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| Photo: Ian Coristine www.1000islandsphotoart.com Click on any image once to enlarge |
This is the look of sadness. Honey Bee Island 24 hours before we leave for the season. Boats and jet skis all pulled and stored for the brutal winter. Only the aluminum runabout and the canoe remain for the getaway. Giant flower pots at the main dock at left now all gone, with blue tarps over their frames for the winter.
The white floating flower boat is upside down on the hammock deck in the foreground, with the BBQ wrapped in a blue tarp behind it. Worse: no plane on the aircraft carrier at far right. The cabin? It's there, barely visible behind the trees. Isn't great to have a friend with a great camera who has access to helicopters?
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| Close up of the pic above |
The white floating flower boat is upside down on the hammock deck in the foreground, with the BBQ wrapped in a blue tarp behind it. Worse: no plane on the aircraft carrier at far right. The cabin? It's there, barely visible behind the trees. Isn't great to have a friend with a great camera who has access to helicopters?
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| Then again, this is the look of happiness. Home in California for the best part of the year. |
An apology is owed
The view from the cockpit
Last month I inadvertently sent out our little newsletter with the entire list of recipients in the 'TO' box instead of in the 'BCC' box of the outgoing mail.
My bad.
It was immediately brought to my attention and I am sorry for this lack of attention to detail. I know that some folks don't care but I know I am annoyed when I receive a broadcasted message with my email address exposed to others that I don't know. It's hard enough having safe...eh...'computing' without being exposed to others STD's. (Stupid Transmission Decisions)
The view from the cockpit
It happened again. Another 'come what may' daredevil wanted to throw caution to the wind and climb into the back seat for a ride on the magic carpet. Kim is an old friend who, once a year, publishes a great magazine about the Thousand Islands. She jumps at every opportunity to get great pics from the air whenever she can. If this keeps up, I may have to start an airline to keep up with demand.
Well, its over. All done flying for 8 months. It was a spectacular season and I will pick it all up when we return on June 1. Meanwhile, 244 days of peace and quiet for you with no blah, blah, blah about silly airplanes.
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| Stay warm baby, and see you in June. |
Besides flying, I have been working on my docking skills and I think I finally have it down pat as seen on the video below....
There goes the neighborhood!
Cindy Crawford has purchased an island cottage in the Thousand Islands and is seen here cruising the neighborhood with her kids.
The transition
11 years ago when we started this schizophrenic lifestyle, we had a friend who told us we would tire of it in 6 months. It has now been over 30 transitions, every 4 months since, and we just can't get enough of it. Friends were recently asking us if we were anxious to get back home to California and the truth is that while we were well aware of how many days remained until we left the island, I didn't get my head into my 'California mode' until the day of our departure.
Boarding the plane, island life was all behind me and I was in full 'OK, the first thing I need to do when we get back is... then I need to....' I have given up thinking we won't ever have a huge project awaiting us wherever we land but I am focused on making sure there is leisure time also. Flying takes care of that at the Island, California is nothing but sun, sand and surf while France offers wine, bread and travel opportunities galore.
The big projects are important to us for many reasons. One is that I am only going to be around for another 50 years to enjoy them so we want to make our homes as pleasant as we can for the duration but the other is that it satisfies a creative streak.
Remember that for 30 years, a good day at the office for me was preventing two homosexuals from killing each other in some twisted love triangle or stopping drugs from getting into the prison...not exactly 'creative', so these projects do give one a sense of accomplishment.
Still, our transitions are not all a cake walk. Leaving the island for instance, requires eating ourselves out of the freezer in the last days, then donating to friends or the local food pantry any remaining supplies. Anything already opened gets tossed. The next day, we fly 3 to 6,000 miles away and stop at the local supermarket and drop $500. to restock the fridge, freezer and pantry of everything we just got rid of the day before. Everything from mustard, mayonnaise, ketchup, salad dressing, to tin foil has to be purchased. Think everything..
It's the price of doing business, 3 times a year.
Ready, set, GO!
OK, we have been home 12 hours now, so no more goofing around. It's time to get things into high gear. After stocking up, it was time to get things in order around here. A friend who is also our property manager does a great job during our absence but clearly cannot spend the time we do in bringing everything up to snuff as we do when we return from an 8 month hiatus.
First order of business: tame and clean up the landscaping. We refuse to start anything 'new' until what we have is working right and looking its best.
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| Cleaning up the Redwood root, a 6 ton piece of landscape art. |
We found this beast in Northern California years ago in a field with a goat tethered to it. It had been recovered from the bottom of a river bank and we brought it back over the Golden Gate bridge on a flatbed truck. Then, we had a crane awaiting us at our end to put it on the base we had prepared for it.
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| My Mexican landscaper. Oh wait! It's Janice. Show and tell |
Fifteen
years ago, we had a 3/4" thick (2cm), custom 'hand chipped' edge glass table top made for
our dining room table. As things went, the artist miscalculated and it was
a little too small so he had to make a new one. Never one to miss an
opportunity, I offered him a deal he could not refuse for the first
one as it would be of no use to him and we had an idea as to how we could
use it. It has been stored in my workshop ever since, waiting for the
day it's turn would come up in my wife's endless list of projects for me
to tackle.
Then,
two years ago, I forged (both literally at the blacksmith forge in France and
figuratively from a picture Janice found online) the metal base for a picnic table we
needed at home in California. It consisted of two supports, one at each
end of the table, with an exotic African Mahogany hardwood frame between them. The plan
was to finally use the glass table top that has been stored all these
years.
Returning
back to North America at that time, I brought one 50 pound (23 Kilos)
end of the two metal bases back with us from France to the island, then
on to California 4 months later when we returned home as it was the
exact weight limit allowed us when we fly.
A friend in France who was planning to come visit last Christmas was to bring the other half but his trip got cancelled. So, last May, we brought the second half of the two 50 pound bases, first to the island for the summer, then on to California last month.
A friend in France who was planning to come visit last Christmas was to bring the other half but his trip got cancelled. So, last May, we brought the second half of the two 50 pound bases, first to the island for the summer, then on to California last month.
It may have been a 15 year odyssey of sorts and ten's of thousands of miles traveled but all good things come to those who wait....patiently. It's good to always have something special in the project hopper and we have a bunch of them everywhere we live. It's what gets us going every day.
