Musings

I type this as we are ferrying from Okracoke Island to Cedar Island, which is really the mainland for all intents and purposes. We are one of three paying vehicles, and we’re riding with four others, all pickup trucks. Here’s the deal. One of the paying vehicles is a 75 ton crane, just a wee bit bigger than the one that lifted the tree off our house in May. The other paying vehicle is a little four-door, not unlike ours. Add one heavy vehicle and two not-heavy vehicles, and you get a tilted ferry. So, crew guys drove on their pickup trucks, and now our list to starboard is only eight degrees.*

By the way, we’re riding in the M/V Silver Lake, which first motored about in 1965. It’s been remodeled and re-engineered three times since, including once when they added almost 60 feet to its length.

Our ride is one of the unsung deals of the century (unlike, I suspect the bailouts we’re paying for): this two-plus hour ferry ride is $15, and that’s for the car. We ride free with it, subsidized by North Carolinians’ tax dollars…. (Full disclosure: our first ferry ride of the day was free!)

* I am unclear if this is actually a metaphor for life, that not all things are on the level, or something….

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Listing 8°

…gleefully calls shots like this “sunset at the Outer Banks.”

Yeah, it took me a few beats, too, and then I didn’t find it too terribly funny either…. Still They say it’s good for us to keep our brains alert with little games….

Posted at 9:24 AM | 2 Comments »

…that I need a tripod or at least something sturdy to lean against to get steady shots of the moon!

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Remind me…

…yes, Dorothy, we’re not in Kansas anymore!

Posted at 8:26 PM | Comments Off on Yes…

Some days, by this hour, my brain is pure mush and I haven’t anything interesting in mind to write about. So, here’s a mystery of sorts: how does a plant manage to survive when its leaves become this color, given that its chlorophyll activities are extremely frustrated*.

Still, pretty darned beautiful!

* I once heard The Botanist characterize plants bred to have non-green leaves using this word….

Posted at 5:35 PM | 3 Comments »

When we stayed at a B&B in Britain on our honeymoon, I found out that in British English a yard and a garden are two different things when I complemented our host on all the lovely plantings in his back yard, as we looked out the picture window. He looked at me funny and said, well, here a yard is somewhere you have garbage cans and park your scooter, and this is a garden.

So, of course I replied, I love your GARDEN! while thinking, aha, that’s what Scotland YARD means!

Regarding the lovely reflecting GARDEN ornaments above, I need to route myself back down that street on a sunny day with the good camera and get some better shots.

Posted at 7:12 PM | 1 Comment »

Tangent. That’s what this site is.

I concur with JVF, the content is a window.

But the site is a tangent.

Oooh, what a tangled web we weave.* And live.

Enough!

* No deception offered, just smeary windows….

Posted at 10:02 PM | 4 Comments »

Quadruple batch underway…that is, four boxes of food-processor-pulverized wafers and nuts being added to the sugar-cocoa-bourbon mixture….

Two major themes of interest today: T (aka E) and I had a bourbon-ball party—making them, that is; and, hmm, maybe that was all! The rest was like dusting, uneventful, but you do it anyway.

Posted at 10:14 PM | 3 Comments »

Today wasn’t our first hard frost, but almost. Certainly it’s the first I got outside to record!

I remain amazed that the pansys can survive our winters—and be cheerful about it! (well, wilty until the temps rise).

Trying a new recipe tonight. Chicken (pieces). Roasted. Should be easy. I’ll type it up if it works! (Stay tuned!)

Posted at 5:19 PM | Comments Off on Cold & hot

Are these asters? I always think of them as asters. They’re blooming now, along with pansies. My sense of the seasons developed in the upper Midwest, and I find blooms outdoors this time of the year just plain strange.

Prediction:* when they log the votes tonight, the turnout will have been LOW and Saxby the Sleeze will get the voter’s nod, thanks to the rural vote, or alternatively because of the low urban turnout (your choice).

* Yeah, we went to vote. No line; a steady flow of voters, but no line. Remember 4 Nov? We waited an hour. BTW, we voted on four runoff elections, two of them judges….

Posted at 3:56 PM | Comments Off on Runoff; runaway?