fractalnavel

no comment on the way the latest events are being handled.

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i think i'll actually eat something.  the last few days it's only been the occasional apple or granola bar.  i've “eaten” something like 6-8 trays of ice cubes, anything to help the soreness and swelling.  spent some time on the back porch yesterday sitting in 95 degree heat with an ice pack on my throat and neck.  i'll leave out the gory details of what happened after that.

i really probably should have gone to a doctor on this. i was going to today if things hadn't improved. i guess i did realize how dangerous this could have been. i wasn't really sure whether i should try and make an appointment with some unknown doctor, or head to an emergency room. i also wasn't sure what to do with the medical insurance side; it's been years since i dealt with any of this.

so things seem to have turned out all right in the end; will know for sure in a few days. meanwhile, it's probably wise to still take it easy. as one indicator of how bad i felt, there was cold beer in the refrigerator all this time that i never touched in these 90+ degree days. now that's serious ! ;-)

yeah, i know - i'm an idiot.

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prompted by jon's post, i watched the big lebowski.  very good, but it only vaguely compares with napolean dynamite, as the article he links to mentions.  i was thinking the soundtrack would make a good roadtrip mix, perfect for attending the annual lebowski fest in louisville.  so i was wondering: you'd think that would be a perfect excuse for his bowling gang for a roadtrip.  but, y'know, everyone in that group seems to be getting tied down these days ;-)

there's another nearby convention for ventriloquists that i learned about on 60 minutes the other day.  i had no idea of the candice bergen connection.  sounds like another annual event to mark on the calendar.  oh, right - what calendar ?

i didn't realize the coen brothers had that kind of repertoire - wow.

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one of a pair

i was walking past the sliding doors in back, and saw two tiny deer just standing there, cute as can be.  of course, that pose was gone by the time i got the camera.  all i was able to get was this one through the kitchen window.  they're only about a foot and a half tall.  so where's mom ?

for now, they're just hangin' out, mostly hidden from my view.  maybe the bushy lawn and wooded lot looked inviting in the heat.  but they had to come through the gate; there's six foot fences around this yard.  which means they wandered in through the neighborhood on the street.  i suppose it was made easier by the heat - there's no movement at all outside anywhere.

was thinking about sneaking up on them from another direction, but i'd rather not risk disturbing them.  who knows, they might decide to hang out a while, like that one deer did a few years ago.

other less interesting news: day three on this sore throat thing.  one hugely inflamed tonsil, the other side is fine.  which is good, because it was hard enough to swallow as it is.  going down now, slowly.  weird too, since it loaded my immune system to the point where every other possible inflamation site acted up.  like one knee, teeth, finger & toe nails, skin all over.    muscle & joint aches, dizziness.  no fever.  very weird.  (yes, i'm keeping well hydrated.)  so it was time to break out the old anti-inflamatories (how many m's?).  i wonder if i should have talked to a doctor.  i also wondered if there was such a thing as over the counter antibiotics.  in any case, it'll be nice to be able to eat.  maybe tomorrow.

kinda makes me think about stupid little things like this happening if i was at sea or doing some other sort of wilderness stuff.  even with good basic health, shit happens.  points up the need for a real med kit, not just first aid, plus the training to use it.  i've heard of classes like that.  in any case, it's one thing taking care of things autonomously in the best of circumstances, and quite another where murphy's law dictates that shit happens when things are at their worst.  worth some preparatory pondering.

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ramblings...

• finally, a little cool down in the temperatures - and i come up with some sort of sinus infection.  is it one of those post-visit(ing) things where i get exposed to whatever was going around but missed ?  hard to say, since i've been around a lot of people-full events for the last six weeks and this is the first time something has come up.  bummer.  so i'm trying to vitamin-c and echinacea the thing to death.  although vitamin c is well known as necessary for healthy mucous membranes, and has claims for many other benefits from mega-doses, it looks like the echinacea thing is still up on the air.  purple cone flowers ?  maybe i should go out and eat the daisies.
• i posted a reference to a michael crichton piece on environmentalism some time back, mainly for his introductory comments.  ran across some stuff in rebuttal to the main content of his talk in this week's scifi weekly.  well, indirectly, as the letters were wrtitten in response to another letter supporting one of crichton's recent books.  just cross-referencing for completeness here.
• i got used to slacking on the lawn because it has been so dry for weeks.  so i wasn't paying attention to the effects of dennis parking its ass over the region for the last week and a half.  bushy green lawn again.  i'm not up to mowing today.  i need to steal one of those “growing, not mowing” signs from the parks.  can't find a sign image, but there sure is a lot of stuff on the web about lawns.  lawn growing is a silly, imported practice that may actually hurt the environment.  i wonder if there are lawn-free neighborhoods to move into, in otherwise average suburban settings.  but my ultimate goal is to escape such things altogether, so the curiosity is minimal.
• woth, an off-brand cincinnati tv channel, has been showing some obscure scifi movies this week.  today, it's Slipstream (1989).  there's also a 1967 movie by  that name, made by spielberg - !  but there's no imdb details beyond cast.  “unfinished” it says (and a rating of 8.2??).  may be his first truly professional effort.
• my monster resume expired, and i finally got around to reactivating it last weekend.  on monday, several leads popped up in my inbox, followed by a slower trickle the rest of the week.  it's like i thought, if you want to use monster (and maybe any other job site) to its full effectiveness, you need to “touch” your resume daily, keeping it at the top of freshness lists. (i think this applies to dating sites as well.)  in my case, even with a three and a half year gap, it's the sharepoint experience that seems to get the most attention.  i don't really understand that much, as it's no longer a new technology, and takes little effort to pick up the skills.  yet prospective employers seem to think specific experience is necessary.  for my own sake i probably shouldn't disabuse them of the notion, but as an ethical consultant i feel something should be said.  so there, consider it said.  i've tried making a bigger fuss over this, but no one believes me anyway, so this “effort” is merely for the record.

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dear housekeeping,

what's the best way to keep one's cd and dvd coasters clean ?  are they dishwasher safe ? or should i be using a special cleaner ?

- slipped disk

dear housekeeping,

every time i drop food while eating in the living room it is immediately drawn under the sofa.  is this an example of murphy's law, or is it proof that dust bunnies suck ?

- curious couch cacher

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just more “notes to self” here. 

winding down the last of the leftovers in the 'fridge; so good to have real food in the house.  i may have to go shopping. 

also opened up the house again, and turned off the ac.  the coolness was admittedly nice, but it really isolated me from things, making me actually reluctant to step outside.  weird.  at least i know that about myself, and i do what i have to to deal with it.

[sigh] time to actually get moving again ;-)

no trips scheduled the rest of the summer.  i was kind of hoping to head back up to tobermory on my own, if i can finish the boat up.  with my current sense of motivation , that's a long shot.  other than that, there's the usual unchanging morass of “shoulds”.

to-do item: start a to-do list.  item two: treat the list as more than a curiosity.

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flashback double feature today:

• A Boy and His Dog (1975)
• Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970)

heavy video day: also watched the last two charlie jade episodes, and managed a sort of mental mash-up of colossus with 28 Days (2000)

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a very slow period for posting.  kind of makes sense as various summer busyness pops up.  summer ?  wow. half done.  too fast, too fast.  the boat is still garaged, part sanded.  motivation ? none.

had visitors for the last week for nick's goalie camp.  different having people around the house, pretty cool, actually.  the camp was the focus, so not much got done outside of that, especially being on the other side of town.  shopping, a visit to the museum center (space exhibit and omnimax).  but for me, spending time around people is “doing something”, and i expect being out of town was the same for the others.  fresh ground coffee in the morning, grilling in the evening.

i did get some 'puter work done, archiving the server's full hard drives onto dvd's.  these should make their way around the family; they have a little something for everyone, i think.  also got some networking taken care of, and some imaging done.  still need to do more of that, but things are finally underway in that area. 

and that's it for now.  oooh, aren't you glad you read this ?  ;-)

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update: added pics (thanks, john !)

30.06.05: on the road again.  the boat and bike stay home, as these would be more solitary activities and i'm hoping to spend time with family while i'm up there.  the adventures begin early; i hit a thunderstorm just out of town.  the rest area conveniently appears before the storm does.  i put on a raincoat instead of putting up the top, and continue into the rain.

the rain doesn't last long.  around dayton, it begins again.  this time the traffic slows to a crawl, and it's 45 minutes of sitting in a downpour.  my only regret is that my mask and snorkel are at the bottom of my mound of stuff in back.  traffic jams can use some mood lightening, and i would like to be able to demonstrate to my fellow drivers that i'm not an idiot, i'm intentionally getting drenched.  oh - same difference.

further up the road, where things are dry again, there is an accident backing up traffic for miles.  one lady is taking it very well.  she's singing along to the radio and dancing in her seat.  i congratulate her on her attitude.  “oh well”, she says, “i'm already late for work!”. 

it's getting late, i won't make it to my nephew's game at 6p (”so what rink will he be at?” “rink? he's playing baseball!” “since when?”), so i head over to my sister's house instead.  i need to drop something off.  (two weeks earlier, right after my last visit, she finds what she thinks is my phone charging cord, so she overnights it to me.  i'm like, no, i've got mine right here.  it takes a few hours before she figures out what she sent - her radio's power cord.  no really, she's a brunette.)

there is a local harley owner's group meeting this evening, so i join my sister for that, only to have to stand up in front of a room full of people to introduce myself.  i tell everyone that my vehicle of choice is a jeep.  what was i thinking ? ;-)

01.07.05: my sister (carol) is still waffling about showing up for the weekend, so i leave her place early-ish to get to my brother's.  i'm following them (john and wife kathy, 15 year old allie and 12 year old nick) in their van; hard to get a weekend's worth of toys and camping gear for five people into two jeeps - and still have room for the people.  it's a pretty drive, a pretty morning - but a bit windy (say, twenty knots?).  there's cow related ripeness as i go past the neighboring dairy farm.

allie & nick

no crossing at the ferry :-(  that's been voted down.  we rearrange passengers at the visitor centre on the canadian side and continue.

it's canada day, so all the little towns are crowded.  grand bend is the first, and the worst.  a cute little tourist trap town with a lake huron beach, it's packed with cars trying to get onto the main strip, backed up onto the highway.  it takes 20 minutes or so to get through.

we're playing “name that critter” in the jeep, trying to identify the roadkill as we whiz past.  there's a large variety today.  the marlinton, wv festival comes to mind yet again.  at some point we pass a sad little raccoon on his back with his hands in the air.  we laugh.

all this time the west wind has been increasing, and the clouds have been accumulating.  just south of kincardine we see a few drops, and we put up the top.  i don't put up much of a fight, since the crosswind has been beating me up with the seatbelt.  continuing, it barely sprinkles.

shortly after we turn onto the bruce peninsula the winds increase yet again.  must be 40-50 knots by now.  the roadkill now includes birds flopping on the side of the road.  perhaps “windkill” is more accurate.  wow.  and yet the skies are sunny.  the jeep top stays up.

carol's tent (chopping wood)

the campground is only a couple miles (i should say “kilometres”) from town, we have two adjoining ones for when (if) carol (and guest?) join us.  we set up her tent as well, so that she won't have to do it in the dark.  all unloaded, we head into town for dinner.

everything is pretty much the same, it's a Good Thing.  pretty harbour (little tub) and boats, the shops and restaurants.  at the parks office i inquire about how full the campsites are on flowerpot island, and i'm told they are empty - the wind has kept all boats in port.  that makes sense.  apparently the georgian bay waves are building upwards of three metres - ! (that's ten feet plus for you english system people.)  a good set of “ripples” is even making its way into the harbour.

we head over to the crow's nest, which is a second story pub with a deck overlooking the entire harbour.  there's a fun little band playing, and we get a table up front.  they're playing classic stuff, good for sing-alongs, and their light humour and bantering adds to the mood. it's fun when canadians make canadian jokes (all together now - 1, 2, 3 - ehhhh!) as some half-baked poetry starts to form in my head, a sigh of relief spreads through me.  big smile - we're here !

[a conversational moment: (i don't remember exactly when this came up): “did you see that one raccon?” “you mean the one reaching for the sky?” and everyone does their imitation of the poor dead racoon.]

the canada day fireworks having been cancelled due to wind, we head over to the big tub harbour lighthouse point to watch the fading twilight after dinner. it's midnight when we get back to camp.

02.07.05: well, carol never showed overnight.  will she be coming ?

slept well in the cool temps and winds.  up early (dawn'ish, 4:30a) - the winds have calmed to nothing.  i try to resist making the coffee for a couple hours while i watch the sky lighten.  eventually, i've done everything but turn on the burner and brew the stuff, so i just go ahead anyway.  it's a toss up between trying to be helpful, and interfering with kathy's routine.  turns out i do both ;-)  i leave the morning fire to john - that's his routine.

the kids are up late.  breakfast is pancakes and sausage (yum!).  winds are coming up again, but not too much.  now, to coordinate plans - what fun! 

my other brother (gary) is supposed to have arrived late last night with another (six year old) nephew (steven), and his twenty foot stern-drive. we're hoping to hear from him this morning, but by ten or so we just head into town.  kathy has been wanting to do some sea kayaking, so we have our dry bags packed with sandwiches & stuff.

by 11a we are on the water in little tub harbour for a half day outing.  we carried the kayaks the short distance from the dive shop to the dock ourselves, dodging tourists and traffic on the way.  trusting souls, they are - they'd walk within inches of a kayak end that could easily get swung their way.  amazing.

the water is clear and cold, the sky is sunny, and we have to paddle into the stiff breeze to get out of the harbour.  this takes a while and some energy, but is well worth the views and the being there.  i watch the chi-cheemaun ferry pull out while waiting for the others, then continue around the point towards big tub and the lighthouse.

dang scuba divers are everywhere.  the light was to be our lunch stop, but there's no way to take even a kayak in there without bopping a few divers and breaking the “rules of the road”.  allie talks about playing whack-a-mole with her paddle.

as “luck” would have it, i know about a nearby pub ;-) (well, ok, i have stayed at the adjoining resort several times before.)  after leading kathy and allie to the dock a bit farther into big tub, i go back to retrieve john and nick.  nick's been getting blown back by the wind, and has been heading backward.  i give him a tow the rest of the way in.

after hot tea and irish coffee and nachos - and some hand-pumped, barrel conditioned ale ;-) - everyone is warm and dry again, and we head back out.  with a bit more than an hour left on the rentals, we figure we'd better head in, and opt not to go see the shipwrecks at the far end of big tub.  we end up getting back to little tub with 45 minutes to spare.  those were still pretty strong winds !

so we putz around in little tub, looking at the boats and a couple shipwrecks, until we are pushed out of the way by divers again.  the cold (10C) clear water is tempting, so i get a hand from john's bow and flip myself upside down for a second.  something to pull out of my memories later when sitting in 90 degree (F) cincinnati.

more carrying of kayaks through crowded conditions ensues (it's like an indoor mall without a roof; now add cars, boats and water).  i'm going to have to do this again !

allie's version

back at camp, we find notes from gary.  apparently he missed us by minutes, and was going to launch his boat at little tub, where apparently he just misses us yet again.  cell phone usage is quickly dismissed - roaming charges, and what the heck - aren't we trying to get away from that ?  he has a camp site at another nearby campground, and on our way to shopping and dinner (so much for camp food!) we leave notes at our camp and his, hoping to hook up later.

on our way into town we stop at a geocache site, well hidden in a pile of rocks on a side road.  the canadian national parks don't allow caches in them for now.

in town, kathy and allie do some souvenir hunting while john, nick and i look around the harbour area to see if we can spot some sign of gary & steven - boat, car, trailer, whatever.  we aren't really sure where he launched from, or where he'll be taking out (there's a launch and dock at his campground as well).  so after a while i figure i'll go up to crow's nest and keep an eye on things (and a beer) while everyone is split up.

eventually kathy and allie appear near the boat launch, looking around wondering where everyone is.  it's a bit too far for shouting (besides being annoying for the other patrons), so i run down to catch them.

or try to.  a drop-off i didn't see sends me somersaulting into the street, but i just roll and keep on going.  there's an audience on the pub deck. 

ok, so that's two of six wanderers.  the outer rail on the overlooking deck is free, so we stake out the seven stools there while watching.  eventually gary and steven wander into view, see us, and wave - then turn around and head out.  a short time later, john & nick show up, just missing gary.  they head out a different way.  kathy, allie and i are laughing.  other folks in the bar think we're nuts.

eventually we all end up on the deck for whitefish, pizza, beer and other delicacies.  the same band is playing again that evening.  as kathy put it, “we impressed gary by knowing the playlist and the words to the 'ficklesome damsel' song”.  in two nights, we had become regulars ;-)

[another conversational moment: “we saw some strange roadkill on the way up” “you mean the racoon with his paws in the air?” “yeah, that's the one!”.  apparently the little guy is (in)famous - posthumously.  we all do more dead racoon imitations.]

the fireworks go off fine this evening; john manages to be last in line to get in at the sweet shop for coffee.  gary ponders him and steven staying over at our camp for the night; carol never showed so we have an extra tent.  the sky is clear and the milkyway is bright.  gary spots seven (!) satellites.  at least.

03.07.05: i'm meeting gary and steven for breakfast at craiggie's this morning.  he was saying he wanted a mound of eggs and sausages last night, and this is the place to get it.  it's been here for over 70 years, essentially in the harbour parking lot.  you can see it in old pictures, before all the other harbour structures appeared. 

as i wait for gary (you always wait for gary ;-)), i talk with a retired local gentleman.  the accents up here are thick. a pleasant way to pass some time.  i watch as some guy with a 25 foot sailboat again tries to launch without being prepared.  yesterday the harbour master had kicked him out for trying the same stunt.  he moves on.

gary shows up, and breakfast is good.  the waitress / owner? has an accent that's a mix between fargo and canada.  the day is sunny, the winds have died down.  the harbour is relatively quiet.

back at camp i finally get a shower.  gary and john have disappeared to do some fishing out on the boat.  the rest of us are going to explore some “caves” halfway down the peninsula.

the caves turn out to be private property.  the set up reminds me a bit of a glacier hike in alaska a few years back.  pay whatever you can talk the lady into, then hike back - you're on your own.

the caves are basically a section of georgian bay cliffs that were undercut by the water millenia ago (?), and have now collapsed into large amphitheatre like formations, quarter spheres open towards the water.  there are some holes in the jumble that we decide to explore (we all have headlamps), turning a one hour expedition into a two hour one.  great fun trying to surprise each other in the maze of rocks with the little unexpected openings. the other hikers just stay on the trail for the most part.  at our lunch stop, as i'm pulling out trail mix, power bars and water, steven opines, “wow uncle chris, you are so prepared!”.  it's the old boy scout in me ;-)

we stop at singing sands beach, on the lake huron side, for swimming and to meet up with gary and john.  we don't see the car.  but as i'm puttering by the beach house, john comes out of nowhere and sits down.  they've boated over and are anchored about a half mile out - in three feet of water.  singing sands is in dorcas bay, and was always very shallow.  now, with the great lakes levels down several feet, the “beach” is quite a walk from the parking area.  people are scattered everywhere on the sand flats.

all that shallow water is skim boarder's paradise, so we leave my nephews to it as we wade out to the boat.  lake huron is clear and warm here.  we visit for a bit, then john and i head to camp to get sandwiches and munchies (20 minute round trip to the car + 20 minute round trip driving + 10 minutes making sanwiches).  we leave the van and take the jeep back, committing the rest of the group to a boat ride (actually, that had already been arranged).

on our way back john and i wander a bit, finding some cheap firewood on a quiet back road.  back at camp to unload, we notice the campground emptying - the canadians work monday.

unloading firewood:  “this log has moss on it, which way's north, eh ?”  “this is canada, eh, it's all north” “oh, right, thanks”

we get over to the other campground just as the boat gets there, and we get ready for dinner.  gary's pick - shipwreck lee's.  he wants the corn and chicken he saw there in passing the other day.  the rest of us are kind of hiding our faces; we feel disloyal to the crow's nest across the street.  they're very much into some touristy pirate shtick here at lee's.

“what's an 'arrggh-arita'?” “it's when you order a margarita but they're all out of mix”

“what's on tap?” [the waitress begins an explanation of what draft beer is].  “no, not 'what's a tap' !” actually, i never hear this exchange myself, but everyone else did.

well, we order a pitcher of beer. “soorry, we're out of that.  how about (this other beer) ?”.  ok, fine.  when that arrives, the waitress says “that's the last of it, eh?”.  a beer shortage?  in canada?  finishing that one, we order the one remaining draft choice available.  it arrives at the table three quarters full. “that's it for that one” she says.  oh great - we drank canada dry !  (rim shot, please ;-))  high fives all around.

no corn or chicken either.  or local whitefish.  fearful of getting frozen cod, i order a burger.  at least the guy they had for entertainment, a gentleman playing keyboard and singing blues, was ok.  but the clam chowder got a thumbs up as better than that at crow's nest, which was a pleasant surprise.

view from big tub light

in search of dessert (cheesecake) and a proper margarita, and trying to avoid doing everything at crow's nest, we head over to big tub resort (the site of our kayak lunch).  they don't have either, so after a brief stop at the lighthouse in twilight again, this time with clouds of bugs, we end up at - surprise! - crow's nest.  tonight's entertainment is a solo female singer doing ballad type music.  i chilled inside with a glass of tobermory scotch - from tobermory, scotland.  and a beer, of course.  yes, they have margaritas and cheesecake.

the final thing that needs explaining to bars is that it should not be assumed that all margaritas are supposed to be frozen.  that applies to daquiris and pina coladas as well.  there's a cold place in hell for whoever started things on that road.  on the other hand, ordering margaritas in canada is silly, if not sacriligious.  so is ordering coronas with lime.

it's late again by the time we reach camp, and everyone's too tired for a big, last-night campfire.  after spotting a few more satellites, everyone heads for bed. 

04.07.05: breakfast: bagels.  (nick's comment: “those aren't seagulls, those are baygulls”.  everyone's a comedian.)  i've been up at dawn every morning, well before everyone else.  it's been a warm couple of days after the first couple of days' windy chill.  i get my dive gear together, intending to do one shore dive at the little tub tugs, while everyone else packs.  gary and steven come by to pick up the remaining firewood and say goodbye; they are staying the rest of the week in a beach front cabin at the other campgrounds.

me, in little tub harbour

the rest of us head out to the harbour, kathy, nick and allie to do some shopping, while john comes along to help with the diving.  i've forgotten one thing - dive weights.  easy to come by in town.  at the platform there's one small group doing a training dive, and that's it.  not the crowds there were over the weekend.  cool.  i haven't dove in six (!) years, anything to make life easier is appreciated.

the water is cold and clear; descending and looking around, it occurs to me yet again why i do this.  the colors are the classic muted shipwreck blues.  visibility is better than 50 feet - maybe 70 !  and i'm the only one in the water.  so instead of the twenty-thirty minutes i planned on, i stay forty or so, making it out to the far wreck and back.  it was so tempting to head out into the cold murky depths that i could see (amazing visibility) from where i was, but i was sticking to my depth plan. note to self: the diving's much better when no one else is around to kick up sediment.

it's threatening rain as i finish getting the gear off, so we zip off to camp to pack my stuff and put the jeep top on.  so long, tobermory :-(

dragon at harvest moon

we meet the rest of the group at a place kathy spotted the day before, about twenty minutes out of town: the harvest moon bakery and tea garden.  turns out to be the neatest little place, oozing with back to basics naturalness.  the grounds are the coolest; a fox is sunning itself on a large rock outcropping at the edge of the woods 50 metres away.  the pasties are unbelievable, as are as the tea and porcelain cups.  we divvy up a lemon poppy seed cake as well.  and then we are on our way.

flowers at harvest moon; these things practically glowed

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