Just Looking at the Pictures

Back more than a few years, I was just starting a relationship with a very special lady. She had a power over me that I couldn't fight. Just the touch of her hand on my arm would cause me to melt. One weekend day, we planned a picnic up in the mountains of Big Bear. The electricity between us was dynamic as we laughed and brushed against each other on the way up the mountains. Driving my little Justy up some rocky Jeep roads, we soon found ourselves far away from other people.


Deciding on private place for a picnic, we spread our blanket, spread our meal, and kissed. One thing led to another and...

Oh my! This is getting so hot, her picture is burning up.

Its come to my attention that some of my loyal readers aren't actually reading the words, but just looking at the pictures. Not everything I write in this blog is that interesting, but sometimes you might miss something just looking at pictures.

Now the lady and the way she affected me is real. The date with the Justy up in the mountains really happened, just not the way I described it. After all, I'd be less than a gentleman if I spoke of private times between a lady and myself. All that touchy stuff was made up and the lady in question is settled down and married to someone else. As for the photo, its a really nice picture of her that unfortunately suffered from foxing and was stuck to the back of another picture.

Project Wisdom

Sometimes, profound nuggets come at unexpected times.

I don't know about you, but I have a whole collection of unfinished projects. Some of them have been in use for years, but there is always some little thing that I had planned to finish it that remains undone.

For the last few weeks, I've been repairing the damage on the motorcycle fairing which involves a lot of fiberglass, bondo, priming, and sanding. I got tired of filling, sanding, and priming, over and over again until I got to the point where it wasn't perfect, but it was good enough because I was tired of working on prep. It was time to shoot the color.

Then along comes John Chamberlin with the nugget of wisdom. To paraphrase John, 'Although you never really finish a project, some times a project is done because you are out of time, some times because you are out of spit.' With the fairing project, I was out of spit.

I got thinking about this in a larger context and it makes an interesting way to think about other things too. For example, how about my job at Chrysler. Do I have more work to do, am I out of time, or am I out of spit? For me the answer is I've got more work to do and I'll let Chrysler tell me when I'm out of time, but I'm not out of spit. How about relationships, a career, a hobby, etc.?

Colorful Places in Winter

I started this blog with the bright colors of a house in St. Pierre, an island colony of France off the coast of Newfoundland. I can't help but noticing that people use all these bright paint colors in northern places, places where winter is long and dark. I guess I can understand it, but I'm always amazed when I find these colorful communities as I travel in the north.

The top picture is a shot of Tobermory, Scotland on the Isle of Mull. That's a pretty strong fashion statement for Scotland. Wasn't the word "dour" invented for those of us with a Scottish heritage?


These other shots are of St. Pierre & Miquelon. I just love this blue house.

What's your color palette? Oh, orange, red, with lime green trim and some bright blue accents.

The Simple Life in Silver City, NM

OK, the last few posts have been a little extreme, not particularly practical. Now Silver City, New Mexico seems a lot more of a real possibility. I say seems because I've never been there, but with the magic of the internet and clipping a few chosen pics, we can all get the start of an idea.

Somehow, I seem to be connected to Silver City without having gone there. More than 10 years ago, I had a friend who moved from So. Cal. to Silver City and then disappeared. More recently, my friend Bob met a friend in Phoenix, Kristen, who is originally from Silver City and had recently returned to live there. Bob has visited a few times and given me the low down on what a nice town Silver City would be to live in.














With about 10,000 people, it is a college town, a mining town, and a retirement town. Bob says that everyone is friendly and the pace is relaxed.













As for weather, Silver City is pretty far south, say about parallel with Tucson, but at almost 6,000 feet elevation its cool and dry like Prescott. As for the surrounding country side, they are just south of the mountains that are more than 8000 feet elevation and covered in pine. Further south, the valley becomes typical Arizona/N.M. desert, so there is a lot of variety.

Housing is quaint with lots of these old Victorian homes in the downtown district. It looks like you can live on the cheap with a poor little house for under $100k, but nice Victorian houses like this would be more like $150 to $250.

Now the only challenge would be the idea that the next big town is 100 miles away.

The Simple Life in the Chatham Islands

OK, this one is a bit of a stretch. I personally don't like the tropics or too much hot weather. So I was playing around in the satellite view of Google maps and found the Chatham Islands. They are at about 35 degrees south latitude which means a temperate climate and are a part of New Zealand. In fact, they are more than 800 kilometers east of Christchurch. To say that they are off the beaten path would be an understatement.



The population is only about 700 people with most on Chatham Island itself and about 50 people on Pitt Island. The population is a mix of Moriori, Maori, and Missionary and is the traditional home of the Moriori people.



Looks spectacular, but I'm guessing its just as wet as Scotland. A little warmer though. Apparently, as the only land for miles, there is usually a layer of clouds above the island as the land disturbs the trade winds and causes clouds in the interaction.



Fishing is like the North Atlantic with cod and lobster. Pastoral farming is also common on the islands with plenty of grass for sheep or cows. At the very least, it is an out of the way place to visit on a vacation.

As for retiring there, it may qualify as too quiet. Even I think that 50 or 700 people would be pretty limiting. I'm also guessing that it would be pretty hard to publish this blog, since I doubt they have much in the way of high speed internet access.