h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Pandora BAT ... love the name! I'm testing the waters of your pool on Gwennies warning I mean recommendation! Your place sounds stunning and I'd love to spend some VR time out there in the woods! Any chance...?

Hello! Welcome. Sorry I didn't see your post right off.
...*walks around...sniffs...pokes a finger here and there...* So, it was Gwennie what sent ya' hey? Last time she did that...
awwww...never mind, one gal's still in therapy over it...

Certainly there's a chance you can come 'round. Hope you can run faster than dobermen and bullets. I ALWAYS keep my dog loaded and my pistol by my side.

Let's see...you drive a red Beemer huh? I LOVE bikes! Tell me more...*figures most people will go read the Home Page...
isn't like *most* people...won't read The Home Page...*

Nice to meet you!

I'm old enough, I have a Dobermann-Rottweiler named Sasha and love riding bikes myself. (I was just wondering if your '38' was singular or plural - either way I love 38's - and 357's and 45's as I have a few myself).

Are you situated in the Plains or Mountains - my USA geography is really bad - either way I'm really jealous of the cabin. I'm an architect IRL and really get excited about natural finishes and spaces...

I'm also a bass guitarist in a six piece band and air the vocal chords too. Blues and rock and rock-'n-roll keep the youthful feelings around for a lot longer...

Well anyone who likes big dogs and big guns is...is, well, I like them as well. I've a gun rack hanging next to the fireplace...I think my fav is my father's WWII rifle with the armor peircing tracers...but thassss jussss me. And of course I have more than one side arm! I've had to draw down on several prowlers going through the tools in the garage. I let each one go instructing them to: go tell ALL their friends about me! I'm insane and can hardly wait to kill a man. But since I don't feel like dealing with the blood and whot-nots...best be on your way.
I'm a very bad girl.

Er, I'm in Ohio. IT's hilly...but I'm just off the East Coast. It's called the North Coast here as we are next to one of the Great Lakes. Lake Erie. <---the most dangerous of all Great Lakes. Lots of ships to dive and that sort of thing.

You'd love this cabin!! For support beams I have a stripped white pine tree with a metal jack...as the cabin settles I have to adjust the jack down. There's also one in my bedroom.
Because of my love of the sea (I'm an ole' salt) I've done the back bottom half of the cabin as if it were the belly of a ship. Dark stain, low beams...all my treasures from my adventures...The rest of the cabin is natural. No stain. The trim is cedar. And there are grey half stones that go allllllllll the way to the vaulted ceiling above the fireplace. I drove the builders crazy...but after all it IS my house....*ducks for cover...* I have a huge garden window in my bathroom. And lots of picture windows and octagon windows way up high that drove my master carpenter nutz trying to build.
The solid round logs go 12' then it's tongue & grove. The attached garage was another headspin...there's a bathroom for anyone using the pool, or whatever...seems the way "I" designed things...the garage was in the middle of my kitchen window!
So, I have a regular sized window and somehow they made it all work...BUT...isn't there always one?? Where the fella's KNEW my pool table was to be BEFORE they made the basement...there's one short wall!I jussss hate when that happens! At least it reminds me how much fun I had building this lump-o-logs!

The thing I like most, I think...is that everyone who worked on this place are friends and or others so, they made everything extra nice for me and saved me thousands of dollars! But what the hey, I'm worth it.
I was frustrated by the people the logs came from...I have pictures of myself shooting the cabin...my friends all begging, "NO!" I said, "It's the cabin or the builders!" They said, "Aim above the Bil-co doors."


What's this band you're in?!?! I use to be in a band...about a thousand years ago. We played rock, but when I sing, it comes out Blues. But my cat likes my singing? Either that or she's rubbing against me trying to shut me up.

Has this band a name? Is there a site? (if there is, you would have o spell it out like:musicdotcom) the moderators
can be touchy about these things.

What types of things do you design? I take it you're in the UK? Why does everyone want a log cabin there? And why doesn't anyone have one?
I'll wait right here.

Nope! I'm a sowfaffrican (the sorrect pronunciation of South African)! I play bass guitar in a 'midlife-crisis' bunch of 40+ professionals-turned-rockers-again that go under the name of the Bally James Duff Blues Band (named after the street where we practice). We use the promo line '60's and 70's for the 40's and 50's' and play mostly rock and blues numbers that made the hit parades in the 60's 70's and 80's...

I specialise in hospitals and work for the provincial government. Just to keep my eye in, I also do the odd one-off domestic architecture for friends and such.

In architecture love texture - stone, facebrick, natural timber, clay tiles, handpainted ceramics and woven hemp or mohair rugs. I enjoy people who have fun in their homes and end up knowing them very well by the time the project is finished. Most of my one-off work is from existing (satisfied) clients and word-of-mouth referrals. With the craftsmen (PC='craftspeople') and materials you have available in the US, I'd have a ball!

Is your fav a Garand or M1? I'm a long-standing Practical Shooting Club member and do rifle and clay-pigeon too! When I have the budget and opportunity, I'll hunt the odd Impala (an African deer-sized antelope) or warthog for the pot, but I don't take trophy animals - those I leave for your countrymen as I couldn't afford the price!

Waaaaaall now I know how you sound.

Hospitals hey? From my other friends in S.A. they are few and far between. At least to hear tell of anything *good* that happens within the walls of the places there. ...*wonders if those walls were built by WR...doesn't matter...*

Your band sounds like a blast! I've been wanting to get some fella's together to jam with...but...I don't know what happenes. Once in a blue moon someone will bring a guitar or something...I have keyboards, flutes, sax, trumpets, etc.. So, it's not for lack of instruments. I think I'm going to decorate my loft, that hangs over the living room with the various horns & such. Better than making them suffer in their cases.

I guess I take for granted the varieties of woods we have here. Oh but I love wood! My carpenter is a 20 + year friend and I use to go to his shop just to smell the wood and 'pet' the different types. That might sound odd to some people, but I have a feeling you understand what I mean.
And I like to make things of wood. Rough clocks, candles, old pictures onto wood with varnish...that sort of thing.
I have a small cedar table and chairs that was shipped in pieces and was easily put together. I 'spose that's cheating...but I no longer trust myself around sharp power tools.

I'm an M1 gal. But I have a...wellllll...if he'd get over his obsession with me, he'd be my *friend* who has alot of automatic weapons. I love shooting them. I have a target zone in the wet lands behind the cabin.
Last Summer I was centering a new AK47 for him...I was sitting at the end of the picnic table in the garage & the target was on a
*metal* (doh) pole in the driveway. (there's nothing but trees and field across the road) Who would have thought I would have hit dead center on the first try? The bullet went down the pole...off a rock and into my thigh. Making a bothersome hole in one of my favorite skirts. Didn't bother me. Being shot and all...just ticked about the skirt.

There are coyotee here and every night for....I've lost count - the racoons toss flowers and dirt into my pool. I didn't mind the cats being eaten. I mean, the fit ones are still here...but those racoons are going to make me shoot them. And, I'd really rather not. (I go on photo shoots) But I have shot several cats that were ill. I learned the very first kill......it's a good idea to keep your eyes open. I jussss hate not making a clean kill. I don't like dead things hanging about in the cabin either. A few feathers here and there and an antler candle someone made for me. No bear heads or the like.

Do you eat what you kill? I kill *mostly*tomatoes.

I kill only to eat, or because there is no other alternative. I was touched by a piece in Khalil Gibran's book 'The Prophet' about hunting - it went something like: "Because we must kill to eat, let it be an act of worship...' When I took my eldest son on his first hunt, I was glad to be able to show him a good clean one-shot kill on a young bachelor Impala as example.

When he shot a ewe the next day, he pulled the shot and she dropped but was shot through the spine and dragged herself up again. He ran up to the animal and but was so shamed that he couldn't look her in the eyes to deliver the coup-de-grace. I gently took the rifle from him and put her out. We talked about it and I told him of 'The Prophet' advice. I left him alone with the kill to fetch the pickup (called a 'bakkie' and pronounced 'bucky' in SA) and told him make his peace with the ewe to thank her for giving up her life to feed him.

When I got back he was sitting cross-legged in the dirt next to her. She was gracefully draped out as if asleep, his hand on her shoulder. I could see a tear in his eye and he said to me: 'Dad, I'll not hunt again until I can shoot straight, and I wont shoot at any animal unless I'm sure I can kill clean!' He helped to dress out the ewe and make the 'biltong' (US=jerky) and the ewe's tanned skin served as a bedside rug until he wore it through.

He hasn't been able to keep up the shooting and so he hasn't hunted again since. But I reckon he got the message...(unlike some gun-crazy sons of people I know who will fire at anything in the bushes - accidents waiting for somewhere to happen!) I learned a tip from an old hunter years back. I always pass over the first animal that I come across when hunting. I stalk until I'm in a good firing position with a clear target, line up the shot, take careful aim and DON'T shoot - I find it cured my own 'buck fever'.

Awwwww now, you've gone and put a tear in my eye. Thank you. That was beautiful. You're a good dad! And you've quoted my favorite book of all time! I qoute it so often someone bought it for me a few years ago. (I still like to go to the library to read it once in awhile)
Gibran also said, "Your children are of you, they are not you." I think the gentle manner with which you taught your son shows that you understand that passage, and live it as well.
Gosh I like you! ...*still waiting for the *catch* as Gwennie's hand is in this...*
Today being the 4th I shall be busy doing crisis counseling...best get a few hours sleep - my friend gave me a homemade bottle of wine that was very good and kicked my butt!
Out to the hammock I go. Have a good day!

No catch with me, Pan. I'm your genuine, original, out of the mould, heart on the sleeve type of guy. IRL I've been married for 23 years in October and I am proud to say I've been faithful to that wife of mine for the duration and even before .

Now in VR you may find Mr. Hyde - in my mind and on the net I'm whatever is appropriate to the situation. I am rambling in my remarks, creative in my writing, wacky in my humour and a dirty old man everywhere! . I've posted a few about and you're welcome to read any - they are all me. (Well, bit-parts of me!)

IRL again. I have always been fascinated by what little I had come to know of the Native American. I've always been of the opinion that European 'civilisation' was but a veneer to the capitalist savage, bent on pillage in the viking tradition, but with moralistic and 'religious' alterior overtones. I know that what I do know is populist and skin-deep, but I'd love to know where I could read more on your ancestral culture and it's wisdom - especially towards the environment.

I believe in the Keep It Simple, Stupid way of life and think that the Primal Source, Great Spirit, Supreme Being, God, Earth Mother, Whatever-you-believe-started-and-supports-it-all meant us to be. I don't think we were meant to do most of what we do to one another, ourselves and our children's future. This is not our world - we are merely caretaking it for our great-grandchildren!

Well said and I see your 'mind throttle' is running wide open...*whispers...*a bit rich perhaps? Awwwww what do girls know of things that go in more than one gear?

23 years & more. With the very same person.

~~~~~~~~~~Later!!!!!~~~~~~~~~

On tour - gigging until Sunday late.
well!

Safe journey!

As for Native Sites...as I cannot list them here due to the MODERATORS I would suggest CherokeeNationdot
somethingorother. My ansesters walked the 'trail of tears'...
I try not to think of what it was like. Although I have *strong* psychic visions/feelings when I'm in certain places...usually later finding out that I've been to a buriel mound or prehistoric site. And my entire life I just *naturally* make this hand jester whenever someone is leaving...sort of sliding my fingers across the open palm of the other...as I got older I found this is the symbol of my people to "Go in Peace". Pretty cool huh?


Have a wonderful week-end! I'll jusss be hanging around the Pub

Back from the gig - went down very well! Perhaps the small town was starved of good rock blues and rock-and-roll We played three hours on Friday and another three on Saturday evening. We were a seven-piece for the trip as we are in the process of bringing in another keyboard player and the current keyboard player is still around for a few weeks before he goes to Nigeria on a six-month cellphone installations contract.

As usual the odd drunk / oaf / racist / bigot to be downed politely but firmly from the microphone. We;ve got a long way to go but we're etting there!

Thanks for the CNdotCOM - I'll make visit!

Yay! Glad you had fun!
Our Village is so starved that it was suggested I play panio on the week-ends at the local
*nice* eatery & pub. I said, "I'm sorry, but I only play classical on the piano." They said, "Perfect!" Well, I'm not doing it and *they* can't make me. This place is so starved *I am*
still the best thing to happen. Thasss just not right.
My "chosen daughter" Debora called to tell me the local barber went to the club where she works (Veterans of Forein Wars) and was all excited and told everyone who would listen that *I* had called him. Deborah said, "I swear, you'd have thought he'd gotten a call from the blue from a Rock Star!" She's still new to the area...she doesn't know all the facts about the *mom* she picked. In for a rude awakening that one. One day...
I predict...she shall run into someone who had a horrible experience with me and all the *facts* as remembered by the offened party, will be laid out before her. Opppsie...

Did you say bigot?
Cuz, I need somemore target time. I could, say, shoot aples off his head for a couple hours whilst making him repeat certain:"I will nots!"
I sort of killed something(s) this week-end. And I learned a lesson...or two. I heard noise in the garage in the middle of the night and found an entire pack of racoons tearing up everything in their path. They stood there and looked at me. A veil went over my cognitive brain cells and I no longer saw the cute little faces of God's creatures. I saw varmints! I shot the first one at close range. I had a 32., doh, but I didn't know I'd be facing racoons...they just stood there watching their brother/cousin??
flop around. So I shot another one. I repeated this six times. And STILL I had to 'Shoo" the rest away. I also discovered that it wasn't just blood pouring onto the floor...
The bullets sorta', kinda' went thru the varmints and through the re-cycled motor oil drum as well.
...one never really understands just HOW far liquid travels until a dumbass attack occurs.
Later...5:20 am to be presise...my cat awakens me with a "Timmy fell down the well" type of urgency!
I grabbed my 38., I NEVER sleep alone...rushed outside to hear splashing in the deep end of the pool. I figured my friend who's on his way home from w*rk about that time was taking a dip...and it looked as if I could see aface near the jet in the corner of the deep end. But when I looked at the driveway, there was no truck there...no truck in the turn-around......but I could hear splashing...? I grabbed the net on the long pole and found one of the out door siames (sp?) cats had walked through some oile I hadn't covered with that oil soak up stuff... and had flippin' slipped into the pool! I finally fished 'Thia'
out...but cheese and crackers! There were coon prints, cat prints, blood, oil...*smashes head on key pad...* Best part? I had pleanty of company the very next day. This story shall live on...long after Pandora, Born Again Tart has crossed over...people will talk about the night of the 'coon' 2002

Them's all Gods creatures and plants and fings -and in this here world you's either a predator or you's prey!

Our Sooty fell in the bath once - he was walking around the edge when Jen was running a bath and slipped on the face cloth - talk about drowned rat! My son Al's girlfriend Max has a dachshund called Kiki that jumps into bath with you whenever she get the opportunity. If you leave the bathroom door unlathed, she'll push it open and jump into the water.

You needed a twenty gauge or something for the 'coons or even a twelve! Then you can aim at the earth between them and the dust will scare them away! Believe it or not, this gets done in Africa in game reserves to scare away lion, rhino, buffalo and the like instead of shooting them. Of course if it then does charge, then you have no choice but to nail the animal with a 470 or suchlike - and quickly if you don't mind, we can't have our overseas guests nibbled by the local predators!

I had a Brit buddy visit last August and we went to a private game reserve to view some of Africa's finest. When he found himself in an open landrover with the engine cut, ten yards from a two BIG black-maned lions in failing light, he said in very British understatement: 'I'm not feeling very comfortable at this - do you think we could leave, please?' Then he stuck his head behind the driver and pretended to reload the film in his camera. I suggested that he just wait to hear the roar that would inevitably come, he just looked at me and said: 'I don't care to her anything roar at this distance, thank you!'

The pale face was really funny and the white knuckles on the seat back even more so. We gave it another minute or two and then I asked the driver to slowly back up another ten yards. We got the deep 'Oooooowrrrrr' roar as we started up and I congratulate my Britbuddy for the strength of his sphincter muscle! Perhaps it was fear induced paralysis!

I ain't 'prey' no more. I do have a 22. rifle and a shotgun as well...it's just that when I'm asleep, it's the 38. that's next to me.

I guess I failed to mention that there's cement in the garage and special fiber & painted cement around the pool. So you see, shooting in front of them would jussss be another dumbass attack.

I missed going on safari due to a bombing outside the Hotel I was to go to on the first leg of that adventure. I forget the name of the scout...but he promised to send back any remains were I to be eaten by something. I'm MUCH different from your British Pal...cuz, you'd have to pull me back from trying to pet the lions.
Tis true. I've had *many* encounter with things of the wild.
And some animals too.

OK! No shot then - try handloading a few shotgun shells with coarse salt. It stays together long enough to act as a projectile, powders on impact with concrete and the like but also leaves a stinging reminder to any critter that cares to get into range. How's the song go? I've got you ... under my skin!

Wildlife? Wild life? Donesumtoo!

Before I got married we used to 'house-sit' various people's homes while they went away on their summer holidays. In the upside down half of the world, that's from before Christmas to after New Years. So every NY eve, there was a party for the crowd we hung with. Starting at seven we'd party till midnight, sing Auld Lang Syne (sp?) kiss everyone else and then peel off to go skinnydip!

When the water got too cold, we'd get out again and dance till dawn in as much clothing as you felt you needed at the time. Of course, many left to go home and many passed out and slept it off. Many a virgin didn't go home the next morning in the same condition. But we'd all get together again for breakfast about nine or ten and start the party all over. Those were the days ... AVOID A HANGOVER - STAY DRUNK!

Brother...I 'll drink to that!

I think I'd rather kill than salt. Someone shot my cat 'Peaches' with salt...we called it 'Buckshot peaches' for nearly a year before it was all absorbed. (we didn't know peaches was a male cuz his lil' thingies didn't drop down in the first year...very fem. cat)

When my Sister's son, who I pretty much raised, had a kitten I asked if it was a boy or girl? Aaron said, "I don't know Aunt Val, but my mom jusss turns um over and looks at the bottom of their feet!"

Let's see...things that have, or have very nearly bitten me:
Bear, Shark, Bear, Shark, Barracooda (sp?) Rattle snake, Anaconda, & I was bitten by a Lama & then pecked by a chicken where I was bleeding. And I was nearly gored by a HUGE bull...in Texas...and fell asleep in a gully where mountian lions walked by & around me while I was asleep. But not to worry I awakened when the rains came. And I found why *they* are called 'gully-washers'!!! Nearly drowned that time. My poor gardian angels have been on overdrive since I left the womb.

I had a client who has a vacation home in Kenya...I'm thinking of taking up an offer to go stay for a bit. But I don't treavel as well as I use to. I remember awakening in an altogether different Country than when I started a party...

And speaking of parties...I *use* to have one each year...The End Of The Summer Bash...people came from far and wide
...*starts singing...*those were the dazzze my friend, we thought they'd never end...we'd sing and dance, for ever and a day...

We'd live the life we choose, we'd fight and never lose, those where the d-a-y-s, OH YES! Those were the days!

PS: Curiousity ate the What was Gwennie right about? Or would that be breaching a confidence