Please use other door

Our local Post Office sports a sign like this on one of the two side-by-side doors coming in. The other day I saw the post mistress changing the sign from one door to the other. WTF?

Very strange dream last night

In my dream I saw a guy who I have not seen since about 4th grade. He and his twin brother were sort of bullies, though not focused on me particularly. One of my last memories of the guy was him flipping me over him on the playground in the snow, using judo/jujitsu learned by his Dad in the army. In the dream I recognized the guy and remembered his name. He greeted me by name. He was grown up, roughly around the age of 25 or so. Then the dream was all over.

I think the item below was the culprit (cauliflower and caramelized onion pie). This was taken from a post on Smitten Kitchen, a food blog. My recipe was altered somewhat from the blog by using sour cream, garlic, and cheddar cheese. In the blog it was presented as a tart. When I offered to make it either as a tart or pie my wife told me, "Make it as a pie. I want to have some, too." The pie and brussel sprouts browned in butter made a very nice vegetarian-ish meal.

I think the garlic was the active ingredient. Garlic tends to provide me with very strange and vivid dreams.

Life sucks and then you die

I repeated this old saw to an old friend of mine the other day. He said, "I don't really believe that, but it sure is lumpy sometimes."

Time for a new DSLR

I have been using an Olympus SP-560-UZ for a couple of years. It is small, but extremely capable. It zooms all the way from wide angle to 18x, self-cleans, stabilizes shots, and makes a very flexible platform for this kind of shooting. I bought it in reaction to the weight and inconvenience of lens changing with a standard DSLR. But it carries a bit of baggage. It doesn't start instantly. It doesn't do very well at night (there is just not enough glass to collect light to feed the sensor). In addition, it has the annoying quirks of this kind of camera: focusing takes some time, and the shutter doesn't fire quickly enough. The result is that I get pictures like those below.

This is a radar plane doing go around practice at the Wallop flight facility.

This is the rear end of geese on Assateague. I got the rear because I could not get the shutter to fire when I had a nice side shot. Still, I love the flexibility of this camera. I am waiting for the Canon 550D to come out, though. Then I'll get back in.

Today we visited the "found art" from the other day. Someone had rearranged it so that the hawser was laid out straight. It stretched out the other side of the tree for another 50 feet or so.

We poked around again on the "lonely" looking beach, finally focusing on this single pine.

I couldn't get enough of this one, since it showed so well what the storms had done. In some places it had worn right through.

Elsewhere there were only pointy little shreds of wood left.

I really liked the texture of the inside of the tree. Sand-blasting by the storm had left only half of its original diameter. It looked like individual rings had been surgically separated.

I am guessing that summer growth wore away, leaving winter. Maybe one of my forestry friends will weigh in on this?

Off the main track

Our walk today took us over to the beach via the Wildlife Loop bike trail. We had not been over there since the collection of nor'easters passed through this winter. As soon as we approached the end of the trail we could see sand covering the asphalt, many yards into the walkway. Strangely, it was very pleasant over there, warm and sunny.

This piece of found art met our eyes as soon as we came out onto the beach. Lots of little pieces of jetsam and spiral shells were joined by many feet of 3" hauser to make this sculpture.

We wondered where this came from and under what conditions. It looked to be a mooring line for a substantial fishing vessel, but we'll never know.

Everything about this thing was weathered, eroded, and sculptured by the sand and winds.

All around us were reminders of the storms. This bit of pavement looked to be once part of the bike path out to the beach. Now it sat 100 yards from the end.

Some of these trees had been alive, as evidenced by last seasons's cones. They are now stark reminders of the beach's continual movement to the west.

Poop on the loop

Today's walk rewarded us with ponies. Who can resist? All these were mares, with babies on the way.

There were different varieties, but all contributed to piles on the roadside. Just in time, as last year's piles had been reduced to almost a monolayer. Grass ==> pile ==> grass ==> pile ==> grass: it's the never-ending story of ponies.

A neighbor tells us that the nasty beasts step on bird nests, however. He tells us the ponies are "invasive." I think that means something like "they came fairly recently and I don't like them." People here think that the Phragmites reed is also "invasive." Phragmites reeds were here before anybody visited from Europe, according to Wikipedia. It turns out that they are pretty good at chemical warfare, sending out gallic acid to kill neighboring plants. I kind of like their feathery tops. They don't bother me too much, but our association has pulled them out anywhere they were found.

I'm glad the English and Europeans did not pull them all out. I really like thatched roofs, which are often made from this reed.

The ponies generally ignored us, as we had no carrots. "Assateague ponies are wild animals. They kick and bite, " says Mother Government. I've got news for you. Even when the ponies are domesticated, they still kick and bite. Horse-shaped animals can be pretty disagreeable when they want. That said, they all like carrots.

Another, hopefully entertaining, tale from the past

Well, I'm getting older, and I thought I knew how to buy a car. My first couple I bought in upstate New York. The next few I bought in Florida, while in graduate school. Then I moved to New Jersey, where it seemed much the same. You drive to where the cars are and talk to someone who wants to sell you a car. Then, after choosing one and agreeing on the price, you go away and arrange to get the money. Then you go back where the cars are and pay for it. If everything works out OK, then you drive the car away. It all seemed reasonable to me, too. But now things are different.

Here is a little background info. My daughter just got her first apartment in Manhattan. It's not fancy, but it's hers and she is happy. Then her car, which we bought in the "normal" way, began to be a nuisance to her. First it began to collect tickets while her boyfriend drove and parked it in the wrong places. That was solved by ditching the BF (there was more, but I'll leave that for another story). Then one day the car disappeared off the street. She was right at the decision point about whether to sell the car or not. So the disappearance could have been good (provided the insurance company paid). Unfortunately, the BF had come back to haunt her. He had never paid his tickets, so the car was impounded. Well, that is an adventure in New York City! Visits here and there to offices in strange places, followed by payment of large sums of money. She made her way through it without complaining too much. But she did decide to sell the car!

OK, so, what to do? She didn't know, but her uncle did. Her uncle lives in Flushing, and volunteered to show the car at his house. I don't know why, but it was really decent of him. So he was to show the car and my daughter was to advertise so it would sell. Well, right after paying deposits and her first rent, that was not in the cards. She didn't even have an Internet connection. So her very kind uncle started dropping off fliers and putting in Internet ads (don't tell his wife - she thought that was my daughter's job). Well, nothing much happened for a while, but then, last Wednesday night we got a call. And all hell broke loose! My daughter calls up and says there may be a buyer. Her uncle calls up and tells us the same. Daughter calls back and says "It's not enough. What do I do?" So I coach her on how to negotiate. Then her uncle calls up again and tells us the bottom line and the shocker "They want to buy it tonight!" Did daughter dear prepare for this? Hell, no! The title, manual, and extra keys are here in NJ!

So we tell him "No way! We'll come over tomorrow, when we're scheduled to go to Brooklyn." He says "No, it has to be tonight. They need the car for tomorrow. They'll pay cash!" So we hem and haw for a bit, then tell him that we'll come over. Then we ask him "Where do we do this thing?" He tells us in Manhattan, then corrects himself to say Astoria. It's 6PM by that time, and we have to conclude this quickly. So, off we go, worrying about counterfeit money, unsavory buyers, and so on. We call everyone in sight telling them we're on the way. Uncle is driving the car over to meet us. By 7:15 we're picking up my daughter and explaining things to her. Then we put the Astoria address in the GPS and head for Queens. So, traffic is fairly light and we get there in twenty minutes or so, pulling up just behind the uncle. "Not so bad," I say to myself (stupidly, it turns out). Uncle gets on his cell phone and tells us "I can't get the guy!" So we stand around for a while, thumbs up our asses, wondering WTF. The house owner comes out and tells us the guy lives here but he isn't here right now.

It's at this point that I begin to focus on what's gone wrong with car buying. Rule 1: go to where the cars are! What the hell, the car, the seller, the uncle, and the immediate family in yet another car are all going somewhere that the buyer IS NOT! Uncle is resourceful, however, and calls one of the other people who came to his place with the buyer. He says, "I'm close by, a couple of blocks away. Let me call the guy and find out what happened and get him to call you back." So, we wait, and wait, and wait. Then uncle's phone rings and the dude calls back. "That guy will call you in a minute." So, the missing guy finally calls and tells us "I'm in Manhattan (and, by the way, I'm not the guy buying the car." So now we're really in a lather. Uncle, not to be topped, calls the other dude back.

The dude tells us "Come and get me, then we'll get this thing going." I'm saying "Great, maybe this will happen." So off we go to DESTINATION 2. Well, it is DEFINITELY NOT a couple of blocks away. It is a couple of MILES away. We're following uncle and he goes through so many yellow lights that I'm beginning to wonder if we'll every catch him. Thank goodness we have cell phones. Finally we get to DESTINATION2. When we catch up with uncle, he starts up again immediately. I think he is still heading for the dude until I see that the dude is inside the car. "Where are we going," I ask my wife, who is in continual contact with uncle by now. Eventually we squeeze the address for DESTINATION 3 from uncle via the cell.

DESTINATION 3? "What the hell?," I ask, while watching my better half punch in the address. Now we are approaching the real buyers. However, they are not in Astoria, they are in Elmhurst! On and on we drive. By this time I am getting pretty snotty at the prospect of more driving in Queens. We drive and drive, past shopping centers and train stations, past car dealers and delis, past prostitutes and pimps. Finally our trusty GPS guides us to a very dark neighborhood. Yipes! So, uncle is standing on the street with the dude and two nerdy, grad student-looking people. We open up the car and get the buyer in the backseat. Daughter counts the money. She inspects it for counterfeit. She writes down the buyer's name and address. She signs over the title. She writes out a receipt for the money. Then she gets out to get the plates and registration from the car. IT WAS NOT TO BE!

So, to recap: by this time we have driven to Manhattan, continued to DESTINATION 1 in Astoria, continued to DESTINATION 2 in Astoria, driven on to DESTINATION 3 in Elmhurst, finally to conclude the sale. We thought we were done, after 3+ hours. But nooooooo, uncle proceeds to tell them that they can't leave an unlicensed car on the street or the cops will give them a ticket. I could have shot him!. So now there is a detailed, BUT UNCONCLUSIVE discussion on WTF to do. I'm really pissed off at this point. This is way too much caprocopulation for me! So, the final upshot is that we all get back in the car, abandon the purchasers, and drive to DESTINATION 4 back in Astoria. I'm flaming, but resigned by this time. Uncle is picked up by his son. Daughter gets her plates and registration. We all get back in the car and drive back to Manhattan, then back home to NJ.

So, this is how to buy a car these days:

1. Get two friends, including one with mechanical skills, together
2. Rent a car and drive to where the car is (this sounds appropriate so far)
3. Drive away, promising to meet and buy the car with cash, but giving the wrong address
4. Let the guy at the address go off and do whatever he wants without telling the sellers
5. Let another guy go off somewhere else, but let him answer the phone
6. Force the car to drive to three different destinations, trailing another car for support of the selling team
7. Force the car to drive off to a fourth destination for parking without plates
8. Let the sellers go off on their own finally, to get home at a much later hour than they thought reasonable

Things are different now. I just hadn't realized how different they are

Postscript: Uncle recently sold another car, having learned from this episode. He got the money delivered to his house!

Weather schizophrenia

The last storm was a corker! Snow blowing sideways; house shaking; nasty cold. The little tidal stream in front was refuge from the wind for the geese and ducks. All day long we heard honking as the troops passed back and forth.

We hadn't seen the geese here before, so it was kind of nice.

This little guy landed on the deck, tucking himself into the corners out of the wind. We felt kind of sorry for him. Yes, this is kind of sexist. I never lifted the tail and checked his sex. I know, I know, you can't check that way.

Then came the sun of the last couple of days. Hopefully we have seen the last of the big storms for a while. We walked the woodland trail on Assateague, meeting up with someone from Rehoboth, Delaware who left 30 inches of snow to come down for a walk.

Today we needed to stir ourselves a bit, so we jumped off for Janes Island State Park, up near Crisfield. It is over on the Chesapeake Bay side. There is a set of canoe trails over there. You can rent theirs or put in for yourself.

There is a ramp for motor boats, and a bit of a marina. Today, it was mostly filled with ice.

The ice patterns were kind of interesting.

There were no trails suitable for a walk, so we took off for Crisfield. There we found a flock of gulls enjoying leftover juicy bits on oyster shells.

This is really getting old

The last storm finally passed. Some of the snow and ice melted. We were able to get around. That seemed like a good progression. It also seemed kind of deja vu-ish.

We found ourselves out on the Wildlife Loop again, with more melted spots in evidence. The waterbirds were back.

Minnows were apparently available.

Ducks were very skittish. They congregated in the pools, but flew off at our approach. The sound of the wings was wonderful when a flock takes off.

Tonight we're back in the middle of it. Enough already!

The grip retightens

"Icyteague" (Esther's word) seemed ready to let go a couple of days ago. Holes were opening up in the Wildlife Loop pond.

Geese, ducks, and even swans had returned to the open areas. The sun had melted all the ice on the road, making the walk around the loop a lot more pleasant.

Then along came our latest storm, "Snowpocalypse". Most of Saturday morning it rained, sometimes sideways. As the day wore on it began to flurry, then snow in earnest. Then, at 2PM, the power went out. Our little place has nothing for heat except a heat pump. It began to get pretty cold pretty quickly. We kept putting on more and more clothes as the afternoon went on.

At dinner we could only have tuna salad. There was no way to warm anything else. Shortly after that we looked at the 4-5 inches of snow that had accumulated, lit some candles, and went upstairs. Each of us ended up in bed with 4 or 5 layers on plus covers piled on top. It was passably warm.

At 10PM the power came on for about a minute, then went off again. At midnight it came back on for good.

Today, "Icyteague" and "Chincofreeze" are transformed. Under the cold temperatures and influence of high tides a layer of ice was left on the marshes around us.

The tidal gut itself was clear of ice, though, unlike in the past. Icicles hung from the rafters.

As the sun rose, it reflected from all the ice.

Over by the causeway to Assateague the ice was high enough so that low tide seemed like high tide.

Chincoteague road crews had done their usual sterling job, leaving the snow on the roads until it got pounded into glare ice.

Over by Piney Island I could see the tide running out from under the ice on its way back to the bay.

Hungry birds

The other day Esther and I were walking the Wildlife Loop on Assateague Island. After the snow and cold weather, Esther was thinking to rename it as Icyteague. The waters inside and around the loop were frozen over. That led to an absence of birds except in small openings, where the herons and egrets congregated. I wondered if the water birds which usually feed there were getting hungry.

This morning we took a look outside our place on Chincoteague. The sun has melted some of the snow and left open patches in the needles under our pines. The exposed ground was just a thicket of red-wing blackbirds.

They were all over the place, pecking through needles and snow.

On the ground just one bird (lower right) showed its red, but in the air was a cheerful, colorful crowd flying back and forth to find the right spots.

This kind of thing can really make up for cabin fever during the unusual snow times here.