150 mph on HWY 400. Such speeds are no longer cool even on the German Autobahn.
Fisheries catch size limits causing genetic change in the size of fish. By setting a minimum catch size in areas where target fish are aggressively caught our Ministries of Fisheries are influencing natural selection by encouraging smaller and more immature fish to spawn at a time when they will be less productive and their offspring less viable. So say scientists researching fish biology.
In another case of tech support providing no help I used the link provided to complain that the video I’d ordered and paid for in iTunes wasn’t being made available by the software for download. What I got back were directions to spend hours doing utter violence to my hard drive and operating system on the odd chance that this might resolve the issue. When I replied that none of this so-called stock advice was of any use I was offered the option of calling in for paid assistance. They wanted me to pay to get help downloading the material I’d already paid for. That not sitting very well I waited another 4 days and miraculously the download became available when Apple’s Servers were put back online. Before you try to clean the speck from your neighbour’s eye take the log out of your own eye.
Or at least today’s rant. After 37 years a letter carrier I’ve received regular issues of rain gear over the years and at home have a $300 Gore-Tex Jacket still sitting in its plastic wrappings; why then are none of them packed aboard my RV? That’s a rhetorical question by the way. I ask that because it’s raining again this Friday morning.
I’ve been riding around in this RV for the last 6 months with a set of keys for which I had no known use—fortunately I decided to keep them just in case. Just today I discovered they open the cover surrounding my continental spare tire. It wasn’t until today while I had the tire lowered to access my second rear door that I discovered the lock on the underside of the casing.
I read in the online edition of the Oakville Beaver recently that at a corner where I used to stop twice daily to get mail from one of my relay boxes someone assaulted a 85-year-old woman at noon time. In Sackville, NS a clerk asked a robber to “Please leave the store.” and it worked! Sometime it pays to be polite as your Mother taught you to be.
Just in case you’re feeling over-weight and bemoan losing the battle of the bulge remember; Lady Liberty in New York Harbour has a 35 ft waist.
Here are a few points to ponder:
Football is a mistake. It combines the two worst elements of American life. Violence and committee meetings.
George F. Will (1941 - )
The problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be pretty sure they're going to have some pretty annoying virtues.
Elizabeth Taylor (1932 - )
Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel from coast to coast without seeing anything.
Charles Kuralt
The reason why so few good books are written is that so few people who can write know anything.
Walter Bagehot (1826 - 1877)
The only reason some people get lost in thought is because it's unfamiliar territory.
Paul Fix
Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.
Leo Tolstoy (1828 - 1910)
California Welcome Centres continue to hide on me; I’m beginning to believe they don’t want people to find them. I suppose that saves on travel brochures. Is it because they don’t want tourists in the first place? Whatever the reason they do a disservice to the travel industry.
Making breakfast this morning it occurs to me that the chicken who laid the egg doesn’t have to die to provide my meal like the porker who supplied my bacon and since most chickens have never seen a rooster there’s no chance that egg could have ever become a chicken.
Guess I’ll sign off now before I confirm unequivocally that I’m full of it.
