Disappointed in my aunt Jamima

I was shopping this morning on an empty stomach and thought these waffles looked good. It wasn't until I got home that I noticed the blue-on-blue text saying "artificially flavored". Yum! I get to eat blue specs that aren't real blueberries. It's kinda creepy.

Kayaking to Patience

I paddled out to Patience Island with a friend yesterday. It was about 3.5 miles from where we put in, so it was about an hour paddle away. Fortunately, the weather was great and it wasn't too windy, so it was fairly easy going. The route we took brought us past the Warwick lighthouse, although in this picture it's hard to tell there is a light house there. Yet again I forgot my real camera and had to use my mobile phone.

After passing the lighthouse, we had to cross the main part of the west passage of the bay. The tide was going out at the time, so we tended to drift a bit south as can be seen in this GPS track of the route we took. (If you click on the picture you'll get a slightly larger view of the route.

We landed on a rocky portion of the shore of Patience, and there was this very large rock that had an interesting weathered texture from the waves.




The island is uninhabited by people, however there is supposedly a very large deer population. The problem is, with so many deer on the island, there is also a huge deer tick population. We were originally hoping to scout out some deer, but after just walking a dozen yards into the brush my friend discovered his leg was covered with baby deer ticks. I had thought I escaped untouched, but later disovered I had about a dozen or so tiny ticks on my ankle. I've seen deer tick before, but these were even smaller. I can only assume they were baby deer tick. Including their leg span, the total size was probably smaller than the tip of a ball-point pen.

From looking at this web site it appears the ticks we encountered were deer tick larvae. The description says they are no bigger than the period in newprint text. The good news is the larvae don't transmit Lyme disease. It is at that stage that they acquire it by feeding off an already infected host (usually the white-footed mouse). And since they only feed once in the larvae stage, they only start transmitting the disease when they molt and get bigger and start feeding again. Even so, I don't think I'll ever again wander into the woods on that island.

Metal Geta

I recently bought this pair of weighted metal geta. Geta are a japanese style of footware that are simialr to sandals, except they have wooden blocks on the sole to raise them off the ground and the thong that goes between your big toe and second toe is in the center-line of the geta rather than off to the side. So, there is no left or right geta. You can put either one on either foot. There's a pretty good web page here that describes geta in more detail.

These particular geta I bought are for exercise and they weigh about 5 pounds each. Unlike the traditional wooden style, these are made of metal. I'm trying to improve my side-kicks in karate and am hoping these will help strengthen my legs. I seem to lack the leg strength to perform my kicks properly. The advantage these have over ankle weights (other than simple esthetics) is they put the weight on your feet, so it helps to also strength your ankles and parts of your feet and toes.

Tow me where?

I saw this sign today while having lunch in Providence. What I'm wondering is since this was the lot for the towing company, where will they tow your car if you park in it? Will they put your car in the street?

Cool shovel

Today during lunch I stopped at a local army surplus store to see what was available for folding shovels. The owner of the shop was a very friendly oriental man who spent about 15 minutes telling me about the history of army shovels from WW II through the Vietnam war era. He had a few different styles. I liked an older wooden handle design that was from the Korean war time-period. It included a folding pick as well. The only drawback of it was the wooden handle was not removable, so it was somewhat long when folded. I ended up getting a newer all metal tri-fold design. It's much more compact and slightly lighter than the wooden handle shovel, but it doesn't have a pick head. The store was also selling carrying cases for the shovels, so I picked up one of those as well. Since I'll be using this camping, having the sharp edges of the shovel covered seemed like a good idea. As can be seen in the pictures, the shovel is a little bit rusty on the edges, but what do you expect for a used army shovel?

2.5 Hour Kayak Paddle

I hadn't been on the ocean in a while. So today, even though I was a bit worn out from many hours of karate practice and yard work yesterday, I was drawn to the high tide outside my window this afternoon. I initially set off with a destination of the Jametown Bridge. I figured after I got there, depending on the amount of daylight left, I might be able to make it to Dutch Island. By the time I paddled out to the bridge, the tide was starting to go out, so it would have been a fairly easy paddle to Dutch Island (going with the tide), but then I would have been going against the current all the way home. Not the best thing to do when you are tired... So, I instead decided to just paddle out to the Plum Beach Lighthouse. It's basically in the middle of the west passage of the bay, right next to the Jamestown Bridge. If you ever drive over the bridge heading towards Jamestown, you can see the lighthouse off to the left.

I took a few pictures along the way. There are a few of them in the collage above. If you click on that photo you can get a better view of the collage. The rest of the photos can be seen here.

If you follow this link, you can see a Google Maps view of where the lighthouse is. If you keep zooming in (click on the + sign in the upper left of the map), you will see the lighthouse. It is is in the center of the map view. When looking at the map before zooming in, my condo is in the small cove in the mid-upper left (where the arial photo view border turns green).

Newport Cliff Walk

I noticed this dead pine tree along the Newport Cliff Walk and thought it looked interesting. It was a very foggy day. Off in the distance you could hear the occasional announcement from a loudspeaker advising swimmers to stay close to the shore so the lifeguards could still see them.

Comments are back

I've turned comments back on. Hopefully the bozo who was abusing the feature has gotten bored and has gone elsewhere.

$2.75?!?!

I was pumping some gas last night and glanced over at the price. It was so high I thought for sure I had accidentally chosen the wrong grade of gasoline. But, no, the cheapest gas was $2.75. Yikes! Gas prices arew getting out of control...

Hidden Comments

Well, it was bound to happen eventually, I suppose. Some bonehead has started posting anonymous comments to my blog that are basically advertisements for various web sites. (I'm getting comments like: "Hey! Great blog! I have a web site for shampoo. Check it out!") Since I can delete comments that I don't like, it wouldn't be so bad, but this annoying person is posting a new comment every half-hour. I've gotten 5 ad posts in the past 2 hours!

Because of this, the comments have been temporarily disabled. If it turns out this annoying anonymous commentator eventually goes away, I'll make the comments visable again.