Thanks to Tigerhawk
I very much want to thank Tigerhawk for guest-blogging while I took a four day break. Two of those days were unfortunately attended by a flu. But by the third day it proved possible to take the vagabond road trip I had been looking forward to, the point of which is not to know any more than 30 minutes in advance where to go next. The most practical way to do that is getting dropped off in some random place and walking towards the most interesting looking terrain, almost like Richard Hannay in the 39 Steps but without the pressure of pursuit.
Part of the fun in these cases is allowing the road plan to develop based on how far you can walk; the likelihood of finding a place to sleep; and where it might be interesting to eat. My luck varied from a greasepit in which the coin-operated Internet terminal had live roaches crawling under the glass panel which protected the monitor screen from vandals -- lending the act of reading email the atmosphere of a horror movie -- to a very decent place that served braised meat over a bed of mashed sweet potato garnished with wilted spinach leaves; leading to a momentary fear that I had entered one of those places where you leave both hungry and broke, but which proved in the end to be an excellent establishment.
But it was walking along the roads and trails that soon retaught what I had forgotten: that it takes at least half a day before you finally recover senses that have fallen into disuse in the course of daily work; before you start to hear the birds in the tree branches, feel the wind as you meet it topping a rise, and notice people going about their small chores. Towards evening it became possible to stop; not simply physically, but actually and not feel it a waste of time; to think it worthwhile to pick out a vantage and from it watch the land beneath change under the passing clouds. For a companion I had Edward Plunkett's The Charwoman's Shadow with which I was wholly unacquainted but which was a fortunate choice. The book deals with such serious matters as whether echoes ever die and the ways in which a man might follow his shadow to his first and true love in ways beautiful enough to call forth the admiration of William Butler Yeats. But in the end, despite the book and the birds it came time not to follow my shadow but the road home. And here I am. Hope to start posting again tomorrow.
posted by wretchardthecat at 5/02/2006 06:39:00 AM
74 Comments:
aye, what has the modern world come to?...4 days off 2 sick and a half day to notice the birds. That kind of adventuring should, at a minimum, span weeks if not months.
Wretchard,
Yeats sang, in part:
...unless/
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing/
For every tatter in its mortal dress...
(IIRC)
Sounds like your soul had an opportunity to sing.
Welcome back!
Jamie Irons
Sorry your walk was abbreviated by illness. It sounds like you know how to vagabond. If it takes a day or so to accustom ones self to the sounds of life, to stop processing it as information and to hear it as the primordial heart beat of life itself, then it takes a few weeks of solitude before the forest nymphs begin to beckon you deeper into the forest and the thickening madness. You deem real conversations heard just over the dell where you can make out the mirthful voices and you long for their company because man is, after all, a social creature.
They are the daughters of the earth, born of moisture, warmth and heat,
They carry the flames of life that shoot out of the seeds.
The flowers and twigs are their bracelets ,
Their eyes are born of the petals with restless gleams,
Their breasts are flanked with slender streams,
Where flow life's eternal poetic themes.
…
In the winding lute-notes passing over the shining pebbles scattering silence in dreaming hearts…Nymphs in the Forest
Welcome back.
Sorry to provide a little bit of a damper. But an outdoor trek right after a two-day session with flu?
Please take special care to prevent any relapse. I jog regularly. Still I put a buffer of a few days after flu before getting back to routine.
Welcome back, Wretchard. That dang Tigerhawk types too much!
When I went on treks like this, it would be a short hop to Manly, Bondi, Avalon, or whatever beach had waves that I could survive. After I got past all those distracting girls with no tops on the beach, and got into the water, I would be free of daily distractions.
And I'd look back at the beach, just a couple hundred or so yards away, and between me and it would be the great sucking depression of an 8 or 10 foot wave that I'd just barely been able to get behind before it broke. I'd be looking at the beach, wondering how I got through all that last hundred yards of tall whitewater, wondering what I was doing out here, wondering why they don't have lifeguards, wondering why I don't swim with a friend, wondering how I'd ever get back to the beach!
Ah yes, that would leave all my daily cares behind.
Dr Jamie:
Why, beyond a certain age, does illness always occur during vacations?
"Hillary: 'I Wanted Desperately To Be An Olympic Athlete'... "
---
Rush:
"If she'd been born in East Germany, it might have been possible!"
;-)
Doug, it's simple, God hates you.
Steele Nails it:
White Guilt and the Western Past
SHELBY STEELE.
There is something rather odd in the way America has come to fight its wars since World War II...
(Intensive Psycopharmacological Interventions for Liberals!)
There can be no high civilization where there is not ample leisure--HW Beecher
I for one consider the BC to be a product of high civilization, so it is good to see that you've chosen to indulge in a little leisure. As for the ample part, that's subjective. Hopefully quality prevailed over quantity; sickness aside.
"I frequently tramped eight or ten miles through the deepest snow to keep an appointment with a beech-tree, or a yellow birch, or an old acquaintance among the pines." ...who else but Thoreau--
Yosemite Sam?
Dr Jamie's gonna quote Abba again, I can tell.
The best way to take a trip where you don't know where you will be 30 minutes from any one point is to attempt to drive at least 8 miles in the Los Angeles area during the 4 hour "rush hour."
However, going south on I-95 in Florida the Sunday after Thanksgiving, or north on that same road during a hurricane evacuation works pretty well, too.
rwe,
I guess some parts of Vandenburg must be kind of remote and beautiful?
rwe, that's like the Alzheimer's easter egg hunt--everybody just hides their own eggs--
I forgot where the Chickencoop is.
Doug: Yes, virtually all parts of Vandenberg AFB are rather remote from the signs of civilization and many are rather scenic as well.
Out on Point Argulleo on VAFB there is an old US Coast Guard Station, no longer manned, but with a lighthouse and a beautiful big 3 story house overlooking the ocean, equipped for extended stays, complete with walk-in freezers in the basement. Enough room for at least 3 families, and with a nice 2 story carriage house as well. And a huge fenced yard on the edge of the cliff, almost big enough for a baseball field.
And a climate where you wish you had air conditioning all of 3 days a year. Of course, you need heat at least at night all 365.
Could hardly think of a nicer place to live. If it just wasn't for all those guys running around with automatic weapons and them durn rockets flying overhead...
Touch of the Dragon
From a very interesting interview from FrontPage mag, with a Marine who won the Navy Cross in Iraq. (Tip: Power Line)
“FP: I am not sure what you are allowed to say in the context of the war itself, but in general how do you think the U.S. is doing in Iraq? What is the best way we will be able to prevail against our enemy? Will we prevail?
Montoya: I think the US is doing an outstanding job. From the administration to the ground troops they have really done what no nation could do. I mean they brought freedom to the oppressed and gave them the right to vote and dictate their own future. Nothing can replace the taste of freedom.
The country as a whole has moved forward so fast. Much faster then the US when we were fighting for independence. The best way to prevail is to not lose our nerve. I think the American people should stand behind the President and tell the other countries that do not have the nerve for this fight: take your toys and depart. For they will think themselves lesser men for it. Stay strong and focused on the mission. Do not lose sight: this is a noble and worthwhile cause. With that in mind, we will prevail.
Lastly, I think the American people who supported out troops should get a big pat on the back. I am maybe only one Marine, but I want to thank you for your support from the bottom of my heart.
I only wish my uncle who came back from Vietnam could see the great sprit of the American people.”
Tony, that's the same report I'm getting from the Austin kids back from Iraq--America should be feeling pride in her effort.
Here's another window.
...related.
rwe,
On the point off Avila Beach is an even more spectacular lighthouse.
I met the family that lived there and he took me out:
Nearly a four-wheel drive road-trail along the cliff (I was in a VW) to the point where the lighthouse sat back a ways from a spectacular drop down to the sea.
It had all the Coast Guard Amenities too, and a nice fenced yard.
Then there was the more spectacular cliff yet at the old Radar Station at Cambria:
You could just about see Monterey and Santa Barbara!
Lots nicer than Gardner, Kansas, where there was nothing better to do than incinerate birds w/ Radar Beams!
(and wait for the next Tornado)
Buddy, re: Zarqawi -
All this time I thought he was just self-concious about his weight problem!
Yeah Buddy,
I'm going to wait until "United 93" comes out on DVD, so I can watch it at home, like I did with "Schindler's List." Watch it late, after everyone's gone to bed, because, you know, tough guys aren't supposed to, you know, sit there with tears of sadness and pride of humanity pouring down their faces.
I remember right after 9/11, with the early reports, I could tell that we either shot United 93 down, or those passengers fought. Within a day, I knew it - those passengers fought back.
Meanwhile, my liberal friends are increasingly showing the reticence to say ANYTHING GOOD about America, and therefore you see the attitude in the negative reviews of the movie in your link. These same people who right after 9/11 asked "What did we do to make them so mad at us?" and who lately are searching out benevolent explanations of Islamofascism, and you know, maybe Christianity is the real villian of history ... they are SO open-minded, you see. But when their old pal Tony seems more interested in being Correct rather than Politically Correct, they are gravely offended. They suggest I've been brainwashed, etc. Get that? I have been brainwashed, but the guys who chop heads and destroy the WTC are deserving of their tender understanding and open-mindedness.
Talk about willfully ignorant and self-deluded, my poor friends are going off the deep end. I believe it's because they simply can't face the fact that we are at war.
And since they can't blame the enemies who declared war on us, because they would be so small-minded, they attack their fellow Americans. Weird.
Related … or how I learned to love RENDITION
Doug, laying around in them safe houses has sure affected ole Z-man's waistline, har har--
Tony, my evolved best answer to the "America is the problem" bit, is "So?"
(and, yo link is broke, alas)
Doug,
You asked:
Why, beyond a certain age, does illness always occur during vacations?
A correct observation.
Sorry, I've been working, and didn't get back here till just now.
Fortunately, Buddy was here, and had the right answer:
Doug, it's simple, God hates you.
As long as we take it in the sense Buddy (I think!) intended, where the "you" is not you, Doug, but more like "one," a generalized, impersonal "you."
;-)
Jamie Irons
Yeah Jamie,
There's a whole book on this, the Book of Job.
And Buddy, the link ain't broke.
Ps. What's the little wheelchair dude next to the word verification?
I hadn’t seen this before. “The Dukester”, aka former Congressman Cunningham, had a graduated scale of bribes requisite to garnering his attention and support of certain Defence Department contracts. At any rate, this was reported to be the case by ABC.
Because of an earlier post drawing attention to gold plated weapons procurement programs, I will be interested to see how this all pans out.
Also, within the article, reference was made to the Inspector General for the CIA: “an aggressive, independent watchdog.” The ABC report apparently predates the disclosure of Ms. McCarthy’s alleged misdeeds, while serving in that office.
Exclusive: Top CIA Official Under Investigation - http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/
print?id=1684086
Tony 2:45 PM:
You are not supposed to embarass those of us who are differently abled who USE that chair, by bringing attention upon it/us.
(Dr. Jamie just THINKS I'm one of you!)
Tony,
In terms of understanding your liberal friends mental illness, be sure and read that Shelby Steele piece.
Then try to see if you can get ONE of them to read the whole thing.
(would be entertaining to watch a liberal's head explode!)
Doug: You only liked Avila because of the nude beach south of there.
Never got up to Cambria AFS, was closed by the time I got there.
Pillar Pt AFS at Half Moon Bay is very nice with that great big radar next to the bay and that liitle airfield nearby. Supposedly that was where they discovered that the YB-49 was almost invisible to radar.
I never got up to Tranquillon Peak on VAFB where we have the radars, Would have been a nice view from there. I did fly past St. Ynez Peak a few times, where we have an optical tracker. It's not far from the Reagan Ranch.
I was always interested in seeing out how they built that tunnel on northbound 101 just past Gaviota. Never could figure out what that "window" you could see was for. Too hard to get to to examine it, though.
Tony:
I know what you mean. I have not watched the documentaries about Flt 93 for the same reason. Taped them, but have yet to watch them. I wrote a short piece about Flt 93 a few days after it happened and e-mailed it out to my friends - and I still can't read it myself without getting misty eyed.
If Bin Laden knew how many Amercians look at what happened on Flt 93 and say "God! I wish I was there to help!" they would crap their pants. Constantly.
Course, I would have wanted a gun.
In fact, if Micheal Moore and George Cloony knew how many Americans wished they had been there to help, they would crap their pants, too.
Larsen,
"Those bound to "willfully ignore everything the President says."
---
Re Keller letter to wsj about NSA leaks:
"I don't trust anything this administration says, and NOBODY I KNOWS TRUSTS ANYTHING THEY SAY."
Great! we're back to:
How could Nixon have won?
Nobody I know voted for him.
---
Rosen and Chimerinsky are supposed to be intelligent folks, but I guess BDS overrides great intellect.
Irwin think the Times performed a great service with NSA leaks, so how could it be illegal?
That's a Jay Rosen quote about trust, sorry.
also:
"Irwin thinks"
(he's just always wrong)
Senator Majority Leader Bill Frist is an anchorite. Who knew? But given his statement, yesterday, it must be true.
Yesterday, Senator Frist said that he would re-introduce the infamous immigration bill within the next two weeks. Among other things, Senator Frist wants “to bring those people out of the shadows.” “Those people” are illegal aliens living in the United States.
Only an anchorite (or possibly a troglodyte for the less ascetically inclined) could have missed the highly publicized demonstrations of “those people” casting millions of shadows across the American landscape, during the last few weeks.
It can be confidently predicted that Senator Frist, hailing from the home state of Congressman David Crockett, will not use the slogan, “Remember the Alamo”, during his ’08 presidential bid.
I want to say that I don't believe for a moment that Senator Frist would pander...or not.
rwe,
The liberal Brit or Scotsman behind the film had some great insights from thinking about/working with the movie:
I can't do him justice, but he observed that those passengers were the first post-9-11 Americans in terms of being confronted with the new reality and what to do about it.
While the rest of us watched or listened in shock, they had to deal with it, and they did.
Truly a terrifying, horrorific, heroic story.
A pistol--one li'l ole .38--would've been SO handy.
"In 1860, however, the California Legislature appropriated $15,000 for the construction of the first County road, to be cut through Gaviota Pass.
Prior to this, Gaviota Pass had been used during the Gold Rush by those on horseback or on foot, but the rocky narrows near the present site of Gaviota Tunnel and numerous stream crossings made it impassable to wagons until the County road was built, which the Bixby and Flint stagecoaches quickly began to take advantage of. "
---
My mom's family made that trek North to the San Juaquin Valley a few years before she was born.
---
"“I cannot describe my feelings as I stood on that ridge, that shore of an ancient ocean.
How lonely and desolate! Who shall tell how many centuries, how many decades of centuries, have elapsed since these rocks resounded to the roar of breakers, and these animals sported in their foam?
I picked up a bone, cemented in the rock with shells.
A feeling of awe came over me. Around me rose rugged mountains; no human being was within miles of me to break the silence. And then I felt overwhelmed...."”
William Brewer
Up and Down California
Wretchard,
I wake to the singing of early morning birds, in my breeze-cooled home next to a 17-hectare wetlands preserve in the suburbs of Bangkok...
I take your wondrous, soul-stirring trip almost every morning!
When you get to Bangkok, you may stay free in our spare bedroom, just gimme a call. And 'til then, eatcher hartowt, Pal!
cedarford,
Your 4:49 PM
Wasn’t there a meeting last week in Cuba between comrades Castro, Chavez, and Morales? Being relative newcomers to the world of globalization, Messrs. Chavez and Morales sat in awe at the Great Man’s feet, to be sure. And wouldn’t they, given the economic miracle that is Cuba.
Per capita income (PPP) - est. 2005
___Bolivia $2,700
___Cuba 3,300
___Venezuela 6,500
While President Morales no doubt has these small problems well in hand, I note that Bolivia has no coastline or port; moreover, it has no pipeline to a port. Indeed, Bolivia relies on Brazil, in the main, to take its natural gas. It is reported that Brazil is not pleased with comrade Morales - a small matter of having billions of dollars in investment expropriated.
Doug: At Gaviota Pass there is a monument to a great battle there that decided the fate of Central California.
During the Mexican American War (you remember that one - where we graciously let the Mexicans keep most of their country), the EL Hefe of Santa Barbara heard that a bunch of American troops were coming down to attack. So he took his troops up to Gaviota Pass and waited there, knowing it would be easy to hold them off in the narrow confines of the pass.
But an "Anglo" farmer heard about their plans, intercepted the American troops, and led them over the mountains via San Marcos Pass, enabling them to capture the undefended town of Santa Barbara. Eventually they sent someone up the El Camiano Real to Gaviota to tell the troops there that they had lost. They chose not to contest the issue.
We took the Southwest from them? No, by our standards they gave it to us.
But only in California would they put up a monument to commerate a battle that was never fought.
It was a heroic battle in their minds, though!
---
They way I figure it, the Mexicans stole it from the Catholics, who stole it from the Chumash.
Using Biological Warfare as well as slave labor!
Latino gangs claim their turf in Iraq...
Sounds like a nice walk, Wretchard. Wish you could have had more time. I've been meaning to take a few days and walk a portion of the Bibbulman. I'll get it done one of these days.
There's a video halfway down the front page of the NY Times about Iraqi Villages at Fort Irwin, complete with Iraqi-Americans that live there, Bombs engineered by Hollywood Experts, etc.
Supposedly some GI's get battle fatigue training there!
RWE, seconded: If Bin Laden knew how many Amercians look at what happened on Flt 93 and say "God! I wish I was there to help!"
I agree with you, trooper. Just in the last week or two, I read about what is now ROUTINE on American air travel: some fool acts threatening on a plane, and the free citizens around them serve justice and order. Just like the old days, it's safe to fly again.
Top al-Qaida suspect "captured":
Nasar, who had a $5 million (£2.9 million) bounty on his head, was arrested and released by UK police in 1995 after attacks on the Paris Metro.
The Pakistan government says it has captured more than 750 al-Qaida suspects since the September 11th attacks.
Al-Qaida Suspect
Hey, that flowed pretty good.
Well, so did the well.
It was a swell well,
it flowed good.
(make that "freely")
"It's impossible for capitalism to achieve our goals, nor is it possible to search for an intermediate way," Mr. Chavez said a few months ago, laying out his plans. "I invite all Venezuelans to march together on the path of socialism of the new century."
So says Hugo Chavez according to an article appearing last fall in the NY Times.
Well I can give Chavez credit for this much: at least he's out in the open about his plans for ruining the nation, for ruination. Morales' announcement yesterday that he was nationalizing the oil fields is right out of the Chavez playbook.
I've read that part of Delta Force training is being dropped off in North Carolina with $5 and 72 hours to get to Washington, DC, to simulate being behind enemy lines. Perhaps that would make quite a "vagabond" trip!
I can just see it, locked up with Otis in the Mayberry hoosegow, "But Deputy Fife, I PROMISE ya I'm in the Special Forces!"
Has the New York Times Violated the Espionage Act?
Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell is rolling to a big win in the GOP primary. He will be an underdog in the fight for the governorship, and big labor and MSM will be with standard issue liberal Ted Strickland from tomorrow morning forward.
Ohio 2006 live blogging.
- Hewitt
Viva la Revolucion!
Mark Levin
Perhaps an electoral revolution began Tuesday in the little town of Herndon, Virginia, where the now ex-mayor and ex-council members tried to force a (n illegal) day-labor center on an unwilling citizenry, for which they were thrown out of office. More here LINK
C4: .I think we may have fixated far too much on Israel and the Gulf to the detriment of our relations and interests in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and yes, Europe, over the last 30 years.
I guess that small thing called NATO & it's 110 BILLION a year since 1950 spent on Europe was distraction due to YOUR obsession with Israel?
I guess you dont remember our focus on ASIA since NIXON forward?
No? I guess our commitments to Korea, Japan were meaningless...
The USA is ABLE to do more than ONE thing at a time..
However, maybe if we as americans had focused on alternative energy since the ARABS and oil companies screwed us in 1973 we could tell the oil markets to go to hell....
amazing how every world problem that comes out of your mouth is either the zionists, jews or israel... what a putz.... (that's small penis for those that dont know)
cedarford,
Your 7:27 PM
Some weeks ago, in response to one of your lengthy manifestos, I asked if you could answer a number of questions. One of those questions addressed the change in the cost of a ton of steel during the 19th C. Either you did not bother to check, preferring emotion to enumeration, or you did not respond because the facts were incongruous with your “crony capitalist” leitmotif.
In 1810, the cost of production of a ton (2,000 pounds) of steel was $200.00. By 1900, the Robber Baron, Andrew Carnegie had reduced that to $20.00. As evidenced by history, Mr. Carnegie and his fellow plunderers reduced the United States to penury. While under benign socialism the rest of the world came to enjoy the benefits of skyscrapers, railroads, highways, mass media communications, internal combustion, etc, most Americans remained mired in rural subsistence agriculture. To this very day, the average American longs to make the arduous journey into that bastion of crony capitalism, Mexico.
Yes, C4, I do foist upon you examples, following the lead of a great American: “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” - John Adams. Your utopia may prove itself yet to be the best of all possible worlds; however, at this writing, empiricism does not bear that out. Sorry.
Should the policy of the United States be more robust in the southern Americas, indeed, it should? The United States ought to maintain preferential relationships with Latin governments which enshrine private property rights and the rule of law to protect those rights. What might happen in Bolivia, let us say, if the typical Bolivian could actually own more than the clothes on his back? Why, in short order, if history is instructive, he would become a hateful capitalist.
Eli Whitney was a Joo?
GWB should DO something about that Carnegie feller. Just proves me n' C4's point--everything--EVERYTHING--just totally suuuuuucks....
what's that little wheelchair for?
doug,
6:49 AM
No, but Karl Marx was, and that’s not duck soup.
yep--and you guys are sorta stuck with Sigmund Freud, too. But we Prods have Kierkegaard, who said "the supreme paradox of thought is that it must attempt to think that which cannot be thought"...I don't think Freud or Marx either topped THAT.
Not that such rarified piffle is in the slightest way useful toward getting the parsnips buttered.
I think you right--
buddy larsen,
Freud
It is reported that Freud did have the good sense to create a fall-back position: "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."
Oh, I seem to recall that the whole Electra thing was problematic for the good doctors. How did that ever turn out? Life is full of flaws, and only Linda Ronstadt knows cause.
Electra turned out fine, that Turtle Wax is some good sheet, mon!
Don't miss this instapundit on Max Boot on the "Dictator's Dividend" --it is a must read--
allen, 9:22 AM:
According to Ms Halfbright, sometimes an offer is not an offer, regardless of what the offeree said, and what he was doing with cigars at the time:
She now claims (on Hannity) that Sudan DID NOT offer Mr Laden to Bubba, and Bubba merely "Misspoke."
I always thought the Cigar was involved with Ms poke.
doug,
Ms. Halfbright,
Ms. Troubadour knew nothing of Ms. Humidor that Thermador. I heard her she swore, “That's for sure.”
Sudan? You mean Sue Dan? Been laid in where?
Clintonese is fun.
pork rinds for allah,
Your 5:03 AM - "what a putz.... (that's small penis for those that dont know)"
What's the pasta named for putz? Teeny Penne?
Rocky! Bullwinkle!
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Doug n' Allen, the pun form they mastered
(on this thread that they're leaving plastered),
with jokes about Clinton,
a fella (they're hintin')
whose morals are totally disastered.
That is a vacation, some time to do nothing. I haven't had one like that for sometime. Our trip to Manila/Cebu last Jan was more work than work.
A couple of summers ago we went to Toronto to visit my wife's sister and the sister's family. The most stress I had was babysitting the nieces and deciding which book to take after next.
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