Blue Nettles

They are already saying that hurricane Rita will cause gasoline to raise to $5.00 per gallon. Arizona gets most of it's supplies from California. Why is it going to rise? The most we have paid is $3.25 per gallon. Right now, it is $2.95. With carpooling and cutting out errands, we spend about $300 per month on gas. George is going to work from home more. We have new vehicles we keep in shape. We get about 21 mpg on both.

What else can we do? This has hit our budget hard.

Ellie

g'day everyone. Tonight I'm in front of the computor listening to my local radio station back in Perth. tonight is our equivelent to Superbwl... My West Coast Eagles are playing the Sydney Swans. I'd ratherr be watching the game but the radio will do.. GO EAGLES!!!!

Larry, you are always creative and imaginative.
I hope you do not compare your travels to family members
like the sad ending of the Barrett.

Looking forward to seeing you.
Ellie

Avast, you scurvy dogs! Listen ye here.























The Antelope sloop was a sickening sight
-How I wish I was in Sherbrooke now-
She'd list to the port and her sails in rags
And the cook in the scuppers with the staggers and jags
God damn them all
I was told we'd cruise the seas for American gold
We'd fire no guns, shed no tears
Now I'm a broken man on a Halifax pier,
The last of Barrett's Privateers

I've finalized my schedule for my October travels:

Oct 7 - DC to Salt Lake City
Oct 14 - Salt Lake City to San Francisco (Oakland Airport)
Oct 20 - San Francisco to Phoenix
Oct 26 - Phoenix to DC

On the King's birthday we put to sea
-How I wish I was in Sherbrooke now-
Ninety-one days to Montego Bay
Pumping like madmen all the way
God damn them all . . . .

As always, I'll be traveling light, so I hope your washers and dryers are working.

Then at length she stood two cables away
-How I wish I was in Sherbrooke now-
Our cracked four-pounders made awful din
But with one fat ball the Yank stove us in
God damn them all . . . .

In other news, I've been hired to a new job at USAID.
I'll be doing about the same as what I'm doing here, but it will be across the street and maybe I'll get more milage out this international affairs degree. My main reason for leaving Commerce is to broaden my horizons and I don't want people to think I can't do anything else. Ruts are easy to dig for oneself. So I'll be walkin' the plank. I'm not sure when I'll start since they need to do a clearance for me first, so I might plan it for the end of October.

So sing a sea shanty today.

The Antelope shook and pitched on her side
-How I wish I was in Sherbrooke now-
Barrett was smashed like a bowl of eggs
And the main truck carried off both me legs
God damn them all . . . .

Now here I lay in my twenty-third year
-How I wish I was in Sherbrooke now-
It's been six years since we sailed away
And I just made Halifax yesterday
God damn them all
I was told we'd cruise the seas for American gold
We'd fire no guns, shed no tears
Now I'm a broken man on a Halifax pier,
The last of Barrett's Privateers

Send a large portion of your income (and everybody else's) to a large black hole. Form large committees of highly educated (yet, poorly employed) lawyers and politicians to discuss bathtub improvement goals. Assign hundreds of highly educated (yet poorly employed) planners to study, recommend and suggest ways to improve bathtubs. Develop thousands of pages of plans to describe the particular steps required to empty bathtub. Spend billions (from aforementioned black hole) training and preparing specially equipped employees to carry out plans and procedures. When it is time to empty bathtub of water mobilize teams of employees to begin operations (only after reporting back to previously mentioned planners and asking for additional guidance).

This may very well work, however, be alert to the very real possibility that Whitey (or some other sensible bloke) may have stumbled on the bathtub and PULLED THE PLUG OUT!

Take the plug out!

I took the boys to see "Godspell" at a small, very small community theatre. It was about an hour and done by teens, young adults. It was great. The boys loved it.

It is very hard to find inexpensive theatre. Even the local community theatres charge $20 per ticket. I got mine cheap on the internet. And then what kinds of shows do I take them to that are not Disney extravaganzas.

I want to keep trying.
Ellie

Brilliant, Larry, brilliant!

Although it is obvious that the leadership was not there, the
BE PREPARED motto starts with oneself.

Other things to have in your kit (as we have learned) are copies of your passport/birth certs/drivers license, etc. Have the in waterproof bag that is kept on your body. Originals can be kept in safe, other location, etc. Actually you should have copies left with someone else as well.

Alas, I'm not sure about the guns option. I know the bad guys have them but I'll go some other route. But the rest of what you've said is spot on.

Love ya,
Max

I hope everyone has learned the main lesson from Katrina - you're on your own for a week after a disaster ... so BE PREPARED.

YOU have the primary responsibility for the lives and safety of you-and-your's ... not some bureaucrats in DC or the State Capital. It isn't compliated and it can mean a world of difference when the Shit-Hits-The-Fan™.

Saturday morning I inventoried my emergency kit and went and splurged on a few items - more cans of tuna fish and spam and I'm considering a few more items such as a hand-powered radio and some serious work gloves. But my kit was still in pretty good shape.
The short list of things that should be in an emergency kit box - seperate, clearly marked and if possible, water-proof container:

• A week of food in cans or dried - preferably things that can be eaten cold, if need be, such as stews, spam, fruit, vegis, vienna sausages, ect. Remember the can opener.
• Small camp stove with sternos.
• 3 full changes of clothes / one for each season (wet, hot, cold) / extra underwear and socks.
• Toiletries for a week. Don't forget the toilet paper.
• Battery-powered radio, flashlight, candles, spare batteries, leatherman-type multi-tool.
• A couple hundred in cash. ATMs don't work without electricty.
• A gallon of water/ per person/per day in proper storage. A small bottle of bleach if you have to purify tainted water but stored water is better - you can kill bacteria but it takes a water treatment plant to remove fuels and chemicals. If you have room to store more - do it.

Other items to consider are a:

• gun of some sort - I'm debating that since a pistol would be necessary, but possibly a hassle keeping it in a very gun-control urban area where I have to drive miles to a range to practice.
• Pets: they need water and food also. Remember, if you have to flee, the National Guard doesn't save your pets.
• Medicine - two weeks worth.
• Post-disaster equipment, such as chainsaws, pumps, etc.

But the most important preparation needs to be mental. Get a Plan. If you've got a Plan, when the Shit-Hits-The-Fan™, whatever the Shit is, it won't be what you planned for, but you will only have to make minor modifications to the Plan. More importantly, the thought process of developing your Plan will get you in the proper mental preparation for handling a disaster. Here is a walk-through of my "planning":

• Risk Assessment: (1) How likely [probability] is event A (earthquake, hurricane, flood) in my area? (2) How much impact can it have on me (power out, water out, zombies attack) in the short-term? (3) What can I do to mitigate (1) (watch weather channel obsessively, runaway, nothing)? (4) What can I do to mitigate (2) (emergency kit!, generator, flee in terror, gun)? Plan for the worst (but least likely), such as Noah's Flood, then you will be ready for the little disasters, such as the water main breaking down the street and flooding your basement.
• Do I stay, or do I go? YOU decide. Don't wait for the big muckity-mucks to decide for you. They really don't have any better information than you - and you have to make your own risk assessment. Everyone wants to stay in their home but in the 'before the disaster' case, you don't know how bad it will hit, and in the 'after the disaster' case, you might not have a choice if a earthquake has pulverized your home's foundation. That is why you should have the emergency kit together in a nice container and not expect you'll be able to find all that stuff in a leasurely fashion. Yes, you might have all that stuff somewhere around the house ... but you have five minutes to flee the Mongolian Hordes/Flying Monkeys/mudslide.
• Where do I flee? If event X (nuclear device in DC) where do I flee? If I have to go north/south/east/west, where do I flee to? What if I don't have a vehicle (trapped or damaged)? Have a destination planned out. It is easier to go to Pittsburgh, than it is to flee pell-mell into the night. It is a mental health thing - I'm not fleeing death and distruction but rather going to the Alleganies for a week or two.

The ex-military officers I work with, have all voiced one phrase repeatedly over the last week: "a failure of leadership." Katrina has obviously been a failure of leadership from top to bottom. But for us folks on the bottom, leadership can have the biggest impact. Just being the guy who digs a hole and says "Everyone crap here for a few days until the toilets work" or "Hey guys, give me a hand clearing this tree so the power company's truck can get through" is the kind of 'leadership' that really makes a difference (note I've added quality work gloves since my hands have got all soft and girly since I got this cushy office job).

The Koreans have a story: A man dies and goes to Heaven. The gatekeeper (St. Peter) starts to usher him into Heaven, but the man stops and says "Since I already know I'm going into Heaven, I'd like to see what Hell is like." The Gatekeeper agrees to take him to see Hell. They approach a doorway and they hear the worst howling and crys of anguish and pain from the other side and the Gatekeeper has to reassure him that he won't be harmed. The door opens and there is a great table with a sumptuous feast of all the finest foods. But around it sat the damned souls, screaming as they were unable to eat the wonderful foods in front of them, having only 6 foot chopsticks and they couldn't get the food to their mouths.

The man told the gatekeeper to take him back to heaven. When he got there they approached a doorway and he heard people laughing and chatting. The door was opened to him and he saw exactly the same scene as in Hell, a great table of wonderful foods, surrounded by souls with 6 foot chopsticks. But in their case they were not trying to feed themselves but were using them to feed their neighbors across the table.

Any situation can be a Heaven or a Hell. The difference is if you use your head and act cooperatively.

23 And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.

24 And the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days.

Genesis 7

Hey, Dad, I remember when you came back from that New Orleans conference. I think it was a brochure of the Preservation Jazz Band that facinated me. Whitey and I have been to New Orleans a couple of times. It's a gorgeous, unique city. Any night of the week, any time of year you could walk through the French Quarter and hear jazz playing in the bars. The last time we were there was when we were driving across country with nephew Adrian. We stopped there for the last night of Mardi Gras. Now that was a thing to see. After one night in N.O. we then drove to Biloxi for 2 nights to recover. I for one am appalled at how slow the response has been to help the people there. It is great that they are finally getting it but the number of people that died just because they didn't have water is shocking. Maybe because we can relate to these people feeling there is no hope and having it take so long before they got help. I personally expect more from our government when things like this happen.

On other news, things are happening here at the marina. On Monday, the bookkeeper/admin person who has been at the marina for 23 years gave her notice. She's the one we all liked the best and Lars & Nancy have relied on for assistance on the corporate side. And she has been the best attitude towards Whitey and I being here. Immediately, Lars says that Max will take her job and to start training me now. So I'm very excited about that - working Mon-Fri, more money, learning knew skills, etc. But I would have to work in the office with the person we all like the very least. But yesterday the harbor master gave her notice as well. We are all thrilled about that. She had been in her job for almost 5 years and had a horrible attitude about anything new happening here. For now, I will be doing it all with help from Whitey. We will work out how the work flow should go. It's not really a 2 person office, but there is more work than for one person. But we would rather work a bit harder for a month or so and then see what type of an assistant we need to bring on.

The other good news is that it looks like we will have our residency approved for the lighthouse soon. Not 100% yet but should be soon.

So things are looking very good for us now. We're happy. Hope everyone else is.
Love, Max