View from the Mountain

Programmed for disaster

Sitting on the side of a mountain looking at blue mountains in the distance, it is hard to comprehend the enormity of the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

Since I spend much of my time on the North Carolina coast wandering around the waters near Emerald Isle, I do have an idea of the importance of the marshlands and the whole coastal environment.

I love to fish, and I know that losing the ability to fish in our area would be a tragedy that could not be measured.

Recently we made a trip back to the Va. mountains and brought with us three pounds of wild North Carolina shrimp that had been caught by one of our local shrimp fishermen.

They were well received here in the mountains of Virginia.  Many people have become so accustomed to the nearly tasteless imported, farmed shrimp that they are amazed at how tasty our own local wild shrimp can be.

We only have a small number of boats shrimping in our area.  The competition from imported shrimp is so intense that making money trawling for shrimp is a difficult proposition. 

Even with the Gulf out of shrimp production, shrimp prices have stayed the same while oyster prices have risen enough that one restaurant in our area has taken them off the menu.

What worries me even more than higher prices is that I doubt we have the resources to protect our shrimp nurseries any better than Louisiana did.  What would we do?

Would we close the ocean inlets and let the beaches take the brunt of the oil?  That would sentence beach goers to tar balls for the foreseeable future.

A friend forwarded me a link to an article about the Dutch offering to help with the oil spill by sending their highly efficient skimmers to work the spill.

Apparently we have turned them down until just recently. I have a hard time understanding how our government and one of the largest and most profitable corporations cannot get mobilized.

It is almost like our system is so messed up that we don't know how to deal with large problems.  Tonight on the news, I saw someone skimming oil with shop-vacs from Lowes.

So the question I want to ask is why weren't we prepared for such a disaster?  On top of that I would like to know why we aren't taking advantage of the absolutely best technology in the world to fight this spill.

I would think it is time to lose our homegrown pride and accept all the help we can find.  To turn down help is really stupid on lots of levels.

I wonder if it is the American propensity to fall back on the not invented here syndrome that keeps us from fully utilizing help from others.

That would be mean that are programmed to do things the hard way.

If that is true, it is a shame since time lost in solving this problem just means that things will get a lot worse before they get better.

In the heat of the day

Summer in the South is different than summer in the North. It is more than just temperatures.  In a certain respect it is more like winter in the North.

Just as cold, snow, and ice control life in the North during the winter. Heat, humidity, and thunderstorms control life in the South during the summer.  We end up making decisions as to what we are going to do based on the weather.

As much as I hate to admit it, the weather can be too hot to go fishing or even to the beach here along the North Carolina coast.  Summer in the South on the coast can alter how you live your life.

 While the heat can cause some changes in how you do certain things, it generally causes fewer changes here along the coast than it does inland.  We often do not get as hot as inland areas.  Also we are wired a little differently here on the Crystal Coast.

Many of us think that life is a little simpler here on the coast so it is easier to make adjustments for the weather.

Heat has some benefits.  We get our spring vegetables and fruits a little earlier.  Of course our vegetable stands close a lot earlier than those in the mountains.

This evening we went for a ride on the river.  You could actually feel the heat radiating from the water in the shallow areas.  The temperature registered 89F in the Bluewater Cove inlet which is under two feet deep except in the channel where it is three or four feet.  Even the breeze off of the water was warmer than normal.

Life goes on here during the heat. Carpenters start the day early and often end by 3 PM.  Most of us try to mow our yards early in the morning.  Today our concrete driveway was so hot by noon that I had to water it as I walked on it while watering some plants.

A lot of fishing trips start at 6 AM and are done before 9 PM.  Still I would not trade our summer heat for Canadian cold.  I enjoy the heat and especially the warm ocean waters.

I know from experience that boating on waters where the temperatures are in the forties is a very cold way to spend your time.  I would much rather fish in waters in the mid-eighties than water in the mid-forties.

And when the heat during the day gets too much, we retire to our air conditioned homes and await cooler times.  Those who work outside every day rarely let the heat bother them.

When the heat during the day starts to slide away into fall, we get to enjoy another season.  Only this time our waters act as a warming agent instead of a cooling one.

With those thoughts in mind, I will continue to welcome the heat of the day.

Watching from the back deck, June 7, 2010

I missed a great sunrise picture this morning by less than five minutes.  If you cannot take a picture just as the sun sticks its head above the mountains, you are faced with more light than cameras can process. 

That is what I got today as the sun came up on top of the northernmost peak of the Peaks of Otter. My best photo looked like a weird sun bird which does not fit well with my other sunrise photos.

Fortunately the rest of the day has gone well, and I have a list of topics that I have pondered today. With luck I will get another Back Deck post out later in the week.

1. High replacement part pricing happens to be an issue that spans many industries from home appliances to high technology and vehicles.  We recently noticed that the vegetable drawer on our refrigerator was freezing our vegetables.  Our fridge was nine years old which used to be considered young for an appliance.  These life expectancies for appliances are shocking for their shortness.  Compounding this problem are the high prices that it costs to fix appliances.  I recently had someone tell me of a part for a microwave that was close to $200.  At first I thought that was impossible until we paid $90 for a thermistor for our refrigerator.  It brought back memories of when I had to abandon my aluminum Macintosh portable because of a bad ribbon cable. The cost of replacing the cable made it look very attractive to buy a new computer.  While I am happy to hear of products which are more easily recycled, it would even nicer to find out about products that are designed to be repaired instead of thrown away.  Maybe along with posting estimated energy usage, they should also post estimated repair cost.
2. It is nearly impossible to ignore Steve Jobs speaking at Apple's WWDC. As has become the norm, he announced a new iPhone which according to Steve is "beyond a doubt, the most precise thing and one of the most beautiful things we've ever made."  More than the new phone, I enjoyed Steve complaining about the problem with the wireless network keeping his demo from working.  The iPhone has all sorts of great features and eventually an iMovie editor for the new HD video.  I cannot imagine editing video on an iPhone. Unfortunately an iPhone for me is not going to work, the AT&T network does not even register in my house.  I bought a Droid and am pleased to report, I no longer have to run to the front porch when my cell phone starts ringing.  Cool features don't mean much if the network is not there.  I expect the video calling, Face Time, to be as successful  as video iChat.  It was a great tool, but no one liked to use it.
3. I am still thinking about global warming and cooling.  I saw a National Geographic cover at the dentist office with the words, "Greenland, Ground Zero for Global Warming."  I found online a National Geographic article about Greenland. It was called the Melt Zone.  I also still have an open tab on my browser entitled, Global Cold Wave May Be Looming.  Then there is the article, Arctic Sea Ice at Lowest Point in Thousands of Years.  I am beginning to think that we probably will not know what is happening until after it is over, and that might be a dangerous position in the world of climate change.
4. BP is still on the list.  A cap of some sort is on top of the well, and they are collecting an unknown percentage of oil.  It will still take years to clean up.  I figure the one thing we should have learned by now is that we are not nearly as good at this as we thought we were.  I will jump on the blame Cheney bandwagon.
5. Next on the list is the loss of focus due to all the gadgets in our lives.  The NY Times has an interesting article, Hooked on Gadgets, and Paying a Mental Price and a companion piece, An Ugly Toll of Technology: Impatience and Forgetfulness.  The second piece has a side bar interactive test which lets you test your focus.  Being an old guy, I am able to focus so I did well on the test which always makes me happy.  I have stood in front of people trying to talk to them as they check email on their Blackberry.  Competing with an electronic device is no fun.  I think the gadgets are causing some fundamental changes in our lives.  I suspect we will have far more people who are unable to relate to real people since most of their interactions are mediated by an electronic device.

And with that as a closing thought, I am leaving the computer and going to talk to my wife.   It will be nice to have some human interaction. By the way, this year I have made an effort to remove the computer from parts of my life.  No computer is allowed on during meals.  It is a start.

Now for some non-technological fish tacos on the deck while looking out over the Roanoke Valley.

A Weekend Tradition in the South, a Clean Vehicle

I still remember being shocked when I went north for college and figured out that everyone in Cambridge did not wash their cars for the weekend.

Washing your car for the weekend was just as normal as mowing the yard.  I had a single parent, my mom, for much of my childhood.  I can still remember her washing her car on Saturday afternoons.  Even as a youngster, I helped.

It was expected that you would show up at church in a clean car.  When we moved to the city, Mt. Airy, I can remember for a short period of time one of local filling stations had teenage boys who would wash your car.  They would actually come and get the car and bring it back.

When I got a car, I spent many Saturday afternoons making sure it was clean for cruising on Saturday night.  Taking care of the family car and eventually yours was just one of the things you learned while growing up.

Even today, forty five years after my first car, I still enjoying cleaning up our vehicles.  I am no longer the only child who luckily got to drive some great cars while young.  I am the adult trying to make my vehicles last as long as possible. Keeping them clean and changing the oil regularly helps makes that possible.

We will be attending a family reunion tomorrow so I have my wife's Toyota Avalon shining.  I washed it twice.

After that I cleaned up my truck which had just finished a late night dash from the beach which this time of year means it had collected lots of bugs. 

Today I discovered that Spray Nine, a product we use to clean our skiff, is very effective in helping get bugs off your vehicles and is especially effective in cleaning aluminum wheels.  It seem to take oil, grease, tar, and brake dust off very well.

If you are in the Roanoke area, Spray Nine is available at the Northwest Tru-Value Hardware on Brambleton Ave.  If you are in a coastal town, most boat shops carry Spray Nine, but if you are having trouble finding it, you can buy it at Dudley's Marina in Cedar Point.

Washing vehicles is nice work because the progress is readily noticed, and you can do it even on a hot day because you can get just wet enough to stay cool.  Getting wet is also allowed even if you are an adult.

I doubt the Southern tradition of Saturday car washing is as strong as it once was, but it will live on in our family.