I think that poking around through the things that a person has collected throughout their life is a better way to find ideas for gifts - either for someone else or for yourself - than going to some 'big box' store and picking boxes off a shelf. It's that idea that inspired me to create a new web site: UncleBobsAttic.com. On it, I've assembled links to different items that I've used or had experience with in my life. Everything from guitars to novels to woodworking tools to watches are there. (A total of 225 links as of this writing, and still growing.) You can buy the items by following the links or just look around the site and read the stories of Uncle Bob.
And one great benefit of UncleBobsAttic.com. is that it brings together items from a variety of different web sites. Musical accessories from one site, home and hearth goods from another, books and music from a third, watches and accessories from a fourth.
So that's my plug. Let me know if you visit there and what you think.
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Just make the damn sandwich
When I go into a restaurant and order a sandwich, I don't want to have to tell the person making it what to put on it. Just make it the way you make it. If I like it, I'll come back and order another one. If I don't, I won't. Just don't ask ME how to make the damn thing.
My Number One Gripe
My number one complaint with life in the US today is the uncontrolled noise pollution generated by motorcycles without mufflers. For some reason, riders think they have the right to infringe on the peaceful existence of the entire population by making their bikes as loud as possible. And the police just turn the other way.
Any first-year phsych major knows that a cry for attention is a sign of insecurity. Real men don't need to announce their machismo to the world. It's time the quiet majority stopped coddling these over-compensating juveniles and insist that law enforcement do something about it.
Any first-year phsych major knows that a cry for attention is a sign of insecurity. Real men don't need to announce their machismo to the world. It's time the quiet majority stopped coddling these over-compensating juveniles and insist that law enforcement do something about it.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
I Posted Some Tunes
I've been playing around with some low-cost recording software and I put a few tunes out on our web site. They're just of me on electric guitar with some half-way decent backing tracks generated from Band-in-a-Box. If you haven't already, check them out at www.pescatello.org. Just click on the Joe's Jams link. I'd be glad to get your feedback - good or bad.
Saturday, September 23, 2006
End of 2006 Summer
Well, another short season has come and gone here in the New Hampshire Seacoast. We had an especially compressed summer because June was a complete wash out. More rain this past June than any on-record. I spent the month trying to keep our basements dry, and not succeeding at all. The only sailing I did during that time was when Jude and I got Aelena out of moth-balls on Memorial Day weekend, and that was May, not June.
July was better weather-wise, but we had two rental houses become empty and we wound up working on them and then spending lots of time trying to rent them. Just today we're finally getting a tenant in the Portsmouth house after showing it since mid-July.
In August we had a micro-burst in Rye that would be hard to grasp if you weren't here to see it. Out of nowhere, a tremendous wind came down on our little town and snapped huge trees off at about 20-30 feet above the ground. We'd had a lot of rain, and the ground was wet so many other trees were uprooted. REALLY BIG TREES! Many hundreds of trees! It was unbelievable! Power lines and phone poles were on the ground all over town. You couldn't get around at all - the entire town was sealed off. Roads were blocked everywhere. The cleanup was amazingly fast - within a week almost all of the power was restored, but there is still plenty of damage to be seen where people haven't gotten to the trees on their property yet. We lost a total of 9 trees, none of which hit any of our houses, but I had to clean them up. And it took all of August and into September to do so. (Thanks for the help, John!) There are tall trees down in the woods behind our house, but I don't plan on going back in there and cutting them up.
So this summer, I didn't have the free time to go sailing that I would have liked. I got out about 8 or 9 times and hope to sail once more before I bring the boat in for the winter. (I did spend a week volunteering on Star Island, though, and I'll post another entry with my thoughts on that.) Now the pool's closed and Lori has put the winter rug and draperies out in the living room.I've started splitting firewood and we're getting ready for the cold season ahead. It's hard not to love Autumn in New England, it's what follows that's depressing.
Thanks for stopping by and reading my rantings. Hope to see you soon.
July was better weather-wise, but we had two rental houses become empty and we wound up working on them and then spending lots of time trying to rent them. Just today we're finally getting a tenant in the Portsmouth house after showing it since mid-July.
In August we had a micro-burst in Rye that would be hard to grasp if you weren't here to see it. Out of nowhere, a tremendous wind came down on our little town and snapped huge trees off at about 20-30 feet above the ground. We'd had a lot of rain, and the ground was wet so many other trees were uprooted. REALLY BIG TREES! Many hundreds of trees! It was unbelievable! Power lines and phone poles were on the ground all over town. You couldn't get around at all - the entire town was sealed off. Roads were blocked everywhere. The cleanup was amazingly fast - within a week almost all of the power was restored, but there is still plenty of damage to be seen where people haven't gotten to the trees on their property yet. We lost a total of 9 trees, none of which hit any of our houses, but I had to clean them up. And it took all of August and into September to do so. (Thanks for the help, John!) There are tall trees down in the woods behind our house, but I don't plan on going back in there and cutting them up.
So this summer, I didn't have the free time to go sailing that I would have liked. I got out about 8 or 9 times and hope to sail once more before I bring the boat in for the winter. (I did spend a week volunteering on Star Island, though, and I'll post another entry with my thoughts on that.) Now the pool's closed and Lori has put the winter rug and draperies out in the living room.I've started splitting firewood and we're getting ready for the cold season ahead. It's hard not to love Autumn in New England, it's what follows that's depressing.
Thanks for stopping by and reading my rantings. Hope to see you soon.
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Star Island in Early June
It's Sunday evening and I just got back from a weekend on Star Island. I volunteered to help get things ready for the conference season which starts in eleven days. It was raining when we left Rye Harbor at 6:30 last Friday night. The seas were pretty calm, though, and the dozen or so people on the boat were fairly reserved. A few folks clearly knew each-other from previous years and they knotted together in groups while the rest of us kept to ourselves during the trip.
Once the boat docked (I've forgotten her name - sorry, Grey.), we all headed to Newton Centre hall - an oldish stone building with two fairly large rooms with wooden floors, vaulted ceilings and a large kitchen. A hot meal was waiting and Skip, the facilities manager, introduced himself and the members of the staff, most of whom were young enough to be my offspring. Despite the worsening weather, everyone was friendly and we all started getting to know each-other over a great meal of ribs, turkey, rice and homemade bread.
After dinner, each of us went to the lobby for our room assignments and for blankets and pillows. I found my way to my cottage, dropped off my duffel bag and headed out to explore.
Moving around the nooks and crannies of the island was easy to do since the place was relatively empty. I explored the old hotel Atlantic unaccompanied and I found it to be showing its age in startling ways. Gaping holes in the plaster where rain water flowed freely into interior rooms; puddles forming on wooden floors that were nowhere near external walls; water dripping from electric ceiling lights - nothing about the place was impervious to the elements. It seemed unlikely that it would last the night, let alone the whole season. But it's been there for 100 years, so maybe I was underestimating the old girl.
My room was drafty and damp and I was glad my sleeping bag was well-insulated when I called it a night at 9:30. Wind rattled the windows all night but I slept soundly and got up around 6:30 Saturday morning. The Nor'easter had picked up steam, and walking the 100 yards or so between my cottage and Newton hall was a chore. By the time I got there, I was soaked, and that is exactly how I remained for the rest of the weekend.
After breakfast I went over to the carpenters' shop to get a work assignment. Again, the walk was tough in 25 knot winds and pouring rain, and I was soaked to the bone by the time I found the place. When I got to the shop, some of the regular workers had apportioned the good woodworking jobs (building beds) and there wasn't much left for me to do. Someone mentioned that the planer wasn't working right so I opened it up and started troubleshooting the problem. I readjusted a roller that was out of parallel, greased some moving parts and it was good as new.
Working in the shop was great fun. People (myself included) would let an f-bomb fly without a second thought. Guys could be guys there and it seemed like a natural state of affairs. I couldn't help but contrast it to working in my office where I have to be careful about everything that comes out of my mouth. I'm sure there are politics in a community as small as Star Island, but I felt free of it in my short stint in the carp-shop.
For the rest of the day, I worked on sanding the beds that the other guys were building, I replaced some ceiling tiles, and did a few other jobs around the island. Every time I left the shop, the wind and rain seemed to get worse and when I retired after dinner at 8:30, I was exhausted and soaking wet. One of the Pelicans (A college-aged employee who lives on the island all summer) said something interesting and right on the money. She said that the weather itself drains your energy when it's like it was this weekend - she was right.
So I fell asleep huddled in my sleeping bag with the light on in my mildewy, drafty room with rain and wind coming in through the closed windows. And the storm just howled all night. The noise from 40 sustained knots through the night, and the cold and outright dampness were insufferable. But I slept soundly for 11 hours because I was beaten up!
Today, I worked on a couple of projects before lunch and then packed my bag in preparation for the 2:00 boat out. The rain had stopped and the wind was down to around 15 knots. We had some good-sized swells coming back and a couple of people were sick, but we arrived intact. Unlike the ride out on Friday, everyone knew everyone else and we all said heartfelt goodbyes when we went to our separate cars at Rye harbor. It was a hell of a hard, and gratifying weekend, but oh - it feels good to be DRY!
Once the boat docked (I've forgotten her name - sorry, Grey.), we all headed to Newton Centre hall - an oldish stone building with two fairly large rooms with wooden floors, vaulted ceilings and a large kitchen. A hot meal was waiting and Skip, the facilities manager, introduced himself and the members of the staff, most of whom were young enough to be my offspring. Despite the worsening weather, everyone was friendly and we all started getting to know each-other over a great meal of ribs, turkey, rice and homemade bread.
After dinner, each of us went to the lobby for our room assignments and for blankets and pillows. I found my way to my cottage, dropped off my duffel bag and headed out to explore.
Moving around the nooks and crannies of the island was easy to do since the place was relatively empty. I explored the old hotel Atlantic unaccompanied and I found it to be showing its age in startling ways. Gaping holes in the plaster where rain water flowed freely into interior rooms; puddles forming on wooden floors that were nowhere near external walls; water dripping from electric ceiling lights - nothing about the place was impervious to the elements. It seemed unlikely that it would last the night, let alone the whole season. But it's been there for 100 years, so maybe I was underestimating the old girl.
My room was drafty and damp and I was glad my sleeping bag was well-insulated when I called it a night at 9:30. Wind rattled the windows all night but I slept soundly and got up around 6:30 Saturday morning. The Nor'easter had picked up steam, and walking the 100 yards or so between my cottage and Newton hall was a chore. By the time I got there, I was soaked, and that is exactly how I remained for the rest of the weekend.
After breakfast I went over to the carpenters' shop to get a work assignment. Again, the walk was tough in 25 knot winds and pouring rain, and I was soaked to the bone by the time I found the place. When I got to the shop, some of the regular workers had apportioned the good woodworking jobs (building beds) and there wasn't much left for me to do. Someone mentioned that the planer wasn't working right so I opened it up and started troubleshooting the problem. I readjusted a roller that was out of parallel, greased some moving parts and it was good as new.
Working in the shop was great fun. People (myself included) would let an f-bomb fly without a second thought. Guys could be guys there and it seemed like a natural state of affairs. I couldn't help but contrast it to working in my office where I have to be careful about everything that comes out of my mouth. I'm sure there are politics in a community as small as Star Island, but I felt free of it in my short stint in the carp-shop.
For the rest of the day, I worked on sanding the beds that the other guys were building, I replaced some ceiling tiles, and did a few other jobs around the island. Every time I left the shop, the wind and rain seemed to get worse and when I retired after dinner at 8:30, I was exhausted and soaking wet. One of the Pelicans (A college-aged employee who lives on the island all summer) said something interesting and right on the money. She said that the weather itself drains your energy when it's like it was this weekend - she was right.
So I fell asleep huddled in my sleeping bag with the light on in my mildewy, drafty room with rain and wind coming in through the closed windows. And the storm just howled all night. The noise from 40 sustained knots through the night, and the cold and outright dampness were insufferable. But I slept soundly for 11 hours because I was beaten up!
Today, I worked on a couple of projects before lunch and then packed my bag in preparation for the 2:00 boat out. The rain had stopped and the wind was down to around 15 knots. We had some good-sized swells coming back and a couple of people were sick, but we arrived intact. Unlike the ride out on Friday, everyone knew everyone else and we all said heartfelt goodbyes when we went to our separate cars at Rye harbor. It was a hell of a hard, and gratifying weekend, but oh - it feels good to be DRY!
Saturday, April 08, 2006
Some stuff from my bulletin board
Hello,
Somewhere along the line I started collecting sayings, poems and anything written that struck a chord with me. When Lori recently refurbished my music room, she suggested that I no longer lived in a dorm and that I take down the two bulletin boards that I had on the wall filled with these artifacts of my life from when I left home up to the present. When I took them down, I came across stuff I hadn't read in years, decades really. Some of it wasn't even legible any more, but I thought I'd post the rest here as a way to preserve those memories. They appear below, and while some might seem nonsensical, every one of them has some meaning and comes from a particular point in my adult life. (This is starting to sound self-indulgent, so I'm just going to get started.)
"Fortune sides with him who dares." - Virgil
"Death finds us amid our playthings, snatches us as a cross nurse might do a wayward child from all our toys and baubles." - An Old Play
"As long as you are honest and kind, you don't have to be timid about doing what you want to do." - Miss Manners' Mom
"All that I know I learned after I was 30." - George Clemenceau
"To find out a girl's faults, praise her to her girlfriends." - B. Franklin
"If we listened to our intellect, we'd never have a love affair. We'd never have a friendship. We'd never go into business because we'd be cynical. Well', that's nonsense. You've got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down." - R. Bradbury
"Not a day passes over the earth, but men and women of no note do great deeds, speak great words and suffer noble sorrows." C. Reade
"In art, nothing worth doing can be done without genius; in science, even a moderate capacity can contribute to a supreme achievement." B. Russell.
"In all good music, there is that element of tension and release - whether it's done with dynamics or harmony or even theatrics. And you don't get it by playing it safe all the time." Steve Khan
"Don't look down." David Bowie
"So try it and see." Herman Wouk
"Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth." Alan Watts
"To understand all is to forgive all". (Not sure)
"A funny thing about life - if you refuse to accept anything but the very best, you very often get it." W. Somerset Maugham
"Happiness makes up in height what it lacks in length." Robert Frost
"How I long for a little ordinary human enthusiasm. Just enthusiasm - that's all. I want to hear a warm, thrilling voice crying out 'Hallelujah! Hallelujah! I'm alive!" John Osborne
"Grace is the absence of everything that indicates pain or difficulty, hesitation or incongruity." William Hazlitt
"There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that h emust take himself, for better or worse." Ralph Waldo Emerson
"The only real failure in life is failing to try." Verna Noel Jones
"Uncertainty and mystery are energies in life. Don't let them scare you unduly, for they keep boredom at bay and spark creativity." R.I. Fitzhenry
"In the midst of great joy, do not promise anyone anything. In the midst of great anger, do not answer anyone's letter." Chinese proverb
"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and I - I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference." Robert Frost
One mo to go
Two do da sho
Three fo yo + me
Four da yak I see
Greg Baier
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.
John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
Somewhere along the line I started collecting sayings, poems and anything written that struck a chord with me. When Lori recently refurbished my music room, she suggested that I no longer lived in a dorm and that I take down the two bulletin boards that I had on the wall filled with these artifacts of my life from when I left home up to the present. When I took them down, I came across stuff I hadn't read in years, decades really. Some of it wasn't even legible any more, but I thought I'd post the rest here as a way to preserve those memories. They appear below, and while some might seem nonsensical, every one of them has some meaning and comes from a particular point in my adult life. (This is starting to sound self-indulgent, so I'm just going to get started.)
"Fortune sides with him who dares." - Virgil
"Death finds us amid our playthings, snatches us as a cross nurse might do a wayward child from all our toys and baubles." - An Old Play
"As long as you are honest and kind, you don't have to be timid about doing what you want to do." - Miss Manners' Mom
"All that I know I learned after I was 30." - George Clemenceau
"To find out a girl's faults, praise her to her girlfriends." - B. Franklin
"If we listened to our intellect, we'd never have a love affair. We'd never have a friendship. We'd never go into business because we'd be cynical. Well', that's nonsense. You've got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down." - R. Bradbury
"Not a day passes over the earth, but men and women of no note do great deeds, speak great words and suffer noble sorrows." C. Reade
"In art, nothing worth doing can be done without genius; in science, even a moderate capacity can contribute to a supreme achievement." B. Russell.
"In all good music, there is that element of tension and release - whether it's done with dynamics or harmony or even theatrics. And you don't get it by playing it safe all the time." Steve Khan
"Don't look down." David Bowie
"So try it and see." Herman Wouk
"Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth." Alan Watts
"To understand all is to forgive all". (Not sure)
"A funny thing about life - if you refuse to accept anything but the very best, you very often get it." W. Somerset Maugham
"Happiness makes up in height what it lacks in length." Robert Frost
"How I long for a little ordinary human enthusiasm. Just enthusiasm - that's all. I want to hear a warm, thrilling voice crying out 'Hallelujah! Hallelujah! I'm alive!" John Osborne
"Grace is the absence of everything that indicates pain or difficulty, hesitation or incongruity." William Hazlitt
"There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that h emust take himself, for better or worse." Ralph Waldo Emerson
"The only real failure in life is failing to try." Verna Noel Jones
"Uncertainty and mystery are energies in life. Don't let them scare you unduly, for they keep boredom at bay and spark creativity." R.I. Fitzhenry
"In the midst of great joy, do not promise anyone anything. In the midst of great anger, do not answer anyone's letter." Chinese proverb
"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and I - I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference." Robert Frost
One mo to go
Two do da sho
Three fo yo + me
Four da yak I see
Greg Baier
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.
John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
How I know Spring isn't far off
In no particular order...
1) I haven't seen a ship in Portsmouth unloading mountains of road salt in weeks.
2) The Water Country sign is lit up at night advertising 2006 season passes.
3) The sun is up when I leave for work AND when I get home.
4) I received my application for a spot in Rye Harbor for Aelena for 2006.
5) Sign-up has begun for Star Island summer conferences.
6) The bulbs that Lori has in jars and vases around the house are starting to show signs of life.
7) Large clumps of cat hair are appearing frequently all over the carpets.
8) Lent is almost here.
9) The boat registration is due.
10)Our wood pile is almost gone.
1) I haven't seen a ship in Portsmouth unloading mountains of road salt in weeks.
2) The Water Country sign is lit up at night advertising 2006 season passes.
3) The sun is up when I leave for work AND when I get home.
4) I received my application for a spot in Rye Harbor for Aelena for 2006.
5) Sign-up has begun for Star Island summer conferences.
6) The bulbs that Lori has in jars and vases around the house are starting to show signs of life.
7) Large clumps of cat hair are appearing frequently all over the carpets.
8) Lent is almost here.
9) The boat registration is due.
10)Our wood pile is almost gone.
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