Some of the folks out here decided to host a harvest lunch to celebrate the bounty the summer yields. They invited the whole community to the event. Sal went. I didn’t.
There is no question – I am enjoying my own company more and more and it is not because I am getting more interesting. It’s not me. It’s them. I simply don’t ‘get’ large social gatherings. Never did. Not likely to change. I prefer one on one.
Don’t get me wrong; I love people. I really do. Especially the ones I don’t know. And I still like pretty women (though, I forget why). But I prefer a few rather than a bunch. Eight people is about it for me. Sal and I and four others is perfect. Sal and I and three women plus one guy is even better. I talk to the guy. I flirt with the women. But, with that mix, I can do all that and not get distracted. It’s an ‘old guy’ thing.
But this is not about me – it’s about the Dutch.
For some odd reason the mail plane has been bringing in a lot of Dutch tourists lately. Last week they had so many they needed two planes! There were almost ten of them! And this for an island that has only fifty residents and few, except the postmistress, are ever there to greet them. What is the draw?
We get tourists, of course. 95% by plane. The odd boater. Usually only in the summer and usually one or two at a time. And they have been an eclectic selection. We’ve had ‘Mericans, ‘Strailians and the ever-present Germans. Germans love the forest.
And the forest loves Germans as much, if not more. Well, the bears do, anyway. 90% of all tourists eaten by bears are Germans who arrive by bus. It’s a fact.
But this summer, it has been the Dutch in droves. And the pilot often takes the tourists on a little jaunt up the hill to see the quaint, rustic buildings and the little two-room school. It is all part of the ‘package’.
This time they came while the first Harvest Lunch was being held. About ten Dutch tourists wandered into the old rustic bunkhouse and looked at the 50 or so ‘islanders’ eat lunch and mill about to live music (a saxophonist and a singer – odd combination but somehow fitting the occasion).
Of course, the Dutch were welcomed and they, too, milled about until the pilot had to get them back on schedule. So, off they strooped slowly (Dutch joke) and the island returned to normal….whatever the hell ‘normal’ is.
As my neighbour, J, often says about life out here: “You can’t make this stuff up!” And, it is THAT kinda ‘stuff’ I would have gone for. Sorry I missed it.
Our Off the Grid Home 
Now we’re back to the writing we love to read!
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Hard to beat Dutch people mingling with locals in the forest. The stuff of novels without a plot. Glad you liked it.
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yeah howard is certainly longwinded, and I didn’t see anything remarkably original in those 3000 words, I’m pretty sure most followers of this blog will not read much of subsequent updates that jdc may offer up,, having said that, is seems to me that anyone who says they’re out of here if jdc deigns to continue to put such missives up should be told to be sure the door doesn’t hit them on their way out.
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To be fair to HA, he is a professor of philosophy and he writes that way. I have ‘felt’ my readership and know what they prefer reading lengthwise. !000 words and I start to lose ’em. 750 if it is a good story. With my typical gibberish the tolerance levels drop to 500. Personally, I can’t hiccup in less than 500 words, so it’s a struggle sometimes to fall into that 500-750 range. More than a few readers (OK, just a few…) signed up for Howard’s blog. He appealed to some. But I thank you guys for your preference but, for the record, my numbers are way down…so I am getting just a ‘few’ myself. Which is fine. I don’t do it for the ‘ad income’ or selling anything (‘cept the book). I just do it to write. So ten readers or twelve….it’s OK.
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Let’s have more of the racist, zenophobic, nativist, gun totting know nothings. The Democrats are just Republican light.
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Funny you should say that…….I am soooooooo inclined to rant, it’s ridiculous. So, I have largely shut up. But the truth is, I know nothing, anyway. I have some years of being Dave under my belt but that doesn’t even get me an undergraduate degree in carpentry or even writing.
Trump sounds like an idiot and I am pretty sure if you walk, talk, act and look like a Donald, you are a duck…or something like that. So, it is best that I just shut up….
….mind you…..
Recently I have noticed a shift: many journalists are now saying, “It is not enough for us to report one thing a fool said and one thing a genius said and call that balanced reporting. We journalists have a duty NOT to report the fool and just as much of a duty to double down on the genius.”
They make a good point but it will never happen. Not as long as Kardashian has a butt and Jenner has cleavage. History tells us that the news industry will not bore us with genius/fact/news/information when featuring a buffoon instead can get more readers and viewers. It’s about business for them, after all.
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So far some aspects of the the campaign have been mostly fact free and the media has reported some of the egreges falsehoods and half truths. The media is mostly slack jawed as it hears the piffel but dares not do real investigations into the effects of the rise of isolationism, nativism, and the calls to end entitlements.
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Almost choked on my beer again.
Your lazer sharp, curmudgeon soliloqy’s nail my “exhale/inhale” every time.
Its becoming a hazard on this blog.( or my beer drinking is becoming hazardous….not sure which becomes ‘”hazardous” first…. the beer or the blog)
You start off the blog all nice and neighbourly and then slam dunk us with the OTG curmudgeon viewpoint …which, I must admit, I am increasingly beginning to associate with.
Just got back from the East coast.
Watched a German tourist just before take-off go head to head with an extremely effeminate male Air Canada Steward….The Deutchlander was humbled more than a Normandy invasion…….Quite amusing.
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Happy to hear you snorted beer….it’s why I write.
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Not every one wants to read lengthy discussions but I do. Much of reporting is bereft of content or carefully developed arguments of fact. Howard’s academic writing with its well organized presentation eviserates the Trump toadies. With many Trump supporters, “The ends justify the means.” Thus Trump can seemingly say or do any thing but nothing shakes the constancy of those in his thrall. What are the ‘ends’ being sought? The desire the return to an unregulated time before World War One: low taxes, Jim Crow, no EPA, no marriage equality, highly restricted franchise and a repeal of all liberal policies perceived as having destroyed America and made her not great. One the most destructive policies to many is the cancer of empathy.
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You and Wayne are cut from almost the same cloth. For him two’s company and three’s a crowd unless it a good friend of course. That’s part of the reason he loves the cabin so much. I so go out more than he does, tomorrow I’m trying the Garden Club in town. We’ll see how it goes before I make a monthly commitment. – Margy
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And you and Sal…..quilting, yoga, book club, gardening, boating around, socializing…stopping work to say, “Hey, look! A squirrel!” It’s like living with Lucy Ball on ‘roids.
Mind you, there I was sitting comfortably around 3:30 and she said, “Hey, let’s get a few boards on the side of the new greenhouse!” And off she went….and so I followed….things DO get done….
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A plsieangly rational answer. Good to hear from you.
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