elaboration

cocooning


promise I'll have something pretty when I'm done.

I blinked.

Or rather, the world blinked and I have reacted.

Sandy, my contact in the city, is being shipped over to Berlin first of October to check up on her American Field School participants. After that, she'll be back in Asia for a little while. This means we'll miss one another, ergo her appartment will be sublet to someone else while she's away. Which means I don't have a place to stay except for hostels. Do-able, but not very fun while I'm trying to become a little more responsible. Hostel phones and addresses aren't reliable enough.

Grindell still has not made landfall. My uncle, father and I lined up the conditions- Capetown is a haven for new catamarans being built. Annapolis is a hot spot for selling these toys- especially at the upcoming boat show. However, new boats usually don't have owners- which means there is a minimal amount of safety gear provided. However, he was doing this trip to rack up bluewater hours for his captain's license. This means he was not the captain- there should have been someone else on board.

In any case, he's not in Annapolis. And if something happened, there's not much more I can do there than what I can do here.

Nothing solid from the School of Visual Arts, nor some of the other avenues I've been pushing on since January.

Time to give up the ghost and figure out what to do with the cards left in my hand, I guess.

"Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
-Lewis Carroll

some pictures from yesterday

strolling pond garden

bridge this one is a little overexposed in the foreground, but I still dig how it turned out. the lotus-shaped tops on the posts represent Buddha.

sand and stone garden an example of traditional garden of zen monastaries. one could go into to the light and darkeness, yin and yang, life and non-life, zen and tao thing on this one. But I won't.

temporal everlasting I like how the flowers peek out over the ripples and the stone on this one.

Mt. Hood downtown Portland in the foreground.


yep, yep. uh-huh. it's me birthday. happens.

makin' mojitos this afternoon and dinner tonight. Anyone game for spicy fajitas? Wanna come over?

my old workplace

taking a stroll through tomorrow.
been turning Japanese for a long time.

happy birthday, tmwc.

you scurvy bung hole dweller.

hahahahaaahahahahahaahahhaaaaaaahhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahhaahahahahahahahahahhahahaaaaahaaahahahahaahahaha!



god, I'm scared.



zoom!

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!

So, here's the general idea of what I hope the next few weeks ought to bring.

I'm headed to the east coast at the end of this month.

My buddy Grindell should be making landfall in Annapolis soon. Since he was around when I made my first big ocean passage, I think it would be nice to return the favor, especially since I'm the only person in this country he knows. And with Isabel bearing down on the majority of his course from Cape Town, he'd probably would appreciate a friendly face in port.

In the meantime, I've had a couple people interested in some of my work, one of which is an old college buddy of the director of the School of Visual Arts. It's a tentative shot, but I want to take it. We'll see.

And yes, frankly, I was hoping to have coffee with a couple of guys whos' work and demeanor I admire. One I didn't have a chance to meet the first time and the other I half expected not to show. Now I know.

this is who I am- when I was 19, I went to New Zealand for seven months to find out what Waitangi Day was all about. I read part of a guide book on the flight over. Wrote a few research papers to keep my college professors happy, but mostly just made up life as it came along. I'm happiest like that.

Unfortunately, I have learned that it's very difficult to explain to people that I live my life by what the prevailing winds tell me versus where I would like to go. That has always struck me as a little odd because it's how EVERYBODY lives.

(And yes, I learned all about Waitangi Day. It's the day when the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, making New Zealand part of the British Commonwealth. It's treated like a bank holiday to end their summer.)

When I'm curious and the factors and feelings line up right, I go.

That is who I am. I make no apologies for that.

okay.

my bad. sorry.

take care.

Shadows may disappear, but I will always be me.

You know what?
I love train rides.

In fact, I love train rides so much, that I gave one to myself for my birthday.

a nice long one.

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!


fresh blackberries!!!

(I'm pretty ridiculous right now. )

here's some pics from sailing

the great sea battle Lynx is perpendicular to our course, the one with her side showing. The Lady Washington (aka Black Pearl) is parallel to our course, trying very hard not to be hit by the Lynx's cannons....

god light in the harbor. Olympic mountains in the background.

This was just sent to me by tmwc: Official website of Talk Like A Pirate Day, September 19th. Practice up, boys and girls.

I'm blogging from an old childhood haunt of mine- the crawl space under the desk. My family has owned this massive roll-top desk for the better part of forever. Under the desk is a cavernous opening, which served as one of my hideouts while I was growing up. I made all nice and cozy- a flashlight hanging down, books doubling as tables, even hung a blanket over the opening to make a door. The cats dug it too.

Now my old cave houses the pc cpu, a power strip, and most importantly, the broadband access. The cables are short and there's no router. oh well. I like it in here. I think I did a better job of decorating the place, though. But that was at the time of desktop cpu's from Radio Shack.

Some Plans are coming together- wait and see.

Spent most of yesterday drinking wine in the city park, watching zack hammer out a bronze belt buckle. Portland's Wine and Arts festival is mostly about local vineyards battling each other to get yet another award, but occasionally a few interesting artists show up as well. At least it's a nice excuse to drink wine on a sunny day in the park.

The weather is here, wish you were beautiful. Or something like that.

Hey, look! A cat toy!

Yep.
It is infinitely more frightening moving toward something than moving away.

When moving forward through the dark, it's nice to have a waypoint or two. Stars make useful visual fixtures to help keep a steady course. However, some stars can only be seen in peripheral vision. When they are looked at directly, they disappear.

Pretty for poets, but difficult to navigate by.

That's probably why they came up with GPS, charts, lorans, compasses....

Brains like solids.
Sometimes.

There is a little boy here who loves his annie-manie to bits. And she loves him back.
But they have seen each other only once in the past two years.
They deserve a little time.

Spent the last few days fixing Minerva (my comp). Watched Shrek, one of our favorites, and Nemo. very pretty. Love Dory, Bruce and the sea turtles. The bug and I have a date soon for candy bubbles. Hopefully, he'll remember that these are special bubbles and that not all bubbles are tasty to eat.

If not, he'll learn soon enough.

Even the kitties like bubbles.

These guys are cool: Anvil.

Okay, they are cool because they're local guys who sit around on fluffy couches with polite cats and poets named Montana talking about teeth. Maybe they'll let me hang out with them for a day while I'm here competing with my own cats for couch space.

In the meantime, I have a 100-pound shadow panting behind me, quietly asking me for my grapes. Big dogs make interesting lunch companions.

End(ish) of September. Possibly sooner, but probably not.

found this opening:

"Seeking 1 person Act/Bette Midler,Cher,Marilyn Monroe Impersonator"

I think I need to be just a little taller.

nearly forgot.... spotted a very large pod of dolphins on the way back to Seattle. tried to film it, but my camera is too tiny. must get another one.

and I'm only staying in Oregon for a couple of weeks.
don't ask where I'm going afterwards, 'cause I ain't tellin'.

nothing personal- I just like to have a bit of privacy while I'm making messes. I'll tell EVERYBODY where I am once I'm settled and happy with the decision.

hiya.

I'm back.
for a little while, anyway.

It was raining in New Jersey on Labor Day. I felt bad. The sunset was pretty above the clouds, though.

Sailing was excellent. Beautiful sunny weather, so my inverted raccoon-face has returned. Went to Port Townsend for the annual Wooden Boat Festival. Very happy hoards of people showing off beautiful craftmanship, old and young hippies messing about in boats and singing sea shanties. One of my favorite festivals ever. Even better in the late summer sun.

Was even able to film footage of a sea battle between the "Lynx" (a gaft-rigged wooden schooner, 100 odd feet or so) and the "Lady Washington" (a double-masted square rigger. She was the "Black Pearl" in the recent movie, Pirates of the Caribbean ) I call it Pirates of Port Townsend. Dizzy won't mind, I'm sure. One of these days, I may even post it up.... I'll put it on my list of things to do.

Took the train south yesterday. I love taking the train. They go through the "ugly" parts of cities, people wave as you go past, old men stop and watch, people talk inside about "the war years".

Now in Oregon, catching up with goings-on of my favorite three-year-old. One of these days, I'm gonna have to find me a job.

I'll put it on my list of things to do.