We wanted to do that

We wanted to be the one who climbed up there - way to the tip top - affixing a tell tale .....

Good bye Tall Ships. Thanks for the opportunity to dream the dreams of the sea and bask in your adventures and daring do.

You are welcome in our store and our town and particularly in our lives.

Anytime.

Ahab

Well, after a day of Tall Ships, the event sounds all the world like "success".  Two days to go and perhaps some weather issues in the late afternoons  --  every silver lining has a cloud or two -- but all in all people are coming with high expectations and leaving with a smile. Certainly the merchants hope there will be return visits based on good experiences and what with the vineyards, really good restaurants at all price levels and plenty to see and do, this was a showcase event not only for that event itself but for bringing a lot of people all the way out here and letting them see what's what.

Unfortunately there are other blogs in the village that are reflective of what is generously called the "north fork attitude".  It is the same attitude that raised up against the conversion of the Capital One center in Laurel when it was proposed it become the home of a new and much needed "Y". The folks who would rather that the entire complex fall into rubble rather than to be put to great use.  Same holds true here.  A mindset of  "it doesn't put jingle in my pocket so to hell with it".  It is a sign of a very shallow life. It really is.  Free speech doesn't always equal maturity.

These blogs show a life void of community and common purpose.  When confronted by Captain Ahabs, who run their lives with a purpose and accommodate all things in reaching their goals or goal they attack the mission in a blind attempt to simply derail rather than embrace.  We have a lot of that here. Folks who have been screaming since the Tall Ships were announced.  I will freely admit that I was skeptical due to a late start and not a lot of resources but somehow it got done and done well and some put a truly selfless effort in making it so. I was honored to participate and help where I could.   When the Village gets the glory for this, then bask first in the reflective sunshine. Good for them.

To those who wished disaster from the onset, I think how shallow their lives must be.  Certainly. Their only passion is to 'be against" for whatever wildass reason, almost all centering around their immediate needs.  How sad.

With just a modicum of effort they could be in the sunlight now rather than bumbling along in the shadows and that is sad.  Nothing smells sweeter than to be on the sweet smell of success.

Hubris

There is always a tendency to view the world from an island setting; my front porch, my subdivision, my back yard, etc....  It is understandable to a degree and those who seek our support need to realize that we might not share their vision of "our stuff".  We are the proverbial island and others are the sea - high tides and low tides - but some respect for the mean water level.

Sometimes islands get a little too big for their britches. They either think that they have some influence on the sea and tides (NOTHING holds back a tide by the way) or they spend time howling at the moon in a vain glorious attempt to change things that can't be changed.

We aren't advocating howling at the moon and becoming a Don Quixote fighting windmills.  We also aren't ready to stick our heads in the sand and just hope for things to get better or, at the very least, change with no attempt on our part to right things.

Our little island is, however, beset by some of these extremes; those who think they can hold back the tide and those who ignore the obvious.  It is unfortunate to say the least.

Sometime today, during the rain, the fog and the soon to be sunlight/humidity, think about the positions you take and consider if you are fighting the tide or just ignoring it. 

Just a thought for a middle week morning.

Master and Commander

Just a picture and some music. I suspect with the Tall Ships coming over Memorial Day you can fill in the blanks pretty easily.

If you grew up in the middle west or anywhere away from the ocean for that matter, you probably dreamt of being a cowboy or a frontiersman; Davey Crockett, Roy Rogers or 'la Longue Carabine".  Locally it might have been Long John Silver or Captain Kidd; John Paul Jones if you were a goody-two-shoes of sorts and didn't like a pirate's patch.

Regardless, this is a swell event to think about, rigging, flags fluttering, wooden decks that clump and hulls that creak with the waves.

Mom and Anne

Ann Prior Jarvis was a West Virginian; probably spunky, sentimental, loyal and driven. She is the one who made Mother's Day the big deal it started as and hated the commercialism that it became. This was before women could vote and the suffrage movement, although gaining speed, was just a dream for the future.


There were others before Ann, but none of those efforts took hold. Now we are kinda into a day (some 104 years later) that bypasses the idea a bit what with all the cards and flowers, dinners and "visits to say hello".  Not that any of that is a bad thing mind you, but the root of it, the realization that mother's of all types (great and not so great) put a lot of their lives, love, energies and worry (not to mention guilt!) into making you who you are and for that they deserve respect.


Some came at it with few tools in the toolbox of motherhood.  Others were naturals.  None of that, in the end, makes a lot difference and perhaps the best thing about the day is that it snaps us back to the reality of the effort and immense contribution made for us.  But then again, we need to be thinking of that the other 364 days and not just today.


In that light, mother's day is aimed squarely at us; to be better and more appreciative every day not just today. 


It is beautiful outside. Enjoy it.  Find her or remember her and take a minute - not for flowers and cards (although flowers and cards are a nice thing so don't get all crazy) but for a sincere thank you.

64 degrees and a clear sky

What could be more glorious.  Sun. Breeze. Fresh air. Leaves out, lettuce up, soil most and brown.  Ahhh. Let me think.  Well this maybe.

Moonbeams

Tim McCord's famous 2011 photograph of the
 moon at the closest point

Time to dust off the camera and get those blankets out. 

Saturday night is a wondrous night for looking at the sky.  The moon is at the closest point to us as its orbit isn't perfectly round. It will be huge. We also pass through the tail of Halley's comet and that produces the  Eta Aquarid  meteor shower .... that is if you can see it in the midst of the moonlight. 1135pm is the exact time when the moon is closest and we think you will be able to just reach up and touch it.

My father was born in 1910, one of the years Halley's Comet appears and I kinda remember it in 1986 but not much.  It will be back in 2066 or so and we remember from our history days that famous Battle of Hastings tapestry with the comet in it (1066 remember?) is an interesting coincidence.  Doesn't matter much as I am not planning on seeing it.  Once in a lifetime is about all most of us get.

Back in 1066 it was thought that the comet had something to do with King Harold getting an arrow in the eye and loosing the battle.  When I was about 5 or so, my parents gave me an astronomy book and in it was a picture of the comet from 1910 and I remember the text to this day - "the comet won't appear again until 1986".  We get to see just the scraps from it - the cosmic clumps - and in particular I wonder what the ancients thought about that when they saw it...fireflies perhaps...the shooting stars of childhood although the concept of starts and space dust weren't on any one's radar a thousand years ago.

We sing at the moon in our ignorance of it.  The heavens as well for that matter. Makes us something like wolves.  I would, however, like to see the dust of the comet that launched my father in the world and in 1066 another Harold (my dad was so named) fell to a bad fate but the comet passing was noted nonetheless. These meteor showers are pretty common but in my mind, would have found my father just shy of 30 years old running a restaurant in Ann Arbor, taking a break out back in the alley off S. University and looking up at the night sky.

Saturday night will find me in a lawn chair, camera in hand, a telescope if it arrives in time, and a meteor shower at the rate of 1 a minute sparking across the moonbeams.  If it rains I am pretty sure I'll still see it. It is pretty clear right now.  Mind's eye you know.