LongTom

Weights today. I think I've hit a plateau.

Gotta walk away from the computer at least an hour before trying to go to bed. Something about the interactive nature of the medium. The damned thing just winds my brain up like a mainspring, and then I go tick, tick, tick, all night long.

Okay, I slacked all last week. Had a cold coming on. Back in the saddle today. Today I did my mile by doing a "newt rescue." Newts come crawling up a particular stream bed to spawn, only some fool laid a road across it, where the poor creatures get run over by the score. So folks take turns watching for newts at dusk and ferrying them across the street. Over the whole season we usually manage to save on the order of half a thousand of them. (Zero tonight, though. Feb is pretty early.) The length of road that needs patrolling just happens to be a tenth of a mile, so five trips up and back and I get credit for my exercise walk. All right, back to the weights. I'll call that a makeup session for missing yesterday. Two more sets to go.... (edit). phew. done.

davits and dropped the

"Mum, look! Pretty fireworks!"

Google "bangsite".

I was browsing an online spirit retailer the other day (I was looking for interesting bottles, to try putting a ship in. No, really. It's like reading Playboy for the articles...) and I stumbled across a descriptive text that said "...The unique triple distillation process used to create Tevado removes more impurities such as methanol and fusel oils..." Methanol? Yikes. If the professional distilleries, with their careful environmental control, get methanol in their ethanol, how dirty do you suppose the stuff from a basement still would be? Bad moonshine? I believe it.

Weights tonight. Added another 1-pound plate to everything. The bull is growing (or maybe getting deeper, but what the heck, it keeps me motivated).

Need to line the buggers up and let Royaliste practice on THEM with HER guns. The big ones, that is. Now that would be a sight. "Don't move, fellers. This won't hurt a bit." BOOOM!

^ Heh. You need to ask? < Taking a break to let some training soak into my brain. V What do you do to keep on task?

Doh! Hadn't even thought about the 76 flag. I meant on pirate flags, though. I looked at Foxe's Pirate Mythtory flags page. There were a few with letters or slogans, but no dates. The date on William's proposals nagged at me (maybe it was reminding me of the 76 flag).

If you wanted the wings to be more strongly associated with Mercury, you could try attaching them to Mercury's traditional winged helmet? Being worn by a skull, perhaps? Maybe the whole-body "Mercury on his swift errand" pose, only rendered as a skeleton? Brandishing an hourglass? (Beware of looking like a knockoff of the FTD florist logo, though...) Just brainstorming here. Sometimes an off-the-wall idea will spark a good one. I like a number of the ones I've seen so far. The visual association with the word Mercury has faded in or out, depending on the design, though they all are quite striking. Are there precedents for the year on the flag?

Tried briefly to name my first car "Prince" (it was a Valiant), but it didn't stick. Maybe I should have named it "Effort", instead. ("Will you please get off your butt and take the Effort to go to the store?") My current Acura Integra has no name. Just a bit too quiet, well-behaved and just plain inanimate to require one.

Did my weights just now. Really didn't feel like it. I find that it helps to just say it out loud, "I don't bloody feel like it!" because somehow that makes it easier to add, "but I'm gonna do it anyway." Sorry about the bugs, blackjohn and sophia. I hope you two are better soon.

I once had a housemate who would consume homemade ChexMix in quantities that would easily fatten (not to mention eventually kill) two of me. Nor did she exercise, and yet she retained her twenty-two-year-old modelesque physique with no apparent effort on her part. My wife eats like a penitent and exercises regularly, and has trouble bringing her weight down to where she would like it (though she looks fine to me). Her sister does neither and is a rail. It's been like that for both of them their whole lives. "Letting oneself get sloppy" is just....an oversimplification. (Oh well...off to the weight bench for me...)

Not mine, but too good to pass up: someone in my acquaintance has (had?) a Volkswagen minibus named (it was even on the license plate) "Cognito." Whenever they drove anywhere, they could say they were "travelling in Cognito."

Your concerns are legitimate -- you certainly are right in exercising care in your disbursements, on general principles -- and I apologize if I jumped down your throat. However, I will say that one should beware of asking questions in a way that plants the seeds of an unfavorable answer in the mind of the casual reader. Stains are more easily applied than erased, and a man's good name is a material that ranks among the hardest to clean. Also, one who asks such questions in all innocence and earnestness should refrain from interspersing them with smart remarks, lest his intentions be misconstrued. (Witness the above exchange. As for applying those principles to myself, I can only say, "Guilty as charged." I thought it was, well, that kind of argument. My apologies.) Regarding encouraging others to donate: having done so myself, I should offer my perspectives on Gary and Kathy. I had the opportunity to sail with them for four days about a year ago. Everything that I saw during that time indicated to me that they were not only well-versed and competent in the handling of their craft, but also knowledgeable about hazards and extremely averse to risk-taking. I deem them entirely worthy of support in this unfortunate circumstance, and recommend them to you likewise.

Coastie04 makes salient points about "most" incidents. However, I think this forum is not an appropriate place to speculate on this incident. None of us were present at the scene, therefore anything we might add to the accounting of the incident is, by definition, fiction. I will add my thanks to everyone who has pitched in; but I imagine that the heaviest of the bills are probably just starting. Drydock and repair services aren't free. It's not over yet by a long stretch. If you haven't already donated, now is your cue.

Do you accuse every driver unlucky enough to be caught by something unexpected during the morning commute of driving drunk? Do you jump with such obvious relish on every grammatical misstep of everyone with whom you communicate? Do you honestly not understand why the manner in which you conduct your inquiries seems designed not so much to seek information as to stir controversy?

Had a very good hike on Sunday, about 3 miles, up and down some fairly steep hills. Did a regular weight workout Monday, managed to add another pound or two on each of the exercises. Scale says I'm down to 194, but it's easy to fluctuate some just from hydration. Still, I'll take what I can get.

Nice ensign, Black Anne Rose! Ye may want to consider addin' it to the thread we've been collectin' others on in Plunder, called Post Yer Colors, Mate!

Put 'im in the bilge and call him Smelly! Cut his ration to six parts water (okay, so that's out of period...) Tie 'im on a grate, give a double flogging...

I don't mean to be a devil's advocate here, but as long as you are considering reactions to the name, I would hazard that the name Solstice will garner you more rolled eyeballs from the public than Morning Star will. ("what's yer ship's name?" "Solstice" "Ohhhhh, riggghhhht... (sotto voce) freakin NewAgers, c'mon Martha.")

"Make that, 'X marked the spot.' "

Gee, I, uh, can't tell if it's working. Better try that one more time. My wife does "The Firm" and she likes it. Not for me, though. I look like a total dork. (And then I turn on the video, and really look like a dork.)