Good Grooming

Today I've decided to get a haircut.  I know what you're thinking... "How does a Mountain of a Man like J. get the time to fit in something as mundane as a haircut?"
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It's a solid query.
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I always wait until everything is seriously overgrown and well outside the standards of good grooming.  
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But there is never enough time, until I let it go long enough so that it tops the priority list for the day.
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I would like to buzz it all off, but Joanne warns me that that might make my head look big.
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Can't risk that.

Maria Rowen said...

From this female peeps perspective, any and all manscaping maneuvers are mandatory. Furthermore scientists in Germany have discovered people with big heads are smarter...So go get a good grooming guide then go get your buzz on...

Save the Pelicans

If you follow this Blog, you may have noticed that I am a bit partial to birds.  I just love the little critters.... the way they sing and chirp and stuff.

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So it's been a little painful to see the Pelicans soaked in oil as the prime examples of the BP oil leak in the Gulf.
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Seems like they are taking the brunt of the ecological beating.  I'm sure that if the media could find dead fish or ducks or dolphins, they would be mixing them in..... but so far, only Pelicans.
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Never had a Pelican visit the feeder.... but that's not unusual.   It's usually stocked with sunflower seeds and I rarely stuff a herring into it.

Pram Launch

Mike came home to hang with the Grandkids, so I had the second pair of hands needed to get the Pram down at the ring on the Village Wharf.  Naturally a couple of little details became challenges such as the ring size being too small for the theft chain to pass through.
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So I rigged up a temporary arrangement to lock down the Pram, which will require some future modification. 
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I have to admit that the Pram cuts a fine figure next to the store bought fiberglass dinghies and inflatables that are the norm down there.  Maybe I'll take a picture and let you judge for yourself.
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Shortly after we returned, a thunderstorm cell stormed through and dropped sheets of rain, so I went down before the Celts Lakers game got hot with the intention of hauling the boat onto the dock and draining the rainwater.   But a steady breeze was cutting across the harbor, really tossing the pram around and it seemed to be be holding its own with the rainwater that it took on, so I opted for tomorrow morning.
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Plus, I want to row out to the mooring and check to see that everything has been seasonally maintained by Mid-Harbor Marine before I take Ryan Marine to task for failing to put the WhaleEye on the mooring as promised.

Pisc said...

I was telling my old man about Sammy Khairi and Hooters. And explaining how our friend of Jordanian background pounded vendors into submission, wearied by the hammers from Thayer El Samir Khairi, forged over centuries. A salaam alai'kum (and that predates Barry's nonsense).

Crystal Clear

Usually when politicians use the word "clearly", things are not clear at all.  They throw this adjective out there to sway people to their point of view.
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When Congressman Ed Markey says that criminal penalties are necessary because British Petroleum has "clearly violated the laws of nature".... what the hell does that mean?  Does he know of some legal code that our teachers neglected to tell us about?
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He reminds me of a eighth grade debater.   Lots of emotion, with big gaps of logic left out.
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Markey isn't stupid.  So I wonder what his motives are when he spouts stuff like that.  Too often it seems that liberal spokesmen treat us like sheep.  They, as the shepards, herd us by whistling phrases that "clearly" point out the way we are to think.
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Markey seems to be frantically striving to assign blame to this recovery effort.... which has to be frustrating because President Barack Obama has wisely assumed responsibility after some of his party faithful tried to knee jerk the blame onto the Bush Administration.  Obama did the right thing by nipping this strategy in the bud.

Harvey Rowe said.....
Ed Markey was a Malden Catholic Graduate.....I don't know what happened after that......



Pisc said...
Realize they drilled that far off shore because the green folks said anything closer was a hazard. Ironic, not in a smug way. a mile deep is a long way. The idea was to protect the environment.

POTW Week 22

Launching the Pram on the Village Wharf ring sometime today.  Before I do this, I have to dry fit the sprit sailing rig to the mast and finish the cap on the centerboard.  I'm toying with the idea of leaving the mast on the boat when I leave it on the ring.   Even if some nutcase stole it, it would be easy enough to replace.

Announcing....
Nanepashemet Peeps of the Week for the 22nd Week of 2010

Bob Wojcik
Mark Ryan
Rafe Hershfield
Bianna Golodryga
Tipper Gore
Emily Engardia

Have to take a run down to West Marine for the final cleats and hardware required.  Maybe I'll take Grandson Will for his first of many trips to the marine hardware store with his Grandfather JJ.

Peruvian Prisoner

The little Dutch Boy from Aruba, Joran Van der Sloot, who killed Natalie Holloway now has murdered a 21 year old in Peru, Stephanie Flores.   Unfortunately, the Aruban judicial system could not convict him, so he was free to ruin more lives.
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The self centered asshole was free to travel internationally and take a gambling holiday in Lima.
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I hope the Peruvians find a nice piece of hell on earth for him for the rest of his selfish, worthless life.  May he live for many years in constant agony, then enjoy his eternal damnation.
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It's times like this when I wish I was a Peruvian Prison Guard.

Beat LA

Game 1 of the Celtics - Lakers Championship series doesn't mean much.  The momentum can swing widely over a seven game series.
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But I'm going to watch anyway.
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Beat LA.

Pisc said...

If it were anyone other than LA, I wouldn't, but I will.

LA blows. Bunch of wannabes and half assed gangsters, talking big about shooting other half assed gangsters and making movies that go straight to dvd.

Banks shot wins this one. We invented the bank shot, Cousy, Hondo, Jo Jo, etc.

Between the Lines

There seems to be quite a bit of scrutiny lately of this Blog.  Peeps doing searches to see if I let my guard down and disclosed something.  That's possible... but unlikely.  I'm just too old and cagey.
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You can draw your own conclusions here.  Read between the lines.  And if you are an offending party, and you think I'm talking precisely about you.... maybe I am, and maybe I'm not.  The fact is that probably I'm not, but I'll never admit anything one way or another.   I get some solace from the thought that this probably causes you Narcissists a great deal of extra angst and neurosis.
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The bottom line is that 100 years from now, we will all be dead.... and you and all the drama will be totally forgotten anyway.   So it's important to live in the present, and make the best of the cards that you are dealt everyday.
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If you don't do that, you tend to seem like a pathetic loser over this brief period of existence that is your life.

Master at Masts

The mast for the pram sailing rig is almost done.  
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Three 3/4" thick, 2 1/4" wide 8' long boards were cut from a single piece of 1x8x14 clear spruce stock that was lying on the lumber rack for a couple of years.   The boards were then laminated with thickened West System, fast set epoxy, clamped, and left to dry overnight.
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Then I cut the corners into an octogon with my bandsaw and sanded the corners to a rough curve with a spar sanding jig that I rigged up a while ago to use inverted sanding belts with a tensioning jig that is turned by my  25 year old, 1/2" Milwaukee drill.
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I manually planed down the high spots with my Lie Neilsen Block Plane, which is easily the classiest tool that I own.  The final spar sanding was done with the heavy duty flap sander that I bought mail order from Grizzley when I used to be prone to irrational late night Internet tool ordering.   It's a damn nice flap sander though, and who knew that I'd be needing it for spar and oar fabrication at the time????
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So with a little epoxy and varnish, the mast will be ready for line cleat hardware, and this Pram will be tested under sail.

Spilled Oil

I haven't told you how I feel about the BP oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico yet.
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That's because it's so hard to figure out what's going on after the Media rings the "Crisis" Bell.
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And whatever you think of the Obama administration, you have to admit that they are a bit prone to exaggeration
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Witness the recent Swine Flu pandemic, now that the government is dumping unused vaccine.
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So when they say that this is an environmental disaster of epic proportions and that the crisis rivals the carnage of Hurricane Katrina..... I'm just not on board yet..... especially with news film of BO walking the beach and saying " These are the tar balls they are talking about."    Tar balls are not Katrina.
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My favorite journalists on ABC News are all over this story.... Speaking with Passion.   The Governor's kid, Andrew Cuomo, pointed to some oil on some marsh grass tonight and said dramatically, "And when this is gone.... it's gone forever."   Ecologically and scientifically speaking, Andrew is dead wrong.  Nature has huge recuperative powers with this type of thing.
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And Congressman Ed Markey, with his finger pointing and name calling..... all the while offering no solutions or alternatives.... well I guess that is Ed Markey for you.  He hasn't helped me to make up my mind either.  Plus I don't know why we are sitting back and asking British Petroleum to solve this.  Just because they have financial liability, it's the American Homeland that is supposedly under siege.
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I'm pretty sure that there will be some ecological and economic damage out of this.  And my heart goes out to the people who live and work on that shore and are so frightened by the uncertainty.  But, just as we avoided the massive pandemic of the swine flu, maybe this too shall pass.

Memorial Musings

Happy Memorial Day.
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Last night while watching Sixty Minutes , Andy Rooney, who is a WWII vet, pointed out that our forefathers didn't "give" their lives for their country.  Their lives were "taken" from them.   They were the victims of circumstance, but rose to the occasion, with the result being the preservation of our way of life.
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Without their response and courage, we could be speaking German, and busy purifying the races.  We could be in a cultural Dark Age shackled by totalitarian repression.  Who knows what our lives would be like.
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In my own case, my grandfather was gassed in the trenches of WWI France, my father spent a year in the hospital after his Coast Guard Ship was sunk in WWII and my father in law survived wounds and prison camp in the Korean War. 
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To this day, I always have some guilt for not going to Vietnam, although my father claimed that he would shoot me in the foot to avoid being drafted.  Luckily, my draft number was high enough to preclude either alternative. 
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I believe that we had a need to intervene in Iraq and Afghanistan, although the inability to reach closure in these conflicts is very disturbing.  At this point, it is overbearing to hear of the deaths of young Americans over there.

Tuna Lips said...

On the other foot, solgerin" gets all the prine hoors, most often at a rebate price. Shoo worked that angle, shameless as he were.

Official State Bird of Maine

A few Peeps mentioned that they were heading to Northern New England this weekend.  And I was really tempted to head to North Conway, New Hampshire, but Joanne had an open house for the Sundance School Program.
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It's probably for the best, because this is really the peak of Black Fly Season on our pristine northern states of Maine and New Hampshire.
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These swarming, blood sucking, bastards can really put a damper on your fun in May and June.
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As bad as Black flies are, the worst are the Greenheads on Crane's Beach in Ipswich.   They don't just sting or bite, they tear out a chunk of your flesh.
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So I'm going to hang around the driveway and work on the boats.
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Have a nice day.