Why Do We Do It

Ever wonder what makes people do the things they do? I mean, really stop and wonder what could they possibly be thinking? Like, the guys that climb Mount Everest, in all that cold and slippery ice. Why? How about bungee jumping. Clearly these folks are deranged. How about ski jumpers, parachutists, and tailgaters. Yeah, I snuck that one in because I HATE tailgaters, and it's kinda dangerous. Who knows why these people do these seemingly insane things that most sane people would never consider. They have a passion for the adrenaline rush. They want to be noticed. They are crazy. All of these are great reasons why someone would do the very thing that might finish them off, all in the name of thrill seeking. But, hey, maybe they aren't crazy. Maybe bungee jumping really is fricking awesome. Maybe climbing an ice covered mountain freezing your butt off is really the bomb. It's not for us, but for them... well they just gotta go do it. We had a friend named Jerry, that we called Jumpin Jerry, because he loved to jump off stuff. Tall things mostly, so he could deploy his parachute just in time to keep from becoming Bouncing Jerry. A really nice guy actually, kept looking up a lot. He wanted us to take him out to the light that marks American Shoal here in the Florida Keys. It seems he had a dream of jumping off that light, from the very top, and floating down to the water. I declined. It's a warning tower, a lighthouse, owned by the Feds. The ones with jails. So, Jerry moved on to bigger things, and actually left here for Great Falls Idaho I think. They have a bridge there that you are allowed to jump off legally he said. Good luck Jumpin Jerry, it's not for me, but I get it. I really do. I mean, if that thing that you really like to do is that important to you, then go for it. I respect that in a person, no matter what it is. Except tailgating. Maybe when Jerry was a kid, had one of those GI Joe's on a parachute that you throw in the air and watch it float down. I did, and loved that thing. I will never jump out of a plane though. For me, it was the ocean. We moved to the beach when I was a kid, 5 years old or so. We would stay till it got dark, and we were freezing and wet. We didn't care, it was great anyhow. Later, I learned to surf (I really sucked at that though) and was a beach patrol lifeguard for a while. But thinking back, I remember how cool I thought Popeye was. Now here is a cool guy. He is a sailor, not afraid of water of anything. He smokes a pipe, very cool to a five year old. Had plenty of bubble pipes in my day as a youth, practicing up for my adult foray into nicotine addiction. They still make those things? And he had a girl. Well sort of a girl. I quickly realized even as a kid this bitch was trouble. I mean come on, she was always taking off on good old Popeye, and then getting into some trouble. Usually with Bluto. Give her up man, move on. But no, Popeye had a secret weapon that was always ready for rapid deployment. Spinach! THEN the action got started! I ate tons of spinach as a kid, that is why I am incredibly strong now as an adult. Old Bluto would eat a giant can of fist stew a few times, and good old Popeye would be right back on the good side of love! I dreamed of being a sailor some day myself, I really dreamed about it. And now look at me. A sailor. Still like spinach too. I used to watch a cartoon called Underdog too. He was an unlikely hero, who, like Popeye, had a girlfriend who had a knack for getting tied to railroad tracks and such. He had a ring with a magic pill inside, and when he took that pill... WHAM , he could fly and kick butt like a turbo charged Chuck Norris on super steroids. It seems that the cartoons of the day might have been written by a bunch of stoners actually. Anyway, there are those that would say that sailing off into the oceans on a tiny boat is a lot like climbing Mount Everest. It's dangerous and it's stupid to put your very lives at risk to do it. Just stay home, somethings on at eight. Why risk it, there are storms and pirates and God knows the perils. Well, I say GO JUMPIN JERRY ! I will take that risk! I want to go and do it anyway. Where is my SPINACH about now? For me, this is what makes it so good, the feeling of accomplishment, like when you sorta sail from Jacksonville to Key West in storms. Sure, it kinda sucked at times, but I wanted to stand out there, on the front of the boat, in the damn rain and eat some spinach. And if you don't get it yourself, then you can just go jump. Yeah Jerry, you too old friend.

Fear of Splicing

It is a very common human characteristic, fear of the unknown. Xenophobia, or fear of the unknown, is so common that according to Psychology Today, it is actually hardwired into our makeup. It is a survival tool, carried forward from generation to generation. After all, a dark cave can be dangerous. So too, can that dark space under the bed, especially when you are about 7 years old. Some have postulated that we humans have a need for control, and the unknown is so out of our control that we fear it. I think I am afraid of being xenophobic, so that means I have xenophobiaphobia. Some common fears: Fear of Flying- Aerophobia Fear of Public Speaking- Glossophobia Fear of Heights- Acrophobia Fear of the Dark- Nyctophobia Fear of Spiders- Arachnophobia Fear of Dogs- Cynophobia Believe it of not, there is fear of string and ropes, I must have Linonophobia! That's 5 cents please. All this gibberish is because I needed another line forward to the mooring ball to properly complete my Med Mooring setup. The first line was given to me, already complete with an eyesplice on it! The new one, well, I was on my own for that one. That is when my Linonophobia started to kick in. Who knows how to do this stuff? What if it fails, then I am really in bad shape. Can I really rely on this splice? Maybe we should just sell the boat now, while it is still intact. Finally, someone else that obviously also has Linonophobia, told me about a cool website that has animated descriptions of knots and splices. It shows you how to tie knots like a pro, and has a section on lots of different splices. Go to www.animatedknots.com and check it out. I needed an eye splice on the mooring ball end of my line, so I looked it up. I was pretty confusing at first, but the website helps by coloring half of the lines blue. This helps identify things, and keeps the confusion factor down somewhat. I had a piece of sisal rope handy, and some blue tape, so I gave it a try. I got off track once, and had to back up for a minute. But, in the short time of about 2 hours, I was finished with my first ever splice! With my newfound bravado, I quickly moved on to the real McCoy, and it was way easier than splicing sisal. Sisal rope is really stiff, and the fibers shed a lot of flaky bits and it generally made a mess of the place. It turns out that sisal rope is made from the Agave plant, and so naturally it comes from Mexico. The nylon rope I used was totally synthetic, and made in a factory somewhere, and so naturally it comes from China. Anyway, it took about 45 minutes, and looks awesome. I then lowered the dingy and spent another hour and a half fighting the outboard to stay running. I finally gave up, and tried to row out. The dingy was a little low on air, and this made the act of rowing pretty hard. The dingy would distort where the oar locks were, and I really could not get any leverage on the water. Add in a nice 15 to 20 knot breeze, and let the cameras roll. I was two boats away in no time. Cussing ensued. Sorry to anyone around that day that has Profaneophobia, fear of curse words. I finally pulled and pushed my way back upwind, and hooked the line up. Now we are all good with mooring lines, I forgot to take a picture of the splice, and I will. As soon as I finish the next project... rebuilding a carburetor for a dingy motor. I don't think I have Linonophobia any more. Just plain old Xenophobia, which means I am normal. Yes it does. It does too!

23 Year Old Encounter

I had an encounter with a 23 year old last evening, and it was everything I had hoped for. Let me rephrase that, because I know that some of you have dirty minds. I am talking about rum here, not a twenty something millenial. There are occasions when a great sipping rum punctuates that perfect evening, and last evening was one of those times. Cooler weather and clearing skies during the day gave way to one of those perfect evenings, and as the sun started to slip away, the high clouds to the West turned those beautiful shades of amber and red that signal the end of the day, and the beginning of night. It is that time of day that is neither day, or night, and with a nice breeze and perfect temperature, it seemed right to "See the Day Out" with a sip of something really special. I have a very good friend who was my next door neighbor once, before he and his beautiful wife disappeared one day for a better life in the Bahamas. His name is Steve, and it is this former neighbor that extolled onto me the virtues of a truly great sip of rum. Now I am not talking about rum in volumes here. The idea is that a great rum is sipped and enjoyed, maybe a shot or even a half a shot is plenty. It is all about the flavors and aromas. Oh, and Steve swears that a shot of rum now and then aids in digestion, by helping dissolve foods. Not sure on that one. Anyway, Steve and I sampled our way through different rums through the years, some were too sweet. Some harsh and bitter. Some rum just tastes like, well you know. But, a really great rum is something to be enjoyed, and Ron Zacapa Solera is about as good as they get. Ron Zacapa is a first class Guatemalan rum, that is made from a process where sugar cane is pressed, and the rum is made from these first pressings. No molasses is used, as molasses is actually a by-product of sugar refining. This watery sugar is boiled down to a honey, a thickened sugar that is more pure than dark molasses. This results in a very pure rum, finer and sweeter and more refined than a molasses rum. The rum is aged in a process known as the Solera method, and it is a slow process where the rum is aged in different oak barrels. The idea is that the rum is transferred from one barrel to another, and another, over time. Only half of the rum is ever removed from any barrel during this transfer process, and this helps "age" the additional newer rum that is added to top it back up. By the time the rum has been aged and moved four times in this cascading process, the rum has become very smooth and has taken on the wonderful aromas and subtle tastes of the sherry and wine barrels that are used. It has been described as a mahogony and copper, orange peel, citrus and clove and even honey like taste explosion. I am not that discerning, I just know it tastes good and the finish is pleasant and smooth. 23 years is a really long time, perfection can be a slow process. It was 1991, eggs were 85 cents and a gallon of gas was $1.12. The DOW topped 3000 for the first time, and operation Desert Storm was underway. Freddie Mercury, lead singer of Queen, passed way from AIDS. Rodney King was arrested and beaten on film. The 911 system was tested for very first time. A million people are now on the internet. Thelma and Louise and Terminator 2, Judgement Day are in theaters. And, thankfully, in Guatemala, they are crushing sugarcane for my own bottle of Ron Zacapa Solera. So, go get some and try it for yourself. Or not, just means more for me. About 39 dollars a 750 ml bottle.

First Video Reborn

Our first video was, well, a little lacking. Lacking in that it was simply a video, and had no narrative... no story. Well, Saltrun fans, fear not. This video has been remastered with a complete narrative that makes it, well, better! Now it makes sense to everyone, not just us!

Windy and Cold and Gumbo Limbo

Its freezing here in the Keys. It is in the 60's and blowing up to 30, so of course it feels like 10 below. Sorry to all those who are really cold, but we are not used to this kind of treatment. We are total cold wimps and we are proud of it. So, we took a break and went to the flea market. Things are still a little slow here, it really picks up after Christmas, but it was interesting anyhow.

About 25 miles up the road from Key West is Big Pine Key, home of the endangered Key Deer. And the world famous Flea Market.

It is totally laid back, open air and very Keysey. Yes Keysey is a word, it is used all the time here. Trust me.

This is the place where you can find it, whatever it is. Painted coconuts? They got em. $4.00 T shirts? Yep, they got em. The most Comfortable Toe Rings in the whole dang world? Uh-huh, they got those too, with free demonstrations! But, the best part?

The best part is the Donut Man. He makes them to order, fresh and hot. 10 little piping hot sugar coated donuts for 2 bucks. Or the ever popular 20 donuts for just 3 dollars. I guarantee you they won't get cold before they are all gone!

They also have a little restaurant with a fish fry. I was told it was grouper, but not too sure on that, so we passed on it for now.

Even though there are lots of signs that say no dogs, they are all over the place. Know why? Cause dogs can't read. Told you it was Keysey there. Gumbo Limbo? What the ....? The Gumbo Limbo is a tree, it is not a contest to see who can gumbo limbo the lowest. It is a native Florida Keys tree that can grow up to 80 feet tall and the trunks of these tree are all unique. No two are the same, as they twist and turn to best capture the sun. They are sometimes called the tourist tree for the way their bark looks like a peeling sunburned tourist.

They have been used to plant living fences, literally cut into pieces and shoved into the ground a foot apart and bingo, a year later you have a fence. The bark is the only antidote to the poison wood tree, that also grows here. This tree has the same effect as poison ivy, except it spreads when you scratch. Peel off a little gumbo bark and rub it on the affected area, and all is better. Except that you smell like a tree.

Zombies like boats

It's true, zombies do like boats. We are the not-quite-living proof that proves this theory. Zombies also like a good parade, and so downtown Key West we went for the Masquerade March. This parade is a loosely organized parade of Fantasy Fest revelers that lets just about anybody join in. It is a lot of fun, and the costumes are great. We enjoyed the parade with our friends off SV Catchin Rays Thanks guys for being part our zombie invasion!

We saw the Sesame Street gang, always liked Sesame Street.

The Smurf family was there too, drinking beer as Smurfs are known to do.

?????

Disco makes everything better

Later, we said goodbye to our friends, mostly because, as we are zombies, we require very little sleep, so we kept right on going. We ended up going to one of our favorite places on Duvall Street, Irish Kevins. We first went to Irish Kevins right after Kevin opened, it was the kind of place that everyone was drinking and singing along. Then, Kevin sold the bar, and it changed to a younger, type of crowd, and we felt that it had lost it's original appeal. So, who was playing last night? Kevin himself! It was great, we had not seen Kevin in 6 or 8 years. It makes a Zombie feel young again. Wild Rover anyone?

A Quick Post, Fantasyfest in Key West

It has been raining a lot here. Rain, and more rain. And just when it looks like it will stop... it rains. Oh well, it beats snow! It is Fantasy Fest here in Key West... a full on celebration of Halloween costumery gone wild. Some of the costumes are over the top incredible, serious ingenuity involved here. Others are, well, more limited. Think very limited in both ingenuity and coverage. And lots of body painting and the like, not your everyday family vacation type of celebration. The rain stopped last night after almost 4 days straight, and it didn't take long for the streets to fill with partiers. Tonight looks better, breezy and cooler...

I like the guy in the background here