As I rode my bicycle along the beach today on Hilton Head Island with a gray sky and cool breeze, I came upon a large family and their Doberman walking in front of me in the same direction. I slowed until I was noticed. I waited for someone to collar the dog. The fellow I took to be dad, older and heavier than all his teenaged children, had a red plastic extendable-retractable leash in his hand. The dog was not attached to it despite what the large signs said at every beach entrance.
No one grabbed the dog but they did separate so I could proceed along the beach so I went. That’s when I heard dad shout, “Bradley”! I kept biking. He shouted, “Bradley” again with some urgency. I wondered if that could possibly be the dog’s name. Who names a dog Bradley?
That’s when I heard the noise of racing paws and nails on hard sand and there was the Doberman barking, “Woof, Woof” at my heels. This was obviously another well-trained Doberman. Dad screamed, “Bradley stop”. Bradley aimed for my right leg and snapped.
I shouted, “Fuck off Bradley”. He paused. “Fuck off Bradley” I said again. He slowed, then stopped. Obviously, I was not the first teenager to tell Bradley to stop whatever he was doing in this fashion.
I got to the big creek in one piece and sat enjoying the view. The family arrived. Bradley was still loose, but one of the kids herded him away from me without me so much as swearing in his direction. No one came over to say that Bradley is a lovely dog who hardly ever bites elderly bicyclists.
When I finally got back on my bike and turned to head back up the beach, the lady who appeared to me to be the mother of this bunch, older and worn-out looking, smiled and said, “Hello”. I suddenly had the feeling Bradley was not her favorite either.
I don’t dislike dogs, Doberman or otherwise. I dislike people who do not train their dogs and seem surprised by, and even try to justify, the untrained dog’s bad behavior. I once had a boss whose terrible dog knocked a kid off his bike out in the street and bit him. My boss speculated that the kid should not have been riding a bike in the street by his house. That was clearly the only problem.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
My old house
I have finally finished repairing all the doors in my dining room that did not close. There are six doors in my dining room, which I think is unusual. Two doors lead from the kitchen into the room, one to the wine cellar, one to the attic, one to the front porch and one to the downstairs bathroom. The entry to the formal living room is an archway. That’s because it represents the connection of one very old house, the dining room, to a not very much newer house, the living room, et al.
The dining room actually existed on its own as a house at one time in the early 1700’s, four lots down our street. The living room, den, birthing room and large attic, now two bedrooms and a bath, existed on the current site, first as a Cape half house and later as a full Cape.
The dining room house was dragged down the street around 1800 to 1830 and added to the Cape. On the back of the dining room there was a very old winter kitchen. The summer kitchen and the outhouse were in the back yard on opposite sides of the barn. There are lilacs where the outhouse used to be. I still have the permit that allowed my grandfather-in-law, Frank Crosby, to add indoor plumbing in 1936. Not a moment too soon according to my late mother-in-law.
Frank’s wife Gert complained bitterly that she had no pantry and the wood shed was on the other side of the barn. At different times, Frank went down to the Town Wharf nearby and purchased old shacks from the fishermen there. He had these shacks dragged here, cut down a window at the back of the kitchen and made the opening into a door. Then he stuck the shacks onto the back of the old kitchen. One became a pantry and one the new wood shed.
This whole section collapsed in 1984. An inspection revealed that when Frank had installed a sink in the kitchen, he left the drain pipe under the crawl space to empty into the sand there. Almost fifty years later the accumulated moisture caused the floor to give way and so went the rest of the kitchen.
We rebuilt this area. We created a modern kitchen and family room following the original exterior footprint despite our protestations to the historic commission that there was nothing original about the two fish shacks!
At the same time, we removed an odd projection from the front door. It was a very small shack that Frank had found somewhere, origin unknown, and stuck to the original front door to create a sort of closet for Gert who claimed a great lack of closet space.
This front door is actually on the side of the lot away from the main street the house sits on. This was done purposefully so that the dust from the horse drawn wagons on the dirt road wouldn’t get into the house in the summer when the front door might be open for the breeze.
So now all the doors in the dining room close properly. My guess is that absolutely no one but me will notice!
The dining room actually existed on its own as a house at one time in the early 1700’s, four lots down our street. The living room, den, birthing room and large attic, now two bedrooms and a bath, existed on the current site, first as a Cape half house and later as a full Cape.
The dining room house was dragged down the street around 1800 to 1830 and added to the Cape. On the back of the dining room there was a very old winter kitchen. The summer kitchen and the outhouse were in the back yard on opposite sides of the barn. There are lilacs where the outhouse used to be. I still have the permit that allowed my grandfather-in-law, Frank Crosby, to add indoor plumbing in 1936. Not a moment too soon according to my late mother-in-law.
Frank’s wife Gert complained bitterly that she had no pantry and the wood shed was on the other side of the barn. At different times, Frank went down to the Town Wharf nearby and purchased old shacks from the fishermen there. He had these shacks dragged here, cut down a window at the back of the kitchen and made the opening into a door. Then he stuck the shacks onto the back of the old kitchen. One became a pantry and one the new wood shed.
This whole section collapsed in 1984. An inspection revealed that when Frank had installed a sink in the kitchen, he left the drain pipe under the crawl space to empty into the sand there. Almost fifty years later the accumulated moisture caused the floor to give way and so went the rest of the kitchen.
We rebuilt this area. We created a modern kitchen and family room following the original exterior footprint despite our protestations to the historic commission that there was nothing original about the two fish shacks!
At the same time, we removed an odd projection from the front door. It was a very small shack that Frank had found somewhere, origin unknown, and stuck to the original front door to create a sort of closet for Gert who claimed a great lack of closet space.
This front door is actually on the side of the lot away from the main street the house sits on. This was done purposefully so that the dust from the horse drawn wagons on the dirt road wouldn’t get into the house in the summer when the front door might be open for the breeze.
So now all the doors in the dining room close properly. My guess is that absolutely no one but me will notice!
Monday, November 16, 2009
Magic Bean
This July when the granddaughters were visiting me, they each bought a little gift for themselves from a tourist-type shop. The youngest, Olivia, bought a metal can full of vermiculite and what looked like a pear pit. The can called it “The Magic Bean”.
Well, it wasn’t all that magic, at least at first. The bean simply sort of began to rot as Olivia dutifully watered the can each day. When they were readying to leave, her mother promised I would look after magic bean and bring it to their house when I next visited in the fall.
Eventually I got the “bean” headed in the right direction and it began to sprout. I left it in a sunny corner of the kitchen and it climbed up the leg of a small table next to it. I re-potted it into a clay pot and gave it a little fertilizer.
It climbed up the table and headed for the side door, determined it seemed to exceed my expectations in a straggly, weedy sort of manner.
When I packed to visit this week I unwound magic bean from the table and the doorway and put it in a place of prominence on the floor of the passenger seat of my truck.
Magic bean and I arrived in a cold rain. The next day we all proceeded from the cab of the truck to the house and a nice shelf in the big hallway with lots of light and re-wrapped magic bean around a metal display rack. Olivia was thrilled.
The next day magic bean was minus most of one leaf. On Saturday, we discovered the cat, Emerson, eating two other magic leaves. At this rate, magic bean would be stripped bare in a week. We moved it higher on the rack.
Daughter Jessica was the first to notice how relaxed Emerson seemed that evening. Positively blissed out. Laying around at the foot of the rack looking up with a big shit eating grin.
Now I know the Chinese have exported some amazing things to the U.S. I’ve been to WalMart. But you don’t think they would dare to put that in a can and sell it to kids as “Magic bean”, do you?
Monday, November 2, 2009
I purchased six preserved star fish on the Chinese black market. I put them in the front windows. All the old houses here have those little window panes. Nine over six, six over six, twelve over six. And we all have crap in the windows. Star fish, candles, oil lamps, ship models. I don’t know why. I guess it’s required.
Anyway, I put the star fish in the windows with their good side out. Like you do when you erect a fence. The good side faces the neighbor’s house. Then I took a bike ride by the river and looked at the windows in other old houses. All the star fish were facing into the house with the mouth side facing out. Every single one.
Who makes these rules. And where does one look up the “star fish facing rule for old house windows”!
I know why we have to only have white Christmas lights in our windows during the holidays. The local Historic District Commission requires it. Is there a star fish commission?
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Being a lazy Buddhist
I marvel some mornings in retirement about how quickly I have become so lazy. I always suspected that if I gave myself full sway I would be a very lazy person. It’s one of the reasons I kept going so hard, so long.
Now, in the morning, I make excellent coffee and take time to drink it, sitting quietly on the porch or while reading a book. I don’t rush. If I want to go to the store, I decide when it is convenient for me. If I want an apple crisp for supper, I take the time to make it.
When I am doing chores I take breaks and read, listen to music or just sit quietly and think. I meditate when I feel like it and not on any schedule that I can figure out or that is determined by work or anything external.
I have argued recently with friends that I like a good discussion, even a polite argument, on certain matters I think are important, things that have to do with community, public life, politics, et al.
My Buddhism instructor suggested I might want to discourage this “bad habit” in myself. And, instead, marvel at the views of others while suggesting I have taken another approach to the matter without explaining what. If they want to discuss this, I should act like Allen Ginsburg on the William Buckley TV show many years ago and simply say, “I love you” each time they try to engage me in further discussion.
I don’t think I could pull it off. I’m not THAT blissed out! But I get the point. Perhaps I should try. If it does run counter to my very nature, perhaps it will be interesting to see if I can change that at this late date.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Traffic
In 1935 two bridges were completed over the Cape Cod Canal. They are both steel suspension bridges, maintained by the Army Corp of Engineers, and built by the WPA, no doubt under budget and on time. And at that time, let’s guess that 10,000 people lived year round on Cape Cod. That was the total population, all of it, from Wood’s Hole to Provincetown, that those bridges were built to handle.
Today, 75 years later, with a population of, again let’s estimate 300,000 living year round here, we still use those bridges. They are the only way on and off Cape Cod for automobile traffic. Approximately 100,000 cars travel over the two bridges every day. When the Corp needs to do maintenance, like at the moment on the Sagamore bridge, the resulting backups stretch for miles, all day, every day. It’s like the Southeast Expressway in Boston.
On a larger scale, our Interstate Highway System was begun during the Eisenhower Administration more than fifty years ago. Ike realized in WWII that we would need to be able to move people and materials quickly from one place to another in this country as the Germans were doing. We have not tackled such a project since. We add onto and modify a system that is too old, too slow and completely lacking in capacity for today’s world. Have you ever tried to travel along Route 95 in Connecticutt?
With highways, and airports, malls, parks and a thousand other things we might consider as a community, we must all agree on the merits of the project. If just one person says no, then who are we to force this on them against their will? This appears true today regardless of the needs of the larger community.
Granted, lots of mistakes were made building the original Interstate Highway System. Hopefully, we wouldn’t make the same mistakes again. But to plan to do nothing at all seems crazy to me. We need two more bridges of the same size over the Cape Cod Canal, four lanes in each direction both in Sagamore and Bourne.
Imagine having to evacuate the Cape for some reason with the current bridges. It would be a disaster.
Wishing people would just say no to driving automobiles is just silly.
Today, 75 years later, with a population of, again let’s estimate 300,000 living year round here, we still use those bridges. They are the only way on and off Cape Cod for automobile traffic. Approximately 100,000 cars travel over the two bridges every day. When the Corp needs to do maintenance, like at the moment on the Sagamore bridge, the resulting backups stretch for miles, all day, every day. It’s like the Southeast Expressway in Boston.
On a larger scale, our Interstate Highway System was begun during the Eisenhower Administration more than fifty years ago. Ike realized in WWII that we would need to be able to move people and materials quickly from one place to another in this country as the Germans were doing. We have not tackled such a project since. We add onto and modify a system that is too old, too slow and completely lacking in capacity for today’s world. Have you ever tried to travel along Route 95 in Connecticutt?
With highways, and airports, malls, parks and a thousand other things we might consider as a community, we must all agree on the merits of the project. If just one person says no, then who are we to force this on them against their will? This appears true today regardless of the needs of the larger community.
Granted, lots of mistakes were made building the original Interstate Highway System. Hopefully, we wouldn’t make the same mistakes again. But to plan to do nothing at all seems crazy to me. We need two more bridges of the same size over the Cape Cod Canal, four lanes in each direction both in Sagamore and Bourne.
Imagine having to evacuate the Cape for some reason with the current bridges. It would be a disaster.
Wishing people would just say no to driving automobiles is just silly.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
I generally like political discussion, even argument if it is conducted without rancor. In my family, and with certain friends, we always talked about politics. Some of my friends and family members, for that matter, are very conservative, others are more liberal. No one has developed hard feelings over such discussions or felt particularly condescended to that I know of. But that's been suggested as the likely outcome by some people after I forwarded some political items recently to my e-mail list.
I have often modified my views after talking with someone I respected about current events. It would sadden me to suggest that any discussion or e-mail of mine smacks of telling someone what to think. I, of all people, don't know enough about anything to tell anyone what to think! I do have opinions, however, and though I'm sure they are often misguided, they are rarely carved in stone.
I think this experience of my e-mail list is reflective of something deeply wrong in our country at the moment. It worries me. This very small sample of folks can't discuss anything remotely political in a civil and thoughtful manner, whether we disagree a little or a lot, whether conservative or liberal. How do we get to middle ground if positions are inflexible and compromise is thought to be surrender.
This furthers my thought that some of what the Internet is doing is letting folks solidify positions and never, ever, consider a different point of view.
The old Subject Headings in a library card catalog sometimes led folks like me to very different material than we set out looking for in the beginning and I believe that was a positive thing. And newspapers provided the opportunity to sometimes see an article or opinion piece that differed from my present view. All that is essentially gone for lots of people. If you want to see a different view on-line you have to find it and go get it. It doesn't just pop up in front of you.
The Internet may be contributing to the fact that no one is listening to anyone else. No one has to compromise in Second Life!
Today some folks only watch MSNBC (or FOX News) and search web sites that amuse them and confirm their world view. I think that's missing the point. Who benefits? What about the greater good? What might a compromise actually look like?
I'm a middle of the road guy. A friend tells me that's just the place to be if you want to be run over! I want tort reform in medical malpractice and a public option that may help to drive down costs of health insurance. And, unlike preaching to the choir, I like talking to people with different points of view because I think it will help me to form a better perspective on what's not just good for me but good for the country as well.
I have often modified my views after talking with someone I respected about current events. It would sadden me to suggest that any discussion or e-mail of mine smacks of telling someone what to think. I, of all people, don't know enough about anything to tell anyone what to think! I do have opinions, however, and though I'm sure they are often misguided, they are rarely carved in stone.
I think this experience of my e-mail list is reflective of something deeply wrong in our country at the moment. It worries me. This very small sample of folks can't discuss anything remotely political in a civil and thoughtful manner, whether we disagree a little or a lot, whether conservative or liberal. How do we get to middle ground if positions are inflexible and compromise is thought to be surrender.
This furthers my thought that some of what the Internet is doing is letting folks solidify positions and never, ever, consider a different point of view.
The old Subject Headings in a library card catalog sometimes led folks like me to very different material than we set out looking for in the beginning and I believe that was a positive thing. And newspapers provided the opportunity to sometimes see an article or opinion piece that differed from my present view. All that is essentially gone for lots of people. If you want to see a different view on-line you have to find it and go get it. It doesn't just pop up in front of you.
The Internet may be contributing to the fact that no one is listening to anyone else. No one has to compromise in Second Life!
Today some folks only watch MSNBC (or FOX News) and search web sites that amuse them and confirm their world view. I think that's missing the point. Who benefits? What about the greater good? What might a compromise actually look like?
I'm a middle of the road guy. A friend tells me that's just the place to be if you want to be run over! I want tort reform in medical malpractice and a public option that may help to drive down costs of health insurance. And, unlike preaching to the choir, I like talking to people with different points of view because I think it will help me to form a better perspective on what's not just good for me but good for the country as well.
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