Lake Eerie (but not Mysterious)
5 - 8 July, Ian
So here's where we're staying this
month:
Just as the bottom of the drive there's a little platform onto the large lake, and the lounge wall at the side of the cabin is largely comprised of windows that look over it. It's a very tranquil spot. Driving up here you get the impression that it's a very solitary dwelling set in the middle of nowhere; but as you walk or run up along our little road you find that there are houses set into the trees all around the water. I believe that this is one of the few rental properties. The other house signs pretty much all give the names of the people who live in them in a homesy American way.
And so it is all around here. The roads pass through dense woodland of tall fir, pine and spruce as well as the loggable deciduous trees; and quite frequently the close views open out dramatically to reveal implausibly large expanses of water; here's our lake:
There's no mystery to how the lakes get filled. For our first day or two here it was warm and sunny but since then - since I've picked up my Mom and Neil - we've had greyer skies and intermittent rain. For us it's a nice break after three months of uninterrupted heat but it would be nice for our guests if it suns up for a few days.
The houses round here are less uniformly perfect than those we saw on the journey up; mostly they are smart and well-maintained but there are a few shabby ones and some that are downright ramshackled. Paula and my Mom have both commented on how the area seems a little spooky in a Bates Motel kind of way. I keep my council, still not having a 100% satisfactory explanation for my luminous white figures of our first night.
Heidi and Paula have both had birthdays since I last wrote - thanks to everyone who sent cards, texts or mail. On both of these days (Tuesday and Wednesday) we went down to the pretty town of Bar Harbour and played crazy golf on the way back. The course is really excellent and fun - you'd hope that something like this would be better in the US than in England and it is. And we had a nice lobster lunch with a damn fine Agent Cooper-quality blueberry pie for dessert.
To give an accurate record for the annals I should add that apart from the lobster and the pie the meal was pretty poor. Zoe has correctly complained a few times that the food here can be too sweet. Since we arrived my respect for my slim American friends has increased - it's hard to eat a sensible amount of sensible food all the time. The same theme is evidenced in the supermarkets. They do sell fine food and if you want to pick out the healthy stuff you can - but it's buried amongst shelf after shelf of junky products. The breakfast cereals, for example, all boast about being High in this and Lo in that but are uniformly sugar-rich. And you can select great cheese too (really) but if you made a random cheese pick you might easily end up with "jack" that squirts out of a huge plastic tub.
This is in the Hannaford supermarket that we like. Just because I'd never done it before we visited Wal Mart once. Judging from the store's commercial success people must really like it - I found it miserable and bewildering. There was a jolly chap who gave smiley stickers to the girls on the way in - after that it turned worse, with poor products in every conceivable category being sold in a town-sized shop. Anyone out there like this place?
We heard about the dreadful London bombings on Thursday. I wish I could do something for all of you whose daily routine has been made more stressful and troubling by this, even if you don't know people personally who were caught up in. It is, of course, a luxury to be out of it. I feel like one of those cicadas that spends 17 years underground before getting a day in the sun for real living. We only got to see the thin coverage from ABC news. When events like this occur each news organisation falls into its event response mode, spinning the story around their favoured patterns of reportage and revealing the clutch of cliches with which their world is construed. On ABC, for example, coverage was editorialised to showcase the plucky Brit (Cockneys spilling out of their homes to dispense cups of tea at the roadside etc...).
The same is true of our politicians, and while I didn't see Tony's response in full we did get to see Bush stumble out and speak, apparently unscripted, to camera, which I haven't seen much of before. Watching him, it really sank in that he genuinely holds to a Reaganesque view that the world can be explained as a struggle between those with good hearts - an "ideology of compassion" - like him and people who do bad things because they have evil in their hearts. The troubling aspect of this is not that he doesn't understand the terrorist mentality (who can? who could be bothered to?) but that he has no apparent understanding of the way that his own acts can be seen. Until we have world leaders who comprehend that raining down bombs on civilian populations (as Bush/Blair have done, and Clinton, at the time of the Monica scandal, did before) may not be seen as a sign of purity of heart the world remains more dangerous.
Having said that, purity of heart counts for something. As the camera closed in on Tony making his speech, cropping out all of the G8 leaders except Bush to one side and Chirac to the other, there can be little doubt where English loyalties lay. While the majority of us feel that every day that GWB remains in office is a bad day for world peace and increases the likelihood of there being more terrorism, this is in the nature of a family disagreement when contrasted with Chirac. Even granted that we see him through the heavily distorted lens of the UK press, it is hard to comprehend how he can be considered fit for high office. In the same way that the mentality of people who try to kill and maim lots of other people is a mystery to me, I don't get how Chirac can bring himself to tell a UK PM that he was "badly brought up" or that the English people can't be trusted because their food is so bad. (Actually, I could easily understand all of this, and sympathise, if it was just one guy - but the head of state?) For all of his faults, no one can doubt that GWB wants to help us. The ambiguity of England's place in the world, and the truth of how it will always resolve, could not be better characterised than by the image of Blair flanked by Bush and Chirac, with all of us deep down believing that, if needed, we will get better help more generously given - and that we are more happy to accept - from the US than from any government in the EU.
Since this is probably the closest I'm likely to get this year to being positive about Bush, I should also congratulate Tony for doing his part to help us secure the Olympics. He did his thing and was successful and many others in his place would have been less effective.
One of the things I like most about the US is it's bandwidth, if you know what I mean, and the associated power to surprise. Last night we had dinner at an uninspiring-looking diner/bar called, unpromisingly, The Blue Moose. Dinner was really top quality - the sort of meal I'd expect from a starred chef. And on the way out I noticed an old (70's+) lady sporting a huge badge declaring, "I love the Iraqi people". She was with her family (son, daughter-in-law or v.v. and grandson) and we had a little chat. I asked her if she didn't get any trouble, given that the area is thick with Bush stickers and road-side notices along the lines of "God loves the troops". Well, apparently she's been wearing her button badge for four years now and says that no one can argue with her slogan, given that "We're supposed to love our enemies, although I don't think they are my enemy". They told us that in a field up the road community members have planted a white flag for each US casuality (getting on for 2,000). They were a lovely, intelligent family and offered some recommendations for places we should visit this month. It was, though, disturbing to hear that George Galloway (who gets airtime now following his performance at the Senate) is relied upon these days as a trusty UK news source. And you have to suspect that the lady's compatriots will judge her to be on shakier ground if she swaps her badge for one of the new ones she admires that ask, "How many lives per gallon?"
On the subject of terrorism I learned the other day that Osama stands 6'5" tall (did you know this?) - how can they not have found him yet??
One other thing that I've learned, from Adi, is that the Time Team are running the current series from the back of our local, The Dinnington Docks. I should add The Docks to my list of things I miss from home.
The rain has just eased off here so I'll be off for a run. I was hoping to build up to running all the way around the lake while we're here, which I guess is about half marathon distance. Unfortunately, the track doesn't make the full circuit, breaking at about the half way point from here.
Just as the bottom of the drive there's a little platform onto the large lake, and the lounge wall at the side of the cabin is largely comprised of windows that look over it. It's a very tranquil spot. Driving up here you get the impression that it's a very solitary dwelling set in the middle of nowhere; but as you walk or run up along our little road you find that there are houses set into the trees all around the water. I believe that this is one of the few rental properties. The other house signs pretty much all give the names of the people who live in them in a homesy American way.
And so it is all around here. The roads pass through dense woodland of tall fir, pine and spruce as well as the loggable deciduous trees; and quite frequently the close views open out dramatically to reveal implausibly large expanses of water; here's our lake:
There's no mystery to how the lakes get filled. For our first day or two here it was warm and sunny but since then - since I've picked up my Mom and Neil - we've had greyer skies and intermittent rain. For us it's a nice break after three months of uninterrupted heat but it would be nice for our guests if it suns up for a few days.
The houses round here are less uniformly perfect than those we saw on the journey up; mostly they are smart and well-maintained but there are a few shabby ones and some that are downright ramshackled. Paula and my Mom have both commented on how the area seems a little spooky in a Bates Motel kind of way. I keep my council, still not having a 100% satisfactory explanation for my luminous white figures of our first night.
Heidi and Paula have both had birthdays since I last wrote - thanks to everyone who sent cards, texts or mail. On both of these days (Tuesday and Wednesday) we went down to the pretty town of Bar Harbour and played crazy golf on the way back. The course is really excellent and fun - you'd hope that something like this would be better in the US than in England and it is. And we had a nice lobster lunch with a damn fine Agent Cooper-quality blueberry pie for dessert.
To give an accurate record for the annals I should add that apart from the lobster and the pie the meal was pretty poor. Zoe has correctly complained a few times that the food here can be too sweet. Since we arrived my respect for my slim American friends has increased - it's hard to eat a sensible amount of sensible food all the time. The same theme is evidenced in the supermarkets. They do sell fine food and if you want to pick out the healthy stuff you can - but it's buried amongst shelf after shelf of junky products. The breakfast cereals, for example, all boast about being High in this and Lo in that but are uniformly sugar-rich. And you can select great cheese too (really) but if you made a random cheese pick you might easily end up with "jack" that squirts out of a huge plastic tub.
This is in the Hannaford supermarket that we like. Just because I'd never done it before we visited Wal Mart once. Judging from the store's commercial success people must really like it - I found it miserable and bewildering. There was a jolly chap who gave smiley stickers to the girls on the way in - after that it turned worse, with poor products in every conceivable category being sold in a town-sized shop. Anyone out there like this place?
We heard about the dreadful London bombings on Thursday. I wish I could do something for all of you whose daily routine has been made more stressful and troubling by this, even if you don't know people personally who were caught up in. It is, of course, a luxury to be out of it. I feel like one of those cicadas that spends 17 years underground before getting a day in the sun for real living. We only got to see the thin coverage from ABC news. When events like this occur each news organisation falls into its event response mode, spinning the story around their favoured patterns of reportage and revealing the clutch of cliches with which their world is construed. On ABC, for example, coverage was editorialised to showcase the plucky Brit (Cockneys spilling out of their homes to dispense cups of tea at the roadside etc...).
The same is true of our politicians, and while I didn't see Tony's response in full we did get to see Bush stumble out and speak, apparently unscripted, to camera, which I haven't seen much of before. Watching him, it really sank in that he genuinely holds to a Reaganesque view that the world can be explained as a struggle between those with good hearts - an "ideology of compassion" - like him and people who do bad things because they have evil in their hearts. The troubling aspect of this is not that he doesn't understand the terrorist mentality (who can? who could be bothered to?) but that he has no apparent understanding of the way that his own acts can be seen. Until we have world leaders who comprehend that raining down bombs on civilian populations (as Bush/Blair have done, and Clinton, at the time of the Monica scandal, did before) may not be seen as a sign of purity of heart the world remains more dangerous.
Having said that, purity of heart counts for something. As the camera closed in on Tony making his speech, cropping out all of the G8 leaders except Bush to one side and Chirac to the other, there can be little doubt where English loyalties lay. While the majority of us feel that every day that GWB remains in office is a bad day for world peace and increases the likelihood of there being more terrorism, this is in the nature of a family disagreement when contrasted with Chirac. Even granted that we see him through the heavily distorted lens of the UK press, it is hard to comprehend how he can be considered fit for high office. In the same way that the mentality of people who try to kill and maim lots of other people is a mystery to me, I don't get how Chirac can bring himself to tell a UK PM that he was "badly brought up" or that the English people can't be trusted because their food is so bad. (Actually, I could easily understand all of this, and sympathise, if it was just one guy - but the head of state?) For all of his faults, no one can doubt that GWB wants to help us. The ambiguity of England's place in the world, and the truth of how it will always resolve, could not be better characterised than by the image of Blair flanked by Bush and Chirac, with all of us deep down believing that, if needed, we will get better help more generously given - and that we are more happy to accept - from the US than from any government in the EU.
Since this is probably the closest I'm likely to get this year to being positive about Bush, I should also congratulate Tony for doing his part to help us secure the Olympics. He did his thing and was successful and many others in his place would have been less effective.
One of the things I like most about the US is it's bandwidth, if you know what I mean, and the associated power to surprise. Last night we had dinner at an uninspiring-looking diner/bar called, unpromisingly, The Blue Moose. Dinner was really top quality - the sort of meal I'd expect from a starred chef. And on the way out I noticed an old (70's+) lady sporting a huge badge declaring, "I love the Iraqi people". She was with her family (son, daughter-in-law or v.v. and grandson) and we had a little chat. I asked her if she didn't get any trouble, given that the area is thick with Bush stickers and road-side notices along the lines of "God loves the troops". Well, apparently she's been wearing her button badge for four years now and says that no one can argue with her slogan, given that "We're supposed to love our enemies, although I don't think they are my enemy". They told us that in a field up the road community members have planted a white flag for each US casuality (getting on for 2,000). They were a lovely, intelligent family and offered some recommendations for places we should visit this month. It was, though, disturbing to hear that George Galloway (who gets airtime now following his performance at the Senate) is relied upon these days as a trusty UK news source. And you have to suspect that the lady's compatriots will judge her to be on shakier ground if she swaps her badge for one of the new ones she admires that ask, "How many lives per gallon?"
On the subject of terrorism I learned the other day that Osama stands 6'5" tall (did you know this?) - how can they not have found him yet??
One other thing that I've learned, from Adi, is that the Time Team are running the current series from the back of our local, The Dinnington Docks. I should add The Docks to my list of things I miss from home.
The rain has just eased off here so I'll be off for a run. I was hoping to build up to running all the way around the lake while we're here, which I guess is about half marathon distance. Unfortunately, the track doesn't make the full circuit, breaking at about the half way point from here.
Posted: Sat - July 9, 2005 at 07:32 PM
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Published On: Feb 08, 2006 06:20 PM
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Published On: Feb 08, 2006 06:20 PM