Amphiberrung

Gokwiis

Got home from school today and it was gone.

Frees up a lot of physical and psychological energy.

Went to the usual Queen Anne Starbucks and took my croissant and tall drip outside to drink in the atmosphere.
Talked to a passing Jehovah's Witness.
She seemed to think that I might be Russian.
I'm not.
Germano-Hibernio would be my guess.
She also seemed to think that God wouldn't pull such a stunt as to create Hell.
That's his biznizz, but if it was up to me I sure as hell wouldn't.
Got a nice little pamphlet in Russian.
Nice lookin' language.

I wonder what I'd think of English if I didn't know what it was saying?

Popped over to my favorite QA store for Ala Francaise bread and found that they also had Franz' Oregon bread the one with hazelnuts in it.
That's Meredith's favorite, so I bought a couple loaves.

Found out that the parking lot up the street from SCCC has just as good rates as the school lot only I don't have to wait 'till noon.

What advantage that might might be, I dunno.

Tomorrow we will take the Volvo to a Volvo recycling yard and hopefully get a few bucks out of it

Time will tell, so never trust it with your secrets.

Semper Fidelio

'65 Peugeot

There it is.
When the yard is cleared, I'll ride

Gotta go to school today.
Haven't done any homework.

The amphibian is still in the driveway.
Haven't heard from the transport company for three days.
They came by with the wrong kind of tow truck.
Gokwiis is too low to the ground for anything but a flatbed.

So there you have it.

Backyard B-17 and 450 bucks

The back yard clean up operation creeps it's unsteady pace and a B-17 flies overhead.

450 bucks for a 20 minute ride.

Notice the gong on the right.

Notice the chipper covered in a white tarp.

That chipper may get some workout this afternoon.

Sharp eyed viewers may notice the disappearance of one more pile.

It's not over 'till the horse frys

Alas Meredith was forced to abandon the KING-FM airing of Gotterdammerung due to a family event.

To wit, nephew Derrick's fifth birthday party.

It was a pirate themed extravaganza with eye patches, and plastic swords, earrings and a good time was had by all
Not entirely due to the magnificent cake and a treasure hunt that increased the bounty and allowed every one of the under six year olds to walk off with something.

I walked off with a bit of a sugar rush and thinking about sausage.

That's all for today

Twiddly thumbs

Waiting for the money to show up.

and in a greater sense - aren't we all?

"another day, another day, another day, creeps this sad procession. towards what? - the end of this weird sentence?"

.......from "what am i talking about" by e.e. goings.

No - wait - that's from "help help my shift key is broke".

My Shift Key Still Works And Today I Must Gather Up All The Parts Of The Amphibian And Get Rolling Because I've Sold It And They Are Coming To Take It Away.

Earth Day

In celebration of Earth Day, we continue to clean up after the haircut we gave the apple tree and the big hedge.

Except it's raining and we are fatigued.

So it will be later for that.

Notice the progress.

Notice the chipper sitting out in the rain.

Notice my boots over in the corner.

Guess I'll have to put 'em on and go out and cover the green grinder.

This in not an example of twit-ku.

School today.

Piano reductions.

No sledge hammers or chain saws allowed.

Makes more of a sport of it that way.

Rocky weekend

Rochelle Rasmussen-Sandeen - July 23 1951 - April 9 2009

Saturday we went to Daybreak Star Cultural center to honor the life of Leah's mother "Rocky" Quillute - Makah
President of "Honor Day" which is celebrated Aug 20 to honor our Native American cultural heritage.
Died suddenly of liver cancer. A sweet lady and a beautiful soul.

Later that day we went to Renton to hear the Rainier Symphony to hear a great performance by Ilkka Talvi of Mendelsohn's violin concerto.
In spite of my misgivings of Mendelsohn, he seems to me to have been somewhat of a "gentleman's pastime" sort of a composer, albeit a great one.

Before that, the orchestra played some Wagner (prelude to Tannhäuser which seemed a bit confusing seeming like every instrument had a different part. Maybe just my diminishing hearing.

Which didn't show up after the intermission when Brahms' second symphony rocked.
the concert was so inspiring that we decided to hear it again the next day at the Tukwila PAC

It was, if anything, better.

Then Some good food and good company at the book group meeting even though I had not "read the book" which in this case was a show at the Henry gallery.
Meredith says she would like to see the show, so maybe I'll find out what everybody was talking about.

Now is the springtime of all the stuff in the yard that must be cut, chopped, chipped, sorted, and stacked.

So bye for now and keep your stick on the ice.

Schizophrenic Meterology

Boots on
Saw out cable unwound and plugged in.
Rain - no wait- sun -
Migraine -
Back inside -
At least one of us -
Can make up his mind.

Adios

Twit-ku

I hereby announce that on this day April 17 2009, I, Douglas Clark Palmer invented Twit-ku, a poetry form using no more than 140 characters.

I promise to remember you when I'm famous.

Blue sky

Blue sky.
Eagles in the trees -
Blue sky.
Little yellow flowers in the lawn -
Blue sky.
Little red ones in the camellia bush -
Blue sky
Genius -
Blue sky.
Forty years of hard work -

Blue sky.

Guten Tag

Gloom of night.

Had too much coffee and cake yesterday -
Stayed up all night -
Read one and a half books -
Watched the sun come up -

And disappear.

Au revoir

Sun

Got the tax stuff.
Sun came out.
The chipper came out.
Put in two hours chipping sticks.

-Sayonara

Rain

Not going to chop weeds today.
Got a call from our CPA.
Taxes are ready to pick up.
Unusual not to file an extension.
Got it organized and to him a lot earlier than usual.

Gotta run up to pick it up.

Ciao

The very symbol of rebirth.

Woke up this morning with all this outside my bedroom door.
















































































































It all showed up in this basket.



Meredith invited 5-year old Derek over yesterday to play around with Easter eggs.

Meredith is the artist who created these.

There is also some chocolate involved.


Weather is a touch on the inclement side, might not get too much yard work done.

But the day is young yet.

Great Progress!

Well, you can see what all our work today accomplished.
Soon, I hope the pile will actually go down.

We will be celebrating the great cosmic birth of a new season Sunday by running the stick chipper all afternoon.

Right at the moment we (Meredith anyway) is listening to Swan Lake on the radio.

I'm preparing to switch to my other computer and fool with some music.

I'll think of something interesting one of these days.

and Tomorrow

This is what I have to do today.

All that green stuff back to the concrete wall and under the apple tree needs to be cut into firewood, run through the chipper, or cut into bits to make violins out of.

Meredith has invited a small nephew over to color Easter eggs.

An honored family member has passed away. She will be missed.

I will now get to work.

You load 16 tons and waddya get?

A week of accomplishment.

Volvo runs again.
Hedge is trimmed.
A platform for M's beehive is built.
The violin has it's second coat of varnish.
The Van has been emptied of it's 950 pounds of scrap metal for a $35.00 profit.
(M's glasses were damaged during the unloading, but were easily fixed)
A decent bike ride was rode.

I forgot the change in my class schedule and missed my weekly music education.
Got to the store several times to keep the home larders properly stocked.

And I have a sore back from moving a pile of old tree limbs to clear the way for the tree trimmers to clean up the apple tree and the giant sprawling laurel that defines the south border of the property.

Today I'll have to cut and sort the wood being cut.

This report is being brought to you by the makers of Ben-Gay.
Soothing warmth for your muscular aches.

Bruckner in the toilet

I just read a comment on facebook by a well known and loved bassoonist.
a guy who plays with a remarkable fluidity on that difficult instrument
The sharps and flats require amazing convoluted fingering and a thumb that goes beyond prehensile into the realm of the ineffable, (I can't eff it anyway).
Just to hear him warm up before a concert is a concert in itself.

Anyway here's what he said. Here's what the bassoonist said;

"spent the day rebuilding toilets and the night playing Bruckner. The toilets were preferable."

By the way, Never thumb wrestle a bassoonist

Yikes! Bikes!

Slightly iffy weather. Didn't really want to go.
Sprayed varnish on the rosewood violin.
Figured I'd best leave it alone so I pedaled off for half-a-lake ride.
Got home, took a look at the violin and promptly stuck a couple fingerprints in the still wet (duh) varnish.
I was planning to sand it down for the next coat anyway.


Trip length 25.1 miles
Trip duration 2:27:14 hours
Maximum speed 28.5
Average speed 10.1 mph
Total miles to date 1213
ambient temperature 66 deg.

Actually the first 12 miles were done at 12.9 average speed.
But then came the hills, the headwind, and the fatigue.
Didn't even try to ride up the last hill to home.

Took a shower, ate a sausage, and went to the hardware store for a couple new toilet seats.
I was let down rather rudely this morning.

Poetry Month

Six Mechanical Haiku

1, For Carl,

Bertha Benz drove a car
down to the chemist's shop
In eighteen eighty five.

2, For Rudy,

If you squeeze air a lot,
it becomes hot enough to burn
add fuel, Bang!

3, For Henry,

Bouncing, rattling,
Model T Ford. Banging, Popping,
The Ragtime car.

4, For Enzo,

isn't it lovely
bright red paint twelve cylinders
we go very fast.

5, For all the drivers in the world,

Look at that mess,
Don't honk, that only makes it worse
Damn, I'm late.

6, For a few brief seconds'

Quarter mile..

Four seconds.......
Not enough time..................!

These are from a piece for wind quintet.
Flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and piano.

Music I wrote about my relationship with the internal combustion engine, it's history and the music it engenders.

On the other side of hwy 101 there's a trail up the bluff.
Looks like this.




'scalled Cape Perpetua overlook.




That's it for this Oregon trip.

I'm now going to plug the fuel pump relays into the Volvo.
Sure hope it works.
Gotta sell the darn thing.


Arrivederci Oregon

Heceta Head

That's Heceta Head as viewed from the beach at the end of the hobbit trail.



On the coast trail between the hobbit beach and Heceta Head.



Glimpses of the beach from the trail.







Stalwart travelers approach the lighthouse from above





Heceta Head sea stacks.






There is an interesting bridge over the mouth of the river at Heceta Head, but the camera took a short movie of it instead of a still.
don't know what that's all about.
OR how to control that feature, but it is intriguing that the camera can do that.

I'm saving a couple shots of the Cape Perpetua overlook for a later post.

No jokes today.

Lucky for you.

No Lighthouse today

Bike ride
6 miles
45.58 minutes
8.3 mph average
24.7 max speed
1187 total miles on the odometer
54 degrees outside this morning when I got back.

Short ride 'cause the bike broke again.
Cable slipped again after being repaired and tightened, who knows?

Shifting gears still an iffy process.

preparing to varnish the violins.

Turning off this computer

John Cage

What's cookin'

Today is not a school day, it's spring break.
I hope I'm not expected to go to the beach, get drunk, and take my clothes off.

'Cause I'm NOT GONNA!!

"What's cookin'" is a link I picked up from Soho the Dog.

S'cute.

And all you get for today.
Maybe tomorrow for Heceta Head and the lighthouse.

Day in the

got up this morning and found that my nose was running, so first off, I had to go catch it.
Second off, I ate breakfast.
Meredith had to go downtown to get her fingerprints recorded again for a school volunteer job.
Apparently the Renton station doesn't always get that right.
How tricky can it be?

Thirdly I went on line and checked my sites.
Nobody was calling my string writing fantastic this week so I logged off.
Better luck next time.

Fired up the music computer and listened to the 2 violin concerto can't seem to think of anything else to do to it, so I turned that one off and turned on my Duke Nukem computer.
Which got boring pretty fast.

So...I went downstairs to the workshop and polished up the two violins I'm building (one of them is a pochette, a small violin that can be carried in a pocket, hence the name. Dancing teachers used to carry them in their pockets to the houses of the swells who paid for that kind of stuff for their daughters) I managed to get them both smooth enough to stain and as a consequence, they are drying as we speak (type).

Pictures sooner than you might like.

It is M's birthday today, so we're going out to dinner in an hour or so.

One more picture from the trip;



Soon we will be able to view the wonderful happenings at and around Heceta head and it's marvelous lighthouse.

This weather is bugging me, I want to ride.

Maybe tomorrow.