If it's important to you, it's important to me.
It just needs this one little thingare the words of doom. It is rarely just that simple because you always notice just one other little thing and down the rabbit hole you go.
"Getting ready for the trip to Death Valley and Baja California is going slowly. The fact that it is going at all is a major advance over my usual Throw everything in a bag at the last moment technique!"
I wrote the above a week ago. As you can see I'm not much further along in the packing process. I need someone to tell me, "Take this, not that" Too many options leads to decision paralysis!
This is a story of unforeseen circumstances, of serendipity.
I ended up in Bedford VA last night. As chance would have it, the National D-Day memorial is located in Bedford, a small town in the Blue Ridge mountains of VA. I spent the morning at the memorial park. It was a powerful experience
Why Bedford? It’s because of The Bedford Boys. The town of 4,000 sent 35 young men off to war with a parade and much fanfare in early 1941. 23 never returned. They were part of the initial assault wave to hit Omaha beach. 19 were killed in the first 10 minutes. 4 more in the ensuing inland invasion. Bedford had the highest proportional losses of any town in the country. Hence the decision to built the memorial in this small town. The story of the Bedford Boys is tragic.
There are forces active in our country today that seek to erase and rewrite history, destroying memorials as they go. They are misguided, evil or both. I hope they don’t come for the D-Day memorial. There have been regimes in the modern era that have, to varying degrees of success, took action to erase and rewrite history, destroying buildings and artifacts of their history along the way. The Russian Communists, the Chinese Communists, the Khmer Rouge, are examples.
Our country’s history has been both glorious and uplifting as well as sad and tragic. But it is our history. Our history. It can not be undone. It should not be erased and rewritten. What happened to the Indians was tragic. Slavery was very bad. It when against our founding and fundamental principles of Liberty and Justice for all. “All men are created equal”. The southern “Lost Cause” movement was a specious narrative. There is no moral justification for slavery. But we need not allow our history to be erased and rewritten, and our memorials destroyed. If the south wants to honor the brave men that fought for what they wrongly thought was a righteous cause, we should let them. Unfortunately, the misguided and evil forces of active today have had some success. And governments of all levels have kowtowed to them in many cases. It’s sad. Our history happened. It can not be undone. We should remember the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Remember our History
Remember the Bedford Boys
Never Forget
It began, as all these sorts of things do, with an innocent remark, “The sink in my bathroom seems to be leaking a little. Could you look at it when you get a chance?”
As every married man knows, real message was, “There's water under the sink which can only get worse by the minute. Declare a crisis and call 911. NOW!”
I dutifully went to inspect the errant sink and did indeed find water under the cabinet. Hardly a gusher, more like an intermittent drip. The little arm that raised and lowered the stopper needed tightening and that seemed to fix it.
But, of course, it didn't.
“That stopper doesn't stop anything and needs a new one.”
OK, that shouldn't be too difficult
So off to Home Depot for a new drain and stopper.
But, of course, it was. To separate the pipes the hoses had to be disconnected and the sink lifted out.
Once the sink was out I realized it was past its Best By date and needed replacing as long as I had it all apart.
So off to Home Depot for a new sink.
Back in the bathroom the new sink turned out to be an oval unit rather than the round one I thought I selected. I had carefully matched all the numbers but still got it wrong.
So off to Home Depot for a new new sink.
I realized that the card with the item number for the oval sink was next to the round sink in the display and only by carefully checking the small print did I find the correct part number. The lady at the Returns counter was very nice and I checked out with the new new sink. And a couple of new work lights I saw along the way.
I spread the adhesive on the new new sink, set it into place, checked the alignment and all was well. Until I bent over to check the clearance from below. The new new sink's drain was ~2 ½” over from the old sink and didn't align with the drain pipe coming out of the wall.
OMG, they have a flex pipe for just such problems as I have. Think of the flex straws you used to suck up chocolate milk when you were a kid.
Rushing home with the solution in hand I found that there was not enough room and not enough flex. I was able to force it together but it leaked worse than when I started.
The solution was simple, cut the drain pipe coming out of the wall and install a new slip joint. Simple but one miscalculation and it was going to be tearing out the wall time.
I called Matt at Matthew's Plumbing and asked Matt to drop by at his earliest convenience. As Dirty Harry put it, “A man's got to know his limitations.”
At least the drive to Home Depot is scenic.
Well, I made it. A few hiccups along the way but I think I've stayed true to my intentions. I've had a lot of fun doing it and have found a few insights about myself along the way. The important part is that I set a goal and followed through. I'm pretty easy going and patient so sticking to a deadline each day is not in my normal character. Not that I'm lazy, let's just say that I'm good at prioritizing and most things just aren't that big a priority.
I like writing. It both clears and focuses my mind. Typing at a keyboard is good for this but writing on a piece of paper is even better. I was once told, “If you can't explain it, you don't know it.” I will leave you with three books that are worth reading on this subject:
On Writing Well – William Zinsser
Writing To Learn – William Zinsser
Thinking On Paper – V.A. Howard, J.H. Barton
To all the people who
subscribed (and endured) the past 100+ days, thanks for coming along. Your remarks and encouragement have meant a lot to me. I'll continue to write about my thoughts and record my trips but, for
now, I think I'll take a short break.
When traveling I like to keep all sorts of notes. Where I stopped for lunch, how much gas I got in what town or village, maybe a quote from somebody I met along the way. I have all sorts of notebooks from trips, large and small, that I have kept through the years.
I keep threatening to transcribe them but I doubt I ever will. I started once but the computer I used is obsolete and the disks are not compatible with anything I have now.
Even when I tried it I could only half remember the context for many of the entries. I tried to annotate with remarks but that made the job all the more onerous and the project languished. I can type better and faster now so maybe I'll try again when I'm old and installed in some elder care facility.
The problem is that I'd rather be out filling up new notebooks instead of sitting at my computer pecking away while I drool on the keyboard. Besides, who would read any of it. It would be nice if there was an affordable voice to text editor that I could just talk to. I could read an entry and explain the circumstances. That might be interesting if accompanied with a couple of good stiff drinks.
I think there is a lot of personal and family history that is being lost for lack of writing it down. Once there were family Bibles that maintained a continuity through generations. Now there is fakebook and tictok that have all the persistence of dew in the desert. What will future generations think when all they have are videos of cats riding Roombas and pictures of people doing stupid things?
My recommendation is Rite in the Rain. I like the #372 lined paper for most of my notes and the #352 grid paper for diagrams or sketches. I keep them in a #200 binder, the lined paper in front and the grid paper in back so I can grab one and insert it into flow. I've found the C9200 cover is handy because it has pockets to tuck away tickets or cards that I want to save. It's a tidy way to keep things together and protect them.
Lastly I like the Fisher Bullet Space Pen to write with. I have a simple brass one that has taken a beating and lasted forever. It fits nicely into a pocket on the binder cover above. Over the years the sweat and grime from my hand has given it a nice patina.
Even if I, or anyone
else, never read the notes, it's fun to write them down and capture
an instant in time and of my life. It clarifies the moment and brings it
into sharp focus. Writing it down helps me see things I often didn't
even know I'd seen.
People often ask me about adventures and travel and what I might or might not recommend. In the summer. I say, “Just Go!”
In the winter it's a little different in the Great White North. I know that some hardy souls convert their bikes to winter sleds but I'm all for staying close to home where it's warm. Reading accounts of other's adventures is always a pleasant way to pass the time until spring returns.
My favorite adventure book has nothing to do with motorcycles. West With The Night by Beryl Markham is the book that hooked me on travel, especially in Africa.
Forget those two loonies and their camera crew, this is the real deal. She grew up training race horses in Kenya. She then learned to fly and was the first woman to cross the Atlantic east to west which is against the prevailing headwinds. Hers is the story of a life time.
It's a great book that's easy to read and hard to put down. No less than Ernest Hemingway said,
“ [she] can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves as writer. ”
I've given away dozens of copies. As a loyal reader I'd be happy to
send one to you too. Just drop me a note.
