Have I mentioned that Randal can fix anything?  I know I have said that he can read train schedules in any language anywhere.  And he has slogged through Pulitzer Prize winning  Guns,Germs, and Steel , explaining it so well that I don’t have to read it and even the National Geographic’s video hasn’t added to Randal’s “retelling.”  But have I written about how, whatever needs doing or fixing on the boat, Randal can do it or find folks who can.  But most he does himself.  Like this morning.  I decided to clean out the aft shower and sink because yesterday we went to Silangun and went swimming and took showers so there was sand and grit galore in the shower.  Plus the filter under the sink was starting to make its grunting “clean me sounds,”  so I did.  First I cleaned out the shower, lifting out the teak shower floor and scrubbing everything.  I even changed the sponge filter Randal thought of to keep hair from the drain.  Then I started on the sink.  So simple: take off the plastic filter cap, take out the screen, scrub off the goop, replace the screen, put back the cap and make it tight.  I had done it a dozen times before.  Today, the pump wouldn’t start pumping.  The water drains into the sump and then the pump, pumps it out when the flow switch tells it to.  I don’t absolutely understand or I would write about it in more detail than you probably want to read anyway.  Bottom line: pump not pumping right.  Randal knew how it was supposed to work, why it wasn’t working, how to turn off power that needed to be off, how to turn off the water that needed to be off…. He knew how to cut the electrical wires to the pump to get it out from under the sink, how to take the pump apart, clean it, put it back together, rehook the wires and make it all work again!  But that isn’t even what made him my hero for the day.  Yesterday at Silangun I collected lots of shells from the beach.  But one I scooped up while snorkeling and put it into my shorts pocket while I was swimming.  This morning while I was cleaning up the shells I remembered the one in my pocket.  I got it out and looked inside the small shell and there was a tiny hermit crab!  Oh no, what to do?  I really hated the idea of killing it.  I brought it into the pilot house and put it onto the chart table where it started to climb out of the shell.  Oh no!  What to do?  I was afraid to throw it over into the water because it is too deep where we are tied.  I found the poor thing in clean shallow water and thought it might need to come up for air so wanted it where the water is shallow.  Since I was still wearing my grocery store nightgown/sundress as a nightgown, Randal was a hero and took the little creature up to the most shallow part of the marina and dropped him in.  Hopefully he will be ok if he can deal with the pollution here.  I’ll just have to be much more careful next time I am shell collecting.  No live animals….  So first Randal saved the hermit crab and then he fixed the pump.  And instead of getting upset about my cleaning the pump into not working; he said it wasn’t my fault and that he was glad he had a wife who didn’t mind cleaning out the sink pump.  So the hero award for the day goes to Randal Johnson, hermit crab rescuer and plumber extraordinaire.

Randal walking to “free the hermit crab!”

  None of these shells had tenants, thank goodness.

  This is Randal working on our salt water washdown system.  It is so we can wash down the anchor  without having to use fresh water.

Lyle makes stuff from stainless steel.  He has made things for us.  Randal and I stopped at Lyle’s shop so Randal could talk with him about our new anchor and new flopper stopper fish.

  Driving the boat to Silangun

Randal and Doramac in the distance.Randal isn’t wearing white socks; that is his tan line!

Sitting under the little shelter for our picnic.  This lady came walking down the beach.  Randal managed to get her to take some diet coke.

  Walking back to the dinghy to go back to the boat.

Hi Everyone,

  Randal gave himself some time off today and we went for a bike ride out of Subic and over the hill to Barrio Baretto for lunch and a visit to the deli for “take home.”  I was a bit worried since the hills in the heat here have been really difficult for me.  I just told myself to go slow, more slowly than even I needed.  That seemed to work and in no time we were out of Subic Bay/Freeport, over the hill past the Olongapo Cemetery, and into Barrio Baretto.  We were actually too early for our lunch at Dryden so we kept riding along the main rode; the only road really.  We had ridden it months ago on a Sunday morning.   Way more traffic today so we decided to turn off down a side road that was paved and looked as if it would go for several miles.  It turned out to be more hills than flat road, but it was such a change from the busy main road that we kept riding for a bit until it seemed as logical to turn around and ride back to the main road and Dryden.  After all, our goal was to get to Dryden, and though we had no clue where this side road would take us, we knew it wouldn’t take us to Dryden.  I did take a few photos; I was working too hard to stop and take more.  Plus it was hot! 

  We passed several small farms and many rough shanty type houses.  There were several cultivated fields in the flat land between the mountain areas.  Many people called out cheery hellos!  I wish we could have kept going, but I know I was too hot and starting to run out of pedaling fuel. 

  This is the main road.  You can see all of the traffic.  We had ridden past these wonderful small vendors (yes there is some kind of vehicle under all of those wonderful locally made treasures.) On the way back they were stopped on the side of the road so I could take this photo.  

So that was our day today.  Randal and I are still getting over the sad ending to the wonderful New England Patriot’s story.  I have introduced Randal to the agonies of Boston sports fandom.  Randal had to watch me follow the Red Sox during baseball season.  Then, like most of America, he followed the Pats’ wins, week after week.  I followed them because my friend Bruce loves the Pats the way I love the Red Sox.  I wanted the Pats to win for Bruce and his friends more than for me.  Sorry Boo.

Hi Audrey and Bob,

  I wanted more ice cream when you left, resisted; wanted more ice cream in the middle of the night when I woke up, resisted; wanted some for breakfast, resisted!  Aren’t I good!

Here are the photos of Max coming out of his pillow case sleeping bag.

Ru

Subject: More Max

hi all,

well here are two max-photos that show his latest “trick.”

where’s max?

reappearing now…

he moved too fast so the picture isn’t very good, but you get the idea.

we covered the pillow with two cases so he could not get to the actual pillow-cover and chew through it.  he figured how to get into the top cover and he just crawls in and sleep there.

And to change the subject and answer a question….  They might not come from the same place because their meanings don’t really overlap.  You figure it out; I just have to provide the info and ask ,” does this answer your question?”

Ru

From Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition (2003)

  slaughter Slaughter  I. noun

   Etymology: Middle English, of Scandinavian origin; akin to Old Norse

   slātra to slaughter; akin to Old English sleaht slaughter,

   slēan to slay — more at slay Date: 14th century 1.

   the act of killing; specifically  the butchering of livestock for

   market 2.  killing of great numbers of human beings (as in battle

   or a massacre) ; carnage

  II. transitive verb Date: 1535 1.  to kill

   (animals) for food ; butcher 2.

    a.  to kill in a bloody or violent manner ; slay b.

    to kill in large numbers ; massacre

   3.  to discredit, defeat, or demolish completely • slaughterer

   noun

  Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This 

slay  

O.E. slean "to smite," also "to kill with a weapon" (class VI strong verb; past tense sloh, slog, pp. slagen), from P.Gmc. *slakhanan,

 from base *slog- "to hit" (cf. O.N., O.Fris. sla, Dan. slaa, M.Du. slaen, Du. slaan, O.H.G. slahan, Ger. schlagen, 

Goth. slahan "to strike"), from PIE base from base *slak- "to strike" (cf. M.Ir. pp. slactha "struck," slacc "sword"). 

Modern Ger. cognate schlagen maintains the original sense of "to strike."

 Meaning "overwhelm with delight" (1340) preserves some of the wider rangeof meanings that the word once had, including also "to strike a spark" (O.E.).

I just couldn’t resist taking lots more photos of the jelly fish.  So fascinating!   Not bad for a little point and shoot.  Can you imagine with a SLR and a tripod!

  Close encounters possibly making more jelly fish

they’re lovely but you wouldn’t want to swim with them. 

they sometimes come up to the surface

  reflection of a mast surrounded by real jelly fish.

Art imitating life……

  Dorothy’s painting of the jelly fish. 

Dorothy explained that you put little drops of alcohol onto the paint to get the effect of the jelly fish.  Very lovely!

  Dorothy and her painting

Hi Everyone,

  I am really looking forward to my visit home.  I still have 2 weeks; will I plan ahead or rush last minute to get ready?  We’ll know the answer to that in about 2 weeks.

I took these photos of the Nagle’s boat DavidEllis late this afternoon.  My art friend Nancy Cannel had painted a seascape with fantastic images dancing by the water.  I saw those images when I looked at the Nagle’s boat so shot them for Nancy.  But they are so cool….

  I may try to paint this one…my favorite

  I like the orange here, think it’s their life ring

  This looks like Inuit art from the Canadian Northwest

The water in the small marina of the Subic Bay Yacht Club is too dirty to swim in which is too bad.   But, even if it were clean, there are other things that would give me pause.  There is a rather large stingray one sees occasionally and hears more often.  And there lots and lots of jelly fish.  Dorothy Nagle and I were out with our cameras this morning trying to capture the images as they flowed through the water.  Along with the jellies there were small minnow sized fish and several large fish chasing the minnows.  The whole school of minnows would suddenly explode out of the water trying to escape.  One poor fish landed on the pier so I raced over and flipped him back in.  Slimy squiggley thing.

Looks like and impressionist painting of water.  You can see the little fish in the dark part of the photo.

Here they all are leaping out of the water.  Actually they skimmed over the top of the water, splashing and thrashing and running for their lives.

  fish and jelly fish.

  There were 2 close together, this isn’t some kind of mirror image. 

  Just wisps of stuff

Yesterday morning I went out without my camera.  I was going to Olongapo early in the morning solely to buy some eggs.  I had just bought 10 last week and that usually lasts a while unless I get an urge to bake.  I’d  had to buy those eggs to replace the half dozen eggs I had thrown out because they were just too too old.  Of those new 10 eggs I broke 2 on the way home.  Then I grabbed one that wasn’t one of the hard boiled ones I’d made so that was 3 eggs down.  It wasn’t so hard to use up 7 eggs.  Apparently unrefrigerated eggs last longer so my newest batch will remain on the counter.  They are not refrigerated in the grocery stores or wet markets.  We shall see.  So you can see that I was really focusing on “eggs” and not picture taking so left my camera home.  Darn!!

Rather than walk along the highway I backtracked a bit and took the path that goes along the drainage canal between Olongapo and Subic Bay.  It doesn’t always smell so great, but it is prettier and you never know what you will see.  That’s for sure, though I am sure I won’t see anything as X-rated as I did back in China as I was approaching the bridge from Jingan over to the boat yard.  A different story for another time.

I’d often seen some white birds off in the distance as I walked this path.  Even with my zoom lens I couldn’t make out what they were though I was fairly certain they were not the geese I had seen and fed on other walks.  Yesterday I found out what they were; white turkeys!  They were out feeding on the edge of the path; 3 large males and the rest female or too small for me to tell.  They were just so, so odd.  If it had been night time or very misty I might have thought I was making them all up so fantastic was their behavior.  They just seemed to be gliding along as if their time dimension had intersected mine rather than that we were all from the same place.  Like Twilight Zone turkeys in slow motion.  My prior meeting with live turkeys came in 2006 while visiting my friend Martha and her daughter Jess who live in Brookline which borders Boston.  Not out in the country.  But wild turkeys  seem to be taking over the Boston area and one flock had taken up residence near the path that led to the T stop and reservoir.  I, of course, thought they were neat.  And being fore warned, I was prepared with a weapon to ward them off;  my large red, white and blue bandanna that when waved in the face of wild Brookline turkeys makes them leave you alone.  I am not making this up, I promise.  Google Brookline and wild turkeys and you’ll find lots of funny stories.  This excerpt is from NPR:  “The turkeys started chasing kids and joggers down the street. Neighbors would laugh watching the lawyer or pediatrician who lived next door being chased by a gobbling mob of birds. When it happens to you, it’s much less amusing.”  All of this is leading up to my reaction to this docile, spaced out flock or white turkeys.  Make love, not war was their motto.  As I stood watching in amazement and prepared to wave my bandanna if necessary, one of the male turkeys, Mr. Tom hopped onto one of the little hens who apparently caught his fancy and was attempting to make more white turkeys.  That in itself was startling because so public and unexpected.  Hey, I’m from Puritan New England where the native turkeys, the Massachusetts state bird, make war, not love…see Brookline story.   Then, knowing nothing about turkey behavior, I put a very human spin on what I saw happen next.  The other two toms began circling the mating birds as if to be waiting their turn.  I looked at the little hen, who was not looking as if this was her idea of a good time.  This big old ugly tom had one big old turkey foot on her mashed down wing and one on her back and she made a sound that I thought said, “Help!”  The rest of the hens seemed too “scared” to get involved, so I did.  I walked over to the three male turkeys and said,  “Stop that!”   And they did.  They acted more dazed and surprised than mad or frustrated.  The hen rejoined the flock and seemed happier there.  One of the male turkeys started walking towards me,  and I’m thinking he wanted food because he had the same look the geese always have since the one time I did feed them.  But I had no camera and I had no food, so I just went on my way for the eggs. 

I went back to the path today armed with camera and food.  First, right across the road from the Yacht Club was the flock of geese.  They only have one thing on their minds and that’s food.  I broke up some rice cakes and set off a melee!  You have to be quick!  Throw out food, take photo, run or they’ll chase you down and grab the food bag from you.  Keeping on task to find the turkeys I walked over to the canal path behind the park and go karats where I had seen them yesterday.  But No Turkeys!   I knew they had to be somewhere so I left the path and walked over to the construction site near the go karts and spied them  Nothing like barging in where you’re not invited.    I just started taking pictures as fast as I could hoping anything would turn out.  The turkeys ignored me as did the big white ducks….lot of white birds here, but soon one of the construction crew came over looking at me as if to say, “hmm, how did you get here? ”  I took a few more photos, looked at him and asked if it was ok, he nodded sort of, I took a few more photos, said thanks and left.  As for the photos, I think you just really had to be there. 

  How did the Aflack duck get into the middle of this photo?

Actually it is a goose but he looks like that silly duck.

White turkeys.  Too bad they weren’t standing on some green grass rather than light sandy dirt.  

Cropped for a closer look

  Remember the show Designing Women?  One episode Julia goes to the ladies room and returns with her dress tucked into her pantyhose in back.  That’s all I could think of when I saw those spindly legs uncovered and the feathers stuck up in the air.

Oh gosh, I just wish you had all been there. 

I was out taking photos around the Yacht Club and passed the Providore where they sell clothing and souvenirs and cookies and such.  This is a photo I took or one of the “models” and me sharing a laugh.

Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me this morning when I encountered the flock of white “twilight zone” turkeys.  Hopefully they will be there tomorrow morning.  If not I’ll try the 1000 words.

Hi Everyone,

  One of us has to sign all of the tax forms for 2007 and one of us has to stay here and finish up the work that is needed on DoraMac.  Guess who is going home? Alone!!!  I am definitely dread the long flight; last time it took 36 hours to get home, this time thankfully it will only take 21.  No long layover in Detroit.  But still, yuck. 

   Thanks to my sister Harriet making the calls, I am booked into every yearly medical, dental, optical exam you can name.  Well, not every one, just the general yearly ones, thank goodness.  And I need a new pair of glasses because I now take mine off to read the small print.  From using my nerdy clipon sun glasses, my clear glasses are all scratches.  Maybe I’ll get the magnetic kind this time because carrying 2 pairs of glasses is a pain.  Either that or some kind of unscratchable lens if that exists. 

  I will leave here February 20th and return March 12th; be home for less than optimal weather, but that can’t be helped if we are to leave Subic by the end of March and get some cruising done during April, supposedly a really good cruising month. 

   I will try to see all of my Roanoke buddies and will call you when I get home.  I’ll be staying with my sister and brother-in-law and luckily borrowing a car from them.  That saves me a trip to the DMV to renew tags and decals.  Never a fun chore.

   I will definitely visit “my” library to say hello and drive people crazy interrupting their day.  I will have to hide when I visit Ref; not sure I remember how to do much.  Now I’m the one asking questions. 

   And Sarah, tell Drake that I am looking forward to our walks around Old Southwest.  Such a good dog, Drake!

   On my way home I’ll need pesos, for the Manila airport, yen for the switch to JAL in Tokyo, and then dollars.  Randal will take me to the airport in Manila and collect me when I come back so, going alone isn’t really a big deal, just a tad lonely.  But we have been together 24/7 for a while now, so this is probably a good thing.  Actually, this week Randal is going back to China for one last visit and a week of happy hour with Bill Kimley.  I think that’s the real reason he is going and not for the boat supplies he will get.  But that qualifies as a good reason in my book, or logue I should say.

  Back on Doramac I’ll paint some, read some, clean less, and make banana bread that only I will like because it will have whole wheat flour, maybe no sugar, and raisins and nuts.  Sounds good to me, but not Randal’s kind of banana bread.  I might even buy another season of some tv show only I would watch.

  So that is that about that.

Ru

  Early morning photo of our neighbor DavidEllis

  I could make folks guess what this is, but it’s probably too easy.