Musings from the Beach
Written on my alphasmart down at the beach…
My first true day of vacation, a slow start, as is fitting for vacation, though it was interrupted by a call from work. Nothing too important, though.
The day is partially cloudy, with the forecast calling for a 30 percent chance of rain today, 20% tomorrow, with temperatures in the mid 60s. Sitting on the beach, should I ever do it, could be on the cool side of things.
Later
On the beach, which in spite of the forecasts, is actually quite sunny, warm, and wind-free. We brought down two green plastic garden chairs, setting ourselves down near a little river in the sand, clusters of families spread out across the beach… couples walking, most our age or older.
My mind is rarely at ease, even on the best of days, the clarity of Buddha mind mostly far beyond my reach, my mind unsettled. I wish it weren’t so, but total happiness always seems around the next corner, my mood most often labeled as a seven out of ten. Total depression is rare.
At the beach my mind drifts back to the past, mostly the distant memories of my youth on the Oregon coast. I see ghosts of my past in the families, in the dogs, in the children playing in the sand. I look for clues in the slow walk of the fathers and mothers walking by, mostly the fathers, and in them I see hints of the feelings my father must of had as he searched the beach for agates while I played in the sand, oblivious to any thoughts of my father having any feelings at all. He’d spend countless hours looking, at the time I thought for clear rocks, but now I think he was looking for a little peace, and perhaps some sort of explanation as to how his life had gone the way it had, and how he could nudge it in a new direction.
But life gets away from you. Those agates he collected and carted home in our run-down 1960 Plymouth Valiant? He saved them through the years in a cardboard box in the garage, clearly with some sort of plan for their use, perhaps in a mosaic in the cement of some garden walkway. They were there in that box when he died at age 62, tucked away in the corner of a garage he’d built, next to the house he’d built, his biggest source of pride, other than his family.
Within a few years of his death it was all gone, the house, the garage, the box of agates, all destroyed by the destructive forces of time and progress. Actually, virtually every tree, every twig, is gone now, his home and his property clear-cut by a rich pilot building his mega-mansion, leaving no stone unturned, no shred of the lives of those who came before, no knowledge, memories, or thought of the two generations who lived and died before. My father once found what he claimed was an arrowhead from island residents a hundred years or more before us. So many have come before us, gone now with hardly a trace. Even the prized arrowhead is missing. The name of the family before ours died with my parents, just as ours will die to the family there now, if it hasn’t already.
So this all began with agates, memories of time at the beach so long ago, summers at Oceanside, Oregon, time at a small cabin called The Gitchy Goomie. Memories that run both warm and chillingly cold.
Karen’s memory of the beach? It’s of our time here with our family, including time with Alex after his surguries, memories of him running to the ocean with the antiseptic goo in his hair, oozing from the incision and stitches running across his head from ear to ear. Her memory is one of renewal, of a young boy and his frightened parents coming alive again on a carefree, sunny day at the beach, dreams of the future replacing nightmares of the past.
The beach is certainly a place of renewal.
I glance up at the clusters of families about us. Grab those memories, change will come, time will pass.
More later.
Bryan
On the Oregon coast… with my boat
I’ve come down to the Oregon coast, thanks to my old friend Peter, who moved down to Manzanita, Oregon when he retired from the job I have now.
I’ve spent the first full day of my vacation shopping, writing on the beach, cooking, and doing some boat work! I took the cabin with me and did some painting. Above you can see a video of the painting I did, and see the view from the house. Amazingly nice view. The forecast was for rain, but….
Running out of time, but progress made
Running low on time, but made good progress on half the cabin.
Fire!
A nice evening.
A week ago or so I was asked it I was willing to drive a friends 1942 American LaFrance fire engine in a parade on July 4th. Willing? I mean, how many people get to do that!? As I shared earlier, I used to own a 1940 Mack fire engine, an engine once owned by the Monroe Fire Department, just to the east of me, 45 minutes away or so. SO fun, but maintaining these things is quite a commitment, and being honest, my attention span is short, so I sold it. I just now stumbled across a site about my old truck!
Click here! The picture below is a shot I took at a park that is about two miles from my house. The ladder racks were off it, as I needed to remove them in order for it to fit into my garage. There are days I miss that old truck!
I bring this up because I went for a driving refresher course in Bill’s old truck. Man, what a thrill.
As you can see, Bill’s truck is bigger than mine was. Quite a thrill to drive around Alki Point in that old thing! I look forward to driving it in the parade on July 4th, weather permitting!
Father’s Day… real and imagined.
Sunday, Father’s Day 2009.
A quick movie of my boat. Lot’s of work done on it today. A floor and one wall is actually lookng like a wall!
Another weekend with pretty good balance between should do and want to do. That’s one of the goals of life, isn’t it? It’s certainly one of my goals for every day.
I am out on my small front lawn again, typing into my Alphasmart. The grass out here has less surface space than the bed of a pickup truck, really just enough room for a couple of Adirondack style chairs, but it’s nestled into a small garden that’s filled with at least 40 different kinds of plants, ranging from strawberries to rhodies to a maple tree. No lawn mowing sounds filling the air in the neighborhood this evening, just the sounds of Alex working on his sneakbox boat and neighborhood kids running about. Nice sounds, happy sounds.
Above me I just noticed that the berries on our two story tall Oregon Grape are starting to make the transition from a dull flat green to a brilliant blue. I might make Oregon Grape pancake syrup again, a treat I’ve only made the time to enjoy once before. That’s the sort of thing that fills my “bucket list”, something sitting on the cusp of ordinary, but perhaps not quite. My lifestyle is amazingly far from self sufficient, but it’s something that holds a certain romantic appeal to me. By that I mean the notion of self-sufficiency is far more attractive to me than the reality of the day to day work and somewhat restricted faire should I ever have the discipline to truly pursue it. Besides, there are forces conspiring against me. Karen would rather have the color of the berries in the garden than on her flapjacks some weekend morning.
I was up by 5am today, as our dog is somewhat befuddled by the deck project, as her normal pathway to urinary relief has been removed for a few days while the contractor builds a new deck support structure, and Alex’s rather clever attempt at a temporary deck just isn’t what she’s used to. She is a creature of habit, a slave to the familiar really, and changes such as these mean she’d rather claw at the side of the house than simply jump up on the 4 foot square deck that Alex built. It was my turn to cater to her needs, so I let Karen sleep, rescued the dog from her self imposed backyard exile, and slipped into my jetted tub.
I may as well admit to all that I often sit in my tub for an hour or more, and I do with my computer! It’s a rather large but affordale contractors reject, one that simply needed some of the jetting plumbing replaced. I felt rather clever and frugal that day, now something like 20 years back. I lay a board across the tub and rest my battery powered laptop there, the world at my fingertips as the bubbles churn about me. Decadence defined, and just quirky enough that I don’t think I have admitted this to anyone before, a rather odd circumstance given how I seem to revel in the unsual most other moments in my life.
Then it was breakfast with the family, including Alex’s girlfriend Claire, a nice, though amazingly shy girl. She is certainly welcome at any family events, as she loves my son, and that’s the only requirement she need meet at this point.
My Father’s Day presents were all given with thoughts of my boat project in mind, lights for quiet evenings writing or reading while at anchor on some secluded bend in the river. I had asked for miniature candle lanterns, but tehnology has transformed candle lanterns so that they also include strategically placed high intensity LED lights, perfect for reading the screen of my wife’s Kindle or this Alphasmart. My famly also added in a FreePlay light that can be wound to renew the charge, a few minutes of which can give several hours of blinding light. Or so they claim.
Time to try them out, and my Kelly Kettle as well.
It took about four minutes for the water to start boiling. I know the camera was a bit jerky, but it gives you the idea.
While I was filming Alex asked me what my father would be doing right now if he were still alive. Alex never met my father as he died of a heart attack more than 25 years ago, at least five years before Alex was born. It’s a queston I’ve often daydreamed about as well, especially in relation to my kids. He would have been so proud of them both, just as I am. I can think of three or four things that were central to my father’s sense of life that would shape his choices for this day, were he alive.
First off there was his desire to do well for his family, though his journey toward that goal would prove to be awfully complicated and difficult at times. His mother was evil. That’s all I’ll say about that today, other than to add that shortly before he died he went to visit her for the first time in about twenty years, and the first words out of her mouth were, “you’re still ugly”. So much pain there for my father, and one would guess there’s pain behind the anger of my grandmother as well. He was dead within months, while she hung on for a few more years. We didn’t go to her funeral, if there even was one. Anyway, he would be with his family, of that there is no doubt.
Music was also key to my father’s enjoyment of life. As I sit here typing this Alex is down working on his boat, singing. And Jessa has done SO much with music that would give him such joy. He would be absolutely thrilled with her.
And we was a man who enjoyed using his hands, making things. He built the house I grew up in, made stained glass windows and carved many statues as well. Sadly, his house was torn down, the victim of high land prices on Mercer Island, though the money from the sale of the land supported my mother in a high quality home that helped her through, as best it could, her dementia. When she died, there was also still enough money left to give each of his children a chance to either pay off their bills or, in my case, build a few dreams.
To answer Alex’s question… my father would be down in the driveway with Alex, showing him how to work on his boat. He would, if he were living, be in his element, helping his grandson work with wood. He would have spent time earlier in the day watching Jessa rehearse at her play, or more likely, begging her to play her bass.
But he is dead, and he didn’t spend the day with us. I know that nothing would please him more than knowing of the day I’ve had, capped off with his grandson’s question.
There’s something joyful, and something painful in that question for me. As I shared with Alex, I spent father’s day with my father through memory alone, as I have done for almost as many years as I spent with him while he was living. Strange that I’ve never thought of it that way before. Sobering and sad somehow, yet a part of the natural cycle of life as well. Sorta. Karen still has both her parents, and the math isn’t likely to play out in the same ratio for her.
Going to head in now and upload all this, once I’ve cleaned up all my gadgets!
Cristal Baschet
Michel Deneuve plays the Cristal Baschet.
04-porte-par-le-vent-carried-by-the-wind
I just got word today that they will start building my Cristal next week. This is a once-in-a-lifetime event for me. Pretty cool.
Turned over
You can see the side wall with window. Right now it’s the outside showing to the inside, but that’s just to give you an idea of what I’ve done.
Click on pictures to get a larger view.
So a friend popped by so I didn’t do work tonight, but we did flip it over.
Oh… and my Kelly Kettle arrived!
Comes complete with a pan to put on top.
Perfect for the little Mini Shanty. Just collect sticks from the river bank!
Mini Houseboats
More Work, bottom almost done.
The image above is just a reminder of what I am working toward.
Walt Whitman – Here the Frailest Leaves of Me.
HERE the frailest leaves of me, and yet my strongest-lasting:
Here I shade and hide my thoughts—I myself do not expose them,
And yet they expose me more than all my other poems.
I got a disc at work, KING FM, that features that poem as the lyric. The most beautiful piece of music I’ve heard in some time. Listen to an excerpt I really have never enjoyed poetry before this.
More time spent this weekend on the Mini-shanty. This could actually work! I’ll wait a day or two for the final filler epoxy to set, then I’ll paint. I am thinking of NOT using epoxy as a first coat, using instead some high quality paint.
Then, I’ll do some sanding and small scale filling on the sides, then flip it over. Then I’ll put in the floor and start building the super structure.
I’ll probably take the cabin with me when I go on vacation to the Oregon coast and work on it there, as I am running out of time, and have some big plans for the cabin design. Think gypsy vardo.
http://gypsywaggons.co.uk/ukvardos/wooden/wd75.jpg
http://gypsywaggons.co.uk/ukvardos/museums/york%20mus%205.jpg
I don’t think I can or would do all they have done, but that is the idea. We shall see how much I can/will do.
Later
I am sitting out in the front yard right now in one of our adirondack chairs, my whippet Lucetta at my feet. Actually, he is grazing for long grass amongst the garden plants. Alex is taking down the old aluminum blinds that we bought 20 years ago. They served the purpose well, but had gotten so dinged up in places that we had to replace them. They’ll be coming with the new blinds in the morning.
About this time of night a series of seaplanes fly over the house. They spend the night up north in Kenmore, but drop off and pick up passengers to the southeast on Lake Union. The other sounds in the neighborhood include a gas mower across the street, and the songs of the birds singing at dusk. My wife Karen is with our daughter Jessa at the dance performance featuring one of Jessa’s friends.
It’s been a good weekend, with a wonderful balance of time with Karen, the kids, and time to myself… a real rarity. Saturday morning we went to breakfast with an old bassoon playing friend of mine. We went to Cornish Music School together and both played in the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra. He is a vet, playing bassoon only part time, now, though often that includes gigs with the Seattle Symphony. He just got a new vet job working at a spay and neuter clinic as their medical director. I think it’s a wonderful job for him, but there are the usual personnel problems.
Saturday night we ended up going to a cat art fundraiser for his clinic. We were going to buy some art to support him and his new job, but decided to forgoe getting any new “stuff”, and opted to donate cash instead.
Today Karen and I worked together in the garden, then I spent hours on my boat.
Shantyboat Technology
So how is it I can type this story while sitting out on my front lawn? No, it’s not a laptap, it’s an Alphasmart 3000, a small keyboard designed for schools. It has a small 4 line LCD screen, and does nothing but act as a word processor and a calculator. With the rechargable battery on board I can type for 200 hours before I run out of juice. Starting takes 3 seconds, without the usual computer boot up. They are available on Ebay for about $59 dollars each, though I got two for $89. One of them seems to have a good battery, but the other one needs to be replaced. I have taken one out on my shantyboat before, as it allows me to type out my thoughts without fear of running out of battery. I am sure you could recharge this thing on a very small solar recharger, or just take it on a trip to the library, charging it up in some corner while you browse for books.
Speaking of books, I wouldn’t have many out on my boat, as I would certainly go with the amazing technology of the Amazon Kindle electronic book. While they cost about $350, they would allow a library on board that would literally sink a small small boat, as Kindle can hold about 1500 books. Amazon has dropped the price on many electronic books, with NY Times best sellers going for $9.99 or less. If that is too rich for your budget, you can get thousands of free public domain books for your Kindle online at places such as Project Gutenberg. I like that I can be out on the river, reading a book, and suddenly decide that I’d like to read a book on a new topic, and have it on my Kindle within a hand full of minutes. The Kindle has a cell phone of sorts built in, and allows you to shop and download book samples for free. The same technology allows you to wake up every morning to any one of dozens of newspapers from across the Country and around the world. To save power you should turn off the wireless device unless you are downloading or shopping, as the device stores books, and only uses electricity as you turn a page. Once the page is “turned”, the text display uses no electricity. I am sure that future generations will allow email as well. There is the option for limited web surfing on sites such as CNN and the BBC. Again, perfect for a nomadic life on the water. Oh, and it can hold and play music and books on tape. Pretty slick. You can also load your manuals for things like your stove, outboard, and electronics onto it. Slick, slick, slick.
Alex is working now on his new boat, his sneakbox. He has sanded off most all of the varnish and fiberglass resin, which was only on the bottom for the most part. He plans to paint the bottom and varnish the sides and top. He’s removing the cockpit trim right now, a project that could be far harder than he imagined, as the old brass screws have been in place for decades! He is trying to be very thorough, but he may be doing more than be can get done in time for the boat show. He’d like to show it at the Center for Wooden Boats the weekend of July 4th.
For the first time in many years I will not be going. Instead I will be driving a friends fire engine in a local parade. Many years ago I used to own a 1940 Mack fire truck, one of the smaller models they made, though I think it was still about 24 feet long. Fire engines are cheap to buy, but they sure aren’t cheap to keep up, which is part of the reason I sold mine. Besides, after you have a fire engine for a few years, driving in parades and the like, it actually gets a bit old. Parades are fun, but only for the first dozen times or so!
I just felt a drop of rain or two, so will head in. Time to see how easy it is to transfer text from this to my website!
(It was simplicity itself, taking less than a minute to download the text into this blog.)
Bucket List
First off, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNAov_raA2o
Absolute calm day on Case Inlet which is where I want to cruise
Bucket List
My goal in building a boat really comes from the belief that there is more to my life than working. For legal reasons I won’t go in to details about work other than to say the last two people who had my job left it because they were miserable. I am not that, but it has it’s challenges.
So what do I seek? Before I get philosophical let me set the stage with something a bit less cerebral… a bucket list. What do I want to do before I kick the bucket?
In no particular order, and subject to change at any time, as is fitting a list based on whimsey…
1. I want to make diddley bow and gigar box guitars and sell them at Folklife or at the Pike Place Market. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qUxIuUNtk8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2vklC0jhJ4
2. I want to befriend a wild bird, developing mutual trust, and a gain a little more understanding into it’s social circle. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CkrMmc6AyE Go about half way in.
3. I want to learn to fly a powered parachute, a PPG or PPC. More details later. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyYAtbeqI-k or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvYB89hk4Ks
4. I want to weigh 200 pounds, which is less than I weigh now! http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage.asp?id=SIDECARS
5. I want to take a boat I built and explore Puget Sound. I want to spend a few months doing it, though the months could be done a few weeks at a time. I would also expore the rivers that feed it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQnv06HprhY&feature=PlayList&p=221CEC877C319393&index=0&playnext=1
6. I want to write a book with a boat journey as the foundation, but filled with ponderings from my life.
7. I’d like to write a book about living the shantyboat life, not a life in a junky boat, rather a life in motion on the water, lived frugally, but with purpose and adventure.
8. I’d like to explore the waters of the lower Columbia River, spending months stopping in towns, eating at local diners, sitting in local parks, watching little league games cheering on the losing team. I’d like to get to know the places and the people, and know them well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=465uqAVb1HQ
9. I’d like to substitute teach a few times to see if I like it. I was a teacher back in 1996 when I made these web pages with my students. The internet was totally new at this time, and our website was one of the first! http://web.archive.org/web/19980416003252/http://woweb.norshore.wednet.edu/woodin/LOWE/LOWE1.html
10. I’d like to have dinner with friends more often, not worrying about impressing anyone, rather focusing on having fun and a sense of connection, sharing the making of the dinner with them, working together.
11. I’d like to make a set of boat plans and sell them.
12. I’d like to collect enough blackberries to get me through a year! I’d make pies, cobblers, and more.
13. I’d like to grow my own food.
14. I’d like to develop my own recipe for flavored and/or marinated tofu.
15. I’d like to develop a delicious and health fake meat.
16. I’d like to have a pet bird, perhaps a pigeon, that would be able to fly free, yet would consider my boat or house it’s home. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYpJwFzlQU0
17. I’d like to spend time with children, bringing themon adventures such as zoo outings, train rides, and trips to fairs and festivals.
18. I’d like to go on a boat trip with my son, each in our own boats, but joinging together at dinner, spending time talking and cooking.
19. I’d like to go on an adventure with my daughter, perhaps a train trip, heading somewhere we both would like to go, taking the time to explore and find hidden treasures.
20. I’d like to spend a few days on a farm, sitting and sipping tea on a beautiful day on a front porch in the shade.
21. I want to make cheeses again.
22. I want to make sodas with interesting flavors.
23. I want to learn, really learn, to play my Cristal Baschet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHTY5VU3kXg
24. I want to take more train rides.
25. I want to spend a week on the Skagit River. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj8UIbByCmo
26. I want to figure out how to make a fake meat chicken teriyaki.
27. I’d like to go to a farmers market and listen to the music for a few hours. Bring a chair and an umbrella.
28. I’d like to visit club gatherings, such as dog or guinea pig shows, or rat fest, or pow wows.
29. I’d like to form a band with my cristal baschet and play a blend of world music, new age, jazz, and classical. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8AuZ6kDNRk
30. I’d like to play my cristal bascet into speakers that are under water in a swimming pool as part of an art exhibition, along with a projected video art creation, one which I create. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za-GcIE8BX8
31. I want to make bird houses and put them on pilings in the SNohomish River the local sloughs.
32. I want to establish a group that works to keep the sloughs clean and safe for the local wildlife.
33. I’d like to spend a night in a hammock tent, someplace where nobody has ever camped before! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2nuIibqeiI
34. I want to learn to play cajun accordion. By the way…
35. I’d like to de-clutter. I am so good at acquiring stuff, and so bad at getting rid of it!
36. I’d like to try a Buchla Lightning. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiY9MzCYmbM
