Who can forget driving to the dump covered in a carpet of dirty white gulls and watching the waves of birds parting magically before your car?
The Dumps
Golden Rule
In the Terrible '60s, every once in awhile, I'd try to behave, follow the rules, and get ahead.
The Present
began with the sort of joke store items kids love - flatus cushions, stinky stuff, boxes with exploding snakes rather than candy; you know the kind of thing.
The Author Steps Out
Over the past four months, I returned to the 1960s and '70s for some good and not so great memories. I've always tried to keep within limits of what could have happened when I took a frolicking detour from what occurred. I cleaned things up.
Wood
As consumers, there is much that you don't know about your favorite woods.
Lessons Learned
The lesson here is to be wary of assuming that someone can't achieve because they can't learn how you teach.
Favorites
It sails on my wall with a cherry ocean and sky heading east from Japan or China towards Los Angelos. I think my father is pleased that his ship is restored to an essential place in our lives, through the unexpected kindness of a fellow seaman.
GIGO
Garbage in Garbage out - GIGO.
Baltimore
After a few days, Bob and Chris would sweep us out of the house if we hadn't already crisped our welcome by arguing too loud at four in the morning.
R.M.S. Servia – 1881
I've been interested in steam/sail transition vessels for years. Ships with steam Auxillary and later sail auxiliary revolutionized travel at sea. Oceanic travel was no longer at the mercy of the winds.
Slap shot
Ultimately someone unfamiliar with his proud Canadian heritage would suggest that the game could be cat soccer. At which point, I'd recommend that they came around some night when the Maple Leafs played the Bruins.
Geedunks
I'd learned in the Navy that what geedunks ( sweets and specialty items not served at meals) the ship sold were not necessarily what I wanted. So I had a private stash.
What You Know
My recurrent dream that week was sitting down to write my essays in the traditional little blue books, but my writing disappeared as soon as I finished.
Eagle Eyes
While teaching, I always like to decorate the workshop with carving examples for students to use as a reference. Week-long excursions to teach away from home mean emptying the house of many of my carvings. But samples in three dimensions often are better than pictures or demonstration, and the extra work was worth it.
Viewpoint
Please don't laugh, but when I was little, I thought that country referred to the vacant lot with a tree.
Dress Code
There were worse sins that could get tallied, and we had no desire to attract attention to them.
Memento
Nothing is ever truly lost.
Communard
Not being one to hold my feeling in, I shared my opinions. At my favorite drinking establishment, the wise heads of the Harvard Gardens sagely nodded their heads in agreement.
Operations
I spent about nine years all told working in Operating Rooms, and a substantial bit of my education money came from working there. It was by turns the friendliest, and most stressful environment I have ever worked in.
A Cat’s Take On The Bible
My black cat, Smidgen, was sitting purring in my lap. Once in a while, it was her habit to correct my take on life by sharing feline wisdom tidbits, black double pawed cats specifically. The formula followed was usually a reminder that her Ancestors had been gods in Eygpt.
The Shop
A twelve-step program for compulsive tool buyers might help. But I have a thing about being away from my tools for meetings. Just taking the time to write this keeps me away from browsing the Lee Valley site, not to mention Rockler, Woodcraft, and Highland Woodworking.
Just Right
A shop with all the tools neatly racked, and no chips are like a clean desk—a sign of a sick mind.
Miss Right
He made it clear over the following months that while I was his buddy, she was his "mom."
A Rangeley Boat
it was the reek of pure Old Woodsman. Over the long lifespan of the boat, gallons must have been spilled in it, because no amount of restoration would ever remove all that smell.
Flotation
Sitting on the float, I could look at my reflection in the water. If I shifted focus, I could see the thousands of small jellyfish swarming around the float and the nearby wharf.
Adventures in Coastal Living – Some Hot!
Please, If you speak a local English variant, hold onto it, cherish it and make sure your kids learn it. Don't allow the "standard" to swamp the individual beauty of your voice.
Free
The old saying goes that free advice is worth what you pay for it.
Twentyone
The problem with imagination is that it's boundless. On the wall is a poster telling you that you can do it if you can imagine it. Don't take it too literally.
Riding
I have to quit driving straight through from North Carolina to Massachusetts in one go. The fifteenth hour of driving is the worst.
Wishes
Listen, candy is sweet, but you can't make a steady diet of it.
Fearsome
"Glory is fleeting. But obscurity is forever."
Back Bay
"If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading." Lao Tzu
Pond Life – June 2020
I needed a break from writing, So here is a short summer time video. I hope it helps put you in a relaxed mood
Unintended Consequence
No pay or slow pay. The wonderful world of small business debt collection.
Cardinals
Periodically the landlord, other tenants, the current resident feature of the Teahead's affection, caused a general eviction.
Tiger, Tiger!
Some people never learn.
True Places
"Queequeg was a native of Kokovoko, an island far away to the West and South. It is not down in any map; true places never are." Herman Melville
Welcome Mat
the Teahead of the August Moon- thought a poet and psychic would be an exciting addition to our menagerie of odd bits and pieces.
Hidden Countryside
There are three varieties of kale in the garden
Connect to the Whole
It was before email. The web was a very primitive concept barely imagined. Yes, this happened a long, long time ago.
Twenty
Take the good from twenty, cherish the memories, and then get moving.
Tip of the Iceberg
I like to believe that unlike the later hippie phenomena, Folkies were diverse as a group.
Boxes and Spills
An old saying says, "Keep your eye on the donut, not on the hole." Well, this time, I was deep into hole territory. A simple build turned major construction.
Be Thankful For Friends
Be thankful for your friends.
On The Road In The 1960’s – a travelers guide
There was no doubt. It was a piggish indulgence. We sat, each of us holding a pint of ice cream and a jelly jar of maple syrup. Said Bill, " …and as Saint Augustine said…it was wicked, but I loved it." I just nodded my palate and brain, too frozen to speak in return.
Playtime
If your play is your business, you have to take care that the fun remains in the mix - or you might find yourself doing something you hate.
The Grandchild
Closer than family?
Love and Hate
Because of the good and bad of the design, it's a piece I love and hate.
On The Road
What's the old saying? If wishes were horses, beggars would ride? Well if you were hitching around in the 1960's you wished a lot and sometimes rode.
A Certain Avoidance Of Good Fortune
Sometimes you have to be careful with debt collection methods.
The House Of Pain
The House of Pain is what my fellow UPS'ers and I called the hub (central terminal) in which we worked.
Reviewed: a day in the life
Same old Same old made some money.
Bricolage
The adventure in all this was finding the time, and sometimes the place, to sleep.
Encouragement
I invited Charlotte to Community boating to go sailing. We were not on the water five minutes before asking when we would get to where we were going. I had to explain that we were already there.
