Back down to earth: no balloon festival in 2013

At the end of last September’s first Balloon Festival organizers announced that they would return in 2013. Now it seems there are conflicts with another aviation event during Labor Day weekend at the Sequim Airport, the site of last year’s balloon launches. There may be ballooning as part of the event, but it won’t be the focus. One of the balloon companies featured last year set up camp here in Sequim and you can see their balloon from time to time floating across the valley. I’m fairly certain that the balloon above is now resident.

There’s a Scamp in the house

You may know that I’m married to a boat person, the kind of guy who has inventoried and identified most of the boats in most of the yards we’ve driven past in Sequim and other locations across the Olympic Peninsula.

Dear Husband is registered for a “Scamp Camp” starting on March 4th in Port Townsend. In the course of two weeks he will substantially build a 12 foot Scamp sailboat. He’s already built a mast, blocks, and cleats. Above is the latest phase, lumber for the build. This is our Scamp to be. It’s toward the bottom of a pile of about 12 sheets of mahogany marine plywood. Instead of locating his own quality wood and cutting it himself, he elected to buy a lumber package offered through his class.

The parts are precisely cut with an NC (numerically controlled) router with more precision and less waste. He has removed the precut pieces to finish before the class, which should result in a better finish overall and put him ahead of the game. That is, of course, if the cold and damp abate enough for the finish to dry, but that’s a different story.

This is a convenience you don’t get with raw lumber: named parts. It’s an extraordinary luxury for us to approach building a boat doing so many things “right.” I could fill volumes with stories of the lost puppy boats that have landed in our lives, the ones that had so much promise with “just a little work.” If you are a boat person, you know exactly what I mean. If you aren’t, well, I suppose you can consider yourself blessed. At the very least you probably lead an uncluttered life.

Racing the raindrops

We’ve only had about an inch and a half of rain so far this year. I’d be hard pressed to complain about that since it rarely rains long enough or hard enough to make it truly miserable. But it leads me to admit that I’m enough of an amateur that cloudy, grey days are a challenge to me. I haven’t really learned to see the photo possibilities and yet I do prefer and like to be out of doors. So I raced out recently thinking the rain had stopped, looking for raindrops. The rain hadn’t stopped. And I hadn’t noticed, but it was windy, too, and pretty cold. It was a quick series of shots and this was the best of the bunch.

The Licensing Depot is back

Early last year a controversy erupted between the local Sequim agent who ran our vehicle licensing office and the County Auditor. Long simmering disagreements led, eventually, to the office being shut down. This meant that any business that locals wanted to conduct in person had to be done in Port Angeles. As a former Californian I’ll spare the details, but most things short of a root canal compare favorably to my experiences with the Dept. of Motor Vehicles in that fair state. So driving to Port Angeles to register a trailer last summer wasn’t bad. Dealing with the clerk and the paperwork at the licensing office was fine. Even standing in line for 40 minutes wasn’t terrible. But seeing the new Licensing Depot front and center on Washington Street is a welcome sight. It’s in the same shopping center as J.C. Penney’s and across the street from Safeway.

Sequim’s Olympiad

There’s a small, open structure off the main road into Carrie Blake Park. Inside it is a bronze bust of Sequim’s claim to Olympic fame. Native son Matt Dryke claimed a gold medal at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Dryke has bragging rights as an International Skeet Shooting Champion and world record holder.

Here’s the enclosure.

Judging by letters to the editor in the local paper there are plenty of strong feelings on both sides of gun control. I guess it reminded me that I wanted to have a shot of Matt, a sport shooter. A camera is my weapon of choice. I’ll leave the debate to others with the hope that cool, sane heads will prevail.

Sequim's Olympiad

There’s a small, open structure off the main road into Carrie Blake Park. Inside it is a bronze bust of Sequim’s claim to Olympic fame. Native son Matt Dryke claimed a gold medal at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Dryke has bragging rights as an International Skeet Shooting Champion and world record holder.

Here’s the enclosure.

Judging by letters to the editor in the local paper there are plenty of strong feelings on both sides of gun control. I guess it reminded me that I wanted to have a shot of Matt, a sport shooter. A camera is my weapon of choice. I’ll leave the debate to others with the hope that cool, sane heads will prevail.

Moleville

By the looks of it there is a pest problem here. This property is located not far from the Dungeness River, where the soil is probably soft and rich, happy hunting grounds for moles. If you haven’t made their acquaintence moles hunt for insects as they burrow through the earth. There are voles, too. They’re vegetarians on the prowl for tender roots.

The collectives noun for groups of animals are called “terms of venery.” These terms may be traced back to 15th century England and can be as colorful and interesting as the study of the animals themselves. These terms can be more colorful than the simple “herd of cows.” There is, for example, the classic “exhaultation of larks,” but I rather like “a murmuration of starlings.” If you’ve ever listened to them, you’ll recognize an understatement there. So what does this have to do with moles and my photograph? I will make the observation that this appears to be evidence of a “labour of moles.”