Ritorniamo in Sicilia dopo 26 anni…


We’re going.  Canoelover and Canoelover Junior are taking a little viaggio.  I haven’t been back to Sicily since 1983 so it’s gonna be interesting.  No travel plans, itineraries, or reservations, just the way I like it.  I will be buying several 4 gig cards for the D200.
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Departing Flight Information — Friday, February 6, 2009 (Arrives Saturday, February 7, 2009)

From Chicago – O’Hare Intl (ORD)
Chicago, IL
Departs: 4:55 P.M. 

Air One
Flight 21
To
Milan – Malpensa (MXP)
Milan, Italy
Arrives: 8:35 A.M.
Airbus A330
Economy/Coach Class

Air One
Flight 2923
From
Milan – Malpensa (MXP)
Milan, Italy
Departs: 10:30 A.M.
To
Palermo – Punta Raisi (PMO)
Palermo, Italy
Arrives: 12:05 P.M.
Boeing 737
Economy/Coach Class
Excitedly submitted,
  Canoelover
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My Landscape


I grew up in what was a lovely place…southern California.  At some point in the late 70s it started turning into the best place in the world to be a vinyl siding salesman.  What used to be orange groves turned into Orange Grove Estates.  What used to be an Oak Savannah turned into Oak Park.  Chapparal turned into Via Chapparelle.

When I blow a low D on my tuba, the piano vibrates in sympathy.  It’s sorta cool.  The same thing happened to me when I moved to Wisconsin 25 years ago, something about the landscape resonnated with me.

When I drive the backroads, I always look for Rustic Roads.  They’re scenic, lovely, and totally impractical.  That’s why I love ’em.  Today, driving back from Wyalusing State Park, I asked the family if they would let me “toodle.”  They agreed to let me toodle.  So I followed the GPS and used it to get lost.  The best way to get lost is to know exactly where you are.

The land here vibrates, and it makes my heart vibrate, much like our piano when the tuba sounds a D.  This road today made my heart vibrate…it was amazing.  I’m not sure the last time I felt this way…probably when I found the old Presbyterian church on Sand Hill Road.
I am grateful for my Wisconsin roots.  I was transplanted, but the taproot runs deep and I feel more at home here than any other place on earth.
Respectfully submitted,
  Canoelover

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Bylaws for a Hypothetical Board of Directors…


“May you live your life as if the maxim of your actions were to become universal law.”
Think what you will of Emmanuel Kant.  I like the dude.  Most of his stuff was practical, easy-to-digest philosophy that avoided the intellectual-for-the-sake-of-intellectual metaphysics that predominated his world.
I am in the midst of a nasty bit of non-profit drama, with too many egos, too much deception, and far too little communication.  Not a lot of us are looking at it like E.K., and if we as a couple of industry associations applied Kantianism to our collective actions, our Universal Law would approximate that of Sierra Leone during their civil war.
So in world of rationalists and empiricists, I find myself drawn to the deontological writings of E.K.
Or to put it more in the vernacular, from the Rodneykingsian School, “Can’t we all just get along?”
Respectfully submitted,
  Canoelover
P.S.  For those of you who think Kant was a stuffed shirt intellectual, check out this pregnant and appropriate quotation:

“If man makes himself a worm he must not complain when he is trodden on.”

Amen, bro.
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Instead of television…



…why not watch the Log Channel?

It was bloody cold tonight, and we lit the first fire in the fireplace, so tonight we’re watching the Log Channel.  It’s Oak Week, and we’ll be watching all the ways that fire and oak interact.  Hickory Week is awesome.  That’s later this season.  We’ll also have a special Black Walnut Weekend due to the tree that fell at the shop.  Too checked for anything else, we’ll burn it.

This is the last little taste of fall…the leaves are being ripped from the trees with the violent gale that’s blowing through here tonight.  Southwest winds are usually indicative of a fairly large low pressure area, and this is no exception.
A careful examination of branches will show a leaf scar, where the leaf was attached to the twig.  There will be another posting on this as I find it fascinating.  Did you know the hickory leaf leaves a three-lobed leaf scar?  Now you do.
Winter, I fear, is just around the corner.
Winter, I hope, is just around the corner.

Respectfully if somewhat frigidly submitted,
 
 Canoelover
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Cornscapes II


Near Cheneyville
To relieve the monotany of the corn belt, I’d sometimes point the D200 out the window and “empty the clip” so to speak.  I can get 10-15 pictures in a burst, and there’s often something good hidden in there.  Bear in mind that except for the VFW pic, these were all taken at 55-65 mph.
For those of you who are not from the Midwest, these might actually be interesting.
First the giant corn eaters devour the corn, grabbing the kernels and spewing the rest out like so much chaff.

Then they take it to the hoppers…and transport it to the grain elevators.

Here the corn sits until someone needs more high-fructose corn syrup for their soft drinks.

Sorry, I don’t have a picture of an ADM board room where they fix the price of everything.  That’s ’cause the bastards are all in jail.

It’s not all corn.  Here’s a cool VFW.  Wanted to see it at night…there’s neon on that sign!

Mostly this is what I saw.

Respectfully submitted,
  Canoelover
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Cornscapes


Exhibit A: Asphalt and Oversized Loads

I like road trips. Especially back road trips where you can poke around and eat real food instead of chain garbage, stop when you want to at anything that arouses your curiosity. Like giant fiberglass animals or what-have-you.

The past 38 hours have been interesting. Within that 38 hours, I have spent 17 of them making a permanent indentation in the driver seat of my beloved Element (a.k.a. the Brick). That leaves 21 hours, 7 or 8 of which were spent in a board meeting for the Paddlesports Industry Association. That leaves about 13. 12 of those were spent sleeping, 1 was spent getting an oil change. If variety is the spice of life, I just lived the equivalent of a bowl of egg noodles, no butter, no salt.

Exhibit B. Corn.
It would have been better if 4-5 of the hours in the Brick were not spent in Central Illinois. When PR firms are approached by chambers of commerce from CI, they usually weep, assume the fetal position and rock slowly until said c. of c. leaves the room. The one PR firm that took the job came up with slogans like “If you like boring and flat, Lacon is where it’s at.” Or “Henry: Best Town in Illinois by a Dam Site.”
Actually, that last one is actually true.
I did drive through Cheneyville, IL. Cheneyville has five streets: West Avenue, East Avenue, High Street, Grand Street, and Gay Street. It is access via Cheneyville Road. It’s nice to see Dick remembered to name a street for his daughter. Sorry, no pictures, it all happened so fast.
I managed to get off the beaten path for a bit in Indiana, which is actually quite lovely. It’s weird, but as soon as you cross the state line, it gets prettier. Never mind that the state line is fairly arbitrary, a 150-mile long chalk line snapped by some cartographer 160 or so years ago.

Next board meeting is in Panama City, Florida. I think I’m gonna fly.
Glad to be home,
Canoelover
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Cars Are Coffins…


Brilliant idea for all us bike commuters.


Bike to Work Pants from Cordarounds on Vimeo.

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Time for a vote…


The Cannes Film Festival is usually in May, but these are early entries for Best Short Features Produced Over a Box of Franzia.  Your vote is important!
1)  Patrick Swayze’s masterpiece “She’s Like the Wind.”
2)  Kenny Nolan’s opus magnum, “I Like Dreamin’.”
3)  Christopher Atkins and (yes) Kristy McNichols’ seminal “First Love.”
Strap in, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride.  Air sickness bags are found in the seat pocket in front of you.
Wishing you a pleasant flight,
  Canoelover
P.S.  Check out this blatant rip-off of Swayze’s artistry.  It sickens me.
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Off to Cincinnati in the mornin’…


I hope to run into Venus Flytrap.
See ya,
 Canoelover
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It is going to be one of those weeks…


Monday
  • Meet with bank and accountant. Show them reams of paper that show we’re profitable and that we have a healthy balance sheet, which we do.
  • Meet with ad rep from radio station. Figure out how to cut another $5,000 from the budget for 2009.
  • Throw the tennis ball for Gracie so she’ll at least appear sane to the average passerby.
  • Do the stuff I’d normally do on Monday and Tuesday.
Tuesday

  • Staff Meeting. Booyah.
  • Finish marketing and advertising calendar for ’09.
  • Live inside an Excel spreadsheet for most of the day.
  • Wonder if I’ll take that time off I promised myself I would take off.
  • Shake off the feeling and resign myself to some time off in January. If the stars align anyway…
Wednesday

  • Get up early and pack my bags.
  • Prep the Element for a road trip. Remove rear seats, add Thermarest and cooler.
  • Drive to Kentucky for a board meeting ’cause the plane tickets were $900. Yeah, right.
  • Eat food I packed in the morning to avoid eating anything from a restaurant with a drive-through. Cracker Barrel has an honorary drive-through. Waffle House too.
  • Stay in a Comfort Inn and Suites.
Thursday
  • Attend board meeting in a Comfort Inn and Suites meeting room. All day.
  • Resist temptation to commit ritual suicide with a cheap ballpoint pen supplied by the Comfort Inn and Suites, as if none of us remembered to bring writing instruments with us.
  • Hope to end before 4:00 PM so as to drive all afternoon and evening and get home at a decent hour.
  • Fail to get done by 4:00 PM.
Friday

  • Assume I will be staying in Cincinnati for Thursday night, get up at 5:30 AM so as to drive through Chicago between 10:30 AM and 12:30 PM. Otherwise I’m hosed.
  • Get home.
  • Unpack, shower.
  • Leave for Milwaukee for the weekend at an Irish B&B to get some quality spouse time.
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That’s it. In a nutshell. There’s a lot more that didn’t fit in the nutshell, but suffice it to say that it’s going to be a helluva week. I don’t like driving sixteen hours for a six hour meeting, it’s sick and wrong but it’s going to be a tight squeeze to get quorum anyway. The good news is that with half the board plus one, we’ll get more done in theory.

Wish me luck,

Canoelover

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