Jim's 1972 Galmozzi

Okay, guys and gals, sit down, This is Jim Bolivar's Galmozzi. He got it free, more or less, on the Portland,  Oregon Craigslist. Really, for a pitance. Okay, are you ready? This is not a restoration respray. It is a perfect, no chips, no scratches, no rust 1972 Galmozzi. Jim bought two bikes, a Romic and this one. They sort of threw this one in on the deal. He had no idea what he was getting. What's the odds? He must have done something really, really good to please the bicycle gods that much. 

Jackson, Note that there are no cables on this fine machine and the young man is just getting his vintage feet wet and will put modern white cable housings on it unless there is an intervention. Just saying. 

 

Rex's Blues Redux

I posted this song sung by Jolie Holland a couple of days ago. I really love her voice, but she needs to learn how play guitar and generally the performance sucked. So I deleted it and picked another performer pretty much at random.

Ride the blue wind high and free
she'll lead you down through misery
leave you low, come time to go alone
and low as low can be

If I had a nickel I'd find a game
If I won a dollar I'd make it rain
If it rained an ocean I'd drink it dry
and lay me down dissatisfied

Legs to walk and thoughts to fly
eyes to laugh and lips to cry
a restless tongue to classify
all born to grow and grown to die

So tell my baby I said so long
tell my mother I did no wrong
tell my brother to watch his own
and tell my friends to mourn me none

I'm chained upon the face of time
feelin' full of foolish rhyme
there ain't no dark till something shines
I'm bound to leave this dark behind

Black Crow Blues

Funeral Music

I am not a religious man. I dislike churches. I really don't want a funeral. But when I die I may not be in control anymore. So if you people who are in control really need a funeral, this is what I want for my music and this is who I want to sing it. Bring them back if you have to.

 

Crossbills

This is a White-winged Crossbill. (Thanks to Glances at Nature blog for the photo.) This is a specialist, with a bill equipped to pry apart the scales of pine cones to get at the seeds. It is a bird of the northern boreal forests, which are at least 400 miles north of Lanesboro. As I have observed in the past, birds can't read. At least maps. There is a loose flock of maybe a dozen which work the plentiful large spruce, fir and white pines up on Church Hill. For whatever reason - soil, genetics, light - the spruces on Church Hill set incredible crops of cones. These quite large spruce trees are to the north and south of  our deck at the cottage.

Oakwood Picnic 2012

So. You missed it again this year. There was a fair turnout, about 50 or 60 people, not counting kids and dogs. This was the 63rd annual picnic, but prior to that there was an annual neighborhood meeting to discuss road and water maintenance (See photo of the Oakwood water tower, once located where our picnic was held.) After annexation and city water, the people of Oakwood missed the annual get together and the picnic was born.) We bent the format a little this year with a representative from each family telling the story of how they choose to live in Oakwood. Joanie Muschler, maybe the resident elder of our little community, led off with a long story of her trip across Iowa from Kansas in bad weather with four small children. It was a tale that has been hewn and polished over the years. It was tough to beat, but we all gave it our best shot. The Judge, who grew up in Oakwood (in our house), filled us in with a little more history. Great food, good company - the weather was beautiful and people lingered until late afternoon. It was maybe the best picnic since we came to Oakwood 25 years ago. See you next year.