windsend

The Carver

ML & I had breakfast with artists today, two we know well, and one we met for the first time. After the meal the new acquaintance took us to see his workshop, which turned out to be unexpectedly close to our home. It's a beautiful place, and in it he produces beautiful creations in wood - sculptures and relief panels. He seems to have carved out an amazingly fulfilling life.

Car Envy?

Zip, zero, none. Took S to pick up her new, used Passat today, and looked over the new offerings at the dealer. Not even a twinge of desire.

The Coop is now 1.5 years and 23k miles old. A couple of rattles when the weather is really cold, and the rear window washer is on the fritz. The sports suspension it a kidney puncher on the moonscape frostheaves make of our country roads. But I have eyes for no other...

George retires

Yesterday, they had a retirement party for George at the boatyard next door. George was the first employee when Ralph started the yard 30 odd years ago. He was therefore the foreman and also a part owner. Since then, the yard has grown into a multimillion dollar business with dozens of employees, but George, although he's always been the 'foreman', has never really been a manager. He just likes to mess around with boats, and never let himself get eased behind a desk.

George is a couple of years older than I am, and probably wouldn't be retiring, accept that he has been diagnosed with Alzheimers. He was really not up to staying on. Meanwhile, his youngest daughter, my daugther's contemporary, is undergoing chemotherapy after being diagnosed with Hodgkins disease. All in all, not the happiest circumstances for a party.

Yet his daughter is on the road to recovery, and Alzheimers is beginning to give up its secrets. Hopefully, George and his family have many happy years ahead.

Sails 101

At the behest of Points East, I talked at a seminar on sail trim last night in a local marine store. It was gratifying to see 40 faces crowd in out of the cold and dark to learn more about the avocation they love. We talked about draft and twist and about jostling air molecules with only bits of yarn to tell the tale of their passing. On the drive home the waxing new moon was climbing the ecliptic.

Patience

I'm just about out. Is it just me, or are we entering an age of incredible stupidity? Two of the burning issues in the local and national press are 1) Bear Baiting, and 2) Gay Marriage.

1) How can anyone say with a straight face that leaving bait out for bears so hunters can wait for them in ambush and kill them is both a) the tradtitional 'way of life in Maine' and b) 'humane and sportsmanlike'?

2) I have been married for 30 years. How could I or anyone else possibly feel that gays getting a marriage license could in any way threaten or diminish the relationship I have with my wife?

Don't we have anything more important to talk about?

Deletum 5000 Redux

[Update: Trying to find Deletum 5000? Look here]

I have been doing this blog for several months now, with a little sailing and a little local politics and a little personal stuff. I've done 50 odd posts so far.

The entry that has gotten by far the most hits and comments has been my post on Deletum 5000. I wrote about Deletum 5000 because I had seen this article in the Economist, and I woundered about the possible marine applications for this anti-grafitti paint that nothing sticks to.

Most of the commenters apparently can't read English, but hope that maybe the fact that I've commented on this Deletum 5000 means I've got some for sale. Turns out that my Deletum 5000 post is number 2 on the Google search for 'Deletum 5000'. So this entry is just a shameless way to get a few more hits and maybe move up to number 1...

Grew up anyway

I was told this story by the director of the Maine Maritime Museum on a tour thereof, about which more later. The story is about the tours the museum gives in the summer of Seguin Island, a high lump of rock off the Kennebec River. That island is home to one of the oldest and most prominent lighthouses on the Maine Coast, originally authorized by George Washington. The lighthouse was of course manned for decades by a succession of keepers and their families.

Seguin Light

Because the island is high and steep, the Coast Guard built a tramway to get people and supplies from the harbor up to the light keeper's house and back down again. The museum’s guide liked to tell the story about the time one of the trams got loose while ferrying a young mother and her baby down the hill. The tram quickly gathered speed and was headed for a serious crash at the bottom of the tramway. At the last minute the mother heaved her baby out of the cart back up the hill. The tram did crash and the mother was seriously hurt, but the baby landed unharmed in the bushes by the side of the tramway.

The guide liked to repeat this story on every tour for its dramatic effect, although the museum director suspected that the guide was none too sure about its truth. One day, as the tour boat was returning to the museum, the director was proceeding downriver in another boat on another mission. He noticed the guide gesticulating wildly, pointing excitedly to an elderly tourist lady sitting in the tour boat, and yelling something across the water. Finally, the director realized what he was trying to communicate: “That's her! That's the baby!”

Cost of Community Services

Last night I went to a presentation by Whit Whitney of the Maine Coast Heritage Trust about land conservation. He made two points that stuck with me. They were both things that I'd heard before, but not quite as well stated.

First, he said that there are three ways to conserve land permanently. Your town (or state) can buy it and make it a park; a non-profit can acquire it and make it a preserve; the owner can place a conservation easement on it. When the town buys land it has to pay for it up front, it has to pay to maintain it, and it loses it from the tax rolls. When a non-profit acquires land, it may leave the tax rolls, although the nonprofit may elect to make a payment to the town in lieu of taxes. When the owner places a conservation easement on land, it stays on the tax rolls although maybe at a reduced rate. So all forms of conservation cost the local political entity something, at least in the short run. But conservation easement is the least expensive form of conservation.

His second point was that conservation was actually a good investment. Why? Because development, especially residential development, always costs more than conserved open space. That might seem counter-intuitive, since new development brings in new tax revenues. But it turns out that services required by residential development always cost more than this development brings in in revenue.

The evidence of this is provided by studies of the costs of community services. These studies attribute portions of community revenues and expenses to the land use that generates them. If you look at the revenues and expenses that are attributable to residential, commercial, and open space/agricultural areas in a community you get a ratio of dollars spent per dollar brought in by each type of land use. Across 70 of these studies around the country residences invariably cost more than revenue attributable to them, while for both commercial and open space the opposite is true. Usually, this ratio is three to four times greater for residential than for open space.

Of course, there's no mystery to the fact that services for people cost more than services for empty space. No one would want a town with no residents, would they? But a balance of residences and open space is a good thing. Thinking that more development will reduce taxes is absolutely wrong.

It would be interesting to see such a study for our town. At the moment, forest, farmland, and open space are taxed by our town at a much lower rate than residential, so our ratios might be less unbalanced. Is this another way to judge fairness?

Bang

A new experience to discover your daughter was in a car crash by reading about it in her web log. But a relief at the same time to find she's OK.

Around the world in 60 days

2004 is already one for the record books. Francis Joyon slashed over 20 days off the round the world single-handed record, from 93 to 72 days. This was doubly amazing as his time was less than two days slower than the 71 days it took a full crew to sail the same boat around the world when it won the Trophee Jules Verne.

Speaking fo the Trophee Jules Verne, it is now held by Frenchman Bruno Peyron in a time of 64 days and change. Now the giants Cheyenne and Geronimo are off in hopes of bettering that time. And Bruno himself is tweaking his new Orange for a run at his own record that will likely commence within the week.