Going Back II- Sailing

I went sailing for the first time in my life!!! If I had a 30 by 30 list (which I don't) sailing would have been near the top.

My only experience with wind-powered boat travel was on the Lake several years ago. Mr. E.S.'s hair-brained shceme was to sail across the Lake using three canoes a, tarp, several stout poles, and a bike. He raised enough interest and we set off- Anna, Bria, Aaron, Ethan, Kim & George, Mr. E.S., myself, and possibly someone else I'm forgetting.

We lashed the three canoes together with the stout poles, put the bike in the middle canoe so that Ethan could ride back around the lake to get the van (our steering mechanism was too primative to think about tacking back), and arranged ourselves according to weight and skills. We must have paddled out a little way before raising our sail. For sail read Anna and I and the tarp. Yep, I was the mast. We stood up in each in the bow of the outside canoes and raised the tarp. It flapped about, caught the wind and filled to a beautiful taut roundeness and pulled us forward. We braced against it and our trimarinne shot forward, skimming across the lake at incredible speeds (cough, cough). I was enchanted!

At the other side we lowered the tarp and leaped over the side to enjoy a spot of swimming while Ethan biked back for the van and trailer.


Okay, so I went over to Bria's house a couple weekends ago for our first annual Shakespeare weekend, another story all to itself. But that got interruped when her father told us he was planning on going out the next day on his thirty-foot sailboat. Would we like to go? Would we ever! We dumped Shakespeare like a ton of bricks.

The sun was out, the wind was perfect, the boat was lovely. The sky was a gorgeous blue with little fluffy clouds. The sun was deliciously hot and the breeze refreshing. Since have I no practical knowledge of sailing (aside from knowing how to be a mast) and there were several other much more competent individuals aboard, my only responsiblity for the next several hours was just to keep from falling off the boat. :-)

I did actually steer for a few minutes while we were still under motor power coming out of the harbor. It was an interesting experience- nothing like steering a car because the whole boat is in front instead of behind. It had a delayed response to any turn of the helm, and was affected by outside forces in ways a car is not. Weird.

After my two minutes of activity at the helm I moved on to several hours of inactivity. We sat about the deck talking or being quiet as we felt lead, dangling our feet over the edge to feel the cool spray, learning to avoid the beam, eating snickers and granola bars, avoiding Cheech's crumbs, watching the waves, the coast, the clouds, the sails, dozing or just sitting. I wasn't scared at all, and I only felt slightly nauseous when I went below.

My cell phone was out of hearing, it was the Sabbath, and all obligations and worries were beyond my control. I wish the day could have gone on for a week at least.

I know that sailing can be pretty miserable in adverse weather or winds, but 100% of my sailing experience has been 100% positive. Pretty good, eh? I suppose I should stop while I'm ahead. I suppose the odds of ever having such a wonderful time again get worse with every sailing trip I take. :-)

Anyway, here are my words for sailing: peace, joy, beauty, intensity, light, grace, heat, cool, speed, movement, silence, stillness, timelessness, decadence, bliss, perfection, solitude, wonder, companionship.

Well-rounded

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.

Specialization is for insects.

-Lazarus Long

Food for thought and one more picture for the road

This quote may seem random in the extreme, but it isn't- really! I have recently been rooting about in the topic of classical education. I've aquired a few new books and some new ideas. Rachel and I have even embarked on a project for the improvement of our minds with the aid of a book titled "The Well-Educated Mind" (blessing on you, Bria!). So really this quote is one of the long-handled spoons stirring up the pot of my brain (okay, its late at night). More to come on the subject later (maybe).


"For we let our young men and women go unarmed in a day when armor was never so neccessary. By teaching them to read, we have left them at the mercy of the printed word. By the invention of the film and the radio, we have made certain that no aversion to reading shall secure them from the incessant battery of words, words, words. They do not know what the words mean; they do not know how to ward them off or blunt their edge or fling them back; they are a prey to words in their emotions instead of being the masters of them in their intellects. ... We have lost the tools of learing, and in their absence can only make a botched and piecemeal job of it."
-Dorothy L. Sayers, "The Lost Tools of Learning"

And one more picture because I love it!

Going Back I

Its been quite some time. Yep. So I'm going to go back a few weeks and work my way up through the blog-worthy events of my life.

A few weeks ago I was on my way home from taking care of the neighbor's horses. It was around seven o'clock and one of those misty mornings when the rising sun seems all the brighter or vivid for having to go through the moisture. The back road I was on suddenly became wonderful. I wished I had a camera. I don't own a camera. Sigh. I kept on driving. But wait! Rachel was in the car with me the other day, and I think she left her camera on the back seat! Sure enough, it was there, and isn't God good? I turned my car around to find the particularly lovely bit of road I had passed, parked, and leaped out. I stood in the middle of the road snapping pictures with glee. Here are some of the results:

Moving

Photoguy is moving Here

Yes I got it! (a bit blurry though)

A Buck and a Doe

Moon

Both of these pictures where taken around the same time, the one on top was taken with a slower shutter speed [I don't remember exactly what speed] but the one on the bottom was taken whith a faster shutter speed [1/320] Click on them to see them full screen.

More pix [Sorry people with dial up]

In the woods At the Holschers
Just flowers [i have no idea what kind]
Hawk in our backyard
Owl, Riverview Florida [the Demmes river house]
On the square in Mcdonough
It was 10:30 At night!

Here It Is!

For those of you who are interested in the technical Stuff of my new camera, Click Here