Milestone

A friend many years ago called me an “obscurantist,” and I guess that since I couldn’t tell if he meant it as an insult or compliment, the obscurantist was him.  But I can tease with only glimmers of my meaning or a truth, so I’ll be blunt:

I’m a morning baby;  at 5:30 am  I turned 57!  Here‘s what I posted  two years ago.  Today I do all my routines at home and work;   most folks I chat with along the way don’t even know it’s the very beginning of my 58th year, but I’m fine with that.  Even people that know it’s that milestone for me have their own routines, obligations, and deadlines.  A crewman on Aegean Sea or any other vessel heads out even if it’s his birthday or that of one of his loved ones.

Someone on that Bouchard unit off the Battery might just have to swing on the hook no matter that it’s one of those days.  He probably has other ideas, wishes for the day:  so do I although my long list contains only a few items.

Yet as one of my favorite songs puts it,  . . . “there are planes to catch and bills to pay . . .”

Thanks to Mike Lesser for catching this shot of an unidentified tug heading north past Ossining.  Birthdays remind me of motion, of how time is running out.  And that makes me hate to waste  time, urges me to have those experiences now.

When my Dutch celebrate a birthday, he or she who has the milestone buys the drinks. Since drinks don’t travel so well through the worldwideweb, here’s an alternative, suggested by frogma.  She “tagged” me a week ago here.  And her rules say, go to the 4th folder in your archives and choose the 4th foto.  Comment on it.  Then “tag” four fellow bloggers and ask they do the same.  Email me if you’re confused with those directions.  Here’s my foto.

I took the foto of John A. Caddell in Newtown Creek, the legendary stream that divides Queens from Brooklyn.  The trip–September 2007– engrossed me . . . and I mean that like it sounds.  I was fascinated and repulsed.  Wikipedia has great info, a foto of Caddell, and fantastic external links.

And I hereby tag the following four waterbloggers:  my dear bowsprite, my southwestcoast friend mage,   the peripetetic captain  ken e. beck, and my new irreverent friend zeebart of uglyships.  More from zeebart soon.

So, no postponing  my friends, no putting off in anything.  Thank you all for reading this blog and responding in all the ways you do.  And now I’m off in search of the next adventures.