Feb 10 - we have met the enemy ...

and it is us ... are you old enough to remember Pogo ?

Yes, there are global warming, nuclear threats, all sorts of things that could change life as we know it on earth. We contribute to global warming -- certainly there are arguments as to how much -- and if the earth blows up in a cataclysmic nuclear explosion, we would have caused that. Pollution is all around us -- air pollution causes respiratory illness; water pollution destroys ecosystems and causes disease; light pollution hides the natural beauty of the stars.

Enter the seemingly innocuous plastic grocery bag. Used once, it then lasts millenia after it is discarded. We have a dump by our cottage, just past the ESS Narrows on 522. It's a self-policed dump in that there is no attendant. We pay an annual fee to use the dump -- $60 for a "full time" resident -- and for that we get a key and the right to use the dump 24/7. Other dumps in the area have attendants and limited access.

The $60 also pays for someone with a bulldozer to come a couple of times a year and "work" the dump, so to speak, burying the trash. There are rules -- no tires, no chemicals etc. but these are self policed. Someone tried to hide tires in garbage bags one year ... at some point we will lose the privilege of using this dump on our own due to people like that.

Bears love the dump. There are always lots of bears in the dump during the summer. They open all the bags that end up in the dump, get at whatever they consider edible. Those bags -- garbage and grocery scatter in the wind. On a 4-wheeler trip a year or so ago that took David and me to the area we found grocery bags at least a half-mile from the dump. Not just one bag either, they were everywhere.

As I ride my bicycle down the road I see grocery bags. By the side of the road, up in the trees, they're everywhere. Unless someone picks them up they just accumulate. Of course grocery bags are not the only culprit; I see all types of garbage -- beer and soda cans, water bottles -- they all litter the landscape. Glass, of course, is natural. It goes back to the earth, turning back into the sand that it came from. Before it goes back to earth it is sharp, cutting my tires.

Plastic bags blow across the road and get tangled in my drivetrain. How likely is that ? Well, about two years ago that happened leaving me trying to find a 2 or 3mm metric allan key to dismantle my derailleur. Now I carry one. Is it likely to happen again ... not as long as I see it coming !

Yesterday we went for a boat ride. We did our usual trip north, putting along the almost glassy calm Intracoastal Waterway to Ponce Inlet and heading out towards the ocean. We did not get very far going that way though because there was a fairly strong easterly wind and a real chop in the inlet. We turned around and headed to the sandbar, stopping for a walk, letting Abby run herself out chasing real and imaginary minnows. She loves the freedom.

After the sandbar we went over to Down the Hatch ... I needed the restroom and this was the closest. The weather was nice although the wind was picking up, moving to the south, we made our way to Caribbean Jack's -- first time this year. After lunch we continued north for a while, turning around at Grenada Avenue (Ormond Beach) and making our way back, getting home just before 5pm.

Before we got to our lunch spot though, as we were putting along, I noticed a slight change in tone of the engine. I'm always making slight adjustments in speed though and the sound changes slightly depending on whether it's hitting the right note to create some other vibration. I noticed it, but didn't think anything was wrong ...

The motor's high-pitched tone warning went off. Huh ? I looked back, water was still jetting out of the cooling system, no problem there. I shut off the engine and checked the oil. I had just filled it up so I knew that I couldn't be running out of oil. Normally when we hear that high pitched tone it's the oil warning tone and it beeps at us because the level sensor bounces with the waves and the tone is never a constant. This time it was constant.

I started the engine and felt the water stream -- it was hot -- much hotter than usual and much hotter than 61.5F water would produce. Flow seemed down, but hard to say. I stopped the engine again, thinking that if we're having an overheating problem we'll have to let it cool, make our way to the restaurant -- which is just ahead at this point -- and likely take a cab back to the car and then find a boat ramp in the area. Rats.

I raised the engine ... and a plastic bag floated away.

Done in again, by a plastic bag. Luckily this time there were no adverse consequences. The motor's sensors picked up the problem. It wasn't tangled in the prop, just the water intake. No tools were required for the fix. I put the motor back down, started it up, a quick beep and the sensor recognized that the motor was cool enough, the water jetted out of the exhaust and it was cool -- probably 10-15F warmer than the source, but not hot.

On a bike, I can probably see a plastic bag coming; on the water, less likely so. On the road with a car I once had a plastic bag catch on the underside of the motor. Burning, it smelled, but didn't cause any issues. It's hard to safely avoid a plastic bag on the road with a car. All you can really do is check the rear-view mirror and see if it's behind you.

Having had a big lunch we snacked for supper. We watched some SG1; we watched the biography channel -- Hugh Grant and Led Zeppelin -- not together of course. It was past my bed time ... I missed the last bit of LZ due to my eyes being closed. I knew the ending anyway. Did you know that the only group that has sold more albums than Led Zeppelin is The Beatles ? I did learn that fact, also the fact that they never released any singles, before my eyes closed. Heading to bed close to 9:30 I didn't even try to read.

It's morning again. We're supposed to be having dinner with Norm and Patti today but before that I'm going to get out for a ride. I'll be listening closely to my right knee. The last I looked we're supposed to have another great day.

My canal buds arrived by UPS yesterday. Surely a package this small would be better dealt with by USPS ... but using UPS or FEDEX has many advantages for NEWEGG, Amazon ... whatever. Package tracking, proof of delivery ... these are important things in the internet order world. My MP3 player is supposed to arrive today. Just for the heck of it I may use my IPOD today, just to try out the buds.

One other note on yesterday's boat trip. That brisk wind had switched to a full southerly by the time we turned around at Grenada and it was a very bouncy trip back. With the water being so cool -- 61.5F as I mentioned earlier -- the in-your-face breeze was quite cool. I put on the nose cover for the trip back so that we were sheltered from the wind ... and the spray.

That's it ...