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NOT SO FOND MEMORIES OF TRAVELING

Moored near Fromagerie

2008  Baines Le Baines, France –

   Bill and I were relegated to find a market and buy supplies for a week on our self-driving boat on the old canal system  near Mid-France.   Before we dropped our rental car off, we drove a short way into town and finally did find “The Super Market”. I thought we had big markets in California but this one had us stunned. First of all, we could not find the entry, everything seemed to be an exit. After searching around for a while, we did manage to get inside, whether by a legitimate entry, we’ll never know.  We were amazed at all the selections., for instance there was even a quite large selection of just bacons.  We were like a couple of kids in a candy shop.  After loading a couple of carts up, we were able to get back to the boat, unload and shove off.

   The next week Joy & I drove to Marseille and Cassis, the main reason being I had always wanted to visit the Museo de Legion Etrangere (Foreign Legion) in Aubane, near Cassis.  These towns look small on the detailed maps we use and the town was a veritable puzzle to enter and find the Office of Tourisme.

And finding even a parking space near it was a long, involved problem.  We eventually got to the counter, got a map and directions, then back to our car to further on.  The Legione was on the other side of town and after a couple of tries we finally located it, only to find the Museo was closed on Thursday!  And of course, you can only guess what day it was. Damn! I was so looking forward to seeing Capitan D’anjou’s wooden hand there. That survived, but he and the other  60 Legioneres were killed at the battle of Camerone, Mexico, but not before they had fought off several thousand Federales, dying valiently to the Lasrt man.

  Well, on to Scotland. We had booked a flight on Ryan Air to Brussels, but got caught in the “Baggage Extra” syndrome, which cost us about $200 extra for our two bags. Remember from now on, Flights are Cheap, but baggage will cost you a mint.

    In a public toilet here, Joy encountered  a guy drying his false teeth on a roll type hand towel which was a new experience for her.   (Oh, Really?).

     We took an overnight ferry to Edinborough, Scotland, checked into the Hotel Premier Inn ($85 about $170),no phone, no mini-bar, no coffee maker, no coffee. Had to get up early, get to restaurant next door for breakfast, about $20 each for a buffet. Found out later we could get a $6 continental breakfast.

Firth of Forth Bridge

   After visiting the Falkirk Wheel and the Firth of Forth Bridge, we were ready to walk up the hill to the Royal Mile, where the famous Pubs serve the exemplar Fish & Chips. After a very long wait near the toilet in a small hallway a table was ready. As soon as we sat down and ordered, I was in excruciating pain and we had to leave right away, find a taxi, and get back to our hotel so I could writhe around in style.

We were scheduled to fly out in the morning at 6:30 but  soon  called a taxi that took us to The Royal Infirmary”, whatever that was. By the time we arrived there, my pain was gone and I felt fine. But as long as we were there I signed up to see a doctor, who turned out to be a 16 year old blond girl. The first thing she asked was if I had ever had any kidney stones,  (nothing more than what I found in a couple of chickens.) This really made our day, as we had no idea what was wrong with my body, it could have been something fatal. This made us really happy.  After her exam we check in at the counter to see how much the bill was. We were told “No charge, just be on your way”.   Glad to oblige, Maam.

Delft, Holland

  We flew to Amsterdam without any more attacks, found our Houseboat on the DeCosa Gracht Canal. Unpacked and prepared to enjoy ourselves.  This was a nice, modern houseboat located in the middle of Old Amsterdam.  Before we knew it, I was writhing around on the floor , suffering from what we knew now was an attack by my kidneys, trying to send a sharp stone down my tube to my bladder.  This one lasted at least for eight  hours,  when it was over, we should have boogied down to Rookies Smoking Bar to load up on some dope to ease the pain.  This did not enter our minds. We were only on the boat for a few days, then trained over to Delft, another old walled town. The first order of business was to  find the huge hospital and see a doctor.  Upon entering the facility, a large hospital attached to the University, I was sent up to the finance department and relieved of about $250 dollars from my credit card before I was sent down to the doctor. (Now you know where the term ‘Dutch Treat’ came from).  After a short wait, a young man decided I should have an X-ray to find out where it hurt.  I was shot a couple of times by the x-Ray and the Doc said he would get me the print on a CD so I could show my doctor back in the States.  You probably won’t believe this, but he delivered the CD to my hotel the next day. Meanwhile, I was relieved of a few of my dollars from the credit I had left them with in their office. The Doc had also given me a prescription for a capsule pill to relieve a bit of the pain. We got this about 0400 and went out looking for the nearby Pharmacia. It wasn’t far but was difficult to find, only to see a sign in the window that they had moved to another location.  As most shops closed at 0500, we went searching for their new location, which we found just as they were closing, which meant pulling down steel shutters (They did have drugs in here).  Fortunately, a local lady came up and was able to get the m to open just to fill my meagre prescription for some kind of pain killer.  After all that hassle, I don’t believe it was much more than a placebo.  However, also, the doc had advised me to catch the kidney stone next time I peed so we found a small kitchen appliance store still open, nearby to seek out a small sieve of some kind.  When the saleslady asked what I was looking for, I improvised some small lie or another as it just didn’t seem right to state  that  I was straining my piss with her small sieve.  Actually, that was a waste of time, as I couldn’t balance it all and hold my pants  up to hold the sieve to catch any rocks in my pissing stream.  Being a male, I never considered sitting down until later (and too late).  Oh well,  we were at a hotel and not an apartment so we didn’t need the damn thing anyway.

 

JUST A REMINDER

  Regarding the “National Anthem”, The U.S Supreme Court made the decision in 1943. The high court ruled that our government cannot force anyone to participate in patriotic rituals, including listening to the Pledge of Allegiance. No one can legally force anyone to stand or say the pledge. They cannot punish you for refusing to participate.  Our constitution also states that “ no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics , nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith wherein”. (The Suprem4e Court announced tis on Flag Day).   Even by 1941, students saluted the American flag with what was called “The Bellamy salute” or to us, the “Sieg Heil” salute. When this got too embarrassing, it was changed to “ hand over heart’. Later, even  that became a problem as Compulsory unification was doomed to failure and was antiethical to the values set forth in the First Amendment”.  Freedom of Speech.  We can thank the Jehovas Witnesses for being  pests and balking at the concept being forced into obedience initially.

BOOK REVIEW

  ‘Memoirs of a Geisha” by Arthur Golden will help you Westerners understand the concept and activities of the famous Japanese Geisha.  We can hardly believe there was not much sex involved, but I’m sorry to relate that some famous Geisha didn’t get kissed until they were about 30! However, there was of course some great concept that very rich men could bid on de-flowering 15 year olds but it was a one time thing. This was called Mizuage, the cost could exceed what a laborer earned in a year(About $50,000 in todays money). There was another system called, a Danna, where another very wealthy man  would kind of buy or  sponsor a geisha for life but it would cost a great deal as he would have to give her lots of expensive gifts as well as Yens.  All the wealthy business men wanted to do after work was hang out with beautiful women, drink sake and get silly. The wives didn’t seem to be phased by these shenanigans, as they felt secure in their role as wife.

BE PREPARED

  Before I get too excited before seeing   Bladé Runner, 2045”, I wanted to review the original first. Originally written as “Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep’, (Ray Bradbury?)  this movie  used the Ennis house by F.L. Wright plus the Iconic “Bradbury building as the prime sets.  Please notice the concrete blocks in  H. Fords’ pad and the multi story atrium in the Bradbury building (Los Angeles) where all the mayhem took place at the end.

                                                             

Some early US Truck Designs

      INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

  Or lack of it.  I always get excited when I see a well  designed modern European truck. Because in stark contrast, we build  big, ugly trucks all the time.   However, the Europeans  have got it. The big rigs are so beautiful, I’ve even wrote a small book about it. (See “The Little Book of Big Trucks’).  Every time we stopped at an Aire or rest stop in France or Italy, I Ran around shooting pictures of all the trucks in the parking lots. Our designers experimented in the early days of trucking but just didn’t get the concept like the Europeans. Maybe the French had  hired Industrial Designers to give them some panache, eh?  The above shows some of our early stabs at design and below show what a real truck looks like.

                                                     

Get your Copy Now!

                                                                PHOTO OF RENAULT

  

INFLUENCES?

  I’ve been asked what are some of the influences for my work and I have to think about that. But an important part of my education  was as  ‘House sitter’ for the Upton Residence for a year and a half, I have to say it was my dream come true and left an indelible mark on my soul.  This was built in early Scottsdale in  1949 by an Architect named Paul  Schweikher ( for the Maytag Owner, Louis C. Upton.). The model is in the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.  It consisted basically of concrete stonework, redwood and glass.  The house sat empty as it was too rugged for the Owners. It was being vandalized so I convinced the Realtors that my presence there would protect this marvelous residence. Later, it was converted to a nightclub, and tragically was mistakenly demolished lain the 1970’s.

                                                      

Upton Residence  - Scottsdale, AZ

          

 

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DISASTER MAJOR

I never thought I’d be living in the midst of a major disaster but here I am. Fortunately my home and office are about a 10 miles west of where the inferno stopped.   They are still counting but it appears about 7,000 houses and businesses were burned down , as well as more than 20 deaths attribrituted to it.  This monster came into to the foothills and town in the middle of the night, as some unfortunates had to  run out without shoes , wallets, with nothing else but with their lives.  We were inconvienced only with things like a heavy smoke, long lines at gas stations, and lots of traffic.  My sign shop, Who made our 30^th anniversary banner had just moved to his location but the building he was in burn out totally. His name is Amier and may be Arabic so he may not be able to get a grant or much to keep going. 

  How many can re-build?  Other fires had destroyed up to a thousand houses, not all homes were rebuilt, some say ½.  Evan at that , we’re talking about 3500 projects. That is impacting all local Architects, Builders, Consultants  beyond measure. Looking at the phone book, there are only about one page  ( 100 Architects in this area,  But 24 pages of Attorneys!).   That adds up to 35 houses per each Architect.  Small offices can do two or three houses a year!  Obviously, folks from all over the West will have to be involved.  A lot of the houses, apartments were built in the early 1980’s, maybe the tract builder is still around and has the original drawings, soil tests, structural calculations and could re-build like he did originally, on a mass scale.  FEMA is onsite with their heavy handed folks in moon-suits scouring burn sites for toxics and want to take it all away along with a foot or two of topsoil. To where? Maybe a toxic fill site in central California or maybe Nevada? They worry about things like paint that had lead in it!  It’s too early to see where this is going to go. There are horror stories that each house site may cost $50,000 to clear of debris & toxics!  Let’s see, times 6000 is how much?

                                               

THE FUZZ

ALL IS NOT LOST

   It appears that the New York police are exchanging their horses for Smart cars. The horses may me faster, but not as cute.

FALL VINEYARDS

WINE COUNTRY

  All is not lost, however, as the grapes were just harvested and their vines are shedding their golden leaves as we speak.

BOOK REVIEW

  I just finished a book titled “Invisible Armys” about Guerrilla warfare.  (by Max Boot 2013). A good sized volume of 700 pages, delineating the history of the term and who was doing it.   From the Greeks and Romans to our current problem with ISIS,  He does deleneated how the U.S. didn’t understand  (and still may not) the methods of offense when confronted with a non-State.  Have you ever considered that the American Indian was a Guerilla fighter?, That the early American Revolutionaries also could be called that.  From Book I; The Origens of Guerlilla Warfare, Book 2; The rise of the Liberal Revolutionaries, To Book 8; God’s Killers (Radical Islam) yuo’ll see why the us Military didn’t understand what was happening until too late,  and wonder why we need Billion dollars F-22 to fight someone in the streets of Afganistan.

BOOK REVIEW 2

  If there are a lot of Americans who are suffering from anxiety about our politics, they will really be upset after reading  Philip Roths’ book. THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA  written in 2003 about the beginning of WW2, and mostly about a Jewish family .  Charles Lindberg becomes President as he vowed to keep the US neutral and out of the war. Well, he is aligned with the German higherarchy and  it isn’t long before the Nazi are taking control of the army and National Guard, and begin arresting and killing people  (Jews, of course) like the popular radio commentator, “Walter Winchell”. The author gets us out of this sticky situatiion in a cavalier way, and we were able to re-align with the actual history to end the war.  Whew!! I’m certainly happy we have a stable and intelligent president to keep this from happening.

  I did enjoy the short notes the author inserted an the APPENDIX  regarding most of the players in the ww2 drama.  For instance, Lindburg did  receive in 1938 the Service Cross of the German Eagle, a gold medallion with four swastikas, conferred by order from Hitler. Also Ford’s  labor policies were condemned by the National Labor Relations Board and considered the worst in auto industry.  We get a glimpse of the seamy side of a lot of our heroes. 

A TELEGRAM FROM HARRY TRUMAN, PAST PRESIDENT (This may be false news, but I don’t care.)

  Political Correctness is a doctrine, recently fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and promoted by a sick mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a piece of shit by the clean end.

I HURT

  Am I the only want upset by how our army  guys wear their berets plastered down over their eye but their logo has to be offset to do it? I did appreciate that at least they got rid of that stupid cap they used to wear.  That upsets me almost how all our polititians must wear a little American flag pin on their lapel.  At Last Bernie didn’t.  Or how about coming to attention when the  anthem is being played? Shall we just jail any   basatrd who doesn’t act like it was a sacred religious song . ( All now, for der Fatherland!).

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