Photo!

Hurricane Sandy is making landfall, but we're moon watching and hanging out by the fire

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BOOK REVIEW: The Boy, Me and the Cat

 I'm not a bibliophile (although I did spell it correctly before I looked it up), but I do love books. Mostly, I love the telling of a great story. Last year at Christmas, Bob and Glenda gave me a variety of nice things (Glenda is a great gift giver) that included the book on the right.

 WARNING: This is a little longer post than usual . . . .

It is hardback with a woven cover. There was no title on the front or back, no pictures, no logo, just the stippled feel of an old cloth cover. The title was on the spine: “The Boy, Me And The Cat – Henry M. Plummer.” And the aroma: the smell of heavy paper, a whiff of cloth bound with glue, and just a hint of mustiness – maybe almost a touch of mold. It reminded me of our Grandfather's “library” in his West Grove, PA house, books lined on the shelves – shelves completely covering three walls, the slight musty smell of them, maybe a sneeze of dust – where the cousins “hid the thimble” and disturbed the sanctity of them.(see note #1 below)   I had also known about the book from other sailboat cruising references – and it was reputed to be a great sailing story. And it is. 1912-1913, an engineless  30 year old 24.5 foot catboat, a 15 foot dory with a 3 horsepower engine, a son, a cat, the East coast from New Bedford to Miami, and lots of time – can dreams turn out any better?

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Mr. Plummer, 

    “The Author

      The Illustrator

      The Editor

      The Publisher

      The Printer

      The Binder

       and the Captain of the Mascot,” (Preface, page X) 

tells the story through his logbook. He writes who he is: genuine, honest, and with an understated sense of humor.   If you were sitting on the porch on a warm summer's day drinking a beer and telling stories with Mr. Plummer, time would pass so fast that dinnertime would arrive before you were hungry – and you would have to listen very carefully to know when to laugh. You might even get a few good recipes for your next meal.

 

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I'll just give you a little teaser of the author's writing style. On the third log entry on page 2A, Mr. Plummer writes:

“October 14^th. Mighty busy cup o'tea this morning. Tumbled all the “last things” on board. Crawled under the shed, caught the cat rubbed her full of flea powder, and dropped her into a gunny sack to moult. Will have troubles enough without fleas.”

As cited above, Mr. Plummer is also the illustrator.  I just love the drawings.  Here is his drawing of the cat.

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I won't ruin the mystery by telling you how it was originally published.  Just pop on over to amazon.com - quick – there are only 6 left!! Or, better yet, ask for it through “interlibrary loan” at your local library. You won't get the cloth bound edition like mine, but at least it won't be on your kindle.

Note #1: It could be that our Grandfather read some or all of the books in his library, but I think he was more well known in family lore when he was in his 80's, for having to use a cover for his paperback books to hide “scantily clad” women.

Booked Up! Larry McMurtry's Bookstore

Years ago, ML read about Larry McMurtry's bookstore in Archer City, Texas.   We were in the area, so it wasn't too big a deal to swing by Archer City, which a ways northwest of Fort Worth, Texas - in amongst farm, ranch, and oil land.  It's called "Booked Up."

Archer City, where Mr. McMurtry grew up, is mostly bookstore and a few conveniences.  Maybe there's more, but we didn't see it. 

We weren't even sure the bookstore was open.  But it was, although we were the only customers.  The person who took our money (we think related to Mr. McMurtry) stated that lots of people come to the bookstore - and a surprising number of people outside the U.S.A.

The best thing is that there are lots of books!  I wouldn't say cataloging and organization are the strong points; I'd say volume and browsing fun are what is best about it. 

I'd also say a coffee machine with good coffee might be a good idea.   .  .  

But I found something right away - which happened to be on a table when we walked in.  I guess it was meant to be - and it was 25% off, too!

It's a book about photographing Arctic Native populations, which includes Native and non-Native photographers from a variety of time periods. 

I don't usually buy books anymore (that's what libraries are for), but this one is great.

Hike into the Wind River Range

I had been interested in checking out the Wind River Range of mountains.  Mary Louise was soon on board.  We stopped in Pinedale, Wyoming and asked at an outdoors store where we might get into the range just a bit.  The answer was obvious - "Turn left at the grocery store and follow the road to the end." So, pausing to buy a sandwich and a water at the store, we turned left and followed the road.

The trail was hard packed and easy to walk.  The forest smelled like balsam and pine.   The only difficulty was breathing easily at 12,000 feet in elevation. 

ML got tired of me walking on her heels, so I went on ahead to where the trees opened up and I could see across the range.  

This is looking east with a pretty little lake nestled in the trees.

I was able to use my intuitive skills and figure out what ML was telling me.  I hope you can too.

On the way down the access road, I took this picture.  That way, I was sure I'd know what was in the picture.

I think the range is worth more than a day hike.

Meeting the Warings

The world is such an interesting place.  As conventional wisdom says, "it's a small one, too" - or something like that.

We started up the trail toward the ridge above Yellowstone Lake and saw an older couple (older than us, anyway) looking through their binoculars at something in the woods.  We stopped and asked what they were seeing.   As we had thought, they are birders.

Amazingly enough, in our short conversation, we learned that:

- they had been in Milawi, Africa, as had our daughter Hannah.

- they lived in Juneau in the 1980's and Ms. Waring had come to Hoonah to do some census work - maybe having visited us at our house, although no-one could remember that detail.

- they had just spent some time in Ozello, Florida - where we have a friend with a house that we had stayed in for a long weekend.  The houses were nearly next to each other.

Huh, you figure it out.  Pretty amazing.  We really enjoyed them.  The photo is them checking out the view.

Much luck to the Warings.  It was great meeting you.

Jackson Hole to Rock Springs, Wyoming SHEEP!

Our stretch of weather continues!  Not too cold, not too hot, and no bugs.

We turned onto route 189/191 up the Hoback river. 










We turned a corner and traveling along the road was a few sheep.

I guess the grass was better along the road!  I pulled off the road quick - fortunately there was very little traffic.

They were all reasonably young - there weren't any full horn curls among them.  But it was fun too see.