Just the sort of day to play Hookie

It was sunny, it was warm, it was Tuesday, October 6, I was dressed. So why not. I hadn’t been to Snug Harbor for a few weeks and you never know how many of these days are left this fall. If I was working I would have felt like taking a mental health day. The Chinese Scholar’s Garden at Snug Harbor was built by a bunch of imported artisans from China, but not much has been done to maintain either the building or the plantings since. You would think they could use some volunteers, but I guess they know what’s best.

This humble entrance belies the beauty and wealth of shapes, colors, textures, and sounds that lie on the other side. I don’t know what the characters above the door say, maybe “Enjoy the day, for you know not how many more you have in your sack”.

Floor paving.

Gratuitous artsy photo. But look at the sky. It was a glorious day.

The view across the pond of the first large courtyard.

The view from the view across the pond. The bridge overlooks waterfalls and the moon pond, where you can see the reflection of the moon at the proper time of year. I think it is the Autumn Moon, the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, which in 2009 was on October 3. 

This pavilion also overlooks the moon pond and has a small table with 4 stools. The sound of the waterfalls is strongest here.

A view looking across the pond in the second large courtyard.

A close-up of the small pine from the previous photo.

Another view of the second courtyard.

The moon gate back into the first courtyard. There are many paths in this garden and they all lead to wondrous and beautiful things, which could be even more wondrous and beautiful if they only had volunteers to help out with maintenance. I guess they know best. There are also some rooms and smaller courtyards, but I didn’t take any photos of them. They were in the shade and felt cold and too enclosed and I wanted to be outside enjoying the sunshine.

One of the waterfalls down to the moon pool.

Koi

Hungry Koi

Blurry Koi

Rock

Sky, tree, curved roof, reflected in water.

The End

Fibre de verre

Not much going on around here, no major projects started or completed, no new sights seen, no big news to announce. Only thing new is that the heat came on yesterday morning for the first time this season and now it seems chilly during the day. Do I need to further insulate the attic?

The biggest accomplishment this week has been to figure out a song. The song, Fibre de Verre (fiberglass) by Paris Combo is on the CD French Café. It is sung in French and has a jazzy swing feel. A podcast translating part of the song is here, Fibre de verre translation.

I looked for chords or TAB for the song without luck, so I tried to figure it out. I think the following is pretty close. Next up, maybe some version of the Jeeves and Wooster TV series theme music by Anne Dudley.

I used the program QuickChord Ver. 1.2.7 to produce the chord charts. It is a quick and easy way to add chord charts to word documents. The program also makes it easy to modify chords and chord names.

Chords used

   Major chords with root in the bass

E, D major with 5^th in the bass

E, D variant  

F7 with 5^th in the bass E7 with flat 5^th in the bass

Intro - A C B Bb7(2x)

Intro solo

1. A/ B/ E/ A/ 2. A/ B/ D/ E/ 3. A/ B/ E/ A/ 4. A/ F7/ E/ A/

5. A/ E/ F7/ E/ 6. A/ B/ F7/ E/ 7. A/ B/ Bb/ E/ 8. A/ F7/ E/

A C B Bb7(2x)

Verse 1

Fibre de verre, je ne sais vibrer
Qu’en paratonnerre, je suis condamnee
A l’eclair, la foudre ephemere
Car si l’on m’aime, L’on doit me consumer
Mais demain, oui, demain, J’en fait le serment/
J’ouvrirai les yeux, Mes deux yeux, tout en grand
Sur un bel home,Un bel amant
Qui laissera ma vie sauve, Tout en m’aimant A7 C B Bb(2x)

Verse 2

1 Fibre de verre, je me suis cassee
2 Les dents, le nez, sur bien des affaires
3 De cour trop pince, De mours trop epicees
4 Car pour me plaire, Il faut me consumer
5 Mais demain, oui, demain, J’en fait le serment
6 J’ouvrirai les yeux, mes deux yeux, tout en grand
7 Sur toi, en somme, Mon bel amant
8 Toi qui assis, m’attend, Tout en m’aimant

A7 C B Bb

A7 C B E7b5 (key change)

Solo

1. C D G C 2. C D F G 3. C D G C 4. C A7 G C

Fibre de verre, je me suis allumee
Sans un éclair, Sans meme un brasier
Juste une lueur, En mon interieur
Ta chaleur, A su trouver mon cour
Mais demain, oui, demain…

RIP Keith Floyd, Traveling Outdoor Chef

Sad news indeed, Keith Floyd of “Floyd on France” fame as well as lots of other “Floyd on _______” shows and books has passed away according the The Times Online.

We first saw “Floyd on France” on PBS years ago and really enjoyed the shows. From time to time we have caught him on other channels cooking in other places, usually out of doors. Great shows, some travel, some wine, some food, some touristic scenery, some more wine. He always made it a point to have fun and not let the little things ruin the fun or the food.

I had found this blog at one point, Floyd Uncorked but it was never updated much.

He also did some cooking classes in England at Linthwaite Country House Hotel, though never when we were there.

I have a “Floyd on Hangovers” book which I bought years ago, I think I shall have too many drinks tonight in his honor and re-read the book tomorrow.

No clue who he is with here, but he looks happy. I like the sweater, it’s my color, but the hat has to go.

28 December 1943 – 14 September 2009

Detuned Expectations

Sunday September 13th was Harbor Day, part of NY400 a celebration of the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s discovery of what we now call New York City.

The day started out blue skies and sun, but then clouded over as we were leaving for the ferry. The harbor had more sailboats than I had ever seen before, the ferry windows were closed and dirty, so the photos are not that great.

 

A Dutch Naval vessel, Hr. Ms. Van Speijk (M828) a Multi-purpose Frigate, the site is in Dutch.

Another Dutch Naval ship, Hr. Ms. Tromp (M803), an LCF, Air Defense Command Frigate.

More sailboats, possibly Flying Dutchman racers.

Making up for the overcast skies and dirty windows, was seeing the Half Moon being sailed in the harbor. I saw it further out in the harbor during the crossing, but it shows up too small in my photos. Here it is off the Battery.

We planned to visit the New Amsterdam Village at Bowling Green Park and the New Amsterdam Market at the South Street Seaport. I could not find any photos of the traditional Dutch canal houses which  were supposed to be part of the village, so I wasn’t too disappointed when they turned out to be small facades over the vendor stalls.

The windmill was at least almost full size.

We didn’t pause at any of the stalls except for the Dutch bulb stall. If we were flush, we probably would have bought some bulbs, as it was I just asked the vendor if Oranjeboom lager was really a Dutch product and if it was popular. I have bought it from Trader Joes and wondered about its heritage. My pronunciation of Oranjeboom threw the Bulb Man, but then he understood and said it wasn’t as popular as Heineken, but that Dutch people drink it.

The New Amsterdam Market was better and less crowded than expected. It was located just north of the South Street Seaport on the water side of South Street. Lots of fantastic looking breads and cheeses. There were lots of wines, though I only tried a dry mead. Chocolates, pastries, vegetables, and some books and magazines related to foods. We only bought a peach pastry, it was similar to a poptart, but 1000% better. The next market is on October 25.

On the way home the ferry crossed behind Governors Island. I have never before known it to do that.

Minehunter Hr. Ms. Urk (M861)

Fairway Market in Red Hook is out there.

The Coast Guard Cutter ESCANABA (WMEC-907)

A Staten Island Ferry, Coast Guard Cutter and a tiny bit of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge.

All in all not a bad day, Fernando Alonso finished fifth from eighth in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, the ferry went around the back of Governors Island and we had some tasty snacks at the New Amsterdam Market.

When you have time on your hands

Since I have some extra time, but no extra money I have been trying to complete some of the less costly tasks around the castle which have been languishing on the TODO list for TOO LONG. An example was the stripping of the kitchen and hall doors which I did back in June.

Which brings us to the current time consuming task, stripping of the dining room table top. Cue the music. The finish on the base was fine, but the top was horrible.

We could have just used a table cloth, but then they get stained and then I have to shear more sheep and weave more cloth, it’s just exhausting.

The base is made up of 8 sections and 2 joints needed to be glued. I added a plug at the top for additional strength

and added a cover on the bottom for the same reason. I attached the cover with screws for when I need access to the leg bolts.

 

I stripped the table top using just sandpaper and used a chisel as a scraper for the curved edge of the table. The top is a veneer and I didn’t want to chance damaging it by using a power sander or chemicals. After sanding, I cleaned up the dust from the table and the surrounding area and went over the table top with a tack cloth. I used several thin coats of Minwax clear gloss spray polyurethane, waited 24 hours, sanded with super fine steel wool and put on a final coat of poly. Initially I purchased 2, 11.5 oz cans, but then needed to get a third because as the spray can got to about 1/3 full, the poly started coming out in an irregular manner. The horizontal orientation of the table was the issue, but I didn’t want to deal with runs. I hate nuns. OK, I don’t hate nuns, they just freak me out a bit.

Here the table is bare after stripping.

Then after first thin coats.

Here’s the table after a quick going over with steel wool and the last coat.

I know, just as interesting as watching paint dry.

Here is a list of some other things I have done with my extra time. I have left off job search because that pretty much goes without saying. Depending on what I find, it can take 5 minutes to check out the results from the search engines or it can take half a day. Researching the companies, writing cover letters ( I have quite a collection of cover letters) and occasionally tweaking the resume. Then I update the job search table and then move on to non-work-search tasks.

OK, here is a partial list of some other things I have done with my time.

• spreadsheet of the flowers around the house, when they bloom, location, color (57 types)
• organized the loose photos
• work related webinars and OOD/TDD blogs
• IEEE meetings
• segregated books on the book shelves by author
• shined brass knick-knacks on the book shelves
• cleaned the basement
• cleaned the desk
• tin ceiling in kitchen
• painted kitchen walls
• replaced water pump and hoses, days before trek to college
• replaced car battery, 2 days after trek to college
• rust repair on the 63 Land Rover
• installed basement window (other location)
• installed valve for dishwasher (other location)
• sink washers/toilet repairs (multiple other locations)
• did some wash (61 documented loads)
• read some books from the public library (more were pleasure than work related)

If I didn’t have to find a job, this quasi-retirement would be quite enjoyable. I would have read more, watched more movies during the day and taken a few classes for fun. Bookbinding sounds interesting.