SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA - Just 48 hours before heading east to cover the Rally to Restore Sanity, a head cold has started creeping its ugly tenacles into mi cabeza.
So far, just the beginnings of a stuffy head, a few sneezes, a scratchy throat and those aches that will make flying six hours on a United Airline flight to Dulles Airport lovely. Just lovely.
Ironically, I've been looking into wearing a protective face mask on the plane so I wouldn't catch a cold from another passenger. Perhaps I'll still wear one - so I don't give this cold to anyone!
I have been pumping vitamins for months and this could simply be a reaction to the drastic change in climate we've had in the past week. Sacramento went from 90 degrees every day to highs barely in the 60s. And last night it was probably as low as 40 degrees outside. It was very cold when Adm. Fox and I left for school an hour ago.
Ah-choo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry. I'm back.
A couple of Bayer aspirins, a little salt-water gargle and I should be ready to finish out the day here at the University with three classes still ahead.
Ah-choo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Redux.
But while I ponder my options, from the hallway outside my office I hear enough sneezing, deep-lung coughing and wheezing among the students to generate a Centers for Disease Control code red health alert.
Maybe I should fly out a day early and get over my cold with some room service in Washington, D.C.
Or perhaps a bottle of brandy might be the cure this evening.
SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA - I heard the catchy phrase 'Failure is not an option' first uttered by Nancy Maynard, the wife of the late newspaperman Bob Maynard, who I knew in the 1970s when he was publisher of the Oakland Tribune newspaper.
I loved the expression. I put 'Failure is not an option' right up there with 'When the going gets tough, the tough get going.'
Maynard
That little gem came from the locker room wall at Southwestern Central High School in Jamestown, New York, where my high school football coach alternately terrorized and lauded his players, depending on the rate of success. With Coach Ed Stupka, if you didn't perform beyond your abilities, you were slacking.
I slacked a lot.
But during this same period, I spent most daylight summer hours on Lake Chautauqua, skimming across the water on skis. I loved every minute of it, except that I was a very cautious water skier and took great pains to avoid falling.
A friend from those days, Bob Fulcher, wasn't just good, he was great. He would jump the wake, flying over the foaming water. He did all kinds of tricks. Sometimes he would even try to hold the rope in his teeth. Much of the time his acrobatic antics ended in wild crashing falls into the water.
And he didn't care. In fact, he seemed to revel in how spectacular a fall he had.
When I kidded him once about his frequent-faller program, he offered this nugget: If you don't fall sometimes, how are you going to learn how far you can push?
Indeed, Bob, indeed.
That sage advice - from a 15-year-old - has stuck with me all my life. I am still cautious on water skis (no doubt largely because of various back, neck and shoulder ailments in recent years). But I have learned to take chances. Sometimes they work, like jumping from being a newspaper editor to a journalism professor. Sometimes they don't, like buying property on a beach in Mexico, then having it seized by a developer at gunpoint who claims it is his.
As Frank Sinatra says when he croons, My Way, '...Regrets, I've had a few, but then again, too few to mention.'
In today's San Francisco Chronicle, there is an interesting story about a program for entrepreneurs to learn that if they want to succeed, they have to flop sometimes. Maybe flop in spectacular ways. LINK:Failure is an option
The history of innovation and great discoveries is filled with flops, in business, science, education - and sports.
But while all that is being pondered, here's a video introduction to a TV program I watched every week growing up, along with most of the nation.
It gives graphic evidence why ski jumping (in snow) has never made it on my list of things to try - at least so far.
SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA - The mail arrived today at the post office around the corner and there, buried between political ads for California gubernatorial candidates (Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman), was a letter from my sister Anne.
A letter! And actual piece of paper, tucked neatly in a small envelope with a first class, forever stamp affixed in the corner. A 'forever' stamp
The letter was in response to a missive I sent last week (a real letter, too), when I decided that sending electrons across cyberspace in an email to communicate was getting tiring.
Of course, writing a letter, printing it out (my handwriting is beyond atrocious), addressing an envelope and then - gasp - taking it to the post office, had its tiring moments, too. But there is something soooo satisfying about dropping a letter into the mailbox to be delivered. And it's even more satisfying when you receive a letter.
I know my granddaughters Samantha and Kami love to get mail, and from time to time, I dash off a letter, usually adding a sheet of stickers and sometimes some photos - or even toys.
My late mother wrote letters every week of her life. And at Christmas, her card list had more than 300 people - old roommates from college, relatives and professional acquaintances with whom she had become friends. Starting sometime in early November she would pen a few cards every day, sending them out with personal messages to each person, inquiring about families and health and other such things.
Not all responded, though I remember our roadside mailbox in Lakewood, New York being quite full in the spring, as people wrote her back.
For me today, the best part is holding the letter I just received, then setting it in a place of honor, from which it can be picked up and read again later. And read again.
I have a full sheet of first-class, forever stamps, waiting to be put to good use, as I type this. Perhaps it's time to leave the world of electrons and get put together another real letter.
SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA - The countdown clock to the Rally to Restore Sanity Oct. 30 in Washington D.C. is ticking very loudly - more so now that Adm. Fox and I have launched our newest enterprise: *subject2change Media.
*subject2change Media? Whaaaaaaaaat? some people have been asking me.
Well, in a nutshell, we really are going to do all of our writing, editing, publishing and nowvideo under that title/umbrella. It's a way to collect all of our various projects (articles, reviews, planned books, and videos) into one sort-of-comprehensible structure. (Emphasis on sort-of.)
And yes, there will be a web page showing up sometime. Maybe logo wear, too. Woo-hoo!
New business card
Our first foray of course into the multi-media world starts at the Rally to Restore Sanity - which will be the official launch of *subject2change Media, too. LINK - Rally to Restore Sanity
For the rally, I will be writing standard-issue freelance pieces for both the Sacramento (Calif.) News & Review and the Ithaca (New York) Times. In both cases, I am going to be hooking up with local people (from Sacramento and Ithaca) at the rally to get their take on things for the stories.
But besides the copious notes, still photos and eventual print articles that will come out of that, Adm. Fox and I will be shooting video of people and the whole event with the idea of putting together a timely multi-media package for TV and websites.
So as I feverishly work on lists of people to talk with, stay awake drafting a script for what I think a rally video might look like and use the mornings to contact possible publications, TV and websites, I have to ask myself again: Didn't I retire three years ago from all this?
Well, sort of. But this sounds like so much fun.
Cue the cameraman, we're rolling.
While we make up some promo videos for *subject2change Media, here's a video promoting the Rally. It's pretty funny - as you might expect for a rally organized by The Comedy Channel.
KERNVILLE, Calif., USA - Except for the ever-present whooshing sound made by the Kern River (about 75 yards from our door) our cabin in this high desert campground is nearly as quiet as Valois, New York on a hot summer day.
And that's quiet, considering last summer, sitting on the end of the dock, I often could clearly hear the flapping of ducks' wings as they flew overhead. And once, very early, I could make out the sound of a butterfly's wings in motion, as it hovered near my ear.
That's quiet, amigos, quiet.
The nearby campground does resonate on and off at times with a buzz created by the upcoming wedding of Greg Retkowski and Cherie Sogsti. After Friday night's hillbilly themed party, tonight we are looking forward to a pizza, beer and mustache event.
Mustache? Yes.
Everyone will receive a stick-on mustache of some kind. But where you choose to wear it, well, that's your choice. There's a rock band set to play, too. Last night people danced until past midnight - and that was to a hillbilly band. (Photos to follow later tonight...)
Admiral Fox and I have made many forays out and about, first to breakfast at a store within walking distance, then a trek along the river, and most recently, a wine-and-beer run into Kernville itself. We bought Mexican beer, of course, though we forgot the limes.
Carumba!
Scene along the Kern River this morning
And besides the sightseeing (and beer and mustaches), I have been trying out my new Panasonic video camera in anticipation of our Washington, D.C. trip Oct. 30 to attend the Rally to Restore Sanity. We are going to be writing stories about it. The video will be a bonus and a trial run for using more multi-media.
If anyone reading this knows someone who is going to attend the rally, please send their name along to me. Adm. Fox and I want to hook up with folks from NY, California and, well, wherever, before the rally. And maybe after, too.
Jon Stewart announces the rally
Here's a short video of the Admiral at work in her Kern County office this morning.
SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA - The next few weeks are going to all-travel, all-the-time, with a few interludes of teaching at the university for the Admiral and I, of course.
First up, is the wedding Sunday of Cherie Sogsti and Greg Retkowski, a three-day affair that begins Friday night with a hillbilly themed party and ends Sunday with most of the men wearing tuxedos at the wedding and reception. (Do you know the words to the song, The Beverly Hillbillies? Come and listen to a story bout a man named Jed...)
Because all this is taking place at a campground on the Kern River, northeast of Bakersfield, it makes the whole thing just that much more interesting. Yee-haw!
Taken outside the double-wide (photo from WheresCherie)
Cherie has a website, WheresCherie? that gets more web traffic that I can dream of for any of my blogs. She is one travelin' woman, and has been since we first met her years ago in Mexico, aboard a sailboat son Dustin was captain of at the time - Mistress (a San Diego-based boat).
And she marrying the perfect guy, because Greg loves travel, too, and even has a plane now to zoom them around the country, when not in their very upscale RV-motor home-land yacht.
The photo here is from their engagement party. The theme? Trailer trash. Hoo-boy!
At the end of the month, we are going to take a sojourn to Washington D.C., to check out the Rally To Restore Sanity, sponsored by Jon Stewart and the Comedy Channel. Of course, we will also be checking out Stephen Colbert's simultaneous event, March to Keep Fear Alive.
And we are going to D.C. as journalists to get a story, take some pictures and shoot some video with a new, very snazzy, Panasonic video camera.
The whole enterprise, including the writing assignments, are the first paying gig in our latest foray into the business of publishing and video.
The name of the new company is *subject2change Media' - something our children (and many friends) have said is a good description of our lifestyle. To paraphrase the Three Stooges, I resemble that remark.
No website up yet, but it's in the planning stages and should be up soon.
Or perhaps, that's subject to change, too.
Here's two brief test videos, taken with the new Panasonic:
ALAMEDA ISLAND, Calif., USA - Friday was a glorious day on San Francisco Bay, sailing with amigos Pat and Sanders Lamont on board their fine sailing ship, Good News. The ship hasn't seen much sailing action this year - a direct function of how busy the Lamonts are up in Camp Connell.
But after a late breakfast at the deli by the docks in Marina Village, we motored out of the Oakland Estuary, catching a fair breeze right outside the channel. And it was an uncharacteristically warm breeze, a nice fall day for a sail.
Even Admiral Fox said it was warm.
San Francisco ahead
Because it was Friday, we had the bay nearly to ourselves at first. We waved to the people working in the downtown San Francisco highrise office buildings as we passed by, as well as thousands of fall tourists scuttling along the Embarcadero.
Then we sailed up the west side of Treasure Island, nearly intersecting with a sailboat race out of Berkeley. The money invested in just the sails on some of those boats could buy a nice automobile.
Expensive kevlar sails were the norm on the race boats
As part of the tour, we cruised home along the east side of Treasure Island, noting a new (at least new to us) Oracle company building and lots of apparent construction in the marina area.
We also pushed our way through an ebbing tide to slide under the Bay Bridge - as well as the new part still under construction.
It was more than 20 years ago that the Loma Prieta earthquake shook the bridge so severely, causing much damage and prompting the expensive rebuilding.
I'm not an engineer, but it looks like driving a car across that new span is five years away - at least.
Bay Bridge - still under construction
Here's a short video of the under-sail adventures Friday.
SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA - The fall is whizzing by - and it isn't even actually fall yet.
But since returning to Sacramento nearly four weeks ago, Admiral Fox and I have barely stood still long enough, to, well, stand still.
We've visited with our amigos and hosts, Steve and Pam, a lot, (though their schedules rival ours). We've also hit the Bay Area (where we visited with son Dylan and Dan & Lorraine Olsen), seen Chief Engineer Scott Noble and his wife, Counsel Jen Noble, several times, and as much as possible, visited with daughter Anne and family.
Last week we went to a fundraiser luau for granddaughter Sami's softball league. It was a riot, even when Sami tagged her father square in the head with a whipped cream pie tin that turned out to be a little harder on the edge than it was supposed to be.
You can see the result of her pitching arm - and how much head wounds do bleed - in this video.
Kami lifting luau game tickets - while I'm not looking
Son-in-law Steve after his turn in the pie booth
The week before that, we went to daughter Anne's casa in Rancho Cordova for Kami's third birthday fete. It was a lot fun, and the weather cooperated to let us be outdoors for the entire evening party.
We gave Kami some percussion instruments (a drum, mariachis, tambourine, bracelets with bells, etc), much to the chagrin of her parents and other grandparents who quickly suggested that Kami bring those toys to our house, where they could reside.
No deal, we said.
Here's a short video of that party:
Kami with her birthday cake
While Admiral Fox and I have been scurrying about every day - trying to keep up with full teaching loads along with all this other fun - we have squeezed in some music and dance.
The dance has been by Adm. Fox's who has become addicted to an exercise class called Zumba. This new dance program is getting worldwide notice. She hits three or four Zumba classes a week and has signed up to become certified as a Zumba instructor next month.
Hang on Mexico, Zumba and Adm. Fox will arrive in December.
My dancing has been limited to shuffling around our upstairs apt. most often to Frank Sinatra singing New York, New York or some other sedate tune. But I have picked up the ukulele plenty I and hope to get back into it much more, now that life has settled down.
Settled down. Who am I kidding?
In and among all this fun, we have also been dealing, long distance, with our Mexico land problem and have moved ahead - along with a number of our neighbors in Tenacatita - to file for federal injunctions against the developer who seized the entire Tenacatita beach area, evicting 800 people in the process.
Mexican media have been covering for nearly two months as a national story. It's a land grab that is breathtaking even for Mexico. Canadian media recently ran the story, too. So far, despite all my contacts in the American press, no major newspaper or wire service has picked it up.
Too busy chronicling the hijinks of the Tea Party, I suppose.
But for people interested in a relatively depressing update, well, here's the link:
ALAMEDA, Calif., USA - Adm. Fox and I sojourned to the San Francisco Bay area Friday to visit with cruising buddies Dan and Lorraine Olsen, only to discover that longtime cruising amigos Roger and Diana Frizzelle were ready to cut the dock lines, too.
So Saturday, at 7 a.m., we waved goodbye to the Frizzelles who expect to be in Mexico later this fall.
We hope to catch up with them when they come to Tenacatita Bay or when we arrive in Puerto Vallarta in December.
The Frizzelles left to go cruising some years back, but returned to work for several years at Farrallone Yachts, getting other people set up on sailboats to live their dreams.
Saturday morning, it was their turn.
It was a fun-filled 24 hours, with a great dinner at the famous Delancy's restaurant in San Francisco with Dan and Lorraine and their two sons. (It was blackened Cajun meatloaf for me with creme brulee for dessert). We also met up with son Dylan Saturday for breakfast in Oakland.
But while in Alameda, staying at a hotel right by the water, we got to see the other end of the cruising dream from the Frizzelle's, a former proud yacht up for sale at auction. It belonged to a member of the yacht club who fell behind in his rent payments for dockage - more than $25,000 behind. The hull and mast are wood.
And while the boat was once a glorious yacht, lack of repairs have made it a maintenance nightmare. Maybe it's a repair nightmare. It might end up being cut up and perhaps burned.
Someone's dream boat
Later today Admiral Fox and I are heading out to daughter Anne's casa for a birthday party for three-year-old Kami. We got a her some musical presents, sure to delight everyone.
And today's party comes in the wake of great party Saturday night here at Dr. Pam and her husband Steve's house, at which there were children running everywhere, swimming in the pool - all having a great time, while the adults watched. Pam and Steve's son Dominic and his three-year-old son Julio are here for the weekend and right in the thick of things.
As I write this, Julio is pedaling his brand-new bicycle up and down the sidewalk, as proud of his wheels as if he was on a Harley. For him, I guess it is.
SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA - So, rather than preparing the first set of lectures for this week's classes, it seemed infinitely more advisable to tap out another blog entry about the last few days here in Sacramento.
The lectures will come to me Monday, when classes start, I'm sure.
We have almost completely moved into our new digs in an area known in Sacramento as the Fabulous 40s, not because everyone who lives there is, well, in their fab 40s, but because the houses are well-maintained, most often huge and generally, very cool casas.
Dr. Pam's casa - and now ours, too, until December
It is the type of neighborhood where our Lexus (safely stored in New York) would be a better fit than my 1990 Nissan pickup truck (parked out front in the photo above). But it's a very friendly group of people living in the area, and early in the morning, you have to step lively to not bump into all the people walking their pooches around, or get run over by a jogger listening to music on an IPod.
Until the late 1990s, Admiral Fox and I lived about 12 blocks from our current living space and so moving back into the neighborhood is a return to old times.
We walked by our old house Saturday and were shocked at the growth of a two-feet high tree planted out front when Dustin (now 30) was about 14 or 15. When we left it was about 8 feet tall. And we were told the tree would grow fast.
Jack and the Beanstalk would be proud of how fast this tree shot up.
The Admiral with the tree planted by Dustin
But perhaps the highlight of the past week was going out for lunch with daughter Anne and granddaughter Kami. Kami is about to turn three years old. And we already have some birthday presents in hand for her soiree next week.
But we did give her a magic wand, a light stick and a ballerina outfit when we saw her. And, of course, she entertained the entire restaurant.
Kami modeling Grandma Sylvia's glasses
Dressed in her tutu
We hope to catch up with our other, more elusive, granddaughter, Samantha, in the next few days, though with her school and sports schedule, we will likely end up at one of her softball practice sessions.
SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA - The summer went by waaaaaaaay too fast. We arrived in the U.S. April 28, and here it is August 28. And school starts Monday.
(Where the hell are my long pants and dress shoes?)
Even though it went by too fast, it was a fabulous summer. We had three weddings (Marion and Peter, Jen and Carl, and Brett and Jesse), visits from Dan & Lorraine Olsen and son Dustin, as well as numerous trips and social forays out and about New York.
And Eric and Tina Hazlitt were kind enough to lend us a 19-foot sailboat for a few weeks while the Spirit of Louise pontoon boat was in the shop getting repaired.
It was arguably the warmest - and least rainy - summer in many years.
When our first cabin renters arrived July 1, the weather turned gorgeous and until the eve of the Peachy Dandy Party (August 13), it held steady. I swam nearly every day - sometimes two or three times. Seneca Lake warmed up to the mid 70s, warmer than anytime the year before. And even on windy days, the air temperature stayed well above 70.
But the day before the Peachy Dandy party the wind cranked up - really cranked up - and the next day the sailboat race was eventually canceled, when it was so windy many racers couldn't get their boats out of their boat lifts.
The weather never really went back to warm summer days, though I hear reports that it has warmed up again.
Despite the lack of an actual sailboat race, the Peachy Dandy Party roared on all afternoon with Admiral Fox and several of her musical colleagues providing some of the music for the afternoon.
Many Peachy Dandies were consumed and even with the wind, there were plenty of swimmers and other boating activities.
I had a Peachy or two myself, concocted by party host Tina Hazlitt just as the party got started. The reason I can't say for sure if it was one or two, is because the first one was industrial strength. Amazing how intoxicating fresh peaches can be. I should eat more fruit.
Back from swimming
Barney on the grill
The littlest Peach at the Peachy Dandy
We were successful this summer in launching (after a fashion) the Valois Point Yacht Club, in name anyway. It was sad to unbolt the bar off the dock and remove the sun shade. But it will make set up much easier next summer when we hope to install a couple of moorings for visitors so they will not need to tie directly to the dock.
We have a roster of members now - anyone who showed up by boat was granted membership as founding members: Roger & Nancy Beardslee, Ruth Bills, Brad Phillips, Barney, Marcia & Kristen Van Horn, Eric and Tina Hazlitt, and, of course, former neighbors Beth & Boomer.
I might have missed someone in that list, but I'll catch them next summer.
Stages of Internet withdrawal
The Admiral and I have moved into a very comfortable mother-in-law unit attached to the house of friends, within easy walking distance to the university.
But as part of the settling-in process, we have had to go without easy Internet access, except when sitting in our university offices. Monday afternoon we will be up and running with a rocket-fast connection, I am told. And that means our internet phone will be back on line, too.
(The exception to this, is the Admiral's new smart phone which, besides Internet access, does everything except pour her tea in the morning. And there is probably a new app for that.)
More on all that after Monday.
And by Monday or Tuesday, I might be up to writing about out legal wrangling in Mexico with a developer who took over the entire Tenacatita area. He evicted 800 Mexican citizens and has started tearing down houses, restaurants and hotels, essentially make the historically popular area a private beach. The area is protected by police and private security guards.
No rollo de mar lunches for me this winter, it seems.
If you haven't been following the saga, you can catch up with it in a blog written by the Admiral two weeks ago. Not much as changed, except for a flurry of lawsuits filed in federal court in Mexico.
VALOIS, New York, USA - All of the outdoor-related fun of the lake - and the hours spent at the Hector Fireman's Fair - caught up with Admiral Fox and I today.
Instead of catapulting out this morning on some new adventure, we went to the local Dandy Mart and bought a New York Times. We settled in for a couple of hours, reading some generally depressing news - a fitting introduction to our upcoming reentry into the classroom this fall to teach newswriting and other journalistic pursuits.
I'm going to stop thinking about that right now.
By 1 p.m., we decided to head to Watkins Glen and Village Marina for lunch, in good part because cousin Brett Beardslee was scheduled to be playing outside on the patio. And by 1 p.m., I was ready to have a cold beer. Really ready.
Cousin Brett with his signature VW van in the background
The entire town was buzzing because of the three-day Italian Festival (which concludes tonight), though the Village Marina was just starting to come alive as our lunch arrived.
Unfortunately, as my Magic Hat beer and french fries made it to the table, so did a rolling rainstorm that drove all the fans - and Brett - diving for cover. It turned out to be the first in a series of nasty thunderstorms that have been hitting up and down the lake for the afternoon.
Electric guitars and rainstorms mix very poorly.
The red areas usually have lightning - and lots of rain
Brett's latest CD (Uncle Bumpy's Big Banana Blowout) is selling pretty well through ITunes and other places- though most of the songs carry a label that says "explicit."
Some of the songs probably deserve the label, some don't. But they are all pretty hysterical. I hope to have a few memorized with chords for the ukulele by the time I get back to Mexico for open mic night at Palapa Joes.
Uncle Bumpy's CD cover
Here's a short video of Brett performing - just before the rain whooshed in and sent us all scrambling.
HECTOR, New York, USA - Saturday evening was a return to old-time America with a parade consisting largely of firetrucks, Cub Scouts and homegrown musical talent, followed by a couple of hours wandering the Hector Fire Department Fair.
The fairgrounds had all the requisite things: rides for children, arcade games, a book sale, tractor sales (and demos) and, of course, a beer tent.
All did a lively business.
Amanda and Miguel photographing the Scotties
We watched the parade from the front lawn of Eric and Tina Hazlitt, who hosted a parade party before (and after) the 40-minute cavalcade of entries. The entries all got applause and whistles as they passed our spot on the highway winding their way on to a judging stand, just the other side of the post office.
There were a smattering of politicians in the parade, too, all handing out vote-for-me brochures and shaking hands with anyone who made eye contact. I shook all their hands, but having written about politics for years, I knew to make sure my other hand was firmly holding onto my wallet.
In most cases, the people in the parade threw candy as they passed by. It was supposed to be for the children, but some people (ok, me too) managed to snag a piece of candy or two. It's been awhile since I ate a Tootsie roll. They're still pretty good.
Waiting for the next parade group
Headed for some of the good food on the Hazlitt porch
After the parade, Admiral Fox, Amanda and I (yes, that Amanda, the Amanda of Watkins Glen who cures frozen shoulders, straightens bad backs, and is able to leap tall buildings in a single bound) all left the still lively party right after sunset and headed to the Fireman's Fair. Once there, we hit the clam tent, the book tent, the cake tent, the arcade, and finally the huge slide in the center of the fairgrounds.
I opted out of the slide adventure, but managed to make several passes by my favorite exhibit: the beer tent, where for $10, you get enough tickets for six beers. For the record, I have several tickets left over in case we head back today for the chicken barbecue.
Admiral Fox and Amanda were both big winners: Admiral Fox won a stuffed bear (already named Hector Bear) playing ski-ball. Amanda won a cake with a decidedly home-town inscription.
Amanda with her prize
Below are two fair-related videos. One of the parade, the other of Amanda and Sylvia taking a slide ride.
VALOIS, New York, USA - Amigos Dan and Lorraine Olsen left this morning to wing their way back to California where they live summers aboard their 26-foot sailboat, moored at the Oakland Yacht Club.
Sometime in October, they will be heading back to their big sailboat, moored in the Rio Dulce in Guatemala as they continue their cruising, this year to the Bahamas and Key West. With luck, the Admiral and I (and perhaps Eric & Tina Hazlitt and Jennifer & Keith Marshall) might catch up with them there aboard a chartered sailboat.
The Olsens took a moment out, before leaving for the Syracuse Airport, to have their photo taken with local celebrity, Arnold the Wonder Dog.
Lorraine, Dan and Arnold
We had, as usual, a great time, curiously hitting just one winery during the week for a tasting (Rasta Ranch), and had lots of adventures. We sailed the Red Rocket sailboat, kayaked up and down the Valois waterfront, hiked Watkins Glen, toured Brother Dan's plant in Big Flats and attempted to rescue Brett Beardslee's ring from the bottom of the pond at the Pee Wee Farm. All that in five days.
Hard to say which was the most fun.
Admiral Fox chugs up the steps at Watkins Glen - running
Watkins Glen trail and waterway
Lorraine and Sylvia head north in the kayaks
Thursday (my God, that's tomorrow!) the Hector Fireman's Fair starts its run, concluding Saturday with a big fireworks show. The tents are up already and many of the rides are being constructed. And, of course, the beer tent is ready to start dispensing for those of us in need of hydration.
The weather is supposed to be good for the entire fair- no torrential rain forecast, as least as of this moment. Several years ago, it rained for most of the fair, turning the fairgrounds into such a muddy swamp that people still talk about.
Friday night we will watch the Hector Fair parade on Highway 414 from the front lawn of Tina and Eric Hazlitt before heading over to the fairgrounds to try to win some silly prizes to take back to California.
The parade is always fun to watch, in good part because we know half the people in it.
Perhaps we should enter our newest automobile in the parade and join in. It's a 1996 Mercury Marquis which we purchased from our neighbor, Mary Crouch.
The car is a classic, after all.
Cousin Brett driving his signature van in last year's parade
VALOIS, New York, USA - This has been the summer of water for Admiral Fox and I, with lake temperatures in the 70s (perfect for swimming) and also fair winds for sailing and boating.
Unfortunately, the engine on the Spirit of Louise pontoon boat has come down with a serious mechanical flu, taking it out of service for the balance of the season. So, in a week or so, the boat will go into storage with a cure to be applied next spring. The cure might include buying a new - and more powerful - engine to replace the vintage 35 HP Mercury on there now. Maybe that replacement will be a 60 HP Merc.
Zoooooooommmmm.
For the balance of the summer, however, we have the Red Rocket sailboat, two kayaks, and the new blue rowboat.
We'll still be on the water for sure.
Jennifer hoists the Red Rocket main sail
Jennifer at the helm
My boat partner, Jennifer Fitch Marshall, just ended up a way-too-short visit (one week) but had a great sailing week. We went out together one day, and she remembered her lessons well from last summer when we purchased the Red Rocket together and she did her first solo sailing.
Sometime this winter, we hope to get both families aboard a charter boat in the Bahamas for a week - or more - of sailing in those warm waters.
But two days ago we had another waterside adventure - the search for the wedding ring cousin Brett Beardslee lost in the pond at the nearby Pee-Wee Farm. About an hour after saying his wedding vows July 10 to his wife Jesse, the two dove in the pond to go for a swim and the ring slipped off his finger.
Ouch. Or maybe more accurately, oops.
Brother Dan Schwartz, Admiral Fox, Capt. Dan Olsen and Lorraine and I mounted a rescue operation at the pond, where we were met by amigo Brad Phillips who had his diving gear on when we arrived.
Brother Dan made some modifications to his metal detector to check for the ring and Brad did some serious mucking about below the surface where the ring is likely to be resting in a foot of soft mud.
Alas, no joy - at least on that first try.
Brother Dan splicing the metal detector cable
Here's a short video of the treasure hunt for the wedding ring.
VALOIS, New York, USA - The summer of 2009 was about as cold and wet a summer as anyone here can remember.
This year, I suspect people will talk about the long stretch of dry weather (the grass is brown), the broiling heat and humidity (both in the 90s) and the fact that Seneca Lake has stayed consistently warm enough to swim in - for nearly two weeks.
I am not complaining. I have been swimming every day for nearly two weeks and Admiral Fox has declared herself a 'dock widow,' because I spend so much time on the waterfront.
Brett and Jesse's marriage ceremony
The most recent major social event was Saturday's wedding of cousin Brett to his fiance Jesse - a wedding party that started at 2 p.m. and wound up the next morning, sometime. It was Woodstock III in some ways, with a moving ceremony, fantastic food, and music that went on and on and on.
The Admiral and I ducked out about 10 p.m., quite full of homemade beer and cider.
The next morning, however, many of the hundreds of people at the wedding managed to crawl out of bed (if they slept at all) to go the Hector Firehouse for the breakfast that was served there.
We shot enough video and stills to make a rockumentary, though with the weather so good again today, well, it will have to wait.
Beer-balancing festivities at the wedding
Big Johnson's bar honors the newlyweds
The next big event is today's splash of Eric and Tina Hazlitt's sailboat - a boat Eric and Tina have been working on since last summer.
Yup, since last summer.
Eric tore the boat apart and put it back together during the fall, winter and spring, with finishing touches going on as late as two days ago. It's a beautiful craft and will be the queen of the Peachy Dandy Sailboat Race next month.
Given the ship's long waterline and big sails, I don't think my 16-foot Red Rocket will have much of a chance at catching it, unless the wind is extremely light.
Eric and Tina's boat, ready for the marina
The air temperature just hit 80 degrees Fahrenheit - the magic number that tells me to grab a cooler full of hydration supplies and get down to the waterfront.
I have some cleaning up to do on the Red Rocket before my boat partner, Jennifer Fitch Marshall shows up with her family Saturday from Arizona for a week's vacation and I am sure she will want to squeeze in every minute of sailing time she can.
Mid-week, world cruisers Dan and Lorraine Olsen from, well, South America, Central America (and California), arrive for a week.
But before all that, I realize, the Admiral and I need to get the cabin ready for our next renters, who arrive tomorrow afternoon.
We just bid adieu to three young Canadian women who stayed for a three days and who say they might even return later this summer if we have any time open to rent. They loved the new dock, the kayaks and the waterfront. They also went to a NASCAR race, visited local wineries and went dancing every night, I believe.
It made me a little tired just to write that paragraph.
VALOIS, New York, USA - After a three-day weekend that included a great beach party Friday, attending the Cardboard Boat Races (and party) Saturday, and then Jenn and Carl's wedding (and reception) Sunday afternoon and evening, I was about as hydrated as I could be, and felt great. Three parties in three days and ready for more lake fun.
Woo-hoo!
And feeling great lasted right until Wednesday morning when I woke up at 6 a.m. with a sore throat, a cough - and a head cold - one of those cement-head-type colds in which everything you see and hear seems to be going on behind a heavy gauze curtain. After talking with Hector amiga Karen Schamel, I learned that the cold was making the rounds of all of Schuyler County.
And here I thought I was patient zero.
But on this second day of the cold, I feel a little better, perhaps a combination of yesterday afternoon's boating, ample hydration, and warm sun to bake the cold out. I wish today were as warm. Maybe it will be soon.
Jenn and Carl's vows on Sunday
Entry in the cardboard boat race
Yesterday, Admiral Fox had to barrel off for appointments, leaving me (and my cement-solid head, no comments please) alone at the house for the day. After doing some dock improvements, I decided the best thing for my cold was a trip across the lake (by pontoon boat, of course) to the Showboat Restaurant and Bar, about five miles away on the east side of Seneca Lake.
The place has good docking facilities, excellent cold beer, passable hamburgers and fries, and occasionally waitresses who could be aspiring to work at a Hooters restaurant. It seemed the perfect place for a destination cruise - and to sit around for the afternoon.
Alas, when I arrived shortly after noon, ready for a beer and a burger, a 16-year-old fellow - wielding a power drill in the bar - told me that the restaurant might be opening this coming weekend. "I think they'll be open then," he said.
I think I will call ahead before taking a voyage there again.
The Showboat's outside bar - closed until further notice
It was nice to return to our dock, however, and see how my handiwork from earlier in the day looked from the water.
I added white bumper strips to the pilings so visiting boats - and the Spirit of Louise, of course - could moor without having to reach into dark boat lockers to find fenders, and then tie them on to protect the vessel. I got the idea for the strips from Eric and Tina Hazlitt's dock, though I should have spent a little more time asking around how to actually install the pieces.
(Ever dropped an electric drill into the water? How about a box of screws? A screwdriver?)
Still, Wednesday morning, even with a head that felt like it was full of slow-drying cement, I was able to install the strips and now we are ready to inaugurate the Valois Point Yacht Club.
Or at least as soon as I get the bar built on the end of the dock.
On Facebook, I put up a photo of the dock and sunshade, indicating that all I needed now was a bar - and barflies - to complete the picture. I immediately had volunteers for the barfly positions.
This should be fun...
Valois Point Yacht Club dock
From Mexico, there was some good news (even if expensive) in the last week: Our palapa's new roof is almost finished at The Pink Flamingo in Arroyo Seco.
The original roof - covered with interlocking ceramic tiles - was so heavy it was cracking the support beams and making strange creaking noises. Conventional wisdom said it would not last another rainy season. The monsoon rains can add tons of weight to the roof during downpours.
Our amigo and neighbor Chon took on the project (along with a crew of Arroyo Seco workers), stripping off the tiles and replacing them with an attractive laminate material that looks very similar, but weighs about 10 percent of the original roof.
Admiral Fox and I will sleep better knowing the palapa will still be standing when we go home to Mexico in December, even if we are many pesos poorer.
We'll drown our sorrows (about how many pesos we had to lay out) down on the dock at the VPYC - when I get the bar built ...
Michael J. Fitzgerald has been a journalist for five decades, working as a writer and editor for newspapers, magazines and web publications. In 2014 he published his first novel, "The Fracking War," followed in 2015 with "Fracking Justice." In 2018, he published "The Devil's Pipeline." He has written a weekly column, "Write On" for the daily 'Finger Lakes Times' newspaper in Geneva, NY for 14 years, He contributes stories to the Contra Costa Pulse newspaper in Richmond, CA. He also writes essays on Substack under the title Write On and On.
Ironically, I've been looking into wearing a protective face mask on the plane so I wouldn't catch a cold from another passenger. Perhaps I'll still wear one - so I don't give this cold to anyone!
