MICHAEL VICK

I originally wanted to limit this to personal matters like what I did on my latest vacation and family milestones like graduations and such but the Michael Vick situation is too local and growing to ignore. Three of the four men indicted so far are locals and Virginia Tech is too close to the whole situation and there are too many local people who know Vick to ignore what is going on.

I hear a lot about "innocent until proven ...". Nonsense when applied to this case. There is a big difference between a court conviction and prison time and knowing some one is behaving in a way that I don't want to ever be near them or any of their friends or family again. Michael Vick should never play another game in a professional sport again. He should not be allowed to work for any broadcast, print or public media. He has joined the growing list of people whose mere picture on a TV screen makes me reach for the channel changer. I also will not buy any magazine, book or newspaper that features him. Except for the fact I cannot avoid the reports of his court cases, I don't want to hear about him or his associates or family.

I think that dog fighting is disgusting. Aside from the cruelty to the animals involved, the activity is surrounded by the worst gambling elements, illegal and dangerous drug and alcohol sales and abuse, prostitution, bribery and corruption of local officials and tax evasion. The dogs involved are worse than wild animals. With a few exceptions wild animals are not mean. They kill when they hunt for food or from fear. Pit Bulls and their relations kill for sport. There have been reports locally of packs of feral dogs hunting down deer for sport. Teasing the animals and then letting the kill lie because they are not hungry. Pit Bull attacks on people, particularly children, are frequent and often unprovoked. Pit Bulls are the SS Einsatzgruppen of the animal world and the people who organize it are worse than that.

Nonetheless the fact that dog and cock fighting and other "blood sports" go on around here has been a badly kept secret since Virginia Beach started growing and trying to clean up over thirty years ago.

If this investigation goes all the way, I would expect many more prominent names to be included. The names may well include more sports figures, political, business and community leaders. They should all end up in prison and forfeit large chunks of their wealth.

This post could go on for a long time, but Molly wants to go to the beach.

Come back next week and I'll let you know how I really feel!

VISITORS FROM THE FOOTHILLS

This weekend Peggy came down to visit with Scot, Henry, Matthew and Meg. We had a very busy and enjoyable time. Friday night we went to see the Tides baseball game. The boys like the ballgame but maybe the like the big helmet cups full of ice cream the most. It wasn't a very good game. The Tides are now the AAA team for the Orioles and they are very bad this year, both teams.

Saturday Morning they came to the beach to see my new digs. All three of the kids are absolutely fearless around water and with a heavy surf in the bay this weekend had to be held and watched all the time. In the afternoon, we took a boat up the Lynnhaven River. The weather was gorgeous. The wind was dampened up the river and while there was some motion it was not as bad as the bay was that day. The boys entertained us by singing endless repetitions of "Take me out to the Ballgame".

I didn't know what to expect, since that was the first time they had been on a boat, but they had a grand time and had no problem with motion sickness. One of the boys volunteered that it was way better than spending the afternoon watching TV. Then we had diner and another walk on the beach.

They visited me on Sunday but they were too worn out to do much. A good time was had by all and I hope they can get back before the weather gets nasty this Fall.

GETTING INTO A ROUTINE

At last I have gotten the moving down to a few boxes I am trying to find a place for and am getting into some kind of a daily routine. For everybody's info, it goes something like this: Get up and put on a bathing suit and take Molly for a walk. Visit with our friends, two legged and four, and get some exercise. I'd like to swim, but Molly still won't go in the water and neither of us will run anymore. Come home and get some breakfast and then check my mail and try to write the blog. Then I may clean or do dishes or continue sorting through the boxes still piled in my living room, read some and maybe take a nap. After lunch go for a swim, walk on the beach and visit my friends. No dogs on the beach in the day in the summer. Come back to the apt. and now I'm really ready for a nap. Get some supper and then take Molly for her evening walk. Then I have free time until the Great Chix's beach pub crawl at all two locations, or may four if I start early. The two restaurants close by 9 PM. There are variations like yesterday I took out a boat and today I have to go grocery shopping and then there are days when I work at the store. In between I have check that the tides and that the Sun and the Moon rise and set on time. Tough work but someone has to do it. But this only requires spot checks and no reports.

GLOBAL WARMING

It is HOT! Yesterday in Virginia Beach the temperature reached 98 degrees F, but it wasn't even a record and we do have air conditioning but sometimes it can't keep up. I solved the problem by getting neck deep in the Chesapeake Bay and staying there most of the afternoon, until it was time for my nap. The humidity was high and that spawns the cloud burst that leaves the pavement steaming like it is on fire when the rain stops. Today I have to work in the store where the AC zone control is no good and the sun through the plate glass windows add to the problem. Must be Al Gore's fault. It is HOT in July in the USA. When I was in the Caribbean last winter, my Northern European friends (Russia, Scandinavia, even Scotland and Ireland) didn't have a problem with the idea of warmer weather at home. If there were only some way they could do something about the endless winter nights, they would never have to go south in the winter. Good Luck Tovarich! Which brings me to the silly, stupid series of concerts to stop Global Warming this weekend. What a stupid exercise in hypocrisy. I'll admit that the weather seems milder now than say, forty years ago. We haven't had a significant snowfall here in over five years but it was 1980 that the National Guard Engineers had to come from Richmond to dig us out of a 41" snowfall. For my European fans, that's more than a meter. If I recall the last time Ches Bay froze all the way to Cape Charles was 1975. None the less I don't see daily high temperature records being set. We only have good records going back about 100 years. I climate terms that is a mere instant. We have no idea what a normal cycle is and we do have historical records of significant climate changes in the past. I am not in favor of rampant pollution, but this quasi religious fervor is wrong.

TROUBLE IN PARADISE

First, I was looking forward to spend the weekend on the beach doing beach things like watching the waves, broiling in the Sun and digging holes in the sand when I got a phone call and ended working the weekend at the book store. Well, work is the curse of the drinking class and I really like working there, even if I do spend more money there than I make most weeks. Yesterday I went to the USNA Alumni picnic at Dam Neck. I had not been there in at least two years and was amazed at the construction going on. This was a really rural area until about five years ago. Soon it will be a major suburban center. One more reason to get out of town, although this little area where I have moved retains more of the old beach flavor than the rest of the city. The other reason is the local government. When the city council is not being stupid and incompetent, it is simply corrupt. Better to go someplace where the corruption as at least partially balanced by a degree of competence. Then I hear that Ed's 2000 Dodge was stolen in DC where he went for a visit. It wasn't much of a car but it is an annoyance and it was almost paid for. I wonder if I took my cars to DC if they could be stolen. That's the only way I will ever get any money for them. Ed's OK and he can borrow one of mine until he decides what to do about wheels.

TWO DAYS IN A ROW

On the Fourth, my son Ed, and I spent the morning moving more stuff out of my old house. We are almost finished, but I am running out of places to put stuff. Then I went for a swim and a walk on the beach. After supper, we went down to the beach to set off our fireworks (fountains, legal in Virginia). The display was awesome. That is a word I don't like to use because I think today's young have overused and corrupted it. I can't find a more appropriate word. From the beach here at the end of my street you can see about fifteen miles both East and West and the intensity and volume of private fireworks dwarfed the professional shows that could be seen in the distance. At time the beach was lit brightly enough to read a newspaper. Even Ed who is not known for enthusiasm, was impressed. Then yesterday the neighbors told me it wasn't up to last year. Now we a dealing with the aftermath. Two days later the waste management dept. is still down there picking up the enormous piles of trash and garbage. Yesterday, I took a boat on to Chesapeake Bay. It was a beautiful day. This retirement thing is alright!

I'm BAAAAACK!

As I threatened, I am resuming my postings since I have been chastised for not doing so. Since my last post I have moved out of my house and put it up for sale. I am now living in a small second floor apartment about one block from the Chesapeake Bay beaches, where I have spending (wasting?) most of my time, when I wasn't moving stuff from my house. Even though I have been living here almost three months, the place looks like the moving van just left. This is a result of trying to fit all my stuff into four small rooms, when I have been living in a big 4br house with an attic and a two car garage. The break in my postings has been partly due to the fact that it took more than a month to get my DSL connected and the rest to laziness. I am also getting into some kind of a routine where I can set a time to sit at the computer.

MOVING ON

Last Friday I signed a lease on a small apartment in the Chix's Beach area and talked to a Realtor about selling this house. This is a wrenching experience for me but it is time to seriously downsize. Even when I am home, I am not in this house that much and even then I have almost half the rooms shut off and never go into them.

I am off to Jacksonville, Florida today to visit Kathy and her family for a few days. Then next weekend Clair and Chris will be here for a visit and the last two weeks of this month, I will be going back to school. I am taking the Masters, Mates and Operators course and then the exam. It has been more than 20 years since I have had this type of commitment, 8 AM to 5 PM for two solid weeks. It will be a shock.

Then in April I move. This is the first move in over 40 years that I will be making alone. I'll let everyone know how it goes.

VACATION PICTURES

This is the ice sculpture that was on the main buffet table at the resort in Jamaica for the New Years Eve dinner. I spent over an hour on the phone with Scot last night to learn how to post pictures on the Blog. Now I will be boring everybody with my vacation pictures.

Otherwuse I am looking at apartments to rent and tomorrow I have an appointment with a realtor to begin the process of selling this house. Next week I am going to Jacksonville, Florida to visit Kathy and her family. The last two weeks in March I will be taking the course and the exam for the masters/mates and operators license for coastal vessels. That license is a requirement to charter or lease any yacht without a crew. Where I go from there no one can predict. One step at a time.

In the meantime, anyone who wants to visit me here in Virginia Beach can go for a ride on Chesapeake Bay on one of the Freedom Boat Club boats.

FIRST DAY OF SPRING

This may sound a little strange since it is still a full month until the equinox, but yesterday the temperature was 70 degrees F and sunny in Virginia Beach. Some of the spring flowers are already in bloom. For my Canadian friends and relatives, that is 21C. We may still have another frost and the worst snows here are in late March in the Spring Nor'easters, which over the years have done more damage locally than most of the hurricanes. That is because of the way the coast lies and they stay around for days while most hurricanes blow through in about eight hours.

It took me all this time to get my e-mail back to full use and to find my custom home page. I still haven't figured out how to get my pictures on the blog or the e-mail even though I just spent all morning trying.

I just realized it's one in the afternoon and time to go out and get something done.

BACK TO NORMAL?

First of all, I have no idea of what normal is. Nonetheless, over a week has gone by since I got home and I am finally settling into some kind of routine.

I still haven't cleaned out my e-mail and the snail mail seems to be getting ahead of me, but I have been making progress on the other things I have to do.

Today I will simply share a few politically incorrect stereotypes with you.

Heaven is where the:
Police are British
Cooks Italian
Mechanics German
Lovers French
and it is all organized by the Swiss.

Hell is where the:
Chefs are British
Mechanics French
Lovers Swiss
Police German
and it is all organized by the Italians.

If there is anyone I missed insulting, I can make up more categories for more diversity. Anyone can play.

Goodnight all!

SLOW GOING

This is the third day and it seems like the new mail is keeping up with my efforts to clean up the old mail, both e-mail and snail mail. But I will get around to it all. Many of the shipmates I had on POLYNESIA have sent e-mails and want my pictures. The digital pictures came through fine and I think there are close to 2000. I also dropped off six rolls of film today and they won't be ready until next month.

The groundhog says it will be an early spring. I sure hope so. This week is the boat show at the convention center. That will provide some diversion. I also canceled the cable TV today. I find that I just never turned on the TV and I didn't miss it. They also raised the price and didn't add any new items.

Tomorrow I will begin to try to post some of the pictures to this blog and to my e-mail. If it doesn't go well, then I will need help.

SNOW

It never snows in Virginia Beach! To greet me home from my Caribbean vacation, it did snow today. It didn't last very long and now it is raining with a forecast of cloudy, cool and rain for the rest of the week. It is not cold in the way most of my new Canadian friends would think of cold but the temperature is near freezing and that is cold here.

I forgot to mention that i saw the Green Flash in Jamaica. Fifty years on the water and I had begun to think that it was one of those old jokes like the sea bat, the bucket of steam and the left handed monkey wrench. It does require a perfectly clear horizon, which is rare in the North Atlantic.

I spent the last two days trying to clean up the month long accumulation of e-mail and snail mail. By tomorrow I should have everything urgent taken care of. I did download my camera to my computer and I have a lot of good pictures. I have to spend some time to make up a slide show and put it on disks for everyone. I will try to put some of the best pictures on the blog when I figure out how to do that.

HOME AGAIN

I got home last night on time and Ed met me at the airport. Remarkably, after five weeks and a dozen places everything was on time and worked as advertised.

During tne last month I tried not to miss any opportunity to have fun. I sailed hobie cats, sunfish and even Denis Connors' STARS AND STRIPES. I swam every day and didn't miss any chance to go out snorkeling. I climed hills and walked to the top of fortresses that were much higher than I thought they were when I started out. I took hundreds or pictures that I hope will turn out OK. I played every silly game and danced at every opportunity. Near the end of my stay in Jamaica, the hotel staff threatened to throw me off the island because I was having too much fun and I might use up all the fun so there would not be any left for someone else. I told them they would need to make their own.

I was in much better physical shape than last summer and better able to keep up with the more athletic set. On the other hand I still don't consider myself to be ready to SCUBA dive and I did not do the rock wall climb or the circus trapeze or gymnastics training. I also resisted the temptation to buy a Yacht, but I was sorely tempted and came very close.

But I am back in the world and it's back to business. I think I made some friends that I will wish to keep in touch with and I already scheming on when my next trip will be. I will be in touch. You may get a Christmas card this month or you may not.

If I offended anyone by not sending them a card or a present or a call over the holidays, I apologize.

SEASONS' GREETINGS

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year!, Happy Hannakah and Happy Kwanza. I found it very hard to get up any real holiday spirit this year. I am hoping next year will be better. Since I got home from my last voyage, the three months have pretty well gotten away from me. Maybe next year will be better.

I sent out almost no Cards this year and I am sure I missed sending gifts to someone I should have. I think maybe I'll send Christmas cards in February.


for now I am off to Jamaica again and then St. Maarten and the French West Indies. I really will be thinking of all of you. I will send some postcards. They will propably not say "Wish you were here".

Love to all,

Jim

THE ADVENTURE CONTINUES

As I promised I am posting my plans for the next two months or so.

I'm waiting for the dryer to finish so that I can pack for the next trip, so I can publish my schedule. I have the tickets and most of the trips are already paid for. I will not be taking my computer with me on this trip. It is much too heavy to tote through all those airports and other locations and once I get outside the USA, internet access is doubtful at best.

Nov. 22 WED Drive to Peggy's in Mechanicsville for Thanksgiving
Nov. 24 FRI Return to Virginia Beach

Nov. 30 THURS Take the train to Philadelphia for Army Game weekend.
Dec. 1 FRI Sightseeing in Philadelphia
Dec. 2 SAT Watch Navy beat Army
Dec. 3 SUN Sightseeing in Philadelphia
Dec. 4 MON Return to Virginia Beach

Dec. 24 SUN Drive to Mechanicsville
Dec. 25 MON Christmas
Dec. 26 TUES Visiting
Dec. 27 WED Return to Va. Beach
Dec. 28 THURS Fly to Montego Bay, Jamaica for two weeks at a resort.
Jan. 11 THURS Return to Fort Lauderdale and then fly to St. Martin
Jan. 12 FRI Three days sightseeing in the West Indies
Jan. 14 SUN Two weeks aboard SV Polynesia in the French and Dutch Islands
Jan. 27 SAT Return to St. Martin for sightseeing and R & R.
Jan. 30 TUES Return to VABCH.
Feb. 4 SUN Back to work

I hope everything goes as planned.

SAME STUFF, DIFFERENT DAY

I have been chided by some family members for not posting often enough, but I don't see a lot to talk about. Right now, I'm watching the Mets blow another ball game.

I don't think you all need to know my daily routine. It is not all that exciting. Grocery shopping, doing laundry and running errands. My leg is healed and I'm holding my own working in the Barnes and Noble. James is home but he hasn't been over to see us yet. It occurred to me that I haven't seen him since April, even though we live in the same city. His travels and mine have kept us apart for almost six months.

My next expedition is for the Army football game in Philly on Dec. 2. More about that later.

I will try to post something about once a week until I have something interesting to say. I am planning to go back to the Caribbean after Christmas but only for a month this time and I don't think I'll take this computer with me. Internet access is still very difficult in that part of the world and this monster is just too big and heavy to lug through airports and train stations.

END OF AN ERA

For me, this is the end of an era.

On Sunday, October 1 my Aunt Agnes passed away. She was 101 years old and even though I didn't see her as often as I wanted to in recent years, she was often on my mind. My father was the youngest of a very large family and his older sister were very close and late in my mother's life, she was my mother's closest friend. She never had any children of her own but she had dozens of nieces and nephews and kept in touch with them and their children and grand children and even great grand children. She was a mother to my cousin Pam and assisted many of us with baby sitting and help when we were sick.

She nursed many friends and relatives through major and minor illnesses and even several through the end of their lives. She was retired from the New York Telephone Company where she was an operator. That was in the days when you talked to a person when you picked up the phone and not a machine. She had many stories about those operators when the lifesaver on the line was the telephone company and not a 911 dispatcher and there was only one telephone company.

She was always "up". I never heard her complain and in the last visit I had with her in her apartment in Mount Vernon, she was full of stories and told us what great fun she had over the years. She told us of the speakeasies and parties from years ago. Somewhere there are pictures that my mother had of all my father's and mother's families taken between the wars. One of the things I have to do over the next year is to sort through all those pictures to see exactly what we have.

I am sorry that I can't go to the funeral, but after three months of traveling, I have left too many things undone here at home.

Goodbye Ag. I sure will miss you and wish I had been able to visit more often.

"THE BEST LAID PLANS OF MICE AND MEN..."

Now I am in New York, in a place called Fishkill. Before everyone gets upset, the name doesn't mean kill fish, it means Fish Creek in Old Dutch. The names around here tend to be leftovers from when the Indians sold Manhattan Island to the Dutch.

Friday, I went to my niece's wedding in Yorktown Heights in Westchester. It was all very nice and traditional and I really enjoyed myself at the dinners and reception and then hanging around with my family. We only get together now for weddings and funerals and I much prefer the weddings.

I flew down from Maine last Wednesday and that was an adventure that is becoming all too routine. I don't mind flying but going through airport security is becoming a bigger hassle every trip.

I had intended to come down last weekend and visit with my relatives on my wife's side of the family, but I ended up in a hospital in Central Maine for five days. The injury to my shin that I got in Jamaica wouldn't heal and was beginning to look ugly. When I went to the emergency room, I expected that they would give me some medicine and maybe some pills and send me away. They took one look at my leg and the next thing I knew I was in a bed with all kinds of IVs stuck on me. Then I was put in isolation until they were sure I didn't have some exotic bug from Jamaica. So they let me go but when I get home I have to go to my family doctor as soon as possible.

So no visit to Yankee Stadium or Shea. I'm going this afternoon to visit the cemeteries and my Aunt Agnes who will have her 101st birthday on the 22nd. Tomorrow I may go to the old hood in the Bronx, if I have enough courage, and maybe try to look up some of my old friends.

On Tuesday, I am flying home. Summer is over it's time to go home and back to work, if I can get up the energy.

For those who have been following this blog, the adventure will continue, just maybe at a little slower pace for the next few months.

BACK IN THE WORLD

It started at the resort in Negril. The 90 minute flight from Montego Bay to Fort Lauderdale ended up taking 10 hours by the time I got to my hotel in Florida.

It started with getting my luggage to the porter at 9AM to be ready for the two hour bus ride to MOBAY. The bus schedule was moved up to allow time for the new security procedures. The bus still operates on Island time so it still didn't leave so early. Jamaicans are supposed to drive on the left, but I noticed that like the Italians, they prefer the middle of the road, particularly on narrow country roads. That makes for some interesting moments.

The airport at MOBAY was total chaos. The lines to check into flights stretched everywhere and many of the tourists were from countries where line discipline is unknown. I thought there was going to be a riot at one point. Then the line to get through the door to Jamaican emigration stretched about 200 yards. Then get your passport stamped and the to carry on searches. Then there was the shoe inspection. Then they went through my carry on luggage again and made me take off my shoes before I got into the airplane.

The flight was uneventful, but at FLL we had to wait and the blackshirted Border Patrol came aboard and took one passenger off for interrogation. I began to think about old war movies with the German soldiers checking everyone's papers at every corner.

Then when I finally got to the hotel and settled in, dinner was a bar frozen pizza and a bottled beer with no breakfast and McDonald for Lunch. What a comedown, but I had to come back someday and now I've gotten adjusted to doing for myself again.