Under the Road

For today's expedition, I dragged the kayak across the marsh to the river, then went north to the point, east to Great Neck Road, under the road, and up to Wolf Snare, where I called Diana to bring the van and pick me up. This is the first time I've been under Great Neck Road; last time I tried it, the water wasn't deep enough, but this time I set off right at high tide.

No spectacular photos, but all the pines are getting ready to drop pollen, and the fiddler crabs make a noise like a rushing wind as you walk through the marsh.

The main thing for today was getting to a place I've never been before. I hadn't looked at the map before I left, so once I got to the east of the road, I looked at the channel heading southeast and thought "I have no idea where that goes." It gave me a new appreciation for early explorers.

Camera

Back around Christmastime, we ordered a camera from OpticsPlanet.com at $199. Didn't get it for a week or so, called for an update, "out of stock." A couple of weeks later, it's in stock but we owe more money--which we didn't. Then it's out of stock again, no idea when it'll come in (normally I'd have cancelled the order at that point, but we had reasons not to, so we hung in there). Then it's in stock, we can get it to you before Josh leaves for Australia--except they didn't. Then it's out of stock. Then they can ship it now, once we pay the balance.--they're claiming the price is $249, and they don't have any record of what the price was back when I ordered it. Suuuure.

Best Buy had it in the store at $199, so this afternoon we picked up a Canon Powershot SX120.

Pancakes

Diana made pancakes this morning. I pointed out that they were exceptionally fluffy; she told me that was because she had added bacon powder. Mmmmm.....bacon.

Fear and Loathing in Politics

There have been reports lately of Tea Party members using calling people names, throwing bricks through windows, engaging in other acts of political incivility. Some of these reports are undocumented (what other people would call "lies") or omit minor details (the "right wing" militia extremist who voted Democrat for eight elections in the last ten years), but some are correct; because of that, we are being told to regard Tea Partiers and other small government as mouth-breathing knuckle-dragging angry ignorant uneducated racist white bigoted redneck Neanderthal psychopaths who are a threat to us all.

However, while we're panicking over Tea Partiers, we must not lose sight of two other groups of even more dangerous rabid crazed killers and extremists--namely, journalists and politicians. According to an alert issued by The Media Violence Project / Center for the Study of Political Sociopathy, large numbers of journalists have been accused of everything from animal cruelty to premeditated murder. Politicians, it need hardly be said, have been accused of even more heinous crimes. Just as a few Tea Party brick-lobbers prove the whole movement is made up of gun-toting rednecks, so too do the examples of journalistic and political depravity prove that every member of either pursuit is criminal to the core. I urge you to read "Journo-politico Violence: Deadly Threat or Menacing Trend?", and then stock up on guns, ammo, and...more ammo, I guess.

Lords of the Sea

Lords of the Sea was written by Alfred Thayer Mahan, the author of The Influence of Sea Power Upon History. I hadn't realized that at first, but the writing style is distinctive; it takes a bit of getting used to, which is why I'm just finishing the book now despite having gotten it for Christmas. Lords covers the careers of six notables of the Royal Navy: Hawke, Rodney, Howe, Jervis, Saumarez, and Pellew. He considers the first four to be notable admirals; he says that Saumarez and Pellew, while excellent captains, didn't have the gift for being in overall command. Oddly, no chapter is devoted to Nelson, although Mahan does say that Nelson wasn't as skilled at ship-handling as, say, Saumarez; you don't have to be able to drive the ship to know where it should go.

Speaking of things which have been unfinished since Christmas, I've finally used the Amazon certificate and ordered The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving Economic Collapse (which was written by someone who was in Argentina during its troubles 2001) and Pike and Shot Tactics (which was written by someone who was never in the Thirty Years War but I hope it will be informative anyway).

Fondue

We were looking at fondue recipes for a slow cooker.

Version 1: Greyere, fontini, dry white wine, dry mustard, a tablespoon of flour, cubed focaccia bread.

Version 2: Velveeta, cheddar soup, a bottle of beer, a dash of tabasco and two drops of liquid smoke.

Birthday

Had my 47th birthday yesterday. Hat tip to Tom for pointing out that next year I'll be 30, in hexadecimal notation.

My co-workers know I play a tauren druid in Warcraft, so my gifts from them included "Tauren Trail Mix" (mixed nuts and dried cranberries) and "Druid Bars" (also known as Payday bars, which have no chocolate and are therefore about the only candy bar I can have). They also had carrot cake, and Diana brought another cake by at lunch, so I got my full supply of carbs for the day.

Several people asked me if I had plans for the evening. My answer was "Not that I know of....but my wife likes to surprise me." Joshua called from Australia to say hello, and helpfully suggested that we go wild, and possibly even mix a little regular coffee with the decaf that evening. Thanks, son. He also said that his girlfriend wanted to pass along her greets, so, "Happy birthday from Us." That "Us" took me aback...I just wasn't quite ready to hear that.

And at six o'clock, as I was finishing work, a man in a suit came to my office door and said, "Mr. DeBoe? I have something outside for you." So, wondering what it was--a huge batch of flowers? A firing squad?--I looked outside, and behold, there was a white stretch limo, with Diana inside, a bottle of wine, and Doobie Brothers hits playing on the sound system. Took me completely by surprise. We went to Vintage Tavern in Suffolk, where Diana had seared tuna on a warm arugula salad with roasted grapes; I had bourbon-molasses glazed baby back ribs; and dessert was Bailey’s ice cream. Then back to work to pick up my car, home again, and a quiet evening.