I couldn't resist writing about the dogue de bordeaux. I'm writing this right after I published the plastic bag blog (PBB, since everything has to have an acronym). I won't publish it until tomorrow morning though.
From the news article:
The dogue de Bordeaux's origins are somewhat mysterious. It belongs to the Molossers, a group including Saint Bernards, mastiffs and boxers, but little beyond that is known. Some people think that it was bred from bulldogs. Others say it was derived from Tibetan mastiffs or Julius Caesar–era Roman guard dogs.
It has a wrinkled face, large head, small body. Small body ... well, proportionally so -- the dog weighs 140 pounds.
I refuse to have a dog that weighs as much as or more than me. Having said that, there are probably circumstances where having such a dog by your side would save you from attack. Abby would lick you to death ... this dog would trample you to death.
Onwards ...
-----
Riding with music is something that I've never tried. Of course there's always a song going through my head, usually the last thing that I heard on the radio on the way to the ride or the last thing on the stereo before I left. I've always wondered what it would be like -- whether I could actually hear the music.
On Tuesday the Koss canal buds arrived. Since my ride yesterday was going to be shorter than 8 hours -- expected battery life of my IPOD -- I decided to try the canal buds. It wasn't a great day for testing ... with a 20 mph headwind on the way out I could only occasionally hear the music with the IPOD volume at half. I refuse to turn it up louder than that but it certainly made me realize what I'm subjecting my ears to just riding in the wind. I'm sure that 2.5 hours of a loud roar is not good for what's left of my hearing !
I was somewhat disappointed by the fact that the canal buds did not block out more sound. The only real solution, I guess, is to have some sort of ear-air deflector ... hmmm ... that would look funny. Noise canceling headphones would be too heavy and warm, unfortunately.
On the way back it was a different story. Most of the time I was in dead air since I was rolling at about the same speed as the wind. It was great, made the time go by quickly ... which it does anyway but people don't understand that when I try to explain. Now all I need is a Heads Up Display and I'll have Karaoke !
After I got back my other delivery arrived, the new MP3 player. After some fiddling around I got some music loaded onto it and voila, it worked. The ear buds that came with it are useless so I'm glad that I bought the canal buds. The Player also has a radio which sounds pretty good but might not really be practical on the road. I have not tried them with the canal buds either -- the headphones become the aerial for this device -- they might not work.
At 5:15 Norm and Patti arrived and we went to the Smyrna Yacht Club with them for dinner. This is something that they joined last Fall just to be able to meet people. Norm found some golfing partners and participates in a Wednesday sailing group. Patti joins in on an aerobics class. We're actually considering joining. I'm not a clubby person -- have never joined anything like this -- but they have a special to attract new members and the initiation fee is almost zero. With no up-front investment to speak of, we could try it for a year or two and if it isn't worth our while, drop out. It would give us an opportunity to meet people in the area. We're committed to New Smyrna Beach for the long term so that would be a good thing.
Dinner at the SYC was excellent and the prices were quite reasonable. A side benefit of joining the SYC is that it automatically gets you into any other yacht club in the U.S. -- so we are told. Since we're seriously looking at doing more boating -- overnight included -- this could be a major benefit. Having said that ... no, we haven't done any shopping. We really should because prices are basically at give-away levels right now.
Other projects -- we decided to postpone work on the Master Bath. I was not initially planning on doing it anyway but once the ball starts rolling on something like this -- choosing tiles, configuration, prices ... then you start getting itchy to get it done. I have work to do beforehand though, needing to widen the two doorways. Of course I also realized that my finish nailer is up north -- I'll be nailing by hand (horrors !), nail-setting with a punch, and filling. That's ok with painted trim, not ok with stained trim. Here we have painted trim.
That's it ...
No comments:
Post a Comment