Indomitable Spirit

(You can click the photos to enlarge.)

It’s been some time since I’ve written here to celebrate the creativity and courage of people in my beautiful little town at the tip of the country. During the 2013 Wooden Boat Festival some members of our NW Maritime Center decided to sponsor a boat race from here to Alaska, the longest one of its kind ever attempted under (mostly) scientific scrutiny.

Essential Cuban Films You Should Know

Getting Back in Tune

It’s a dangerous world, but when bad things happen I’m usually somewhere else. I don’t plan it that way by avoiding all risk, but I do try to proactively move toward the light.

Loud & Clear, Big & Fast, Slow & Just Right

A newsy, catch-up post

When the world is full of danger, fear and catastrophe, it’s a good time to plant.  At my house, we make improvements slowly.  We’ve been looking over our property borders for two years, considering what might make them more inviting to our senses, and to neighboring wildlife.

Wooden Boats II (9/11/11)

Here are some more glimpses from our 35^th annual Wooden Boat Festival.

Wooden Boats

One of my wiser friends said, “Trees live to give.”  This weekend I turn from the sad remembrance of fallen comrades and concrete to wander and gaze at the beauty and resilience of wood.

Uplifted

My neighbor invited me to go kayaking the other day.  It’s one of the things I’m pursuing more since I decided to work fewer hours.  I love kayaking.  Though it is an excellent workout, there’s no need to go fast.

Be Safe Out There

When my wife and I went through our decade-long decision process about where to live in retirement, we tried to examine large factors influencing quality of life.  One of those factors was travel from where our house was to where we need to go most often.

Turn of the Wheel

Soon after the turn of the millennium, we took a sailing vacation on the boat my wife’s friends had built.  I once lived on a 25 foot boat for a couple of years, but this one was over 50 feet long, with several rooms, electricity and an array of instruments and computer-assisted navigation aids.  It was built to sail anywhere.  I had not expected we would sail into a time portal.

Bad Art in the Boonies

There is one restaurant within walking distance of the Motel 2 ½ where we are living.  It’s swimming in bad art.

The Best Unturned Stones

La Liseuse (The Reader) by Jean-Honoré Fragonard

It’s a holiday weekend, but I’m going to be working my tail off pulling extra shifts.  I won’t have time to visit with you lovely people for a few days.  Just in case you’ll miss me, here are my picks of FIVE GREAT EARLY POSTS

Eight Miles High

It’s raining so hard the rhododendrons are losing their petals.  When I was little I didn’t like rain, but I’ve changed.  My desert-born wife loves rain.  It rained like this on our wedding day, one of the luckiest days of my life.

Island Adventure

Some of the San Juan Islands are on a main ferry route, but the boats taking people and their vehicles there are not large.  It’s wise to make reservations, or to walk on if possible.  I had to take two ferries to get where I was going.  Fortunately, I drive a Honda Fit.  I got squeezed into the Keystone Ferry without a reservation.  Small is beautiful.

The Best Instrument (Part Two)

The World of Singing Traditions

The fire that spurs us on past our fears and limitations is desire fueled by love.  If you can find a kind of singing you fall in love with, you’ll do whatever you can to be able to imitate it.  You’ll do the impossible.

Onward Leading, Still Proceeding

The Mirror in the Bathroom, with a Trinity of Bracelets.

The world is a mirror, reflecting us for ourselves alone.  No one else can see what the mirror of the world shows us.  The mirror of the world is also the Wheel, the Great Wheel, the one that’s been showing up everywhere

St. Patrick Begat WordPress?

Patricius was born in a part of Britain under Roman rule in the year 387.  His grandfather was a priest, and his father a deacon.  His home was near enough to the coast that when pirate raiders came they took him for a slave.  He was in his teens.  He was taken to Ireland

Anyone Can Play

In western harmonic music, most chords only require three notes.  Complex chords need four.  That means most music that is not polytonal can be played on a four-stringed instrument.  Ukuleles (say oo-koo-leh-lehz out of respect) have four strings.  They are also inexpensive

Great Blogs (Part Two)

As an American with a sense of adventure, I’ve often dreamed of living in another country.  There are things I care deeply about, like good healthcare and liberal attitudes toward religion, politics and social justice issues.  I couldn’t live anywhere that didn’t have them.  I grew up in a middle-of-the-road place, and I didn’t belong there.  There are a number of other nations that are more to the left than the USA, at least on social issues, and one of my favorites is the Netherlands.

Great Blogs (Part One)

Our Fish Ladder Contest Winners (and an Honorable Mention)

Two of our readers guessed Roseburg, Oregon, within 3 miles of Mikey’s true location, which was:

Wheel of Fortune

I’m hundreds of miles north of the town where the fish ladder was.  In a few hundred miles I will arrive at my final destination.  Driving the open road is wonderful for contemplation.  Walking it would be even better, but I don’t have the time.  I have to get there and look for a job.