Hi Nick, Dimitris (Jim for short) from Greece here. I encountered the same problem some years ago when volunteering as a forest fire fighter at Mt Parnitha in Athens, Greece.
Our Nissan Navara, carrying a 600lt tank and a compressor, got a flat tire on one of the mountain trails and we tried to lower the spare. The key would not connect with the winch, as elaborated in the manual. So I had to get underneath the car (I was the slimmest of the crew) and I got it to somehow connect. After turning the winch about five times, the mechanism got stuck because (to the designer's genius) it is totally exposed to mud and dirt.
So now we had two problems. A flat tire and a spare half dangling under our truck.
After an hour or two, another crew showed up with a spare and helped us change the tire and we squeaked our way off the mountain to the nearest car shop to get the winch unstuck. Luckily there were no incidents on the mountain that day.
So I sympathize and hope against all odds that somehow this rant of yours reaches the right people.
Really enjoyed that rant especially about the tire change. New is not automatically better and most stuff made these days is of embarrassingly poor quality and craftsmanship. Love Lagavulin one of my, if not my favorite Scotch. Right along with Laphroaig when I need to get my peat on.
Riley did you know that Laphroaig is made from the same peaty water as they are only 1.2 miles down the lane (a846) from Lagavulin on 'Whisky' Isla where there are more Whisky distillers per sq mile than anywhere in Scotland, if not on earth.
It's so much fun to read about something so American I know so little about. I'm convinced if both sides of America knew more about the people we think are so different than us, we'd understand that our shared values aren't as different as we think.
By th way, I think the technical name for The Colonel's breed is Oreo Cow. I could be wrong about that. But get me a glass of mik anyway.
Keep your Donkey Thoughts coming my way. The only thing that would make me happier would be to have you join "the good people who are trying to return civlziation to some semblance of sustainability." We could really use your help.
Oh my goodness, you posted recently about the simplicity and knack of being able to change a tire. Nice of the universe to put forth the opportunity (even if it was the chance to voice your concern to the makers of a dumb piece of machinery)! I know what you mean about CHOOSING hard work. It's fulfilling in a fundamental and grounding way. Getting my hands in the dirt, in many ways, makes me feel more human than any of my other "tasks". Too bad the tools weren't there to make the job possible! Feels like a lot of human work these days :/
Question --- do the Rebank's use the wool from their sheep to make yarn? I'm a knitter I often pick up yarn when I go places so I can make something and remember my time there (most recently Traverse City, Michigan and the Bristol Renaissance Faire just over the Wisconsin Border).
Belties always seem to be near special places to me, like near my house, my mothers house and our family camp in Maine. Thanks so much for your support and considering me a friend, I’m honored and look forward to a time we can hang out at the festival with Roy. Perhaps we can have a “Devil’s Biscuit”, talk woodworking or baseball and have a roaring dood time (hijinks, or high jinks are new words to me).
Wondering the back story on that, I imagined he threw a ball and hit a dove flying above.
I want to thank you again for plugging our little festival both times! We had a really great time at our inaugural event this spring. Thanks to our supporters like Lost Art Press and people like you and Roy we had festival goers from as far as Washington State come. This fall we are having a smaller event called the Fall Chill, which will be more like a gathering of green woodworkers. We also plan to have some demos and people available to help guide learning about spoon carving, tool use, Blacksmithing, broom making, sharpening and tree ID ….
Glad you were able to get your hands dirty for a while, sorry you felt so dispirited by the jack ass carjack rig. I’m telling this story of my tire changing travails,
so others don’t make the same mistake . I became disheartened after a tire change disaster…
I have always had to be handy with cars to save money since we drove beaters for most of our lives. One evening we drove my new/used ‘97 SL500 out to Shakori after the old pin oak tree fell on the barn. I met Roy doing a spring pole lathe under that tree in about 2012. Got back home at dusk and noticed the tire was getting low, I wanted to get the car up in the air before it flattened onto the rim. The jack was a little tricky on our gravel drive but doable. I love the idea of brilliant German-engineering, but for me it has never worked out too well.
Mercedes’ have lug bolts rather than lug nuts which made the set up a little tricky. I put the fancy aluminum spare on. I just left the car up on the jack and a rainy day or two later I went to go to my friend Ray’s house to plug the tire in his awesome garage with 2 lifts. I lowered the jack and tried to drive off and the car wouldn’t budge. I texted Ray to ask him what he thought, but he must have been driving and didn’t respond. I jacked it back up and couldn’t turn the wheel with my own power, so I thought it must be stuck on with rust. I put it back down and gunned it, all I heard was the sound of metal crunching as the car moved back a few inches and ground to a halt.
Jacked it back up and saw the lug bolts had ripped out one set of drum brakes. I couldn’t believe my eyes 👀! So the spare tire is supposed to have a shorter set of lug bolts. Apparently all Mercedes’ are set up this way and often have this problem and they still haven’t changed it! I like to be able to fix my cars, but when you can’t even change a tire without mucking it up, that’s a jackass design, made to sell parts.
Anyone want to buy a SL500 with less than 50k miles on it?
You might have wondered why I wrote “Wohlle cow”, it’s because I’m reading a great book by Peter Wohlleben, I think you and perhaps your followers might like called, The Hidden Life of Trees.
Many thanks for brightening my week, “Breath in, breath out, breath in the game, let the game be fuel for your 🔥”
Your friend,
Cara
P.S. I wanted to let you know how great I thought the new Amazon series, A League of Their Own was. You were brilliant as the coach, “Dove” Porter! The one who killed the dove. Wondering the back story on that, I imagined he threw a ball and hit a dove flying above.
Damn my eyes, for all the hard-earned lucre we pour into our ever-increasingly disposable goods, whether they be cars, shoes or furniture, you would think the brains behind the outift (especially the Germans, for Pete's sake) could at least deliver a competent assemblage. That gets me fightin' mad.
I love The Hidden Life of Trees, it's incredible and makes me crave a visit to the author's Beech forest. It also brings to mind the incredible novel The Overstory by Richard Powers, and his protagonist Dr. Patricia Westerford, who seems to be based on Suzanne Simard, who has a great-looking new book out called Finding the Mother Tree, that's on my stack to read.
Thanks for the kudos on A League of Their Own, I am really proud to work with that gang of champions. That bit of Dove Porter was based on Randy Johnson. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih_ovjbwQGk
Love your use of old sayings! You have such an unusual sharp way with words and humor that make me smile. As a kid I always thought, for Pete's sake, was about my uncle Pete.
When I read your take on technology designed to fail, I thought yeah I get it, I despise the mindset of a throw away society, but does Nick really get fighting mad? Or is he just saying that to make me chuckle? I wasn't sure if your words influenced my actions yesterday or not, but it sure felt good to be fighting mad for good reason, and do something about it....
My mother and I have been sick with COVID for a week since attending a wedding for my nephew in Lajoya. We have been hold up in her house all week and needed to get some prescriptions, Benedryl and Mucinex E. The lady in the drive up window told us we had to come in to get it, and when I said we have COVID, she refused to get us the non prescription meds. I argued with her a bit and she woldn't budge in her resolve, finally I said okay I'll come in, I'm fully vaxed and I've been sick over 5 days.... Meeting the new CDC guidelines to be in public with a mask.
I walked in to the counter at the back of the store with my N95 on and loudly told the guy at the counter, I have COVID. The pharmacist behind him said why on earth wouldn't you use the drive through if you have COVID? I pointed to the lady and said, she wouldn't let me... She explained that she couldn't because I had OTC's... A customer who was hovering about 15' away thanked me for my judicious use of alcohol on the keypad. I told her I was glad to, and I stormed out.
I love reading about wood, woodworking and the forest... If you are interested in more Sloyd books, my favorite was by Willie Sunqvist, Sweedish Carving Techniques. I saw Suzanne Simard's Ted Talk on the Mother Tree. I'll have to put those on my reading list too... Thanks... This week I read in Archeology Magazine about the Galloway Hoard, I'm assuming near your beloved Belties in Balmhagie, Scotland. The recently unearthed Viking era hoard was the one of the largest collections of eclectic pieces buried over 1,000 years ago. That stuff was built to last! There was even a preserved dirt ball folded together like a baseball, held fine gold flecks. They think the flecks were remnants of gold leaf collected from the base of a holy shrine. This and a few other small pieces were stored in a waterproof silver container. I posted some pics on my IG feed if you're interested @carabnr
Dang that video was crazy, Randy Johnson's pitch pulverized that pigeon into mince meat. Oh, that reminds me of the play, Sweeney Todd.
Good morning from the Gallatin Valley. I drove through that part of Scotland this past June - such pastoral beauty. Although I know of Scotland’s various problems (including the Brexit nonsense) , the friendliness and open aspect of Scotland made me want to stay there and be a part of the scene. On a sour note, I also decry the state of how cars are now engineered with an eye toward saving money and not enabling the owners to have the satisfaction of taking care of their expensive vehicles. When I bought my new CRV (what a privilege!), I went through the manual and noticed that changing the tire with the tools provided is impossible. Scissor jacks are dangerous and the provided tools are cheap. Also, I know that the spare tires are only meant to get one to the next service point. However, these ‘donuts’ are not even safe for 25 miles of driving. Finally, I’ve had to change a tire on a busy interstate. Many drivers do not courteously move over to the outside lane nor even stop to help. As soon as I see a cell phone, I admit that I do not usually stop; I even feel a pang of guilt. Even now with MS, I stop to see if people need a hand. There is usually some way that I can provide assistance. Who knows what could happen? I know that I will have to depend on the kindness of strangers even more so in the future. Thank you for post! Slainte!
The fact that you are a part time cowboy and lumber jack in your free time blows my mind! 🤯 Who cares if you can’t pronounce the whiskey that you’re drinking. It’s all good! Love this blog!
Wowie Nick was a fabulousa post for us mulateers; you more than made up for being AWOL and had a total muckout!!! So many threads in one post this time; cow shappin in Dumfries love it... chortle.
Thanks for your update hope you had a great time re visiting "Whisky Isla" (and I called it last week lol I had a feeling you were there) hope you enjoyed cathing up with your old P&R cast mates. Ive never seen your whisky ads in scotland (they dont need to advertise whisky in scotland lol but folk (p&r on Facebook) talk about the "nick offerman" batch with your picture on the bottle!!! Thats cool but i will deffo look up "my tales of Whisky" on youtube for a gawk of it. Geez the wifey that tried to
Please NEVER stop flappin your gums we need to know your donkey thoughts. The carousel "Ring of decency" lol sounds like a new Tolken book lol. What about LOOP OF LOVE??
The Nissan "not Nirvana" pick up truck!!! Lol think thats a re-brand right there, think we should all start calling it that ha ha and you should do an anti- ad for them "winch key of death" episode literally playing out what happened and never feel down as you have a solid reputation in making things work in your hands, geez your like a wizard.
I really admire your views, not just on nature and wood nature (the green woodwork post and your own community woodwork groups are so inspiring) but your views personal diversity itself!!! Like who else on earth but Nick O goes to southern scotland to go "coooo shapin" after shooting a movie and some ads; haw haw. How many coos do you have now and did you buy some sheep too?
(I do have serious writing questions tho as I started here with a poem about a book and.... alas I cannot ask the question as I am not a full member here and do not deserve it. I will try to cover up my cheekyness by buying a copy of "where the deer and antelope play" and come back here when I have earned it and graduated from donkey school. Keep up the great work Nick :)
What a thought-provoking pleasure it is to hear your “rants and rambles,” Nick. Please keep them coming. I’m currently reading “English Pastoral” (another great pleasure). How lovely that you and the Rebanks family are good friends. I count you all among my favorite and most admired folks.
Imagine my delight in seeing one of these beautiful belted Galloways! What a beautiful Bully he is - I imagine he gets into all sorts of Bully Business!
Thanks for the poignant story. It's hard to be competent at something these days when the competence relies on someone else's work to be achieved. I'm surprised that the spare wasn't made of styrofoam with a plastic shell. The other factor to be aware of is that the spare dangling back there is almost impossible to remove if it rusts on (Minnesota salt here). It pays to check on it every once and awhile, and make sure it still has air.
For some reason I thought Minnesota didn't use road salt. My dad's got an old truck from up there that's never seen salt. Could be remembering the details wrong. Shangri-la is only a few weeks away! If you've got time and energy, should be a great time up north!
There's a large and famous herd of belted cattle at Fearington Village Farms near Chapel Hill, NC. I pass through there on occasion. We call them 'Oreo cows'.
My supernal significant other and I have adopted your and your bride's practice of jigsaw puzzling whilst absorbing an audio book. We've found the pursuit most enjoyable; thank you for the many hours of pleasure the activity imparts. Currently, we're attending to The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben while negotiating a 1,000 piece puzzle of The Wild Birds of North America, a challenge we find harder than the beak of a mature acorn woodpecker.
As aspiring masters of literary puzzling, we'd like to know what types of audio books you and the Mrs. prefer for this activity, how large a puzzle size you attempt to tackle, and a particularly enjoyable book/puzzle pairing? Bonus inquiry: do you employ a jigsaw in your shop and do you prefer top handle or barrel grip?
Sláinte,
Scott Ruble, Santa Cruz CA
P.S. George Saunders will be giving a talk here in Santa Cruz about LIBERATION DAY on November 1st (through Bookshop Santa Cruz). It seems they are in need of an interlocutor for the event. Might I suggest November 1st seems like a fine time to head to Santa Cruz for a few slabs of redwood and a brief interlude of interlocutoring? Event link: https://www.bookshopsantacruz.com/george-saunders
Hi Nick, Dimitris (Jim for short) from Greece here. I encountered the same problem some years ago when volunteering as a forest fire fighter at Mt Parnitha in Athens, Greece.
Our Nissan Navara, carrying a 600lt tank and a compressor, got a flat tire on one of the mountain trails and we tried to lower the spare. The key would not connect with the winch, as elaborated in the manual. So I had to get underneath the car (I was the slimmest of the crew) and I got it to somehow connect. After turning the winch about five times, the mechanism got stuck because (to the designer's genius) it is totally exposed to mud and dirt.
So now we had two problems. A flat tire and a spare half dangling under our truck.
After an hour or two, another crew showed up with a spare and helped us change the tire and we squeaked our way off the mountain to the nearest car shop to get the winch unstuck. Luckily there were no incidents on the mountain that day.
So I sympathize and hope against all odds that somehow this rant of yours reaches the right people.
Really enjoyed that rant especially about the tire change. New is not automatically better and most stuff made these days is of embarrassingly poor quality and craftsmanship. Love Lagavulin one of my, if not my favorite Scotch. Right along with Laphroaig when I need to get my peat on.
Riley did you know that Laphroaig is made from the same peaty water as they are only 1.2 miles down the lane (a846) from Lagavulin on 'Whisky' Isla where there are more Whisky distillers per sq mile than anywhere in Scotland, if not on earth.
Best place for a whisky trail if you ask me! Lol
It's so much fun to read about something so American I know so little about. I'm convinced if both sides of America knew more about the people we think are so different than us, we'd understand that our shared values aren't as different as we think.
By th way, I think the technical name for The Colonel's breed is Oreo Cow. I could be wrong about that. But get me a glass of mik anyway.
Keep your Donkey Thoughts coming my way. The only thing that would make me happier would be to have you join "the good people who are trying to return civlziation to some semblance of sustainability." We could really use your help.
Jack Goldenberg
SpokesHuman for Mother Nature
Oh my goodness, you posted recently about the simplicity and knack of being able to change a tire. Nice of the universe to put forth the opportunity (even if it was the chance to voice your concern to the makers of a dumb piece of machinery)! I know what you mean about CHOOSING hard work. It's fulfilling in a fundamental and grounding way. Getting my hands in the dirt, in many ways, makes me feel more human than any of my other "tasks". Too bad the tools weren't there to make the job possible! Feels like a lot of human work these days :/
Question --- do the Rebank's use the wool from their sheep to make yarn? I'm a knitter I often pick up yarn when I go places so I can make something and remember my time there (most recently Traverse City, Michigan and the Bristol Renaissance Faire just over the Wisconsin Border).
Hope you're well!
Jessie Hammersmith
Lombard, IL
Wohlle cow Nick,
Belties always seem to be near special places to me, like near my house, my mothers house and our family camp in Maine. Thanks so much for your support and considering me a friend, I’m honored and look forward to a time we can hang out at the festival with Roy. Perhaps we can have a “Devil’s Biscuit”, talk woodworking or baseball and have a roaring dood time (hijinks, or high jinks are new words to me).
Wondering the back story on that, I imagined he threw a ball and hit a dove flying above.
I want to thank you again for plugging our little festival both times! We had a really great time at our inaugural event this spring. Thanks to our supporters like Lost Art Press and people like you and Roy we had festival goers from as far as Washington State come. This fall we are having a smaller event called the Fall Chill, which will be more like a gathering of green woodworkers. We also plan to have some demos and people available to help guide learning about spoon carving, tool use, Blacksmithing, broom making, sharpening and tree ID ….
Glad you were able to get your hands dirty for a while, sorry you felt so dispirited by the jack ass carjack rig. I’m telling this story of my tire changing travails,
so others don’t make the same mistake . I became disheartened after a tire change disaster…
I have always had to be handy with cars to save money since we drove beaters for most of our lives. One evening we drove my new/used ‘97 SL500 out to Shakori after the old pin oak tree fell on the barn. I met Roy doing a spring pole lathe under that tree in about 2012. Got back home at dusk and noticed the tire was getting low, I wanted to get the car up in the air before it flattened onto the rim. The jack was a little tricky on our gravel drive but doable. I love the idea of brilliant German-engineering, but for me it has never worked out too well.
Mercedes’ have lug bolts rather than lug nuts which made the set up a little tricky. I put the fancy aluminum spare on. I just left the car up on the jack and a rainy day or two later I went to go to my friend Ray’s house to plug the tire in his awesome garage with 2 lifts. I lowered the jack and tried to drive off and the car wouldn’t budge. I texted Ray to ask him what he thought, but he must have been driving and didn’t respond. I jacked it back up and couldn’t turn the wheel with my own power, so I thought it must be stuck on with rust. I put it back down and gunned it, all I heard was the sound of metal crunching as the car moved back a few inches and ground to a halt.
Jacked it back up and saw the lug bolts had ripped out one set of drum brakes. I couldn’t believe my eyes 👀! So the spare tire is supposed to have a shorter set of lug bolts. Apparently all Mercedes’ are set up this way and often have this problem and they still haven’t changed it! I like to be able to fix my cars, but when you can’t even change a tire without mucking it up, that’s a jackass design, made to sell parts.
Anyone want to buy a SL500 with less than 50k miles on it?
You might have wondered why I wrote “Wohlle cow”, it’s because I’m reading a great book by Peter Wohlleben, I think you and perhaps your followers might like called, The Hidden Life of Trees.
Many thanks for brightening my week, “Breath in, breath out, breath in the game, let the game be fuel for your 🔥”
Your friend,
Cara
P.S. I wanted to let you know how great I thought the new Amazon series, A League of Their Own was. You were brilliant as the coach, “Dove” Porter! The one who killed the dove. Wondering the back story on that, I imagined he threw a ball and hit a dove flying above.
Will we be seeing more of you in future seasons?
Cara,
Damn my eyes, for all the hard-earned lucre we pour into our ever-increasingly disposable goods, whether they be cars, shoes or furniture, you would think the brains behind the outift (especially the Germans, for Pete's sake) could at least deliver a competent assemblage. That gets me fightin' mad.
I love The Hidden Life of Trees, it's incredible and makes me crave a visit to the author's Beech forest. It also brings to mind the incredible novel The Overstory by Richard Powers, and his protagonist Dr. Patricia Westerford, who seems to be based on Suzanne Simard, who has a great-looking new book out called Finding the Mother Tree, that's on my stack to read.
Thanks for the kudos on A League of Their Own, I am really proud to work with that gang of champions. That bit of Dove Porter was based on Randy Johnson. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih_ovjbwQGk
Good morning Nick,
Love your use of old sayings! You have such an unusual sharp way with words and humor that make me smile. As a kid I always thought, for Pete's sake, was about my uncle Pete.
When I read your take on technology designed to fail, I thought yeah I get it, I despise the mindset of a throw away society, but does Nick really get fighting mad? Or is he just saying that to make me chuckle? I wasn't sure if your words influenced my actions yesterday or not, but it sure felt good to be fighting mad for good reason, and do something about it....
My mother and I have been sick with COVID for a week since attending a wedding for my nephew in Lajoya. We have been hold up in her house all week and needed to get some prescriptions, Benedryl and Mucinex E. The lady in the drive up window told us we had to come in to get it, and when I said we have COVID, she refused to get us the non prescription meds. I argued with her a bit and she woldn't budge in her resolve, finally I said okay I'll come in, I'm fully vaxed and I've been sick over 5 days.... Meeting the new CDC guidelines to be in public with a mask.
I walked in to the counter at the back of the store with my N95 on and loudly told the guy at the counter, I have COVID. The pharmacist behind him said why on earth wouldn't you use the drive through if you have COVID? I pointed to the lady and said, she wouldn't let me... She explained that she couldn't because I had OTC's... A customer who was hovering about 15' away thanked me for my judicious use of alcohol on the keypad. I told her I was glad to, and I stormed out.
I love reading about wood, woodworking and the forest... If you are interested in more Sloyd books, my favorite was by Willie Sunqvist, Sweedish Carving Techniques. I saw Suzanne Simard's Ted Talk on the Mother Tree. I'll have to put those on my reading list too... Thanks... This week I read in Archeology Magazine about the Galloway Hoard, I'm assuming near your beloved Belties in Balmhagie, Scotland. The recently unearthed Viking era hoard was the one of the largest collections of eclectic pieces buried over 1,000 years ago. That stuff was built to last! There was even a preserved dirt ball folded together like a baseball, held fine gold flecks. They think the flecks were remnants of gold leaf collected from the base of a holy shrine. This and a few other small pieces were stored in a waterproof silver container. I posted some pics on my IG feed if you're interested @carabnr
Dang that video was crazy, Randy Johnson's pitch pulverized that pigeon into mince meat. Oh, that reminds me of the play, Sweeney Todd.
Have a great day.
Thanks for all yo do.
Cara
Good morning from the Gallatin Valley. I drove through that part of Scotland this past June - such pastoral beauty. Although I know of Scotland’s various problems (including the Brexit nonsense) , the friendliness and open aspect of Scotland made me want to stay there and be a part of the scene. On a sour note, I also decry the state of how cars are now engineered with an eye toward saving money and not enabling the owners to have the satisfaction of taking care of their expensive vehicles. When I bought my new CRV (what a privilege!), I went through the manual and noticed that changing the tire with the tools provided is impossible. Scissor jacks are dangerous and the provided tools are cheap. Also, I know that the spare tires are only meant to get one to the next service point. However, these ‘donuts’ are not even safe for 25 miles of driving. Finally, I’ve had to change a tire on a busy interstate. Many drivers do not courteously move over to the outside lane nor even stop to help. As soon as I see a cell phone, I admit that I do not usually stop; I even feel a pang of guilt. Even now with MS, I stop to see if people need a hand. There is usually some way that I can provide assistance. Who knows what could happen? I know that I will have to depend on the kindness of strangers even more so in the future. Thank you for post! Slainte!
The fact that you are a part time cowboy and lumber jack in your free time blows my mind! 🤯 Who cares if you can’t pronounce the whiskey that you’re drinking. It’s all good! Love this blog!
Wowie Nick was a fabulousa post for us mulateers; you more than made up for being AWOL and had a total muckout!!! So many threads in one post this time; cow shappin in Dumfries love it... chortle.
Thanks for your update hope you had a great time re visiting "Whisky Isla" (and I called it last week lol I had a feeling you were there) hope you enjoyed cathing up with your old P&R cast mates. Ive never seen your whisky ads in scotland (they dont need to advertise whisky in scotland lol but folk (p&r on Facebook) talk about the "nick offerman" batch with your picture on the bottle!!! Thats cool but i will deffo look up "my tales of Whisky" on youtube for a gawk of it. Geez the wifey that tried to
Please NEVER stop flappin your gums we need to know your donkey thoughts. The carousel "Ring of decency" lol sounds like a new Tolken book lol. What about LOOP OF LOVE??
The Nissan "not Nirvana" pick up truck!!! Lol think thats a re-brand right there, think we should all start calling it that ha ha and you should do an anti- ad for them "winch key of death" episode literally playing out what happened and never feel down as you have a solid reputation in making things work in your hands, geez your like a wizard.
I really admire your views, not just on nature and wood nature (the green woodwork post and your own community woodwork groups are so inspiring) but your views personal diversity itself!!! Like who else on earth but Nick O goes to southern scotland to go "coooo shapin" after shooting a movie and some ads; haw haw. How many coos do you have now and did you buy some sheep too?
(I do have serious writing questions tho as I started here with a poem about a book and.... alas I cannot ask the question as I am not a full member here and do not deserve it. I will try to cover up my cheekyness by buying a copy of "where the deer and antelope play" and come back here when I have earned it and graduated from donkey school. Keep up the great work Nick :)
There are big signs up at the luggage carousel for just that reason but as Robert Burns memorably wrote:
The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain
A great poet, although his spelling was for shit. 😕
Bloody poets! Missing letters here, there and everywhere 😄
I loved reading this - thanks for taking me along on this journey !
Drambuie hot chocolate.
(I just had to see those words on the screen after hearing them spoken.)
What a thought-provoking pleasure it is to hear your “rants and rambles,” Nick. Please keep them coming. I’m currently reading “English Pastoral” (another great pleasure). How lovely that you and the Rebanks family are good friends. I count you all among my favorite and most admired folks.
Kim, Loveland CO
Imagine my delight in seeing one of these beautiful belted Galloways! What a beautiful Bully he is - I imagine he gets into all sorts of Bully Business!
Thanks for the poignant story. It's hard to be competent at something these days when the competence relies on someone else's work to be achieved. I'm surprised that the spare wasn't made of styrofoam with a plastic shell. The other factor to be aware of is that the spare dangling back there is almost impossible to remove if it rusts on (Minnesota salt here). It pays to check on it every once and awhile, and make sure it still has air.
For some reason I thought Minnesota didn't use road salt. My dad's got an old truck from up there that's never seen salt. Could be remembering the details wrong. Shangri-la is only a few weeks away! If you've got time and energy, should be a great time up north!
There's a large and famous herd of belted cattle at Fearington Village Farms near Chapel Hill, NC. I pass through there on occasion. We call them 'Oreo cows'.
Dear Nick,
My supernal significant other and I have adopted your and your bride's practice of jigsaw puzzling whilst absorbing an audio book. We've found the pursuit most enjoyable; thank you for the many hours of pleasure the activity imparts. Currently, we're attending to The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben while negotiating a 1,000 piece puzzle of The Wild Birds of North America, a challenge we find harder than the beak of a mature acorn woodpecker.
As aspiring masters of literary puzzling, we'd like to know what types of audio books you and the Mrs. prefer for this activity, how large a puzzle size you attempt to tackle, and a particularly enjoyable book/puzzle pairing? Bonus inquiry: do you employ a jigsaw in your shop and do you prefer top handle or barrel grip?
Sláinte,
Scott Ruble, Santa Cruz CA
P.S. George Saunders will be giving a talk here in Santa Cruz about LIBERATION DAY on November 1st (through Bookshop Santa Cruz). It seems they are in need of an interlocutor for the event. Might I suggest November 1st seems like a fine time to head to Santa Cruz for a few slabs of redwood and a brief interlude of interlocutoring? Event link: https://www.bookshopsantacruz.com/george-saunders