windsend

Here he is...

As promised, here's a shot of the old guy:

What don't you understand about dumpster?

The weather is warming up, the snow is mostly gone, and I'm starting to get my morning aeorbics walking the country roads again. What I can't understand is why people prefer to dump their garbage on the roadsides. Not only the occasional beer bottle and McDonalds detritus, but multiple cheap bursting black 30 gallon trash bags of garbage. It really sours my opinion of the human race.

The Conservation Commission gave a forester permission to build a temporary road across town land to harvest some timber from his back lot, but with the proviso that he block the road off at night so it wouldn't get used as a dump. Not good enough... while he was working in broad daylight, someone came in and dumped a refrigerator. What pigs we be.

Good Old Boy

I don't think I've mentioned him on these pages before, but my dog is getting old. He's a golden retriever we got from the Greater Portland Animal Refuge League when he was, we believe, about 1.5 years old. He leapt (from God knows where) in through someone's bay window to get close to their in-heat female. In repayment for his ardor, he knocked out his front teeth - and got himself neutered and incarcerated. That was 10 years ago.

We decided to call him Toby, and , of course, he accepted that liberty. Ever since, he has been the most loving, friendly, grateful, and generally rewarding pet I can imagine. I am dreadfully sorry to see him getting old and tired. It seems horribly unfair that I should have gotten thinner, stronger and healthier in the span he has gone from puppy to old, old man. I remember when he would gladly chase a tennis ball for as long as there was strength in my arm to throw it. Now, he will gamely go after the first toss, but then he is out of gas. Come to think of it, I have a few more aches and pains than I used to, but I expect to live two or three more of his lifetimes.

He still loves the cold and snow - it makes him feel frisky- but he also loves to lie close to the fire until his fur gets almost too hot to touch. I'll post a picture of him one of these days... he is our ultimate good old boy. When he goes, he will leave an unfillable void.

They're Back

I made coffee this morning and brought the papers and the laptop out to the sunroom for breakfast. There was a flock of 20 or so Juncos under the bird feeder, and some noticeably yellower goldfinches chasing each other around, but the real joy was seeing Mr. Bluebird sitting prorietorially on the roof of his bird bouse.

Allegiance

ML has been tutoring an Afghani refugee in English and helping him establish a life in the US. She just posted a cry of frustration at the average American's lack of appreciation of the hurdles refugees must overcome.

Meanwhile, Anthony writes about the oath that immigrants take when they become citizens.

In my mind there is some question about the value of any oath or pledge of allegiance. Will someone who intends to do evil to the nation and its citizens allow for one minute the swearing of an oath to give him pause? And why should an oath be demanded of immigrants who have given so much just to get here when those of us lucky by birth swear nothing? (Unless you count all those years before our brains were fully formed when we stood with our hands on our hearts and mouthed the pledge of allegiance... which even then we suspected was so much foolish blather.)

Allegiance, like love, is a decision that, to have any value, must be continually reaffirmed. Either we value our country, our constitution, our laws, every day, or we don't. If we forget to decide to love, how long will marriage vows last? If we forget to decide to give our allegiance, what good is any oath or pledge?

Bob's my uncle

Unlike my daughter, I don't listen to my CD player much on the commute to work. That's more for the trip home or longer drives. No, my radio is tuned in the morning to Maine Pubilic Radio, in particular, Morning Edition. But what will I do without the great voice of Bob Edwards?

Closet Country

Last night, my band worked on some new material. The piece that worked the best, we all agreed, was Chuck Berry's "The Promised Land". It had a real rockabilly feel. Very close to country. That doesn't make me a bad berson, does it?

Deletum 5000 Reloaded

Well, having made it to number one on Google for something, I decided that, in order to be worthy, I had to get off my duff and help those who are desparately seeking Deletum - Here's your guy:

Victor M. Castaño
Professor and Director of the Centre
Centro de Física Aplicada y Tecnología Avanzada
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
A.P. 1-1010
Santiago de Querétaro, 76000 Querétaro
México

castano@fata.unam.mx
meneses@servidor.unam.mx
www.fata.unam.mx

Oh, they don't wear pants...

Only in France - would they not only dream of a large catamaran that's really two hydroplanes lashed together with two giant windsurfer rigs planted on top, but also actually build it and make it work... They expect this thing to sustain speeds of 35 knots for 24 hours, which, for those who haven't got Excel running, is 840 nautical miles in 24 hours. The current record for a days run is 694.78 nautical miles... by a boat nearly twice this size.

Home

We had an architect and his partner over to our house for brunch yesterday. The house is one we designed ourselves. It is pretty much cliche-traditional, center chimney cape from the front. We like to think that the interior is a little more functional than a traditional cape. Anyway, it works pretty well for us.

The architect was the first of his profession we've shown around the place, and he was very polite, but his only comment was about the tile in one room. He is a customer of my sailmaking business, and I don't think he'd attempt to design his own sails. I was wondering (but didn't ask) what he felt, if anything, about us designing our own house. I certainly couldn't have afforded to hire him then, if I had known him.

I know I shouldn't have been self-conscious about that aspect of the visit, but I guess it's understandable. Anyway, it made me realize I'm pretty happy with what we've made of our life here...