Letter from Dad

Dad has been writing to his cousin about some property in New Brunswick. This is his letter:

Dear George,

I have been wanting to write to you for some time. You overcame my procrastination. Of course I will sign the course of action you advise. In fact I hope I have remembered to include it with this correspondence of June 20.

It brings to mind a wonderful summer I spent in New Brunswick with Grampy at his house there. It sat on a corner of a graveled road that had no junction with another regular road for another forty miles (?) after passing Grampy‘s house. Just before Grampy‘s house a dirt road went up to the McCutcheon farm. Chester and his brother Ralph lived with their parents there. All of the McCutcheons were great friends of Grampy. Chester visited us in Cornish for Sandra’s wedding.

For fun Ralph and Chester took me deer hunting one late evening. That involved a rifle, a large flashlight, and a drive past a game warden‘s house and a detour through large areas of sloping fields fronting his house. The pick up truck was parked some walking distance back past the warden’s house and we walked back to jacklight some deer below his house. A deer was lighted, a shot was fired with no resulting joy, we heard a vehicle start up near the warden’s house and consequently we ran towards where the pick up was parked. The rifle was hidden in one stone wall and the flashlight in another. Arriving at our transport we drove circuitously back to Grampy‘s and continued our evening conversation there. Soon a car drove up and the driver stopped to chat knowingly with Ralph and Chester and courteously with Grampy. He even kindly said he hoped I was enjoying New Brunswick. Definitely New Brunswick had exemplary people.

My routine there was to visit the outhouse upon awakening. It was a short walk there and each morning I would pass a steaming pile of bear droppings. Then I would wash up and Grampy would start to make his delicious sourdough biscuits telling me to go catch breakfast (trout) in the stream in back of the house. In a few minutes I would have three to five brook trout and return to the house. Grampy and I would prepare the trout for pan frying and a fantastic breakfast would be ready in minutes.

The neighbors would always include Grampy and I in their baking each week so we had fresh bread and sometimes cookies or a cake. One neighbor added me to his family for a blueberry picking trip. We went there in a horse and wagon. I hope I turned in more than I ate but it was a long time ago (sixty + years) so my memory fails me on that issue.

Another time some friends of Grampy took us on a day trip to a remote lake. We had to take a motor boat to the island they lived on. I saw and heard loons on that trip. This trip was up the road past Grampy’s.
Mention of Chester certainly evokes pleasant memories.

However a correspondence from you brings forth even more and greater memories of the most wonderful family I have ever known, the WALKER’S. Your mother and father were exceptional, and their children Betty, George, Tom, Kathy, Dorothy all contributed to my ideas of what people
should be like. Each of you were different but with your own admirable qualities. For all of the terrific things each of you did for me, huge THANKS!

Sick Cat Slightly Better

This morning he was begging for food around 4:30 am. Normally I ignore this as it is TOO EARLY! In fact, one of the first commands I taught him was, "Cats who meow at 4 am go outside and stay outside no matter how cold it is."

I digress. I put some Fancy Feast Turkey and Giblets down for him and he gobbled it up as fast as he could. I waited a little bit, and put some more down and he munched that down also. I didn't give him anymore because he tends to throw up easily.

Here's the funny bit...it's time to go to bed and I'm showing my mother (who's staying with me this week) how to give him the pain medication. I haven't given him any because he's not in pain anymore. As soon as he saw the medicine bottle he got very excited and begged for some. He hopped up on the dining room table and nearly knocked me down getting it.

Now I just have to find out what substance the vet flavored the medicine with and put it in his food and maybe I can get him to eat more.

So, today was a good day for the cat.

Sick Cat

Well, my beloved, ancient cat is really on his last legs perhaps. I took him in for a regular checkup about a month ago and everything seemed fine except for his kidney disease. Almost immediately though, he started drooling when he napped and then began drooling even more. On Friday, it didn't look like he'd eaten anything all day so I took him into SAMG on Saturday.

The news isn't good. The vet found a mass, most likely cancer, on his tongue. It's possible that it's an ulcer from the kidney disease so the vet wasn't sure. They did a biopsy on Saturday and he's home here with some pain medication.

Well, he's clearly in pain now. He isn't eating much and I haven't seen him drink either. He's spends most of his time in his basket (unusual). It could be the pain of having the biopsy done, or it could be the cancer, or it could be the kidney disease.

Obviously, I just don't know. He just ate a tiny bit of food and went back to his hut. He normally welcomes petting but when I pet him, he doesn't seek out more so clearly he is in a lot of pain.

I really love this cat and will be very sorry to see him go. I'm so glad that I bought this house and that he welcomed me as his companion for these many years. I wish we could have many more years but it's not looking good now.

Hell Hole Again

Drove to Hell Hole for a quick kayak trip. The rains over the winter really did a number on Mosquito Ridge road and whatever road leaves HH for Georgetown. Lots of slides, big and small. Some slides were just dirt, but plenty were dirt mixed with giant several ton boulders. In one place, you could see the dent where the boulder landed, then the scrape marks on the pavement as the boulder was dragged to the shoulder.

The water was not as cold as I thought it would be although it was plenty high. The waterfalls were tame but still flowing. Lots of debris (logs, logs, logs, sticks. twigs, branches, and bark) in the water.

My arms are a bit sore.

Tomorrow it's another bike ride with Jodi.

Lake Natoma Wind

Drove up after work for a quick workout. Jodi went with to rollerblade. I kayaked across, then cut back and went to the ranger point. It was a little windy and cold but still very relaxing and pleasant. There were a ton of other boats, kayaks, canoes, crew rowers, outriggers, single and double rowers, sail boats, sail boards, and surf skis. As I was leaving, a kayak class was starting.

Post Repair Bike Ride

Should have taken the bike in much, much sooner. Just got back from the ride and we went faster and didn't take the bus on the way home. It's amazing how having all of the gears available helps!

Nice and cool with a stiff breeze...why is it always a headwind though? The turtle pond is drying out and the grass is turning crispy colored.

Bad argument

I'm reading Fark and go to ahapless pundit's blog article.

The guy makes the stupidest argument I've ever seen, and he's getting attention for it. Bizarre.

He argues that there are dead people on the voter rolls in West Virginia and that they are Democrats, and that Democrats support that dead people are on the rolls, and only the recently elected Republican is purging the rolls.

Now let's break down the argument.

He starts with a charming story about the ancient Greek battle at Thermopylae and several hundred thousand soldiers dying of plague. Doesn't seem too relevant to dead people on voter rolls, but I suppose it could be considered catchy.

He compares the plague deaths in ancient Greece affecting the battle with the purging of the 6000 from WV rolls affecting elections. He must be assuming that all the dead people are Democrats, and all of the dead people's registration was used in election fraud.

From the orginal article, there's a bit less to the story than our hapless pundit believes.

There are indeed an alleged 6000 dead on the rolls (give or take). It's been difficult to purge them in the past, not because of a giant Democratic plot, but because

"This year, for the first time, the secretary of state has been able to cross-reference voter registration lists with death statistics provided by the state Bureau of Vital Statistics."

There's a little math to the story too. I did the math with handy dandy Excel, the numbers are from the article. WV's total registered voter population is 1130088. From the article, 57% of those are Democrats, or 644150. That leaves 485937 as registered Republicans. If we assume that all of the 6000 are Democrat and subtract them, that leaves the Democrats with 638150 remaining (presumably) live voters. That still leaves the Democrats with a comfortable margin of 152212 to swing any election, so I'm not sure there is much of a motive for widespread zombie voting unless, due to gerrymandering, there is some other dynamic involved.

A quote from the article, "evidence shows the possibility that more than one voted in the recent May primary." Wow, out of 6000 more than 1 may have voted in the primary. Of course, the primary is party-centric (at least, I'm assuming it is in WV) so no damage to the Republicans here. Call in the FBI!

Another quote,

"While saying Ireland’s office will aggressively pursue such offenses, Beakes said some of those marked as voting might be simple clerical mistakes.

We cannot disenfranchise any voter that may be'" erroneously flagged as deceased,” he said."

After reading the article, I'm convinced that WV may have a few dead people voting, perhaps, but that they are few and far between and unlikely to sway an election. I would be astonished if there weren't a few dead people (and pets, and children, and mentally incompetent, and space aliens) voting in all sorts of elections everywhere during all times and all centuries. I would also be astonished if this practice were restricted to one party. Show me some evidence of wide spread voter fraud that affects an election and I'll be the first one to show up, pitchfork in hand, with the other townsfolk.

To return briefly to the blog from the guy making the outlandish and paranoid claims for one last bad argument.

He seems to think the NYTimes is in on the scam. He refers to an editorial piece about Republicans in Ohio and Florida who are (allegedly) trying to "shut down voter registration drives." Ohio and Florida both had issues with votes that did affect an election! I'll let you read the NYTimes article yourself and judge whether or not the evidence presented there is more or less credible than our man from WV.

Lake Natoma Nursery

Took my kayak out for the 1st time this year, finally! The lake was cold, but not bone chilling and the water is nice and high. I cut directly across the lake at Nimbus Flats to the water through the culvert under the bike trail. I didn't see the beavers and don't know if they moved, or are sleeping, or I just didn't see them. Saw plenty of geese, ducks, waterfowl, hawks, and osprey. I also saw some turtles summing themsleves on the logs.

The water back here is mucky and filled with plants. There are also some huge fish, a foot or longer and very fat. It was a little startling for both of us!

I also had to buy new cam straps. As I was putting the old ones on, two of the four just crumbled! Yikes! Had to make a trip to REI to get some new ones, snazzy red and yellow!

My blog is fine

Don't know what all of the complaining is about.

Long drive to Grover Hot Springs

Took Friday off work after deciding it had been too many days since I'd been over 5000 feet! Drove over Highway 4 and Ebbetts Pass. The snow is still very high although it's melting fast!

There's a short (3 miles round trip) hike to some falls at Grover Hot Spring SP which is very pleasant. I saw a juvenile blond bear within a 1/2 mile of the start. I'm not completely sure what size bears are when they leave their mothers so I spent some time scanning the forest for a protective mama. Once the teenager spied me though she scampered away as fast as her bear legs could go (which is pretty fast!). On the way back saw 3 deer.

The drive home was long but saw plenty of the gold country and spied a few places to hike (or kayak) this summer.