30th Anniversary of the Wreck of the Edmumd FitsGerald

In Nov. 10, 1975, the Iron Core Carrier Edmund Fitzgerald went down in a storm just off Whitefish point in Lake Superior. The following year, an up and coming Canadian folk singer wrote this song, which has become a great Canadian classic, which has kept the story alive ever since. November 11th, for me, is doubly piognant because every year there are fewer and fewer vets at the centotaph, I stand parade with them, and think about families left behind, both on the sea and here at home. The men of the Edmund Fitz died struggling to keep their ship afloat in the face of too much adversity. they failed, and their families pay the price, same as my grandmother wept when her boy (the one I was named after) didn't come back from the Scheldt.

If somebody can find the mp3 and post the link to the tune below, I would be grateful. Every Canadian that reads this blog knows how the tune goes, but perhaps some of the US visitors would appreciate the talents of the incomparable Gordon Lightfoot.

Here is a link to the ship, and its history....http://www.mhsd.org/fleet/O/On-Columbia/fitz/default.htm



The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they called 'Gitche Gumee'
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty.
That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early.

The ship was the pride of the American side
Coming back from some mill in Wisconsin
As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most
With a crew and good captain well seasoned
Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
And later that night when the ship's bell rang
Could it be the north wind they'd been feelin'?
The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound
And a wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the captain did too,
T'was the witch of November come stealin'.

The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the Gales of November came slashin'.
When afternoon came it was freezin' rain
In the face of a hurricane west wind.
When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck sayin'.
Fellas, it's too rough to feed ya.
At Seven P.M. a main hatchway caved in, he said
Fellas, it's been good t'know ya
The captain wired in he had water comin' in
And the good ship and crew was in peril.
And later that night when his lights went outta sight
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Does any one know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searches all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
If they'd put fifteen more miles behind her.
They might have split up or they might have capsized;
May have broke deep and took water.
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters.

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the rooms of her ice-water mansion.
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams;
The islands and bays are for sportsmen.
And farther below Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her,
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the Gales of November remembered.

In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed,
In the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral.
The church bell chimed till it rang twenty-nine times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call 'Gitche Gumee'.
Superior, they said, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early!

with feeling from Gordon Lightfoot

Collaboration

Got a kind of interesting call last week...a fellow who ran a tai chi club and wondered why I didn't carry this particular brand of Tai Chi swords in stock. Actually I DO carry that brand, but not those particular swords...they are expensive niche market things, there are 4 different models, each in a different length of blade. For a guy who was awfully fussy about his tools, he didn't seem to know what he wanted! We discussed balance, customizing, and all sorts of pie in the sky ideas. Several emails back and forth, a lot of ideas and plans. His last words to me were "don't bring them in on my account, I found a store near to me which carries them." So those two hours making emails are like, totally gone from my life!

A day later, I get a call in my shop from a nice fellow who co-incidentely enough has begun studying Tai Chi. We had met a couple of years ago, and talked sword making, which I do. This fellow is in the trade as a millwright, and so we can talk "technical". He waxed lyrical on how wonderful the sport is, and how you can't get a proper TaiChi sword, and so he decided to try to make them. I asked him who his Sifu was, and guess what? Same guy who was wasting my time last week! Seems the Sifu is getting this fellow to look into making his swords for him. So the guy naturally asks the only person he knows who actually MAKES the things. Great, a collaboration.

So I chat with him for a bit, while my employees have downed tools, and talking and joking amongst themselves so as to not interrupt my phone call (clean up your work stations ya bums!) and the subject of money comes up. Seems his Sifu doesn't like the imported swords, and wants to have a sword specific to his club. Students will be required to purchase that sword. (you know, mine will be 500 bucks, the imports will be 100 bucks eh?) So I asked this nice millwright fellow how much he thought his employers would charge for tooling and such to make the swords, it cost ME about 4 grand. He was hoping to use mine! Ahhhh....it is becoming clear. He doesn't have the money. His Sifu doesn't have the money, but he wants a custom sword.

I am to "invest" 4 to 5 thousand bucks in machine tool costs to make swords which "might" be good enough for a TaiChi club to pick up. The slightest little problem in balance, fit, finish, or any other whim on his part would leave me with a pile of "rejected", and therefore unsaleable swords. You know, this happened to me once before! A Mr. David Cvet did much the same thing to me a few years ago, and then dropped me over an imagined defect. This would be different how?

Hey the story isn't over yet....stay tuned!

Cats

funny....tried to put this pic into the last post, but it wouldn't go. Anyway, here it is. I thought the chop sticks on the top of the cage to be a nice touch......

Cats....

Nothing special to blog about today...just finishing up helmets, getting ready for the season. Funny thing, this time of year, things seem to be picking up. I now have "Three" hours of work a day in my shop to keep up with the demand! I dunno, will have to be vary careful to keep those prices high, and stop advertising if I want to keep my slack and lazy lifstyle intact. I must remember to take a page out of my neighbour's cat's book...Sleep as much as you can, keep people awake all night, yup, sounds like a good life to me. Cept for the "eat rhodents" part.

English Wheel! Well, Almost....

Here are some pics of the frame I got Steve to weld up for me. Thank you Gary for the plans.... You will have to click on these images to see them full size I believe.

As you can see, it is essentially a great big "C" shape, up on caster wheels. The upper truck is sitting on top in the first picture...it is just sitting there, waiting for me to get a nice big old eight inch flat steel wheel. The bottom truck is not even there, but it will look much like the top truck, but will hold different shaped wheels depending on how I want the metal to look. it is a hand tool, and the way it works is this.....if I were to trap a wrinkled piece of metal between two rollers, it would flatten that metal out. If the bottom roller were to be rounded, like a bowling ball, the sheet of steel would find itself becoming hollowed out, like the inside of a motorcycle tank.

You can also see how excruciatingly cluttered my shop is! Well, the English Wheel frame is the big blue C shaped object in the centre! Just because, I mounted a saw set on it....best thing I ever found for holding steel sheet while you are filing the corners. It may not stay there though.


I'll post more pictures on this site as I finish building this tool, and as I learn to use it.

Road Block.....Head

Hunt Club road in Ottawa is a divided 4 lane 50 mph highway artery that goes right across the bottom of the city. Lots and lots of traffic, esp. at rush hour. When a guy is stopped in the right hand lane, and creating a bottle neck, I get really nervous. Why has the guy stopped "there"? Is there an accident perhaps? Is there something I don't know about? I stopped behind him because, well, there was no way to change to the left lane safely. Flicked on my signal, and waited for a break in the traffic.
Dumb ass right behind me peals out around me and the guy in front of me, blazing his horn! Its all my fault! He will be a little delayed getting to his donut shop. A few more cars pass on the left, and a few more dickheads lean on their horn as they pass. Finally, a break in traffic. I carefully move past the stopped car and see what the problem is....an injured deer, her leg folded under her, looking at the traffic going past. The guy causing the problem...was stopped...maybe he hit the deer, maybe he was just keeping it from getting run over. He had wisely left the vehicle!
You know, when there is an obstruction in the road, and the right lane is blocked, maybe there is a reason why! Honestly you bozo's who leaned on their horns and stamped on their long skinny pedals, did you get your licence in a Cracker Jacks box? What if that deer was startled by your stupid horn and stumbled up and into your fender? My oh my.....and you call yourselves adults!

Sorry...don't feel like joking right now!

Acrostic

I have always felt that I wanted something really nice on my tomestone...like "A Great Humanitarian" (innacurate) "A Lover of Fine Wine" (unlikely, though true), or even "My Wife TOLD Me It Was A Dangerous Snake, but Did I Listen....NOOOOO!" (My wife's favorite). This fellow John seems to have the right idea. A philosophy of life, and a philosophy of death. My oh my, can you imagine having that tombstone over you for all eternity?

This is one of the finest acrostics I have ever seen. Even better than the male deer as described by South Tower Armouring Guild.

Flexi pavement...

Now THIS is an interesting product! Found it while blogging http://www.ecosmartinc.com/catpavespecial.php. It is a recycled rubber product. Water goes right through it. It wears well. It is non slip. I wonder if it could be used as juitsu mats. Comes in several colours, can be used outside, and is reasonably inexpensive at under 8 bucks Canadian a square foot.

It is probably too heavy to use for armour. But I am thinking about padding for under the anvil...might cut the noise down a little!

Brenda, Shayne and Bill

The four of us....

Of course, I declined to wear a mask that night.....trusting to my own good looks...

Brenda's Hand to eye co-ordination stew....

Happy Halloween!

The pic is courtesy of StrangeCosmos.com A site which can't be visited nearly enough!
And WHY NOT! Its All Saint's Day tomorrow, and tonight, all the little ghosties and ghoulies were out trying to scare the homeowners our of their candy! Brenda and I went over to Shayne's place, where he "does" Halloween in a big way....his front yard is decorated in skulls (some 27 of them by my count) including a complete cage with the skeleton of a dead pirate in it, dangling over the front sidewalk! He dressed up in his head to toe Gorilla suit, and fired up his light saber every time a kid didn't say "thank you". Tried to keep from scaring the VERY young though. They scare easy, and this was supposed to be a fun little "OMG" sort of shock, not a "bwaaaaaaa....daddddddddeeeeeeeyyyyyy" kind of fright. So we were careful.
Lots of parents with their kids. Good to see. I would just be a piece of the decoration, standing there in my mask and cloak, and the parents were too busy watching their kids getting scared to realize I was right behind them. sometimes people would jump when they realized I was actually alive! I thought it would be kind of fun to tap on their shoulder, and when they turned around, they would see Shaynes' voodoo "skull on a stick". That got some shreiks from the parents!
Yup, that was a success.

Shayne and Cindy took some pics and I'll try to put them up here when they have got around to downloading them and sending them to me.

Halloween Scary things....

The most scary thing I have been up to this Halloween weekend is to nail up shingles on my roof. At least it isn' t a 12 in 12 pitch,but it is close....about 9 in 12. That is just a little too steep to stand on! Oh when will I ever learn to build roofs that are not so darned steep! My knees are raw, my insteps are stretched like rubber bands (cept rubber bands don't hurt that bad!) I believe that putting up shingles is pretty nearly one of my most hated jobs.
Ah well, it looks good though.

Finish this off tomorrow, and then carve out some pumpkins. I have not done a Jack 0 Lantern in years! Of course, come next Tuesday, we'll be taking our Katana's out for some pumpkin carving. This should be fun!

Wish I was at your party Zlanth.....but seeing as how I have the flu it is probably best that I stay home. I'll hoist a brewski in yer honer though. I always get the flue after I get a flu shot. They say you can't get the flu from the flu shot...its dead! Hah! I think it just kicks the crap out of your immune system so that you pick up whatever galloping lung rot happens to be in the air at the moment! So, I taught my class in a whisper last night, and today, there is NO voice left at all. Singing in the shower is an exerience...I have to turn the water off to hear myself!

Well, I suppose I should be grateful for small things....the fact that I CAN actually climb on a roof and hit nails. (I notice that as I write this that there is a little twinge of pain everytime I hit the T, G, B , F, R and V. Clearly not every nail I hit with the hammer was made of steel!) I have posted a wonderful pic of Gratitude. Thanks, Dribbleglass!

How to play hockey! OMG!

Pirate asked me to explain how to play hockey! Gosh, for me, that is like asking me how to explain breathing! But, I can do this!

How to play hockey....
Get a bunch of guys to play on the road in front of your house. eight to ten kids is enough, more is better. Place a couple of easily moved objects down about a body width apart to form the "net", backpacks full of school books are good. Place two nets, one on each end of the "rink". You will also need sticks of some kind that you can tape "blades" onto....foot long thin boards which stick out at an angle at one end of the stick which you can use to bat the rubber ball around. We used to tape broken sticks from our older brothers teams together to make a whole "customized" stick for ourselves. Divide up into teams, and try to knock the rubber ball or old torn up baseball into the "net". One player is allowed to be the "goalie" for each side, and he will try to stop you from getting the ball through his "crease" and into the "net". Under your pant legs, you stuff magazines held onto your shins with sealer jar rubbers (if you can still GET sealer jar rubbers!) or elastic bands....that will serve as shin armour. I used inner tubes cut into rings, or else "hockey tape", a black gooey version of surgical tape.

Make the rules up as you go along, don't hit the other guys enough to leave too many bruises, (remember, what goes around comes around) and have a blast! When a car comes up, it will stop. The goalie yells out "CAR!", play is stopped, the backpacks are moved, and the car moves carefully through. The backpacks get put back into service and play resumes.
Have a blast!

Of course, as you get older, you might start skating. Inline skates on concrete, or ice skates on ice. Inline hockey hurts more as you slide along the concrete.....You can learn a few more rules, join a league, and play on an actual ice surface. The speed gets a lot higher! You get together in actual "teams" and "play position", play for 3 periods plus OT, and of course,
you have a blast!

In Canada, Saturday night is "hockey night in Canada", the name of a CBC show which is VERY popular. I have seen weddings end early so the guests could catch the game! The game of hockey has defined Canadians as much or more than baseball has defined those south of the 49th parallel, providing a powerful and much needed unifying force.
The NHL, (the National Hockey League) went on strike last year, and the owners locked them out for an entire year. This has caused untold misery among fans who don't know what to talk about when they go out to a tavern for a pint. Now that the season is "on again!", the angels are singing, Molson Brewery stock is up again, wives can get together with other wives and complain (commisserate? celebrate?) about being hockey widows and all is right with the world.
More ice hockey info is below.
http://www.fitness.gov/ice_hockey.html
http://www.firstbasesports.com/hockey_glossary.html
and this from the wikipedia....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_hockeyIce hockey, known simply as hockey in Canada and the United States, is a team sport played on ice. It is one of the world's fastest sports, with players on skates capable of going high speeds on natural or artificial ice surfaces. The most prominent ice hockey nations are Canada, United States, Russia, Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic, and Slovakia.
In all there are 64 members in the International Ice Hockey Federation. As one might expect, its worldwide popularity is concentrated primarily in locales cool enough for natural, long-term seasonal ice cover. It is the official national winter sport of Canada, and it has a strong enough following in certain regions of the United States (notably the Northeast, the Northern Midwest, and Alaska) that many Americans consider hockey to be a "major sport" in their country as well, although some Americans from other parts of the U.S. dispute hockey's inclusion as a major sport. The parts of North America which have the strongest followings of the sport are often called "hockey country".
While most of the countries mentioned above have their own professional ice hockey league, North America's National Hockey League is considered the world's premier professional ice hockey league and attracts almost all of the world's elite players.

Is it just me or is that driver blind?

Blind Referees. Blind outfielders. Blind swordsmen! Blind drivers! This in from the Manchester Online....one of the finest tabloids in the World! http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/cars/news/s/177/177438_blind_driver_sets_speed_record.html

Mike Newman, from Sale, Cheshire, raced to 167.32mph in his specially-made BMW M5 at Elvington Airfield, near York.
Organisers of the event said the record was set after the average speed was taken from two runs at the Yorkshire airfield earlier today.
He was hoping to break the 200mph barrier but was thwarted as he ran out of room on the track.
He said: "It has been a wonderful day. It has been a really exciting day. Hopefully I have raised awareness ahead of World Sight Day and shown that you can achieve anything you want."
Mr Newman set a record of 144mph in a Jaguar XJ-R in August 2003.
But he hopes today's new record will increase awareness and much-needed funds for his chosen charity, Vision 2020, ahead of World Sight Day later this week.
John Galloway, who helped organise today's record attempt, said: "This is a marvellous achievement. Mike drove totally unassisted. It is a fantastic achievement and has been one of the most emotional days of my life."


Hah! I am sure I was following this fellow down the 401 highway last Thursday!

The good old hockey game...the best game you can name...

I made a post on Jen's comments that was so good that I just had to repeat it here!

Ah, now Jen, when a hockey team ties up after three periods, the game goes into "sudden death overtime". These guys who have been skating like crazy for the last 20 minutes trying to score to avoid just this situation look at their team mates trying to suck enough wind to survive, down at their trembling, rubbery legs, and try to clear eyes blurry from fatigue and sweat. The game goes into overtime, and the game is won in the line changes...if the coach can change his people over during play without leaving too few people on the ice. All considerations of strategy and trying to match up teams against the opposing team goes right out the window, its a matter of "who can drive their body for another 30 seconds drive to the goal!?" Because the first side to score a goal wins the game. The referees mostly just try to stay out of the way....fouls and infractions take too much energy at this point for anybody to commit them, and if they did, their coach would yank them for good for delaying the game. Besides, the players are too tired to play a crisp game anyway, it is nothing BUT fouls, mostly by accident, tired players stumbling over their sticks, their own feet, their opponent's feet, over a shadow on the ice..., no point in getting upset about it.

Now... the goalies have to earn their pay. Shaved ice from skates getting dangerously dull coat them from head to toe, and it is freezing to their clothing, their hair, their masks. The goalie has to see through the sprays of snow (from people stopping just short of his position) and the sweat trickling into his eyes from the tension and the exertion of moving 50 pounds of padding from "here" to "there", when "there" is a tiny little puck coming in at 80 miles per hour. The ice is chopped and cratered outside of his crease causing even experienced skaters to trip and crash down into a melee of flying blades, elbows and splintered sticks, quite possibly bringing the goalie with them.

There is no heckling, shouting at individual players...they can't hear you anyway over the noise of a crowd going wild, not to mention the pounding of their heart beats, and raspy breathing. Any comment they could make would be short, almost in code..."Pass to you...Rob, got that?...change out Pat...." and of course "ooofff, you son of xxxx that was a cross check! Oooh, my ribs..."

This is when the goalie shines though. Not for him the glory of scoring points, only the panic of seeing 8 men in various colours of uniform charging in on him in the fastest game on earth.

Kind of boring, actually. I mean, how can that honestly compare to watching the outfielder trying to find a place to squirt his tobacco juice, or scratch his groin without a camera catching the act.
Just kidding...I rather enjoy PLAYING baseball. For me...its hard to watch though.

Chain Mail

Don't I look terrifying!
This is a stainless steel coif I made for a fellow who loves the wrestler "Big Poppa Pump" . He had gone to a bar to watch the wrestling, and woke up the next morning without his wallet, his coif, his "raiders" jacket and his shirt.

Lesson learned...watch your drinks....

Motivation

I am having such a difficult time getting motivated this morning. So I figured all I would need to do is to get up onto this here in-ter-net thingy here, and find some motivational pictures. Fortunately, there is lots to choose from! I have no idea who made these signs up....I pulled them off of "DribbleGlass dot com", but I don't know where they got them from!

Now I feel much better, and ready to start my day!

(I think Dribble Glass is one of the few "joke" sites that isn't full of viruses, spy ware and other little surprises! I drop in there once in a while just to reset my humour engine!)

Ren Faire

A retrospective picture of my sales booth at the Ren faire, what...6 years ago!

Weird Facts from EatYourMakup@blogspot.com

<<::Weird Facts::>>
This are some interesting facts I found that some chick researched. I found it humourus.
If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days you would have
produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.
(Hardly seems worth it.)
If you farted consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is
produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb. !
(Now that's more like it!)
The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the
body to squirt blood 30 feet.
(O.M.G.!)
A pig's orgasm lasts 30 minutes.
(In my next life, I want to be a pig.)
A cockroach will live nine days without its head before it starves
to death! .
(Creepy)
(I'm still not over the pig.)
Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour
(Don't try this at home, maybe at work)
The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached
to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male's head off.
("Honey, I'm home. What the....?!")
The flea can jump 350 times its body length. It's like a human
jumping the length of a football field.
(30 minutes..lucky pig! Can you imagine?)
The catfish has over 27,000 taste buds.
(What could be so tasty on the bottom of a pond?)
Some lions mate over 50 times a day.
(I still want to be a pig in my next life...quality over quantity)
Butterflies taste with their feet.
(Something I always wanted to know.)
The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.
(Hmmmmmm......)
Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than
left-handed people.
(If you're ambidextrous, do you split the difference?)
Elephants are the only animals that cannot jump.
(Okay, so that would be a good thing)
A cat's urine glows under a black light.
(I wonder who was paid to figure that out?)
An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
(I know some people like that.)
Starfish have no brains.
(I know some people like that too.)
Polar bears are left-handed.
(If they switch, they'll live a lot longer)
Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure.
(What about that pig??)

Eventful weekend...

Got a helm sent off. This is what it is supposed to look like. Instead I seem to have forgotten everything I ever knew about making this silly helm. I didnt bother to read my notes on the templates, its just a barrel helm right? I made what...a couple of dozen of them in my career? Well, after I made it, it didn't really look right, so I looked up barrel helms I had done in the past. Yup, I had made big basic design errors. I put the top on the outside instead of the inside, the bottom part got put on top of the upper part, the face plate was symmetrical, the crosses were sqare instead of circular, and there were two of them instead of one! All in all, a shambles. Is it common to forget how to do things, even simple things like making a simple barrel helm like this?
Fortunately, the helm I made is functional, but honestly, I will have to pull up my socks and pay more attention to what I am doing.

The bus station this weekend was a zoo! What fuel crisis? 60 taxi drivers idling their engines up St. Catherines street! I hate Thanksgiving weekend...all the crowding and noise with none of the "Good Cheer" of Christmas. Canadian Thanksgiving is in the pissiest time of year too...October !! No leaves have fallen yet, summer is definely over, but fall is not really here. I have heard this is a good time of year to go diving!

All these things seem so petty when I watch footage from Pakistan. My heart breaks when I hear of schools which have collapsed and think of the families frantically dragging at the wreckage with their bare hands to get to the children crying out with pain down inside. Or worse, hearing the crying stop! In the midst of all this human misery, there are politics....which is fodder for another post!

Well, back to work, make a "good" barrel helm this morning.

The ride to Pembroke

Looks like the College has decided to meet my price and will pay me to drive all the way to Pembroke, teach a four hour class, put me up for the night, and teach another 4 hour class the next night! For the price I demanded! You got to remember, its a 3 hour drive. In Winter. In Canada.
Now, this is a class on how to fight with a sword! The class is not nearly as dangerous as the drive! Fortunately, its a drive on a major commuter route, so it should be free of snow and ice. mostly.
I'm actually quite tickled at this, not least because I know I will be teaching mostly military guys from the big army base right there. I like teaching military...when you tell them to listen up, they, like, listen up! Wonderful!

Next trick of course is figure out how to make this a very attractive class. Promotional materials, and so forth. Should be interesting, I am not really good at promoting myself....not that I am shy, (nobody thinks I am shy!) but I really don't know where to start! When we decided to promote the class at the College, we watched as different departments formed little kiosks and displayed books of "what we do" to interested students. Jean and I looked at that setup in amazement, and proceeded to bring in suits of armour, swords, and a live display! I suspect it was this display which has resulted in the course being so amazingly popular. But I cannot do that at a venue three hours away, so I am sort of wondering how to do it.

So why (you may well ask) am I promoting myself instead of having the college doing it for me. Isn't that what they are paid to do? Well....actually, after watching the Ren Faire collapse due to insufficient promotion, I am nervous about hitching my wagon to somebody else' s promotional horses.

Well, looks like my work is cut out for me this morning!

Harry Reems has a message!

The first of the great porn stars....before John Holms of course....is now 58 years old, a real estate broker, and a Methodist. (Also monogamous, and unusual for a Methodist, a small "L" liberal. )

http://jam.canoe.ca/Video/DVD_Column/2005/10/01/1243476.html

Now he has a message. His DVD just came out, and he explains how awful the life was, how he almost died/went broke/drunk. Get this...it took Hugh Hefner (That Emissary of Satan!...that evvviiiilll man!) to get him into a 12 step program and turn his life around.

So, what's his message? Well censorship is still wrong, beware of people who think they know what is right from wrong, and to quote him "The only story I wanted to tell was the story of redemption. And, indeed, the two filmmakers of this documentary saw the same story and we have the same fix, so I agreed to co-operate in it. And now, quite frankly, I'm being paid quite well to promote the film and to promote the DVD."

So, he is "test-a-fyin". And getting paid quite well do do so.

Gosh Rev-ed, you were agonizing about a glass of wine, and here is a fellow who virtually established the sexual revolution, saying quote..... "No, no, no! In fact, if I were asked if I would do it all over again and I knew I was going to be the person I am today, I'd do it in a heartbeat. There was a lot of pain and angst and suffering, especially right after the trial (he was singled out and prosecuted for his role in Deep Throat before being freed from the ordeal by the Jimmy Carter administration) and until I got sober in 1989, but I'd do it all over again." Yeah, I bet you would Harry! Those memories will never die! And what happens to the girls....oh, I guess that doesn't matter, its all about you!

I don't know whether to envy him or despise him. Either way, ya gotta admire somebody who took the lemons life handed him and made lemonade! Looks like you have turned your life around, so it is unfair to chastise you for your earlier life, but darn it...I'm a gonna tease you unmercifully!

Don Adams,Dead at 82

Sorry about that Chief!

Well, would you believe....

Go Go Gadget legs!

The depressing news that Don Adams is dead is the perfect topper of a dreadful week.
http://jam.canoe.ca/Television/2005/09/26/1236535.html

In a 1959 interview Adams said he never cared about being funny as a kid: "Sometimes I wonder how I got into comedy at all. I did movie star impressions as a kid in high school. Somehow they just got out of hand."
In 1941, he dropped out of school to join the Marines. In Guadalcanal he survived the deadly blackwater fever and was returned to the States to become a drill instructor, acquiring the clipped delivery that served him well as a comedian.
After the war he worked in New York as a commercial artist by day, doing standup comedy in clubs at night, taking the surname of his first wife, Adelaide Adams. His following grew, and soon he was appearing on the Ed Sullivan and late-night TV shows. Bill Dana, who had helped him develop comedy routines, cast him as his sidekick on Dana's show. That led to the NBC contract and Get Smart.
Adams, who married and divorced three times and had seven children, served as the voice for the popular cartoon series, Inspector Gadget as well as the voice of Tennessee Tuxedo. In 1980, he appeared as Maxwell Smart in a feature film, The Nude Bomb, about a madman whose bomb destroyed people's clothing.

my new clock

Luddites areound the world may now rejoice in the production of my new clock.

http://www.lares.dti.ne.jp/~yugo/storage/monocrafts_ver3/03/index.html

Women are like apples, Men are like grapes

Apples and Wine

Women are like apples on trees.
The best ones are at the top of the tree.
Most men don't want to reach for the good onesbecause they are afraid of falling and getting hurt.
Instead, they just take the rotten apples from the groundthat aren't as good, but easy.
The apples at the top think something is wrong with them,when in reality, they're amazing.
They just have to wait for the right man to come along.
The one who's brave enough to climb all the wayto the top of the tree.
Men... Men are like a fine wine.
They begin as grapes and it's up to womento stomp the shit out of them
until they turn into something acceptable to have dinner with

thanks to http://hyuppie.blogspot.com/2005/08/apples-and-wine.html

How true to history was the "Last Samurai"?

This cut and paste was pulled from Mr. Dresner's history forum. Here is the URL. I felt that Mr. Dresner would not object to this publication providing that I not only credit him full, but publish it its entirety. Is a bit long. Might I suggest that you check out Mr. Dresner's forum for yourself, and read the comments. Some of the comments are even longer. Its great fun!

http://hnn.us/articles/2746.html

How True to History is Tom Cruise's The Last Samurai?
By Jonathan Dresner
Mr. Dresner is Assistant Professor of East Asian History at the University of Hawai'i at Hilo. His research examines Meiji-era (1868-1912) social history. And he is a member of the HNN group weblog Cliopatria.
From the opening voiceover and title to the final scene, The Last Samurai is an historical disaster. I expected it to be bad, based on early reviews (e.g. Paul Dunscomb's social critique and Tom Conlan on samurai mythology and discussions on H-Japan). This isn't surprising, of course: popular representations of historical circumstances are often badly done. But this is distinctively and truly awful. There was real drama and adventure in late nineteenth century Japan that could have been even more powerful, but instead we get a pastiche of Dances With Wolves , Karate Kid , Kagemusha and Shogun .
A quick summary of the movie for those who haven't seen it. Yes, I'm going to give away the ending, but if suspense is what interests you, this is the wrong movie anyway: there is almost nothing about the plot or characters that is surprising or original. In 1876, Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise), a PTSD victim who was once a U.S. cavalry captain under Custer, is hired by Japanese industrialist/politician Ōmura (noted actor/director Masato Harada) to train Japanese military conscripts for combat against a gathering storm of rebellion by "the samurai" who do not wish to modernize their ways. In an early skirmish he is injured and captured by the rebels, and recovers in their mountain village encampment over the course of the Fall and Winter when the snows cut them off from the outside. (This begins the Dances With Wolves section.)
As he recovers, he gains remarkable facility with the language -- and the rebel leader Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe) speaks excellent English -- and becomes impressed with the purity and simplicity of the samurai way ( bushidō), not to mention getting really good at Japanese-style armed and unarmed combat (that's the Karate Kid part). Algren joins Katsumoto to lead the rebels against the Imperial forces trained and led by his former commander (Tony Goldwyn, not Custer, but representing the same mindset). Though the rebellion is tactically innovative, the rebels are limited by their adherence to traditional weapons and are obliterated by modern military technology. (Kagemusha, though in that story the leaders were taken by surprise and had the good sense to be horrified at the slaughter of their followers.) Their purity of spirit and devotion to duty nonetheless moves the Japanese Emperor (the Kabuki-trained Shichinosuke Nakamura II), once a student of Katsumoto, to reject a U.S. arms-for-trade treaty brokered by Ōmura. Algren then returns to Katsumoto's village to take up with Katsumoto's sister, Taka (Koyuki), and her children, whom he has converted from hatred (since he killed the man of the house in the course of getting captured) to deep affection with his simple honor. ( Shogun 's romantic plotline was equally implausible, though for different reasons.)
To be fair, some of the background to the story is reasonably true to life. Japan in the 1870s was in the throes of industrialization and radical social and political changes, the process we used to lump together as "modernization." There were samurai who objected to the changes that directly affected themselves, some of whom took up arms in rebellion (more about that below). There was even a plot to assassinate the historical analogue of Katsumoto (though it certainly did not involve a corps of crossbow-wielding ninja). Westerners in 1876 generally considered the Japanese to be an uncivilized people, inferior to Caucasians in culture, intelligence and character. The Japanese government did pay extravagant salaries to foreign experts in fields ranging from history and law to military technology and technique who could teach Japanese to be experts in those fields. Most of those Westerners spent a few years in Japan and then returned to their homelands. Some Westerners, though, became so enamored with Japan that they remained and became quite expert at Japanese culture, even living and dressing in Japanese style. The Meiji Emperor was indeed a young man (about 25 years old in 1876-77) who was largely a puppet of his advisors.
The score will probably get nominated for an Oscar, though its predictable pseudo-exoticism -- wooden flute and twangy strings leavening an otherwise competent musical backdrop -- is a pretty good metaphor for the entire film. The costumes and sets and scenery and military hardware are precise and proper and the swordplay is first rate (aside from some highly implausible sword-throwing). Even the Japanese language material was fine, though the subtitles were idiosyncratic. The consultants (including Mark Schilling, who chronicled his experience in the Japan Times) did their jobs well enough. And I'm pleased that they showed even a brief snippet of kyogen (comic theater) or a country variation, including participation by the leader Katsumoto. Japan 's deep tradition of humor, including slapstick, sexual and situation humor, is too often lost in the haze of "serious" traditions like Zen and samurai and Nō.
The acting is mostly competent, though there are some standouts. One of the best roles in the film is played by Seizō Fukumoto. Fukumoto is a four-decade veteran of Japan 's samurai and yakuza movies, describing himself as a kirareyaku -- literally, "the actor who gets cut," whose main role is to be killed by the hero in a climactic fight scene. In The Last Samurai he is "The Silent Samurai," whose wordless watchfulness draws Algren's ire and derision, but whose martial skill and valor are undeniable by the end. Though standard Japanese TV samurai dramas are a little less bloody than this film, they feature most of the same good qualities: historical scenery, redemption through honor, and neat swordfighting. When I lived in Japan , my favorite regular hour of TV was Mito Kōmon , the tale of the retired daimyō lord and his samurai retainers who travel the countryside incognito, righting wrongs. I wonder why more of them haven't been made available in the U.S., when there is clearly an audience.
The movie actually gets some of the deeper historical context right, probably accidentally: After a decade of intense social and economic change, the Imperial government in the 1880s began a deliberate program of moral and ethical and historical propaganda, the aim of which was to instill in Japanese a sense of unity centered on the Emperor, particularly on his mythological status as a "living god," a direct descendant of the deities which created Japan. (see, for example, the preamble to the 1889 Constitution) The tropes and themes of this newly constructed nationalism were drawn from Japanese Confucianism, Bushidō and Shinto, with a bit of Prussian constitutionalism for legal structure, and it was transmitted through the most modern institutions of the day: the national education system and the military. This retention and reinvention of tradition led pretty directly to Japan 's imperialist expansion into Asia and the Pacific, so it's a little hard to see the ending of The Last Samurai as a victory for good and right.
Another accidental truth: the Satsuma rebellion, and quite a few of the other samurai rebellions, were rooted in the inability of those samurai to envision duty and honor without status, or to be a part of a nation striving for growth rather than a privileged class with inherent qualities. In this movie attachment to the symbolism of the sword trumps the fulfillment of duty, or common sense. In the real history, a few thousand samurai's belief in their moral superiority as a class, their refusal to relinquish the privilege of offering special service to the nation, and their attachment to the symbols of the past, trumped participation in the political and technological growth of Meiji Japan. But hundreds of thousands of samurai -- the samurai class was about 5 percent of a population of thirty-five million -- transformed their sense of duty and purpose into new forms, serving in national and local governments, working as police, military officers, and teachers, and investing their time and energy and wealth in modern economic development.
What's wrong with this film, then? Well, almost everything else, starting with the basic premises of the plot. Stephen Hunter's deconstruction of Cruise's Algren character is singularly thorough. Japan did use U.S. surplus military equipment, particularly around the end of the U.S. Civil War (1861-1865), but by the 1870s Japan had settled on other models: the British Navy and the Prussian Army (they had started with the French model, but switched in 1871, though they continued to use French officer instructors for a few years). So it is highly unlikely that the Japanese would have hired an American.
By 1876, the Imperial Army was, indeed, a conscript army, but had a strong core of volunteers, mostly samurai, and a pretty well-defined training program. They were not using primitive muzzle-loading rifles at that point, either. Japanese commoners, who are so inept at the beginning of the film that they literally can't shoot if their lives depend on it, had proven quite adept with military technology in the 1860s, when small mixed samurai-commoner militias with breech-loading and repeating rifles defeated much larger Shogunal forces still heavily reliant on traditional spear, sword and arrow weaponry. Those militias formed the core of the post-Meiji Restoration (as the 1868 transition is usually called) Imperial Army. And Imperial forces had a few adventures in the 1870s, including the Taiwan expedition (1874) and the mission to secure the Kanghwa Treaty in 1876, not to mention suppression of a number of domestic disturbances, including both samurai and cultivator uprisings.
The rebellion led by Katsumoto in the movie is supposed to be a scaled down version of the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion led by SAIGO Takamori. It's a shame that the moviemakers didn't take that more seriously, because the uprising, known in Japanese as the "Southwestern war," was a true crisis. Every resource of the new government was called upon, including its modernized shipping lines, rail transport, police forces (who were reorganized into military units), samurai volunteers, officer trainees, and fiscal reserves (the Matsukata Deflation of the early 1880s was partly necessary because of the excessive costs of putting down the rebellion). The rebels, protesting the loss of the traditional privileges and domainal autonomy, were quite well-armed, having seized several local armories early in the uprising: many of their officers were trained in modern methods, and they led both artillery units and riflemen. The rebels were only outnumbered by two-to-one; there wasn't a long, tense run-up to the conflict, as the movie insists; Saigo Takamori was not the leader at the beginning; and the fight ran constantly from February through September, rather than being a pair of battles separated by winter storms. There were other samurai uprisings in the years leading up to the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion, some of which actually resemble the movie more closely, at least in terms of scale and the ease with which they were suppressed. But none of the others were led by men who had been Imperial advisors, as Saigo had been. After 1877 there were no more samurai uprisings. (For more details on Saigo, see Mark Ravina's biography, The Last Samurai: The Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori, which is currently selling considerably better than the official movie guide.)
One intriguing element that the film could have exploited but didn't was the analogy between the Native American tribe and the samurai clan. Very different social institutions, of course, but historians of Japan have long recognized that the failure of samurai rebels to ally across clan lines in the Meiji era (1868-1912) doomed them to failure against the increasingly coherent national polity. Domainal loyalties plagued Japanese politics and military affairs well into the twentieth century. But the movie clearly can't differentiate between the individual samurai clan and the samurai class. The vast majority of Japan 's ruling elites, the modernizers who are so thoroughly evil in the film, were also samurai (many of them from Satsuma), who made the decision to eliminate their own aristocratic privileges. The vast majority of samurai did not protest, did not rebel, and were rather relieved to be freed from the samurai restriction on earning an honest living to supplement their increasingly meager official stipends.
The most blazingly bad bit of history has to do with the arms-for-trade treaty, and I'm surprised that more commentators haven't noted this. The U.S. didn't need to parlay its military technology for trade advantages in Japan . From 1858 to 1899, U.S. trade with Japan was governed by the 1858 Japan-U.S. Treaty of Amity and Commerce, sometimes known as the Harris Treaty after U.S. ambassador Townsend Harris (played by John Wayne in The Barbarian and the Geisha ). That agreement fixed Japan's import duties at a very low level, established the right of Americans to practice their religions freely and to be tried in non-Japanese courts for crimes committed in Japan, and is considered the first of the "unequal treaties" that clearly established Japan as an inferior nation to the Western powers. The Most Favored Nation clause in the earlier Kanagawa Treaty (1854) meant that this was just a starting place: the U.S. would get every advantage negotiated by any other country with Japan . The Japanese were not in any position to make demands or set conditions in their foreign affairs: they spent three decades proving to the Western powers that they were a "civilized" nation that deserved more equal treatment. U.S. diplomatic treatment of Japan was heavy-handed and unpleasant, but it wasn't tawdry in a grovelling, money-grubbing way; it's bad enough, I guess, that the only American with any depth is the one turning samurai (the other respectable caucasians are British and Irish), but there's no need to pile on indignities.
There are a few minor points which I can't just let slip by:
The title of the movie is The Last Samurai but the Japanese ideograph which overlays it just says "samurai."
The opening voiceover refers to the creation of the Japanese islands by a divine sword, which was dipped into the ocean and dripped foam, but every version I've ever seen of Japan's founding myths describes the creation of a single island by foam dripping off of a spear, with the rest of the islands birthed by the gods. Swords don't come up until later.
The Meiji Emperor didn't speak English, and nobody outside of the most senior advisors saw him without an invitation. And he certainly didn't make important political decisions on the spur of the moment.
The Ōmura industrialist/politician character is difficult to pin down historically. He might be an amalgam of political heavyweight ŌKUBO Toshimichi, the younger but more radical and economically connected ŌKUMA Shigenobu, with some of the Mitsubishi founder IWASAKI Yatarō thrown in. Industrialists did not have the Emperor's ear (they didn't need it, having close ties to the samurai oligarchs) and Imperial advisors did not jaunt off to other countries to conduct job interviews.
Most samurai lived in large urban areas, though low-ranking Satsuma samurai were some of the few who lived in the country and also farmed. Even then, nobody lived in the mountains if they could avoid it.
The method of "no mind" is not "The Force" -- simply a matter of clearing one's mind of distractions and then the right thing will happen. It is a Daoist concept, originally, which became part of the martial arts tradition in China , then in Japan and elsewhere. It is a function of training constantly (certainly over more than four months) so that one can react instinctively, automatically, to a rapidly developing situation. Effortlessness comes after lots of hard work. The Karate Kid got that part right, actually.
The notion that the samurai have been "protectors of the nation" for nine hundred or a thousand years (and Katsumoto uses both figures) is absurd: the samurai began as rent collectors and estate protectors for the Kyoto nobility, and evolved into an aristocracy in their own right. Only against the Mongols (1274, 1281) can they be considered protectors of Japan ; it's highly unlikely that Katsumoto's clan was in one place that entire time; very few samurai clans survived the century-long civil war (15-16c) and most of those were relocated in the late 1500s. The Shimazu family which ruled Satsuma did originate in the 11th or 12th century, but Saigo Takamori wasn't a Shimazu. Like most samurai, his family attained warrior status in the 1500s and were unremarkable low-ranking retainers until Saigo.
Taka, attempting to refuse Algren's help with housework, says that "Japanese men don't do that." But many Japanese men did a great deal around the house, just not samurai. The Japanese very rarely referred to themselves as a collective, particularly on cultural matters, as early as 1876-77.
When they eat, they are consistently shown eating fluffy white rice, but only the wealthiest Japanese ate that regularly, and certainly rural samurai would have been more likely to eat rice gruel and other grains like barley and millet and buckwheat, either as gruel or as noodles, that grow better in upland conditions. And the movie glosses over Algren's introduction to chopsticks, which is not an insignificant event in acculturation.
By 1877, very few Japanese would have been particularly frightened of samurai, even samurai as backwards as Katsumoto's band, nor would they have bowed en masse. Urban Japanese had gotten over treating common samurai like daimyo lords a long time before.
Even allowing for Algren's remarkable immersion in Japanese language and culture, the likelihood is pretty small that he'd have run across the Japanese term for "President" in a rural samurai village, but that doesn't stop him from understanding the term when it comes up in a crisis.
Algren's first experience with armor on the day of the climactic battle is pretty implausible. Even allowing for superior physical conditioning and excellent training and the fact that Japanese armor is light and flexible relative to its Western analogues, there's almost no way he wears it as comfortably as he is shown.
The samurai warrior-cherry blossom (sakura) motif is so clichéd that I was surprised that it came up at all, and nearly laughed out loud when it came back just in time for Katsumoto's death. Judging by color, the blossoms were plum, not cherry.
Does it matter? Perhaps not. Perhaps it's too much to expect that our entertainments have a factual basis. But now I have to deal with the aftermath, with students who will think that all samurai (all five hundred of them, instead of nearly two million) were pure warriors who lived in the mountains, instead of as underemployed urbanite bureaucrats. I have to explain how rare seppuku (ritual suicide, also known as hara-kiri) was, how tenuous the samurai sense of loyalty, how the Japanese did not "Americanize," and I have to hope that my careful deconstruction can make some dent in the technicolor, surroundsound, adrenaline-enhanced images in their minds. The Meiji transformation of Japan is one of the most dramatic social and economic periods in modern history, and it ties directly to some of the most important turning points and processes of the twentieth century and present. But instead, The Last Samurai is another barrier to understanding, a step backwards in our collective education.
Note: Japanese names are traditionally written with the family name first; the movie credits put the family name last and I follow that for the cast members, but for the names of Japanese historical figures I have put the family name first and in all capital letters on first appearance: e.g. SAIGO Takamori.
Related Links

High Holy Days....

Pete Silver is just too much for me...all his posts tickle my funny bone. PeteSilverBlog.com

This one just makes me weep!


Preparing for the High Holy Days
Tashlich TidbitsBy Rabbi Richard IsraelSome suggested tips for properly executing Tashlich (casting of sins into the waters. . . )
For ordinary sins, use – White bread
For exotic sins – French or Italian bread
For dark sins – Pumpernickel
For complex sins – Multigrain bread
For truly warped sins – Pretzels
For sins of indecision – Waffles
For sins committed in haste – Matzah
For substance abuse – Poppy seed rolls
For committing arson – Toast
For being ill-tempered – Sourdough bread
For silliness – Nut bread
For not giving full value – Shortbread
For political chauvinism – Yankee Doodles
For excessive use of irony – Rye bread
For continual bad jokes – Corn bread
For hardening our hearts – Jelly doughnuts
For excessive curiosity – Wonder Bread
For speed-limit violations – Russian bread
For usury – dough
posted by PeteSilver.com

Midnight Sunstone

The Girlzilla over at "Peebrain.blogspot.com has been producing some lovely poetry. Like...I know an Iambic Pentameter from a Jacobs Drill Chuck, but for some reason her poetry strikes a spark with me. Here is a sample...entitled Midnight Sunstone....

Not a sapphire or a garnet,
I give you a midnight sunstone.
'tis rarer than diamond and gold.
How I found it, I did not know.
I was walking along a trodden path
When a sparkle caught my eye.
Gleaming red, blue, a fiery white
It lay there, poised for flight.
Legend has that the midnight sunstone
is forged neither by Nature or Man;
but plucked from the depths of all known miseries,
one tear after the next.
I give you this midnight sunstone
Wrapped in a skein of dying stars.
May this regard occlude you from blight
In darkness, love, you shall always have light.

On Writing and web content

A discussion with Shayne the other night about how to improve my web site resulted in several points of thought. One was "web content". I shall have to figure out how to improve my "web content". I'll try to see if "blogger bits" on my web pages will be useful, or whether they will just be a too much a pain to keep current.

I was on Ms. Scott-Lee's web site which details her difficulties in reining in her natural creativity in order to conform to a Creative Writing Class. One thing her class instructor wants her to do is to write a synopsys of her story. I am not sure what a synopsys of a story which has not been written might look like...I thought they were a sort of summary of a story written afterwards, but the importance of an outline before developing the story was kind of critical...and seemed to be what the instructor was getting at. I made a comment on her blog which was complete enough to be a whole post..so I thought I would publish it here... If any of my regular readers wish to add to this, please feel free. Its not often I get up on my soap box to discuss building things, especially novels, since I never got a novel printed in my life! But, I looked into it once, and for a while thought that maybe writing would be a career. Then I found out how much work it is

In David Gerrold's book "The Trouble With Tribbles", he details the trouble he had when he went to write a screen play for the first time. The rules were tighter than a sonnet! Two minor climaxes,(leading up to commercial breaks) one major climax, all within 20 minutes. Dialogue to be adjusted according to the space allotted to the actors, and the correct amount of "screen time" each actor needs in accorance with their contract. Plus variations for directors cuts and European distribution. He said in his book that he now understood why so few really good authors went on to write screen plays...that the discipline to write a screen play was completely different from writing a novel, but WAS similar to writing a poem. Because he teethed on screen writing (he wrote the most popular Star Trek episode of all time at the age of 19!) he found his regular writing skills to be blunted by the lack of both deadlines and tight discipline. So, he made his own. He wrote all his subsequent novels by creating the synopsis or outline first, and then working within that framework. Creativity of course was still there, but it meant changing the "framework" before allowing the novel to "run away on its own". Heinlein only wrote one book that he did not plan out in advance. As he says in "Grumbles from the Grave", his publishers advanced him money for a book of xxxxx words, and he would give them xxxxx words, not a word more and not a word less. The book he wrote in one 24 hour marathon...was Starship Troopers...a book not really very well received, but the emotion comes through loud and clear. The movie does not do justice to the emotional writing. (The only screen play the greatest Science Fiction writer of all time ever wrote by the way was "Red Planet". A totally forgettable B movie.)

Challenge.

Oh, I could challenge the world tonight! It was the first class of basic swordhandling instruction. I'm still on a high from teaching tonight...and will be for...oh, another ten minutes anyway!

Oh, heck, here is a challenge for you. While seated in a chair, make your right foot inscribe clocwise circles. Then, while inscribing clockwise circles with your right toe, pick up an imaginary chalk, and draw the number "6" on an imaginary chalkboard in front of you. See if you can draw that "six" and not have your foot change direction on you.

Tweeter and the Monkey Man

Some folks were askin' me why I thought Sin City was like a Traveling Wilbury's Album. Well, TW is great, and most of what they sing has been sung by others...For instance, Tweeter and the Monkey Man was most famously sung by Bruce Springsteen. Here are the lyrics, courtesy of http://www.lyricsdepot.com/bruce-springsteen/tweeter-and-the-monkey-man.html

Tweeter and the Monkey Man were hard up for cash,
They stayed up all night selling cocaine and hash,
To an Undercover Cop who had a sister named Jan.
For reasons unexplained she loved the Monkey Man.

And the walls came down,
All the way to hell.
Never saw them when they're standing,
Never saw them when they fell.

The Undercover Cop never liked the Monkey Man,
Even back in childhood he wanted to see him in the can.
Jan got married at fourteen to a racketeer named Bill,
She made secret calls to the Monkey Man from a mansion on the hill.

It was out on Thunder Road, Tweeter at the wheel,
They crashed into paradise, they could hear them tires squeal.
The Undercover Cop pulled up and said "Everyone of you's a liar,
If you don't surrender now it's gonna go down to the wire."

And the walls came down,
All the way to hell.
Never saw them when they're standing,
Never saw them when they fell.

An ambulance rolled up, a state-trooper close behind,
Tweeter took his gun away and messed up his mind.
The Undercover Cop was left tied up to a tree,
Near the souvenir stand, by the old abandoned factory.

Next day the Undercover Cop was hot in pursuit,
He was taking the whole thing personal, he didn't care about the loot.
Jan had told him many times, "It was you to me who taught
In Jersey anything's legal, as long as you don't get caught".

And the walls came down,
All the way to hell.
Never saw them when they're standing,
Never saw them when they fell.

Some place by Rahwey Prison they ran out of gas,
The Undercover Cop had cornered them, said,"Boy you didn't think this could last?"
Jan jumped out of bed, said, "There's someplace I gotta go"
.She took the gun out of the drawer, said, "It's best that you don't know".

The Undercover Cop was found face down in a field,
The Monkey Man was on the river bridge, using Tweeter as a shield.
Jan said to the Monkey Man, "I'm not fooled by Tweeter's curl,
I knew him long before he became a Jersey Girl."

And the walls came down,
All the way to hell.
Never saw them when they're standing,
Never saw them when they fell.

Now the town of Jersey City is quieting down again,
I'm sitting in a gambling club called the Lion's Den.
The TV set was blown up, every bit of it is gone,
Ever since the nightly news showed that the Monkey Man was on.

I guess I'll go to Florida and get myself some sun,
There ain't no more opportunity here, everything's been done.
Sometimes I think of Tweeter, sometimes I think of Jan,
Sometimes I don't think about nothing but the Monkey Man.

And the walls came down,
All the way to hell.
Never saw them when they're standing,
Never saw them when they fell.


And if you think THESE lyrics are scary, you should see the lyrics by "The Archies"!

Come on home boys, your job is done!

Its good to know that the Canadians are useful. http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2005/09/14/1217282-cp.html Somebody has to do the manual work getting public buildings cleared out...after all, there are no residents who can do it. And those relief supplies, put them back in the ships guys...they contain "gasp" Canadian beef, so it can't be distributed in Louisiana.
Maybe we could be useful if we all got our guitars out and led a nice chorus of Kumbaya....
Maybe they can use the supplies in Gulfport. I hear it voted Democrat last election....

Joke of the day....seems Hurricane Katrina killed upwards of 200,000 Mexicans when it brushed past the country. Canada sent milk and cookies, France sent a ship load of freedom fries, and Mr. Bush sent 200,000 replacement Mexicans...


Baaaah....US politics....its enough to turn your stomach. The only thing worse (of course) is Canadian politics. Heard about the campaigning involved in the leadership of the damned separatists in Quebec? (oops, my bad, I meant of course, the Bloc Quebecois) Of course not! Its not on American News so it doesn't exist!

I'll take my pills now....
nighty night...

Dear Tech support...

Program Wife 1.0
Dear Tech Support,
Last year I upgraded from Girlfriend 7.0 to Wife 1.0. I soon noticed that the new program began unexpected child processing that took up a lot of space and valuable resources. In addition, Wife 1.0 installed itself into all other programs and now monitors all other system activity. Applications such as Poker Night 10.3, Football 5.0, Hunting and Fishing 7.5, and Racing 3.6 no longer run, crashing the system whenever selected. I can't seem to keep Wife 1.0 in the background while attempting to run my favourite applications. I'm thinking about going back to Girlfriend 7.0, but the uninstall doesn't work on Wife 1.0. Please help!Thanks,A Troubled User.
(KEEP READING)-----------------------------
REPLY
Dear Troubled User,
This is a very common problem that men complain about. Many people upgrade from Girlfriend 7.0 to Wife 1.0, thinking that it is just a Utilities and Entertainment program. Wife 1.0 is an OPERATING SYSTEM and is designed by its Creator to run EVERYTHING!!! It is also impossible to delete Wife 1.0 and to return to Girlfriend 7.0. It is impossible to uninstall, or purge the program files from the system once installed.You cannot go back to Girlfriend 7.0 because Wife 1.0 is designed to not allow this. Look in your Wife 1.0 manual under Warnings-Alimony-Child Support.
I recommend that you keep Wife1.0 and work on improving the situation. I suggest installing the background application "Yes Dear" to alleviate software augmentation. The best course of action is to enter the command C:\APOLOGIZE because ultimately you will have to give APOLOGIZE command before the system will return to normal anyway. Wife 1.0 is a great program, but it tends to be very high maintenance. Wife 1.0 comes with several support programs, such as Clean and Sweep3.0, Cook It 1.5 and Do Bills 4.2.However, be very careful how you use these programs. Improper use will cause the system to launch the program Nag Nag 9.5. Once this happens, the only way to improve the performance of Wife 1.0 is to purchase additional software. I recommend Flowers 2.1 and Diamonds 5.0!
WARNING!!! DO NOT, under any circumstances, install Secretary With Short Skirt 3.3. This application is not supported by Wife 1.0 and will cause irreversible damage to the operating system.

Double Meat Pizza...in 2010

http://www.adcritic.com/interactive/view.php?id=5927

Visitors!

I love visitors. Brad and his wife Chris are staying over. He spent some time building some armour yesterday, and if he had his way, he would be spending all his time today making armour. However, since they came all the way from Winnipeg, Chris wants to see some of the city. Well, who can blame her. She was very nice all day yesterday, being very bored while the men were playing. Now it is Brad's turn to check out the Pompeii exhibit at the museum, or the war museum or whatever Ottawa offers.

Don't know who will be dropping by today to make armour, but it sure is nice to have visitors!

I was originally going to rant a lot about something I found on the "cyber law" site, but I think I shall save it for my "rant" blog. http://yusefsjournal2.blogspot.com/

It is just too nice a day to rant. I'll get these few armour commissions out of the way, and then maybe see about dropping some deck blocks into place!

Finally back to work!

Well, except for hiding behind the computer blogging that is!

Just got back from doing a demo at a county fair. Never done one like that before. I think it went well. However a good solid "post mortem" needs to be done to see if this is where I want to move my business to. Like...what parts worked well, what parts sucked...that sort of thing. I know what the reporters want, but I won't moon the fair just so they can get the "perfect" shot. Kind of annoying though...I wanted to watch some of the other stuff (the tai chi demo for instance) and the press is getting a story of some kind. I have had so much contact with the press over the years...it is difficult to take them seriously. I am SO tempted to just tell them, take a picture, and make up a story...you'll do it anyway. oh, and here is a business card to make sure that you will spell my name right. They make up the story, but they never DO get my name right!

Oh well, maybe a lot of my old school buddies will see my mug in the paper and raise a glass to me.

On a different note...finally watched "Sin City". Interesting. Sort of a comic book version of a Traveling Wilbury's album. Remember, you heard it here first. (I asked her to marry me, she pulled out a knife. The parties just beginning she said, your money or your life! Now back at the bar, she went a little too far.........last night...talking about last night.....) or (Some days I don't think about anythin' but the Monkey Man!)

Has anybody noticed by the way that there are a LOT less spam sites lately? I am sure that last month every second site or more was a spam site. Now, as I hit "next blog", it actually goes to somebody's honest to gawd blog! Maybe the countermeasures are working....or maybe I have just been very lucky!

Well, those helmets won't make themselves.....

Vassar Clemens is Dead!

Oh man! I loved that guy! Fiddle vituoso, played with Earl Sgruggs and Lester Flatt.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2005-08-16-clements-obit_x.htm?POE=LIFISVA

I first saw him on an episode of the Beverly Hillbillies. And again, as the the fiddle playing cousin at the Shady Rest Hotel.

Kill the spammer, kill the spammer!

Blogger may not be long for the world if these spammers get their way!

http://www.blogger.com/profile/6595660

is a source of a log of it. I wonder how to complain about profile 6595660

Court room antics.

Well, it ain't Judge Judy! Spent the day in court trying to find out what the "system" is going to do with my prodigal brother. (Seems he slept through his court date, and lost his paperwork.) Its time to get him off the streets. He swears he is not ill...but my mileage may differ. There is still a very strong bias against mental illness in our society...every where I look there is another charity auction for the Children's Hospital, but never EVER have I seen a charity auction for the Royal Ottawa [mental] Hospital. Ahh...but that is a subject for another rant later on. Right now, I am still amazed at the antics of the court room!

Showed up at 7:30, to try and get some information about what and where. Lots of people, lots of courtrooms. Found the courtroom where the bail hearings were to be held. fortunately only one courtroom for bail hearings today so I got the right one first time. The crown prosecuter, obviously giving me the brush off was "on form" as the meanest dinosaur in the valley. Her behavior at the time struck me as interesting...and it took me a week to figure it out. The brusque manner, the brush off made sense, as did her unwillingness to talk to a friend of the guy in the dock. Her statement that "I don't have the time to talk to you...you talk to Mr. Lxxxxx, he is the defense attourney. Then she proceeds to spend the next 5 minutes or so exclaiming over a clerk's shoes and wondering where she got them! Didn't have time indeed! I suppose she figured I was like most families of perps and wanted an "in" to the prosecutor. I can understand that. Then, when I got this incredibly busy defense attourney to listen to me, he was agast that my bro had NO representation, and NO brief on him at all! So he broke into the "shoe" conversation to get his brief. Oh right, well, here you are...she says, as she pulls out the paperwork to give to the defense. Mr. Lxxxxx had almost 3 minutes to read the brief before showtime! This was not enough, though he DID get a chance to visit my Bro instead of getting his lunch.
Needless to say, we hung about until about 3 in the afternoon, to hear the defense explain that he needed the case to be held over until the next day so that he could prepare a proper brief. So the bro spends another night in cells because the Prosecuting Attourney was more interested in the clerk's shoes than in getting the correct paperwork to the defense.
Perhaps I am being needlessly harsh...because certainly once showtime started, the court was a hive of activity. Two clerks in full robes were bustling about being very officious, moving files about, two court reporters recording every utterance....two Crown Prosecuters, one Provincial, one Federal were busy sorting out federal and provincial responsiblities. Finding court dates and courtroom "slots" . It was kind of neat...they were speaking in code all the time! Imagine the poor kid wearing the hoodie standing behind the thick glass in the dock listening to this: This is John Smith, he is here under allegations of section 41 subsection 3, 7 and 19. "Does he have a form 1?" No, he doens't need one, He has a federal 31a. "Ahh, well, does the federal prosecuter have the 39w? Yes, good then. "I'll need a copy of that please" Here you go then. Thank You....a slot is available on Tuesday, 2:30 PM 14 September Is there a surety here? Good...Mr John Smith, you are released in custody of your grandmother, and you will appear in courtroom 13 on 14 September 2005. If you fail to appear, you will personally laible for 300 dollars bail and your grandmother will be liable for 300 dollars bail. Do you understand? The poor yob in the dock who hasn't understood a word up until this point understands "Bail", "Grandmother" and "release". Yes Your Worship, he says, and the cop with no gun takes him away and cuffs him again.
That was a week ago, and I am still shaking my head!

singing the blues

Ahhh...in the traditon of stealing only from the best, this was forwarded to me.

Subject: Fw: HOW TO PLAY & SING THE BLUES ----- HOW TO PLAY& SING THE BLUES
1. Most Blues begin with: "Woke up this morning..."
2. "I got a good woman" is a bad way to begin the Blues unless you sticksomething nasty in the next line like "I got a good woman with themeanest face in town."
3. The Blues is simple. After you get the first line right, repeat it. Thenfind something that rhymes, sort of: "Got a good woman with the meanest facein town. Yes, I got a good woman with the meanest face in town. Got teethlike Margaret Thatcher, and she weigh 500 pound."
4. The Blues is not about choice. You stuck in a ditch, you stuck in aditch. There ain't no way out.
5. Blues cars: Chevys, Fords, Cadillacs and broken-down trucks. Blues don'ttravel in Volvos, BMWs, or SUVs. Most Blues transportation is a Greyhoundbus or a southbound train. Jet aircraft and state-sponsored motor poolsain't even in the running. Walkin' plays a major part in the blueslifestyle. So does fixin' to die.
6. Teenagers can't sing the Blues. They ain't fixin' to die yet. Adults singthe Blues. In Blues, "adulthood" means being old enough to get the electricchair if you shoot a man in Memphis.
7. Blues can take place in New York City but not in Hawaii or anyplace inCanada. Hard times in Minneapolis or Seattle is probably just clinicaldepression. Chicago, St. Louis, and Kansas City are still great places tohave the Blues. You cannot have the blues anyplace that don't get rain.
8. A man with male pattern baldness ain't the Blues. A woman with malepattern baldness is. Breaking your leg 'cause you were skiing is not theblues. Breaking your leg 'cause a alligator be chomping on it is.
9. You can't have no Blues in a office or a shopping mall. The lighting iswrong. Go out to the parking lot or sit by the dumpster.10. Good places for the Blues:a. Highwayb. Jailhousec. Empty bedd. Bottom of a whiskey glassBad places for the Blues:a. Nordstrom'sb. Gallery openingsc. Ivy League collegesd. Golf courses
11. No one will believe it's the Blues if you wear a suit, 'less you happen to be an old ethnic person, and you slept in it.
12. Do you have the right to sing the Blues? Yes, if:
a. You older than dirt
b. You blind
c. You shot a man in Memphis
d. You can't be satisfied
No, if:
a. You have all your teethb. You were once blind but now can see
c. The man in Memphis lived
d. You have a 401K or trust fund
13. Blues is not a matter of color. It's a matter of bad luck. Tiger Woodscannot sing the blues. Sonny Liston could. Ugly white people also got aleg up on the blues.
14. If you ask for water and your darlin' give you gasoline, it's the Blues.Other acceptable Blues beverages are:
a. Cheap wine
b. Whiskey or bourbon
c. Muddy water
d. Nasty black coffee
The following are NOT Blues beverages:
a. Perrier
b. Chardonnay
c. Snapple
d. Slim Fast
15. If death occurs in a cheap motel or a shotgun shack, it's a Blues death.Stabbed in the back by a jealous lover is another Blues way to die. So isthe electric chair, substance abuse and dying lonely on a broken-down cot.You can't have a Blues death if you die during a tennis match or whilegetting liposuction.
16. Some Blues names for women:
a. Sadie
b. Big Mama
c. Bessie
d. Fat River Dumpling
17. Some Blues names for men:a. Joe
b. Willie
c. Little Willie
d. Big Willie
18. Persons with names like Amber, Jennifer, Tiffany, Debbie, and Heathercan't sing the Blues no matter how many men they shoot in Memphis.
19. Make your own Blues name Starter Kit:
a. Name of physical infirmity (Blind, Cripple, Lame, etc.)
b. First name (see above) plus name of fruit (Lemon, Lime, etc..)
c. Last name of President (Jefferson, Johnson, Fillmore, etc.) Examples:
Blind Lime Jefferson, Jackleg Lemon Johnson.
20. No matter how tragic your life, if you own a computer you cannot singthe blues

Another weekend, another lost week!

It took me all week to mow that darned lawn! Ah well, now I know that there are no rocks and stones which can damage a ride-on. But what can you do when you come home to find an acre of grass, burrdocks, and thistles waist high! I rented the neatest tool...its a five horsepower whipper snipper with a blade on it! Slow cutting....I have an antique sythe in the showroom which was almost as fast, except of course you have to spend half your day sharpening the blessed thing!

Hey now it is raining, I can have a fire in the fire pit! Oh right...didn't get a burn permit....darn!

Found my little brother...he called me Monday...needed some help. Turned out he needed a LOT of help. Well, you can pick your friends but you can't pick your relatives. A lot of the week seemed to be taken up with sitting in courthouses, and talking with lawyers and social workers. Bloody hell!

And there seems to be a problem with my Eudora email program...possibly not interacting properly with my Norton Antivirus. Not sure...NAV seems to be fine, scans well, the problem doesn't go away when I turn NAV off. I think I shall remove it from the computer totally. See if that helps. I can always re-install. I have heard that it is difficult to remove NAV from a 'puter...it puts its tenetacles into every little area. I figured I would blog a bit until I get the nerve to to the uninstall!

Well, it could be worse. Some of the lost souls in the courthouse were pretty heart wrenching. "Dude...its 28 degrees C out there! (94 degrees Farenheit!) Why are you wearing a hoodie and a watch cap? And you in the leather jacket...you think the judge is going to be impressed with the leather jacket? And girl, if you have to wear the pretty sun dress to make people think you just misplaced your friends the tin woodsman and scarecrow, perhaps you should wear a pretty little shawl to cover the tatoo "Born to FUCK" across your pretty shoulders. It really isn't fooling people!

The lines between low level criminal activity and mental illness seem to blur when you are in bail court at 9 in the morning...and perhaps people with strong opinions [of any kind] might do well to spend some time there...

A variant of the who's on first routine....

I wish I had thought of this one. I could not find out Hu wrote it, but if somebody knows, I'll buy them a Kofi.

George: Condi! Nice to see you. What's happening?
Condi: Sir, I have the report here about the new leader of China.
George: Great. Lay it on me.
Condi: Hu is the new leader of China.
George: That's what I want to know.
Condi: That's what I'm telling you.
George: That's what I'm asking you. Who is the new leader of China?
Condi: Yes.
George: I mean the fellow's name.
Condi: Hu.
George: The guy in China.
Condi: Hu.
George: The new leader of China.
Condi: Hu.
George: The main man in China!
Condi: Hu is leading China.
George: Now whaddya' asking me for?
Condi: I'm telling you, Hu is leading China.
George: Well, I'm asking you. Who is leading China?
Condi: That's the man's name.
George: That's who's name?
Condi: Yes.
George: Will you, or will you not, tell me the name of the new leader of China?
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Yassir? Yassir Arafat is in China? I thought he's dead in the Middle East.
Condi: That's correct.
George: Then who is in China?
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Yassir is in China?
Condi: No, sir.
George: Then who is?
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Yassir?Condi: No, sir.
George: Look Condi. I need to know the name of the new leader of China. Get me the Secretary General of the U.N. on the phone.
Condi: Kofi?
George: No, thanks.
Condi: You want Kofi?
George: No.
Condi: You don't want Kofi.
George: No. But now that you mention it, I could use a glass of milk. And then get me the U.N.
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Not Yassir! The guy at the U.N.
Condi: Kofi?
George: Milk! Will you please make the call?
Condi: And call who?
George: Who is the guy at the U.N?
Condi: Hu is the guy in China.
George: Will you stay out of China?!
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: And stay out of the Middle East! Just get me the guy at the U.N.
Condi: Kofi.
George: All right! With cream and two sugars.

Comment Spam!!

Wow, I feel blessed! Got my first "comment spam". A cut and paste without any relationship to the post whatsoever. Neat!

New course dates! woo hoo!

Jean dropped in yesterday to discuss the new Chivalrous Sword Handling courses at Algonquin for the fall. He does not want to hang about until ten o'clock...who can blame him! He has to get up early to do his day jobs. On Wednesdays, we cannot start until 8 o'clock,and I refuse to go all the way into Ottawa for a one hour class. (I mean, you figure last spring with 60 cent a liter gas, it was costing me ten bucks to go from Metcalfe to west end Ottawa and back, and this fall, with gas at 95 cents, that would be 12 to 15 bucks in fuel alone to teach a one hour class. Not to mention a half hour on winter roads each way. it is just not worth the trouble to do a one hour class! So, we have decided pretty much to drop Wednesday evenings for the fall, and do the classes on Friday. One small glitch though....how do we teach two 8 week classes back to back starting 16 September? I'll see if anybody wants to start it a week early, then we will be able to end them 23 December.
(And here I was hoping to do it all Wednesday,and get my Fridays off....for a change)
So, drop Wednesdays like, totally, and two back to back courses on Friday.
The winter and spring months, no problems. Our Fridays will be clear, and we will be teaching Mondays and Wednesdays.
Really looking forward to it.

Bill

Pirates and global warming...

I always knew there was a correlation between pirates and global warming. Here is the complete explanation....

Makes as much sense as teaching that God created the world in 6 days....

http://www.venganza.org/index.htm

This is an open letter to the Kansas City School Board, asking them to teach the theory that it was a giant floating spagetti monster that created the world. The logical reply is that not enough people are in this faith to take it seriously AS a faith, so they want 10 million people to stand up for this belief and demand that it be taught along side creationism.

They might get it. When Conservative premier Stockwell Day was asked if he wished to open the debate on abortion (after we had firmly slammed it shut after what...25 years!), he said, "Well, if there are enough people who want me to address the issue, I will do it". Wrong answer Stockwell! The next question was, "Well, how many people would it take to sign a petition for you to do it" Like a fool, he said, "I guess if a hundred thousand people want me to take up this issue, I will do it." Really, Stock, a hundred thousand? Nothing less? "Okay, if ten thousand people wanted me to do it, I would". That fine....so what do you suppose happened?

Oh sure, ten thousand people signed a petition for the Federal Government to re-open the abortion issue, but more than a hundred thousand people signed petitions to get him to change his name from Stockwell Day to Doris Day. The power of ridicule!

We notice these days that Stockwell Day is no longer a force in Federal politics.

Harry Potter...

Can't help it...just read the book. Am I the only one who has figured out the truth yet? I used to wonder if Dumbldore was really Voldemert in disguise (think about it, ever see them both in the same room together?) however the disgusting events which led to the assumption of the cat lady to the head mistresses chair seem to have put paid to the idea....no matter how titilating that would have been. Actually, I have a new theory. You see, that scar that Harry has on his forehead...thats one of Voldemort's horcruxes. Perfect timing....kill the parents, leave a piece of the old soul right there where no body would ever suspect. It would explain why it hurts when the big V is around, and also why Harry could speak parceltoungue...he has a lot of V in him! Also, the hat had trouble...wanted to put him into Slytheryn at first didn't it? The hat comes down over the scar, so the immediate thing is to assign him to Sly house. But the hat has second thoughts. This is unusual for a hat.... and puts HP into Griffindor. And its hard to confuse a hat! Like does this happen often?
Makes more sense than the idea that Voldemort couldn't kill Harry because in actual fact, he was Harry's father. But this is probably too biblical for JKR...{And Lo, Harry's parents could not find room at the inn....}
I can't wait for the tenth book..."There's Something about Harry".
Now if I could just figure out who R A B would be. Reuben Albus Bumbledore....naaah.

Lazy days and lazy nights....

Ahhh..it is soooo good to be home. To not have to pick up and carry a lot of heavy stuff all day. Okay, so I had to move a fridge. And a futon. And a load of stock. Hey wait a minuit....grin!
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/collections/explore/object.cfm?ID=BHC1821 here is a link to a collection of ship paintings. Just thought it would be interesting to see and do something different. I expect I'll publish more later, when I get back from the states with the new order. Rob did well at the new show for me....sold about 2 to three dollars per patron he did!

Wot a surprise!

The new show at the Royal Botanical Gardens actually happened. I couldn't believe it! I think they got 500 people on Saturday, and Sunday it rained....so I expect 300 or so. Lets see.....800 people....after taxes and RBG's cut, ten bucks a head. That would be 8000 bucks. Thirty five actors at 60 bucks a day. (or more...) The Tartan Terrors at $1300 bucks a day, The Limey Birds at $800 or more a day, Zoltan at a grand a day, (oh cummon Z....think you would even unpack a razor blade for less?) a dozen security guards, ticket takers, and a dozen kids picking up garbage. Nope....it'll have to do better than that! Here's a hint guys....drop the security guards...they don't do anything you couldn't do yourselves. Drop the actors to 20 or less! Get rid of the Morriss dancers...I know they are not doing it for nothing, and there are 25 of them at least!

Ah well....at least Rob was enjoying himself as owner of his own business.

Wildlife here on the site

Here is a very scared baby eagle....just learning to fly. His wings were just so tiny that he flew much like a chicken...that is, not at all. He looked fierce enough though when Bailey the dog got close to him!

Just a pile of wreckage

Here it is. Already to load into the container!

pix of the site

Sucess!

Its been a long hot summer....heat emergency after heat emergency. The only good part of this heat is that the wood is being put in the container dry, not wet. Lots of ants in this wood. I can just imagine what is going to happen if I don't unload the container in Ottawa quickly...I'll go into it and find a huge load of sawdust! I found a lot of the ant killer in the local Rona store, and used it liberally, as well as the ant hotels. Don't know that any of it will work, but, better than nothing. I may try and find a company in Ottawa which will come in and fumigate the thing...or else put a "roach bomb" in it and close the door.
I just hope I have not trapped a racoon in there somewhere. If I have, well, it will get pretty whiffy by the time I open the container in Metcalfe!
Chatted with Jon Angel. He bought three more booths just two weeks before the show got cancelled. He gave Brenda one of them, and yesterday I took an hour out to take down the beams. 12 foot six by sixes. Would not want to leave them behind. Brenda wants me to build her a second story deck with them, and Jon thought that was just so cute that he gave Brenda the booth. Me get to take it down...grunt grunt!!
The new Abingdon Faire looks to be stalled in the water....not a lot of stuff being built there. Oh well, it is supposed to be a "soft" faire, that is, a faire made up mostly of tents, so perhaps things are better than they look. I have asked for the insurance information to be faxed to me, but as usual, I seem to be overlooked. Oh well....won't be so bad if I can get in on a group insurance plan, better than the several hundred dollars insurance it would cost otherwise.
Rob L.... will be doing the show in my name, but he will essentially be doing it on his own hook. I dunno....if I were offered a chance to run a business, use somebody elses merchant credit accounts, and get the stock provided free...I would be a lot more keen on getting my own pst numbers and register my own business. As it is, he seems to have an "employee" mindset which is hard to shift. Of course, it IS summer, he has a nice bike and a hot girlfriend, and a business would cut into his free time A LOT! Running your own business sounds good until you try to do it, and try to get some free time at the same time. I would almost be willing to state that you cannot run a business and a family at the same time, though I have known people who have done so. Me....I have the best of both worlds. As long as I don't get too big too quick, I will have a lot of "me" time.
Chatted with Darryl last week. He dropped in to pick up some cheap wood, and worked all day in the heat. As a blacksmith, he is not unused to the heat, but even he found it hard to keep on slugging it out.
Well, enough of this....time I got to work

Saturday Activity

The place is really rockin today! This is the sound of demolition....the Thud Thud of heavy mallets and the "krick" of boards being pried off. The sound of a Renaissance Faire dying....
I got the roof off, and the rafters for the dormers came off, though not without a struggle. Mattie, Dave's son, was watching me the whole time, and every time a piece of wood would crash down, he would yell out "Oy Vey! Timber!" I like Mattie....
There is a crane truck on site, and Brenda is checking out his hourly rates. I didn't think I would need a crane truck, but I wonder if it would be useful. Might be better than using an engine hoist chain fall. Hard to say. Next week, the beams will be coming down. Today, I pried off the nice grey barn boards from the front of the building. It looks very bare now.
Mood......don't ask.....
Bill

Racoons, Blue Jays.

Pretty! impressive work by Paul, my truck driver. He slotted that container right onto the spot first time! Boy oh boy, is it ever big. Now, after two weeks of loading it with pieces of deck and rails, we are starting to wonder if it will be big enough. Oh well, its only a third full now, and the big beams are due to come down next week. Still a little scared of that project.
For those who are coming into this blog late...Brenda and I are taking apart my post and beam building in Milton. It has been up now for almost 8 years, and has provided a fine home for the local wasps, racoons, and chipmunks. This is a big job, and I'll try to get pictures up here in a week or so of the carnage. So far, nobody has been hurt...a good thing.
Dave E showed up day before yesterday, and we went to a Blue Jays game. Pretty neat, never been to a game before. St Louis Cardinals. A lovely stroll up Queen street, a bloody lousy veggie dog.
The roof is all off...the dormers are coming down today. I'm tired all ready, and have not even begun the day!