Complications in Travel

It's a tale of fun,
In the surf and the sun.
There's no reason to grieve,
Even though we must leave,
So it's homeward at last,
This vacation is past.

Last year as we left our Beach Experience, Troubles arose. This year, they actually arose the evening before the exodus.
You may notice the size of the load which has been placed on this puny rack on my puny truck. It should be noted that this rack was hastily constructed for the purpose of carrying only a Kayak. The Fuzz must take responsibility for this. That seems to be what people do these days when there is trouble. Maybe he could refer to this as an "error in judgment" or something. In reality it is more like a bungle. This rack was actually constructed quite flimsily on the foolish assumption that it would not be under much stress. This is actually rather uncharacteristic of The Fuzz who has historically overbuilt everything. It may have something to do with the "Downsizing" of his Truck to this tiny Oriental Thing, and the desire to travel "Light".
Be that as it may, on the evening before the exodus, a Heavy Duty Son, decided in his youthful exuberance, to use this Light Duty Rack, for what may be referred to as "playground equipment", with some disquieting results. You may notice that this inferior weld in this inferior design has failed. This is not a good thing. This has happened many, many miles from the Home Base. While these things were transpiring, The Fuzz was blissfully unaware, peacefully laying in the air conditioned beach house reading "The Brothers Karamazov" (which is pretty good if you have the time). There, he was approached with the words, "We have a mechanical problem". This might not have been entirely accurate, but it was a problem nevertheless.
There is, I suppose, some advantage to not knowing about your problems in advance. The Fuzz would probably not have enjoyed this seaside excursion so much, knowing he would have to drive hundreds of miles beneath a canoe which could fall off the truck at any moment. This was a mercy.
So the canoe and kayak were gently placed on the now somewhat unstable rack. Then, The Fuzz, with the assistance of the Sons, strapped it all together, very tightly. Those straps with the ratchet things on them work very well. The Fuzz highly recommends them for times like this. The theory was, the canoe and kayak would keep the rack from collapsing on it self, and some other straps would keep it from falling apart. It was The Fuzz's Sweetie that recommended lashing the paddle to the rack in the hope that if it did come loose, it would at least stay in the truck.
And so, the next morning the rest of the stuff was loaded, and the trip began.
The first leg was over secondary two lane type roads. This was good because of the low speeds, but there were a lot of bumps. By the time he got to the Interstate, The Fuzz noticed that the canoe seemed to be moving around more than he liked, so he pulled over.
Things were beginning to get interesting now. The Fuzz discovered to his dismay, not one, but three defective welds. This is 3 out of 4, not good at all. This seemed to be some sort of "domino effect" due to the extra strain. Back into his bag of tricks. This was a little army surplus pack crammed with straps, ropes and stuff like that. The Fuzz highly recommends carrying these sort of things on trips, when it is inconvenient to bring a welder.
Now the strapping, tying, cussing and praying began in ernest. The State Troopers stopped to see if things were all right. They left on the assurance that there were no mechanical difficulties. They probably would not have been happy with the condition of the load. The end result was an incredible web of strapping and ropes, that fortunately held up the whole way home.

And so, the Beach trip is over for another year. Once again the Return Trip was a bit traumatic for The Fuzz. But once again all is well. It's all just the grace of God.

Ups, Downs and Ups

Here at the beach there is always plenty of wind, so here are the guys getting ready to get this thing airborne. Things went well for a while, but of course, there were complications.








A rescue was initiated.






Now we're back in business.





















This isn't Kitty Hawk, but the North Carolina Coast is still an excellent place for flying.

At the Seaside

Well yes, been gone for a while. It was for a good reason though. You see, we had to take this trip. Yes it was the Second Annual Family Beach Trip. Here you can see The Fuzz, himself, on the road again. The Fuzz did not take this photo himself. He had help. He is not able to be in two places at one time, he is just not fast enough.

You may notice that the Little Truck has a big load. This will be the cause of sort of a problem at a later time, but, we won't get into that right now. Last year, the Kayak rode on the Little Truck by itself. But as this Kayak is a "Personal Water-craft" in the fullest sense, only one person can "water-craft" in it at a time. So, not wanting anyone to miss out on the enjoyment of simply messing about, The Fuzz loaded up the big stuff. This was a good move (except for that problem that turned up later).
So there we were on the N.C. Coast, on one of those Big Sandbars they refer to as islands. The place we stayed at was on the Sound side of the Big Sandbar. This means that we had to walk a couple hundred yards to the actual "Beach". It also means that we had access to our own pier and swimming beach, on the relatively quiet, Sound.
Having the canoe, The Fuzz was able to take His Sweetie out across the Sound to where all these weedy things were. When the Tide is out, this is mostly mud with a few channels, and a bunch of birds with long legs and necks hanging around. When the Tide is in, this is a maze of channels though the weeds with a bunch of the same birds. There are also fish and stuff swimming around in there. The Fuzz really likes poking around in places like this. This is looking back toward the Sandbar where we were staying.
Across this muck was the Intercostal Waterway. The Fuzz and His Sweetie paddled their little canoe across to have a look. This boat passed by as they floated there amongst the weeds. It even has Spare Boats on it. Shoot, the Spare Boats are bigger than The Fuzz's canoe.
The Fuzz and His Sweetie had a pleasant morning out there, messing about, one of many pleasant times.

Sundown

You Might not hear from me for a while.

The Poetry Corner

To the tune of "The Adams Family"
(I couldn't resist)

He's big and black and furry,
He's always in a hurry,
His teeth will make you worry,
The dogie called Barkly.

I guess you can see what kind of day it's been.

Electricity & Motorcycles

This is a Motorcycle Battery. Unfortunately it is not a happy Motorcycle battery. This Motorcycle Battery has been getting sicker and sicker for some time now. If one is a keen observer, one may notice the small connector wired to the Motorcycle Battery. This may resemble those used for trailer lights, but that is not it's purpose. It is actually there for recharging the Motorcycle Battery.
I remember a time, long ago, when motorcycles had a thing that you could push and push with your foot to crank the Motorcycle. Or else you got so tired you quit in disgust. But times have changed, and we've moved on from those more primitive days. Now there is no foot thing and if the battery is dead you're SOL.
Well, it had been coming for some time now. I knew it would happen. All last winter, I would have to use the little connector to get the Motorcycle to crank. And even now, with the warm weather, still trouble. Finally Zip.
So once again it was time for the Auto Parts Store. They gave me a box with all these things in it. When I have to get one for the car, or my truck, they just give me a big heavy battery. But this time they gave me this box of stuff. I gave them money.
One of the things in the box was a paper thing which told me what to do with all the other things. There was a container of some evil stuff that had warnings on it. They said scary things like, "Corrosive" and "Poison" ! I was instructed to pour this dangerous liquid into my brand new battery, which was already dangerous because it contained Lead ! But first I was instructed to remove a certain vent cover. If I were to fail in this, I faced the risk of an explosion ! I'm sure My Sweetie appreciated the fact that I was not doing this in the kitchen, at the risk of all our lives.
Finally this was all accomplished. But still there was more. The deadly acid was in the battery, but alas, the electricity was not. The thoughtful Battery People provided a helpful chart that told me just how much electricity to put in, and just how long to do this. So, one more time, I used the little connector, and filled this new Motorcycle Battery with electricity.
And best of all, it was worth all the danger, for this morning, the Motorcycle cranked perfectly.

Dog Sitting

Meet the Barkly. Barkly does not exactly live here, but he is visiting. Oldest Son and, Future Daughter in Law, are on a trip to where those yankees live. That is someplace north of here. So This Barkly is visiting for a few days. It's OK. He is used to a bit more personal attention than he gets here though. We did take him for a couple walks along with our own foolish little doggie that won't stay out of the road and tries to get squashed by motor vehicles. The little doggie thinks she can eat him. This is foolish of course, but it must be the Chihuahua coming out in her.
Barkly sleeps in his "Crate". This is a good thing, because he likes this, and we like this. Yesterday, when I was taking off his "harness" (used for walking), a piece came off his collar. It seemed insignificant at the time. Early this morning I got up to put him in the yard and he just pulled his head out of his collar. This was not good, since this is how we make him stay with us. Being the resourceful person I am, I just put the "Harness" on, hooked him up, and went back to bed. Little did I realize, that whilst I was dozing, he was destroying this thing, and tasting real freedom. Fortunately, he had decided to enjoy his freedom in the back yard.
When I finally got up, I looked out there and he was gone. I mumbled a four letter word or two, but then thought to check out back. Thank God he was there just playing with his "Bone". So we closed the gate, and it was time for a trip to Wally World for a new collar. Barkly is a real People Dog, so I guess he had no desire to "escape".
So Here he is looking all rednecky with his Bone under the truck.

Floating

We took the Canoe out for another excursion on the 4th. This time we poked up in this creek just to see what was to be seen. Here is where we ran out of water, or at least enough to float on.
We stopped a bit and My Sweetie tried to capture the scene with her paints. I just played with the camera and poked around. Right on the other side of the gravel bank where we stopped, there was this mighty fine swimming hole. It was at least 5ft deep right at a rock face, spring fed and cold even on this hot day in July. This place seemed quite secluded, no footprints other than deer, ducks and stuff like that. The water was actually pretty clear (I don't know why it looks murky in the pic), so we couldn't resist a refreshing dip. My Skinny Dipping habits seem to be rubbing off on My Sweetie these days. Later on, when I was home, I checked out the Google Satellite View and there do seem to be some dwellings in the area. But you'd never know it down there in the woods. Later, we paddled back out to the lake and eventually tied up on the bank for a picnic lunch. That's when this fellow showed up. He just jumped off the bank into the canoe, like he was ready to go home with us. Ah, thought I, another Photo Opportunity. But then I almost fell overboard trying to make his portrait. I did end up tossing him over the side, and by then he seemed satisfied to go, swimming happily away.

4th of July Things

My Sweetie and I were riding down to that River-Lake for some "Messing About" when we came upon this place all festive for the 4th.
It was just too classic, so we couldn't pass it up without a photo to share.
I don't think I'll set off any Pyrotechnics tonight. My Sweetie hides in the house ever since that "Butterfly" chased her around the yard a few years ago. I see where some woman in Michigan blew her head off with some Pyrotechnics. Besides that, it's kinda dry around here. Of course there's no telling what that Son might do.
So Happy Birthday USA. You might not be perfect, but people still risk their lives to get here. That must mean something.

Dredgery

Took a day off work last Friday. One thing good about this job is that I've been there so long, my vacation days build up fairly quickly. Took My Sweetie to the river for a canoe ride. It was pretty nice and mostly quiet down there. But we did come upon this odd looking boat. It was kinda noisy. They were dredging sand out of the river. When we were at the coast last year, they were dredging the channel with this big old thing. This river operation is not so big I guess. But the point here is to get the sand. Out there they just wanted it out of the way. And so, there is a long, Big Ass Hose from the dredgie thingie to this place on the bank. This spot on the river is dammed up of course, and if they didn't dredge, it would eventually get filled with sand, I suppose. On the far left you can see where the Big Ass Hose runs up into the plant. (You can "click" on it for a better look, but y'all knew that) The barrel is one of 'em that keeps the hose up off the bottom, it's pretty long. Here is a closer look at the operation. The water and sand come out of the Big Ass Hose and the water ends up back in the river. You can see this happening behind the floating barrel. The sand takes a ride up the belt and eventually makes it to a truck. There is no picture of the truck, but I'm sure you've seen one of them before.
We had a pleasant morning on the river, and pretty much had the place to ourselves. We even found a sandy "beach" for a "private" swim.
Enjoy the 4th.

Grace & Glorie

Went to a play last weekend. I'm just now getting around to this. But anyway, the local community theater group put it on. They usually do pretty good and this time was no exception. Title was Grace & Glorie. Grace is the old lady in the bed. This looks like a scene from Little Red Riding Hood. At least I think so. I'm expecting the Big Bad Wolf to come in any minute. But there was no Big Bad Wolf, just the City Slicker Lady. That would be Miss Gloria, aka Glorie.
It seems that Grace is the backwoods mountain woman who just happens to be dying. She checked herself out of the hospital so she could go home and die in peace. Gloria is the Big City Lawyer Lady who is stuck in the boonies and has taken up Hospice Volunteering. Here we see her enjoying Grace's wood stove. It looks like she is flipping the thing off, but I don't remember her doing that. It must be the camera angle or something.
Of course everyone had issues and stuff that they had to deal with, but I guess that's what makes drama and all. The play was excellent though, and we enjoyed it.

The Old Grind

I like my coffee, I admit it. But In the interest of "Health", I have cut back. A lot. But sometimes it's just too good to pass up. Camping is one of those times. And if you only drink it "on occasion" you want "good" stuff. And isn't the "good" stuff freshly ground ? So when the Camping Catalogue came, (lots and lots of catalogues come) and I saw this Cordless Coffee Grinder, I was a sucker. Big time. I mean, how could I pass up a chance to have fresh ground coffee out in the wilderness ? Sure, you can always smash the beans between a couple rocks, but wouldn't that make it kinda gritty ? Why, you may ask, would I be so particular when I was only gonna throw it into my old enamel percolator and boil the fool out of it ? But I'm like that sometimes.
Back there, behind all the smoke, is my camping coffee pot. But the subject under discussion is this camping Coffee Grinder. This is an ingenious little device. One removes the crank and top cover, and fills the little hopper with aromatic coffee beans. Then, the cover and crank are replaced, and the freshly ground coffee accumulates in a special compartment in the handle. Sounds simple enough, and it is a simple low-tech apparatus.
Back at the house, I have a cool little electrical Coffee Grinder. A friend gave me this years ago, and it still dependably grinds my coffee beans, in spite of My Sweetie using it to grind all kinds of weird things in it. And it does all this in about 10 seconds. But of course, you have to plug it in.
But this wonderful Camping Coffee Grinder does not need the power grid. It also does not grind my coffee in 10 seconds. Nor does it grind my coffee in 10 minutes. Maybe 20, on a good day.
But it does work. And the coffee is good, though maybe the wait has something to do with that.

A Night Out

We are getting rain these days, in Electrical Type Storms. These usually occur in the afternoon and evening. Unfortunately, that is the time I'm free to play on this computer. A while back, we had an unfortunate event with lightning and this Mac that was very tramatical. So we tend to shut down under those conditions. Lightning can be fun to watch, but is no fun in the house. But life does move along anyway.


The Athletical Son had a night off work, and My Sweetie and I took advantage of the situation to have a short Campout. We took off for our hideaway in the woods, (In the Woods-May 28, 2007) and some time to ourselves. The weather was warm, but not unbearable, and the walk in is not long. We put up our trusty little tent, and kicked back. Here the sun is going down behind the trees. This means it is time to kindle a fire. If you wait too long it will be dark, and its hard to cook supper when you can't see.
One thing that makes this such a great campsite is that there is plenty of fire wood laying around. It's not all picked over 'cause we're the only ones who camp here. And among the deadfall one can easily find pieces of this Rich Pine. When one of these pine trees dies, and dries up, and rots apart, there sometimes remains a bit of heartwood impregnated with sap.
This is great stuff. You can light it with a match and it will burn by itself. Here you can see a piece of it at the base of the fire. In fact, at this point, it is the fire. But you just light that little booger and lay the rest on top. Instant campfire.
As the dusk gathered, we fixed up a mess of tasty vittles. Night eventually falls even on these long summer days, and we enjoyed a little nip o' rum by the ol' campfire.


Here Is My Sweetie having a little warm up before bedtime. We had a great rest ot there in the woods. It's too bad we can't go more often.

I don't even mind the dent I put in my truck. But that's another story.

Kitty Cat Family Reunion

You may recognize the orange one as that famous kitten, Puddin' himself. The newbies are his sisters, Split, and Two Face.
It would seem that Angora, the Wild One, is a better mother than we had been led to believe. My Sweetie was poking around and happened to see these two with her. When she approached, the crazy Wild One took off, and these took cover under a pile of stuff that had accumulated in the corner where I try to work on stuff that breaks. There's a lot of stuff that breaks. If the truth be know, I'm not only Kinda Fuzzy, but Kinda Messy also.
And so they were rousted out and brought into the house. Now instead of hiding under a pile of stuff, they hide under the furniture. They don't seem to be scared of people per se. The theory is that if we keep them with us (people), they might not be so wild as their momma. I guess time will tell. Puddin' seems to like them OK, but I don't know if they realize they're kin. They will have to get used to a new diet though. These two are furrier, more like their momma. So, now there are even more Little Things than we realized.

More Little

Things were a little slow today, so I pulled this fellow out of the past. Actually I'm not real sure if it's a "Fellow" or something else. How do you tell with these things anyhow ? But "he" is little.
The kids are out of school now. The days are getting long. Why is "Midsummer's Day" the first day of summer ? Why isn't it in the middle ? Why do I even think about these things ? Is this all some plot by "Them" to mess with us, like Daylight Saving Time ? Who is "Them" any way ? Is "Them" the same ones as the "They" that say all those things ? Will "They" come and get me for asking all these dumb questions ?
Am I just getting paranoid here ?

Quiet Days

Pretty much of a quiet day here at home. Talked to some of the Young'uns via visit and phone. Made a pot of coffee and fried a few eggs for breakfast. Rode over to Wally World in search of bicycle tires. My Sweetie's tires were, as it were, tired. These things were 30 yrs, if a day, all cracked and rotten, in short, history. And besides all that, they leaked. Old tires is one thing, but old leaky tires is another entirely. Hence my trip to Wally World.
It's confession time, I'm ashamed to admit, I have a prejudice against the place. Once, the security people chased my out in the parking lot and insisted I return to the store for to watch a tape of me stealing stuff. When it all was sorted out, it was someone else that was stealing stuff. I was just a little hot. I know it is wrong to hold a grudge, and I repent, but I still prefer not to go there.
I was looking for big round things, shaped roughly like bicycle tires, but couldn't find any. They did have bicycle tire tubes though. As I sadly studied those tubes, I realized some of the boxes actually contained rolled up bicycle tires. I didn't realize you could do that to a tire and expect it to still function properly. But my satisfaction was guarantied was it not ? so I took the plunge. It would seem that when the tires are unrolled, it is possible to use them on a bicycle, and here is another job well done.
And now it was time for dinner. The charcoal bag has been empty for a while now, so I have been using some of the stuff that falls out of the trees in the yard. Oddly enough, this seems to be an improvement. The real fire gives that wonderful campfire like taste to the meal, and it saves some money too. Well it's back to work again tomorrow.

Local Jazz

Greetings, Culture Fans. My Sweetie saw an announce-ment for this Jazz Trio in the local Swapping Paper. Jazz is Culture, isn't it ? So we got into the Luxury Vehicle and went for the Jazz experience. It was pretty good. We started out by going to the wrong place, but made some adjustments, and got there just a little bit late. But it was certainly worth it, and we enjoyed an evening of local Jazz Type music.
No, my camera is not acting weird or anything, I just neglected to bring it. One of these days I'll learn better. But there had to be a picture, so here it is.

We did finally get some rain, complete with Thunder and Lighting, the works. That Puddin' continues to grow. He was a little sick, but seems to be improving. However, if he doesn't start doing better in with the litterbox, his life may be significantly shortened.

Puny Things

Some more of Little Things. This is actually a Sunflower. I know, Sunflowers are supposed to be big and all, but this one isn't. This one is located in the area beneath our little Bird Feeder. It would seem the little birdies some times waste some of that expensive Birdie Food. I used to get the stuff that had all the different kinds of seeds all together. But the little twerps would throw bunches of it out to get to their favorites. This would make me very upset. I couldn't decide weather to stop feeding 'em, or just to shoot the little things. Finally I realized that they mostly ate the sunflower seeds, so now I just get them. But the Birdies are a bit clumsy at times, and some still hits the ground where it sprouts. The ground here is not real good, and there is a lot of shade, so all we get is these puny little things.

Safety First

Got to work the other day, and was informed that my Headlight was out. NC, like most states, insists that we ride with our lights on. We have signs that say, and I quote, "Motorcycles Must Burn Headlights". This is supposed to make things safer of course. The bright light is supposed to make people in cars and trucks see the poor Biker and consequently, not kill him (or her). Of course they do any way. Curious expression though, "Burn Headlights". Mostly, people burn rubber. But it does get the point across.
I figured I'd just risk my life and try to avoid the cops on the way home. But all this was unnecessary on account of it being discovered that the Bright (high beam) light still worked. This piece of the Motorcycle was the problem. It sort of reminds me of those tube things that used to be in all the radios and stuff. I guess there are people now, who never saw those things. But radios used to have all these tubes in there, that glowed in the dark. But this one was supposed to do more than merely glow, it was supposed to "Burn", and it wouldn't.
Time for a trip to the Auto Parts Store. I just can't stay away from that place. There were lots of these things there on the rack. It was finally narrowed down to two selections, the ridiculously expensive one, and the reasonably priced number. The choice was obvious. So now the Motorcycle has a perfectly functional, reasonably priced, new headlight. And I can once again ride safely.

Back in the Mountains

Last week I took a day off work for a ride up to the mountains. One needs to use those vacation days when one can. I had hoped to make it up to Glendale Springs to see the Frescoes. That is a pretty good ride from here, and I tend to take the less direct route on a Bike. So I didn't quite make it all the way up there. But I did have a fine ride, which was the point, after all.
This is Grandfather Mt. as seen from the Parkway. It was cold up there. Once I got up the mountain, I had to stop and put on my gloves. A little while later, (and higher) I had to put the liner in my jacket.
I believe I've mentioned the Parkway before. (More from the Top, May 29, 2007, Label- Motorcycles) Since I was mostly interested in the actual ride, I got off, and hit US 221 near Grandfather Mt. and rode it toward Blowing Rock. This road was made for Bikes, it winds though the woods along the side of the mountain, and no 45mph speed limit. Here's one huge bolder that hangs over the road. You have to stop if you want to admire the scenery, 'cause you don't want to take your eyes off the road. I got back on the Parkway near Blowing Rock and rode north about another hour. This wasn't far from the planned destination, but time was slipping away, so I turned around and headed for home.


For all the fans of this young critter, he seems to want to get in there with the big kids now, but he's going to have to do a bit better with the litter box thing, if he wants to stay in the house.