Posted by derrick on
April 29, 2006
Don’t let me hear you say life’s taking you nowhere, angel
Come get up my baby
Look at that sky, life’s begun
Nights are warm and the days are young
-bowie
Next week Tuesday will bring the totally re-designed
Cackletv.com to the web. Cackle as most of you know is the online home of
Justine Curgenven creator of the “This is the Sea” video series. Among many new features one of the most unique will be an Expedition Database where you will be able to search an archive of world-wide sea kayak expeditions, major trips, and crossings. New information is still being added daily. Within the new Expedition Database you will be able to search by paddler name, location, year, etc., or you may just browse by regions of the world. As far as we know, this is the only place where records of sea kayaking expeditions will be available all in one place.
Posted by derrick on
April 28, 2006
Ahead of me on the trail something stood out. In a moment my brain put definition on the image. It was a beautiful red fox. It looked as if it were sleeping in a peaceful drowse. But why directly on a hiking trail? Well, it only took a few moments to realize it was dead. Some lunatic had shot it. I was overwhelmed. Angry. Depressed. What was this wonderful animal doing with it’s day before having it’s life taken away so randomly? Hunting? Seeking a mate? Bringing food home to pups? Did it suffer excruciating pain? Does a fox panic when it feels it’s life draining away? I wanted to say something about it but nothing seems to feel right. There it is. Just a non-human life taken randomly in some unknown forest in the middle of Wisconsin. Some days I hate our world.
Posted by derrick on
April 28, 2006
When Lenin was little
All the birds in the forest were singin’ “Man, this is it!”
But now that he’s older
All the sailors in the heaver are screamin’ “Abandon Ship!”
- the arcade fire
It’s Fiday and if all goes well my postman will be irritating the dog by driving right up to the house to deliver a long white cardboard tube. Cool. In that tube should be #255, a black storm made for me by
Don Beale, who is happy to supplement my lack of wood-working skills in exchance for a small amount of currancy. It’s a trade in which the person getting the paddle also get’s the better part of the deal. So I’d better just strap up the kayak now!
In the continuing saga of the White Actua’s refit I spent a good amount of time yesterday slicing and dicing foam for the seat, hip pads & under the deck. Then I put all the rough puzzle peices aside to look at again today. Since I was slicing and dicing with a screaming migrane (better than doing nothing) I’m a bit fearful that I may find a small mini-cell statue of Lenin in the basement instead of knee braces!
Posted by derrick on
April 27, 2006
But it`s all relative
Even if you don`t understand
Well it`s all understood
Especially when you don`t understand
Then it`s all just because
Even if we don`t understand
-j johnson
So with the
symposium in Anglesey just about to get underway it’s time to get all “UK’d” up. So in solidarity with our Welsh brethren for the next week we can all pay like
$6.00 a gallon for gas while we travel to our fun paddling spots.
If you’re lucky enough not to have to pay that much for fuel, the rest can go in your symposium fund! Yep, things is tough all over. . . but “no one lives on an island”. . . wait. . sure they do. . who came up with that silly phrase anyway!??
Posted by derrick on
April 26, 2006
Everybody have you heard
He’s gonna buy me a mockingbird
And if that mockingbird don’t sing
He’s gonna buy me a diamond ring
And if that diamond ring won’t shine
He’s gonna surely break this heart of mine
And that’s why I keep on tellin’ everybody -j taylor
It was cold. But the show must go on. At 5 am I do feel a bit like Roy Scheider looking at his Bob Fosse reflection in the mirror and saying “It’s show time, Folks!”. For some reason the first class of the year had to be done on the one day we had a strange 10 degree temperature drop & harsh southerly wind. My fingers quickly went numb as I stood putting fuel in the jeep under the last of the morning stars.
Posted by derrick on
April 24, 2006
If a tinker were my trade
would you still find me,
carrin’ the pots I made,
followin’ behind me.
- bobby darin
Sunday I decided to remove the seat of my Anas Acuta myself. The weather was perfect. Cloudy, windy, and occasional spitting rain. You just can’t work on a British boat in any other conditions can you? Brian Day’s suggestion of using a dremel tool with a carbide cutter was absolutely the best suggestion. It allowed me to add a nice curve to the cut and went very quickly with no chipping. (By the way Brian is all over the new Seakayaker Magazine with bits on a High Stern Rudder, dent removal, & a review of a paddle sports rapid repair kit.) I’ve not glued the seat in yet as I want to take it out and play around a bit before commit to the seat’s final position. If you want to
see a step-by-step photo story Just click here.
Posted by derrick on
April 23, 2006
Abandoned halls echo with the sounds of long ago
now given power by a Modern Rock sound - Seven 13
We went “cyber bowling” last night with Gryphon. I don’t know if this is just a mid-west sort of thing but basically they turn the lights down, the music up and chase all the geezers away so the teens can have a fun Saturday night under the incessant blue glow of black lights. Nothing changes. It was sort of funny listening to the Juke box wars. Tired and sad looking middle agers in the bar would keep trying to get into their moods with dollars worth of pick up trucks and Patsy Cline, and the kids would insert their dollars to fight back with Usher, Eminem & Nickleback. So we bowled on under disco lights with a screaming culture war blasting from Behringer monitors swinging frantically over our heads. All you need is a good beat to keep the old people away.
Or in this case keeping them off the lanes. And that’s been scaring me. I’m 40. How long before I’ll start complaining about the music?
Don’t let me hear you say life’s taking you nowhere, angel
