Adventuress maintainance

Reid & I spent Sunday working on Schooner Adventuress. I had the opportunity to sail on her a couple years ago, and when I moved to Port Townsend, I was looking forward to the opportunity to connect with them again.

They do maintainance work over the winter, and invite folks to volunteer for a "work weekend" each month. We went to help in January. Reid found another kid & the two of them played. I watched the kids & sorted the fasteners (huge collection!).

This time I spent the morning scuffing the varnish on the deckhouse, in preparation for a new coat. They were getting ready to sway up the main boom, and Reid helped tie some lines on for the purpose. He learned the marlinspike hitch and put it to good work.

The afternoon was spent with spars. The main boom and main- and fore-topmasts were stowed on deck, being the most unwieldy (least wieldy?). We swayed up the main boom, with folks pulling on lines in 8 directions to keep it under control.

Once it was secured, we were sent to "spar land" (a storage space far away) to get the other 4 large spars - main gaff, fore gaff, fore boom, and "club" (which I'd call the jib boom, but what do I know?) . They had a dolly made of the rear axel + wheels of a car w/ a small superstructure. A spar was hauled out of the shed (up to 8 people to lift them) and balanced on the dolly; a second spar placed next to it. We then walked the spars to the dock, and carried them down the dock to the boat. My shoulder has a sore, red area from bearing the weight.

Once the spars were placed on deck, we cleaned up and called it a day. The crew of Adventuress will sway up the remaining spars on their own, they being much smaller than the main boom.

The end of the world as we know it

Every time I read something by Charles Eisenstein, I love it.  I usually feel like he's saying what I want to say, but I don't even know it. 

 

Yesterday I read his Waiting for the Big One, and it was no disappointment.  I particularly liked his list of "doom and gloom credentials", which begins with:

First and foremost, I am aware of the environmental crisis: climate change, desertification, coral bleaching, tree death, topsoil erosion, habitat destruction, irreversible loss of biodiversity, toxic and radioactive waste, the PCBs in every living cell, the vast swaths of disappearing rainforests, the dead rivers, lakes and seas, the slag heaps and quarry pits, the living world reduced to profit and pavement.

I am aware of Peak Oil and the dependency of all aspects of our economic infrastructure and food supply on fossil fuels. And I realize that no conventionally-recognized alternative energy source can possibly hope to replace oil and gas any time soon.

and goes on and on.  In my printed copy, this list filled 2 pages.  

 

A couple years ago I went to an unconventional doctor who claims to be able to ask your electromagnetic aura questions, and get answers.  Things like "is mercury in your body the cause of that skin condition?".  I was sick at one point, and he suggested an antibiotic.  I told him that I try to avoid antibiotics, and so he asked my aura which of several treatments I should choose, to balance my principles & need for treatment.  The answer was grape seed extract.

 

I have no idea what an "electromagnetic aura" is. I'm generally a rational science-loving type of person, and nothing that he does fits in to my understanding of how the world works.  5 years earlier I would have laughed at him and gone on with my life.  But, thanks largely to Charles Eisenstein's writings, I've learned that there is dramatically more truth than science can find.  Science has strict rules about what it can do, which is fundamental to why science is great, but it's also very limiting.  If we lived our lives relying only on scientifically-proven truths, we would live incomplete lives.  At some point you have to make a decision based on something else.  That something else is "faith", although I hesitate to use the word.  I don't mean "things you believe regardless of contradicting evidence", but "things you believe when evidence can't help".  I can't prove that this doc is a quack; I can't prove that he's able to do what he claims to do.  I know that I need more than what conventional medicine can offer, so I accept what he tells me.

 

I've been suffering from restless legs since I was a teenager (now it has a name & web sites & there's medication, but for a long time I couldn't even explain it to people around me.)  This doc told me that it was emotional; that I am angry; that the target of my angry is mankind in general; that I am angry that people could act so badly, and allow people to act so badly. 

 

He's right that I have this anger, but I hadn't really identified it before.  However, when I read through Eisenstein's list yesterday, it suddenly made a lot more sense.  That list is exactly what I am angry about.  He nailed it for me, exactly.  It was an intense experience for me to see the list, and see the complete outline of my frustration.  I plan to read through it again, to see where it takes me.

Dear Diary

Good sleep last night.  The baby slept on my from 11pm to 7am or so.  Then Julie kept the twins while I slept another 90 minutes.  Still tired, but Julie is sick & shoulda been the one to sleep in.  Found that last night's chicken noodle soup (what's a chicken noodle?) was out all night; put it on LO to simmer until lunch time.  Breakfast as usual (eggs w/ sausage & cheese, tea w/ milk and honey, toast w/ butter & jam). 

 

Clear skies & sun.  Took the kids out to play on the bike while Julie slept.  Pulled all 3 in the bike trailer over to the house with chickens. No one home, so we rode on through the neighborhood, and then home.  Zephyr & I played outside another 1/2 hour.  He says "bike" now, but says it as "kai-ka", after Dylans "bike-a".  Cleaned the garage & prepared the speakers for sale.

 

Got Home Server back on line.

 

Lunch of hot, dense, overcooked, delicious soup.  Played Black and White 2 Demo with Reid while everyone else slept.  Kids now watching Curious George.  Again.  Gonna play a little more now.

 

Tomorrow is a big day. Doctor; Laurel arrives.  Must clean a bit. 

--
-Jay

Dylan, Zephyr, and Terra

They were cute. My camera phone's color correctness is disappointing, but I think it still works.