We (well, some of we) are going back to Penetanguishene, or perhaps I should call it P-town, having referred to Ottawa as O-town. But given what’s been going on there, octogenarian-wise, perhaps I won’t. I was delighted, however, to discover that I can get the weather for Beausoleil Island, even on the sidebar weather widget, so you can experience the weather I will be watching. Isn’t life grand!
But here is what you have really been waiting for, and unfortunately I do not mean your ship coming in, because it can’t, being frozen, encore une foie [again one time, French for still, as they like to use a ratio of three words to one English word, I think out of principle]. No, what I mean is the Shipping News, by which I do not mean a depressing novel that everyone but me read, me liking my novels pleasant and finding reality depressing enough without needing to fictionalize it at great length. No, what I really mean [we knew you could get there, ed.] is the
DAILY GREAT LAKES and SEAWAY SHIPPING NEWS
brought to you by boatnerd.com, the hottest [or coldest] source for ice-breaking news out there.
Browsing through the top story we find that, other than it reading like a Thomas the Freighter story, among
the waiting ships in the lower river were Tecumseh and Lee A. Tregurtha. Both were advised that their time had come [seems a little harsh], and they followed the Risley upriver to the Hay Lake anchorage, close to Nine Mile. Before they arrived, the Risley broke the ice in the anchorage to allow the ships to take advantage of this space closer to the locks. There is still a gathering of the ships in the Soo and little space for others to join, especially after the Roger Blough returned for repairs on Friday.
Several hours behind the Tecumseh and Tregurtha were Algosteel and Saginaw. Both ships made the journey without direct assistance although they reported the channel on the Sailor’s Encampment ranges was still very “sticky.” Saginaw is going to the mill in Soo, Ont., while the Algosteel is reported to be joining the convoy attempting to make the trip west on Lake Superior.
With all the troubles in Port Colborne/Eastern Lake Erie, Mackinac Strait, Lower Seaway and the yet-to-be-broken Georgian Bay, there appears to be no immediate relief or extra icebreakers in sight.
There is also a pleasant story of Canadian/American cooperation, when the “CCGS Samuel Risley … being always ready for whatever tasks come her way, stopped to reposition” a U.S. buoy, in U.S. waters no less, because “the two coast guards complement each other in several ways – this was one example.” I suspect the other example has to do with the war on drugs, but that is a rant for another day. Today they seem admirable. [Are admiral’s admirable? If you let them be, she said, pretending to be a cryptic crossword for a moment. [Please don’t, ed.]].
As I was saying, what a cold and thankless [except perhaps here and on the ships’ radios] task they performed:
The buoy itself had a 4,000-pound anchor and 48 feet of chain attached, so the deck crew lifted the entire unit out of the water, inspected the chain and all connections, then prepared it for placing. Once the Risley was at the correct position, the buoy and anchor were dropped and the Risley backed away, continuing downbound to return to ice escort work.
There are some fabulous photos of them performing this difficult task, and here they have almost captured the buoy:
Lots of people have the most astonishingly difficult jobs, and I can’t wait to watch them do them. We always try to keep the worker:watcher ratio high at the cottage, at least 1:5, and I am never one to shirk a duty. Well, maybe a little shirking now and then, and when better than on a sunny Saturday, as this astonishing winter begins to melt away.
I hope there is a little shirking in your day too, and that we have a shirking Saturday together, encore une fois [which can also mean yet again, because the French like to keep you on your toes, even when you are just shirking quietly away.]
Albert Comes Back (I hope this plays for my American chums) part one is in the comments on the last brilliant post.
this is how to pronounce it. sorry for the bad flashback (techno).
Xty, thanks for part two, the suspense was killing me. It was a bit hard to understand at times, sounding like a coyote in a cider barrel.
Ok, I admit, that wasn’t original. I just liked the imagery. Your reference to Annie Proulx got me thinking of her and how nice it must be to own part of a mountain in Wyoming.
http://books.google.com/books?id=0xPQALyqSLcC&pg=PA151&lpg=PA151&dq=The+Wer-Trout&source=bl&ots=927tR04Md6&sig=kbIBFCXHtFxxHBLOBUFCl6Mxumk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=VUtJU9O1EoL22gXYyoCYCw&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=The%20Wer-Trout&f=false
But they left the e of une, for Pete’s sake.
And if everyone is doing so much for Pete’s sake, why isn’t Pete’s sake better?
I would like to own a piece of a mountain, yes.
Actually, just found out she sold her place in Centennial. Been there several times because, like the article says it has a “funky main drag and its ratio of five bars to less than a hundred people.”
Now the new place is for sale (a cool 3.7 mil) seemingly because her desire to be isolated turned out to be more whim instead of passion.
Understandable from a woman who married a man named H. Ridgely Bullock Jr., had a daughter with him and then tired of both five years later.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/21/AR2011012106606.html
free association as i tend to do…
i tramped around Leadville Colorado for a week one summer, then Denver area for the next. so i became familiar with the story first in Leadville, then visited the Molly Brown House in Denver. the real story is much more interesting than the play. noteworthy is how much of her wealth, her time, and her influence she gave back to the community.
compare her love of humanity and charity to the present day uber wealthy – like the Kochroaches and their ilk. ask yourself why the present day reactionaries never hark back to a time, and a person like this. remember her life, her fortune, and her story occurred during what is termed the (first) Gilded Age.
http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-survivor/molly-brown.html
indica for the pain. sativa for Neil.
thread kill. old school Detroit. burn it down and move on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMsIrKjSM6Y
i tried everything. i cannot get that video to post. i think it’s maybe GMO weed.
even though i’m a believer in free markets, i think that GMO Frankenweed should be regulated.
ban the evil weed.
if you’ll all oblige, i’m going to play through.
“seems a little harsh” lol
When working as a defense contractor on a U.S. Army installation, there was a road sign that said something about Not Littering, to keep the installation clean etc.. then at the bottom it said “Violators will be punished” I used to get such a kick out of that sign “DAMN!… Punished???” i would ask myself… wow
That story of building the house that was going to be perfect and then hating the snow is so typical of the modern nitwit. And the bird cloud sign – what an idiot. Why do people value such people so much? And she abandoned her child – the husband’s name already leaves me with little sympathy and he married the flake -but holy moly and how could she write about Newfoundland and everybody falls for it – a tale of woe and sadness that does not match the place at all. She is the sadness, not the places she laments over.
As to punished – my kids asked me, fairly recently, what would have happened if I reached ten when counting, and I had to admit I had no clue – but they would have been punished! I honestly almost never disciplined them – but I think they were scared of upsetting me somehow and that, plus my odd attitudes to school and weed, at least for the boys, got us through okay. Wouldn’t want robots.
Btw, I always wanted the shoplifting warning signs to say “shoplifters would be persecuted” instead of prosecuted.
But I haven’t read about Molly Brown yet.
And good morning.
Have an OK morning. Sorry, it’s the best I can do.
tax deadlines and blood moons, eh EO? coconut oil in my coffee this morning, pretty good. good morning all.
Coconut oil? My boys in particular devoured a coconut milk product, and the chocolate ones too. But the oil … I assume it is good for you versus tastes great?
You guys file on the 15th but we get until the 30th. So we know to panic as soon as you reach fever pitch.
well it’s either good fat or bad fat depending on who you choose to believe. the ama say’s it’s bad or unproven but i’ve read wondrous things about it. had to give up milk in my coffee and i actually liked the coconut oil.
wants me to frolic on this beautiful, sunny day and is tugging hard but unfortunately the consequences don’t favor him.
I wouldn’t trust the AMA – Gary Taubes wrote a great book you don’t need to read because Russ Roberts interviewed him – about why the American Heart Association fixated on cholesterol as a heart attack factor, and the stupid war on fats when sugar, especially white sugar and corn syrups are responsible for making people fat. My dad was given tonnes of wrong dietary info. Look at all the people the world over who consume coconut milk on a regular basis – do they look fat? I am a butter and cheese eater – just avoid carbs when my pants don’t fit (red wine is an astonishing thing for me to add or subtract from my diet, weight wise, but I hate to admit it so I put it in brackets so I won’t have to deal with it).
Taubes on Fat, Sugar and Scientific Discovery
And I am very sorry about the insane notion that a nation of freedom loving people consent to peeing in a bottle to get a job. Why don’t they ask for a vial of blood at the same time? Maybe a pound of flesh? I get it if you are the pilot of Air Force One, I guess, but it seems a gross violation of your personal space. How does it work? Do all jobs require an ounce of body fluids?
A poor excuse to post that, but it is quite the song, and when I was first meeting the family who were to become my children’s relatives, they could all sing all the words. With harmony.
the “whiz quiz” is just another usurpation of rights in the USA. the very worst drugs clear the body in 24 hours or less, and pot takes three weeks. don’t get me wrong either – anyone under the influence of anything at work deserves to be canned. but should a person get fired weeks after a thoroughly relaxing vacation to Jamaica? i won’t consent anymore to this by the way. part of the reason i went “Galt”. but i never call it that – i ejected from the rat mill before the wing-nut resurgence. 🙂
coconut oil is great taste wise, and health wise. but use it for sweets because there is a residual coconut taste. it melts at 76 degrees F, so it is a good substitute for shortening, which is so unhealthy that it should be banned outright. for instance i make pie crusts either with coconut oil, or rendered leaf lard (thanks EO) depending on whether the pie is sweet or savory. you can get coconut oil very cheaply as well – e-mail me if you cannot find it – i order mine on line at less than 2 bucks a pound – even cheaper the more you get.
oh, i completely agree. i don’t trust the ama at all, or the cholesterol bullshit and the statin cure myth. the pharmaceutical industry is huge with very powerful lobbyists and gobs of money to purchase shitbag politicians (i think abramoff said $100k, is the going rate). pressure flows from the drug industry(legal?), insurance co’s into the working sector and rates become a factor, workman’s comp. etc, etc. someone close is currently vouching for my character, so it’s complicated, as are most things these days. i need to start my own business, any ideas?
oatmeal, pecan, craisin (dried cranberry) and coconut. my wife gave them a 10. i had to give them an 11, of course. two more days EO.
Those look awesome.
Mrs. O used up the last of my home rendered lard about a week ago to make me a batch. I keep them in the freezer, and just finished the last yesterday.
I need to make some more lard, and soon.
Yeah, two days. Today was a bitch, but it should be easy sledding now.
Pecans and chocolate chips for me. Heavy on the pecans. The cookie dough is really just an excuse to stick a whole wad of pecans together. I’m the same way with brownies. With brownies, no chips, and no goddamn frosting either. Just a shit ton of pecans. And if you want to pour some caramel in there, well…we are no longer on speaking terms.
And “white chocolate”? gimmeafuckingbreak…
Sorry, still crabby.
Two more days…
White chocolate isn’t chocolate, that’s its problem.
I made a suet feeder for my in-laws using bacon fat, speaking of lard, peanut butter, and other stuff almost exactly like Peckerwood’s cookies, and yesterday an enormous pileated wood pecker hung from it. All stuffed into one of those bags avocados come in, and hung out of reach of the ravenous racoon. Most satisfying.
salty language doesn’t bother me. and this song goes well with Xty’s nautical theme. and perhaps there’s even more. 🙂
thank you Xty. you are the best!!!
Supper time, so I must flee, but speaking of salty, it turns out the ‘lakers’ (the big ships on the Great Lakes) call the boats that come in from the Atlantic, ‘salties’, which I know because it was mentioned in the shipping news that the first saltie had arrived, I guess up from Montreal, or maybe at Montreal.
I will check after dinner, because I am insane.
btw, you can see that linguistically, I do not discriminate between supper and dinner. Both evening meals.
To me, “Salty Dog” means this one
The first salty of the season, Charlotte Theresa, above Cote Ste. Catherine Lock, which is basically in Montreal. Photo by René Beauchamp, to give credit where credit is due.
Because I know you care.
Man, those cookies look good.
In the ‘middle-of-nowhere’ Missouri, my parents still insist that dinner is at noon, and supper is the evening meal. I don’t care what anybody calls it.. let’s just eat!!! 🙂
Well, the BLM/Russian-Chinese real estate developers were sent packing in Nevada. Maybe they’ll conjure up another false-flag op to get it out of the news cycle. Wait a minute, they own the News Cycle… nevermind.
” Cookies! “
Looks like I missed some fun yesterday. Went to the Midwest Horse Fair w/ a couple guys and on the way back stopped off for a few rounds and a meat raffle in Mount Vernon. One of the guys got the X paddle which meant his choice of meat AND a free drink. I never seem to win anything, but I was sagacious enough to immediately buy the next round which meant I saved the cost of having to buy one for Mr X.
http://host.madison.com/news/local/meat-raffle-brings-in-crowds-throughout-madison-area/article_49edb4e4-3a1e-5d3d-a426-8012b868272d.html
In corn-and-hogs country Illinois in the 50’s and 60’s dinner was at noon, supper at whatever time work was done for the day. And lunch and lunch….well here’s how it went:
6 am breakfast- bacon, eggs, and fried potatoes.
9 am- coffee and coffee cake or maybe even sandwiches if really laboring.
noon- meat and potatoes big meal of the day with pie, followed by a half -hour nap.
3:30 pm- repeat of 9 am- sometimes the women brought these lunches to the field.
6?7?8? leftovers, but had to have potatoes for the third time.
Looks like another Turdite is going to be offline for a while, lol.
White supremacist ID’d as gunman in deadly shootings at Jewish centers
My family had no distinction between the words “dinner” and “supper”. My wife’s family is more of a “dinner” is the big midday meal, especially on a Sunday or holiday, type of crew.
Now that deserves to be on that biggest cheapskate moment, ordering a round when someone had just won a free drink. It shows excellent situational awareness, I must say.
I feel like I am waiting for the weather. It is meant to get briefly insanely awful again and it caused me to, speaking of breakfast, jump up and cook eggs and bacon and fried kumatos, those weird delicious purple things that are almost a tomato. Like a bear preparing to hibernate.
But short on posts and long on ouch my leg hurts and trying to be social and helpful as I am the token responsible adult guarding the octogenarians and acting as occasional chauffeur. In which role I now find myself as we head off to get brie for his majesty, I mean my father-in-law, and some more chunky peanut butter so I can make more offerings to the birds. It is partly the birds that mesmerize me and prevent me from writing. I could watch them all day. They must have true animal magnetism.
bacq soon, as I try to get my driving done early so as to enjoy the afternoon more freely, and also I want to watch what I hope is a storm, come crashing over the bay, and make a dint, or even a dent, in the ice.
Can’t be IRB, no black victims. Bite me now!
it has been snowing here since before noon. it’s not sticking, but so what. i am going to show restraint, and stop right there.
i decided to make bread this afternoon. flour, sugar, butter, egg whites, salt, and water. yeah – it’s French bread. otherwise it would cost half as much, and be much healthier. but still, much cheaper yet healthier than store bought, and a good skill to have – i have a bread machine but don’t ever use it. in the event the SHTF, i will trade fresh homemade bread for guns, and gold. sorry, no silver will be accepted.
and yeast. 🙂