[rollei_list] Re: OT: A Non-Regrettable Non-Absence
- From: "Peter K." <peterk727@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 5 Sep 2010 10:32:51 -0700
Wow! Why detest travel so much? It would give you an opportunity to use your
cameras.
On Thu, Sep 2, 2010 at 8:23 PM, Marc James Small <marcsmall@xxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:
> At 10:01 PM 9/2/2010, Roger Beverage wrote:
>
>> Marc;
>>
>> At least when you return, you can say you have been as far from home as
>> possible but still in the U.S. I hope you enjoy your visit here and hope
>> where you are going is north of Portland. We natives consider anything
>> south of there as a suburb of Boston. Once the hurricane gets out of the way
>> and temperatures normalize, it is a lovely place, even in the snows of
>> winter.
>>
>>
> Thank God, I was spared from going. For 52 years, I have had my arm
> twisted to go to Maine. I am a contrarian: tell me I "must" do something
> and I will do my damnedest NOT to do it. And I never lost a single thing in
> Bangor, Maine. I don't even like Stephen King. And I DETEST travel. I am
> a control freak and do NOT want to put my dogs in a kennel, for instance.
> If I cannot take them, then I want to stay home. Placid, peaceful, quiet
> home. Ten miles from the Class VI store at Fort Lee and so forth. All very
> decent, quiet, and comfortable.
>
> I did want to catch up with two long-term friends in Manchester, NH, but
> one is tied up with a family illness and the other has a family obligation
> taking him to Texas this weekend. So, things seem to have worked out
> decently in that regard.
>
> I have known some really nice people from Maine. They all assure me that
> the nimrods have stayed behind and that the sane ones have all moved out.
> Given the state of Maine politics, I suspect that that is quite true. I am
> certain that Maine has very pretty parts but, then, so does Virginia, and I
> can see those on a day trip. The only thing I really wanted to visit in
> Maine is the principal LL Bean store in Freeport.
>
> Hurricane Earl! (I have lived through hurricanes all over the east coast,
> especially in Connecticut and Virginia -- hurricanes I do know despite my
> reluctance to visit Florida. Camille and Agnes and Juan and Hugo and Isabel
> and ... You have not lived until you've had to negotiate a 40-hp VW
> through a flooded intersection, reving the engine WAY up to keep the water
> from coming up the tail pipes. But that was back in the Longago.) Earl is
> bouncing off the Barrier Islands (my best friend was vacationing there, and
> I am certain that she has left to return to Roanoke). It will not affect my
> part of Virginia -- we MIGHT have a light rain before dawn, though this is
> along the lines of a 5% probability. Tomorrow will be hot and humid and
> then a cold front passes through, and our highs drop by ten degrees. Early
> fall weather -- and low humidity!
>
> I live just south of Richmond Virginia. Maine SEEMS impossibly far from
> Virginia, but it is not. Hawaii and Alaska are MUCH further (it is easier
> to fly to Alaska than to fly to Maine, but that is a discussion for a
> different day). Miami is about as far from Richmond as is Maine (no, I have
> never been to Florida, either, and I doubt that I ever shall -- having been
> raised in California, I have it in my viscera that visiting Florida is an
> invitation to disaster, from Hurricanes and a zillion other things).
> Everything west of Chicago is further from Richmond than is Maine. Boise,
> Idaho. Seattle, Washington. Phoenix, Arizona. Tulsa, Oklahoma. All are a
> lot farther than Maine. And Maine is stuck up there with Canada -- Maine
> and Canada are still fighting over some islands, relics from the War of
> 1812, and I believe Michigan is doing the same. (To date: Maine 0,
> Michigan 1, but the locals keep stirring things up, so what do I know?)
>
> The cooler weather will benefit my two yard tortoises, Sulcatas, as they do
> not do very well with humidity. These guys are captive-born descendants of
> the largest continental tortoises, who reside normally in the Sahel Desert
> in Africa. We have had two months of excruciatingly hot weather but it has
> been humid. They will do better with drier air. All anapsids (turtles and
> tortoises) have a weak respiratory system, and they are subject to
> pneumonia, even the ones who live in water. (I also have an Eastern Mud
> Turtle and a Musk Turtle and an African Side-Necked Mud Turtle. I know
> these puppies: the Eastern Mud Turtle I hatched from an egg in '81 and the
> Musk Turtle I got right out of the egg in '84. Evinrude, the East African
> Side-Necked Mud Turtle, is a more recent addition, but, yes, he is CB.
>
> Anapsids are akin to dogs: they love to have the back of their skulls
> rubbed. You have to be careful: I have had a number of snappers, but have
> never been brave enough to try that on THEM. But it strikes my next-door
> neighbor, who watches over the Lawn Tortoises when I am gone, that the big
> one, Franklin (24 inches long? 35 pounds?) will rub up against my leg when
> I rub his neck.
>
> I have two Sulcatas. These guys peak out at around 100 pounds and live for
> around a century. I have already warned my son to warn HIS grandkids of the
> impending Family Heritage!
>
> In any event, I stayed in Richmond, Virginia, this center of culture and
> elegance.
>
> Marc
>
>
>
>
> ---
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--
Peter K
Ó¿Õ¬
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