Alexandersmap

    Category: Travel

    • Small, Daily Tasks

      Small, Daily Tasks

      “…remember in life that your duties are the sum of the individual acts.  Pay attention to each of these as you do your duty… just methodically complete your task.” – Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

      “Practice yourself, for heaven’s sake, in little things, and hence proceed to greater.” – Epictetus

      Breaking down big work into small, daily tasks, done consistently over time, helps you achieve your goals.  That’s an accepted recipe for success.  It applies to a job in sales as much as it applies to a job in construction.  It doesn’t always work.  Sometimes the job is too big and the tasks won’t get you there.  You need enough runway to take off, but you also need enough thrust from the engines.  But in general this formula of small, daily tasks hits the mark.

      Hit your quota?  Do your duty, just methodically complete your task.

      Build a high-rise building?  Do your duty, just methodically complete your task.

      Write a novel?  Do your duty, just methodically complete your task.

      Raise children to be responsible members of society and great people?  Do your duty, just methodically complete your task.

      Remodel a bathroom on the cape in your spare time?  Do your duty, just methodically complete your task.

      With that reminder, I need to get busy completing my small, daily tasks on this bathroom remodel.

    • A Case for Micro Spikes

      A Case for Micro Spikes

      I slipped on the ice the other day and landed hard on my back.  The backyard was a sheet of ice with a dusting of snow on top of it.  I knew the dangers of these conditions, after all, I’ve lived in New England most of my life.  But I couldn’t find the micro spikes after turning out the camping stuff and looking in all the usual spots, so I decided to walk carefully and slowly.  Bad move.  The ice sloped down towards the back fence, and the coating of snow on top of it created extremely hazardous conditions.  I tried to walk on blades of dormant glass that were popping up through the snow…  nope.  Before I knew it I was slammed onto my back.

      I’ve been hit by a car and the world went into slow motion as I migrated from bumper to windshield.  I still remember it 42 years later.  This wasn’t like that.  No slow motion, no reaction time whatsoever.  Slammed onto the cold, hard ice at high velocity.  The only thing I managed to do was keep my head from hitting the ground.  People die from stuff like that.  I don’t care to die just yet.  
      After lying on the ice for a minute assessing my condition, I could tell I did some damage, but it wasn’t catastrophic.  No, just painful.  Hell, two days later and its still painful.  I feel like Rocky pounded my ribcage for 9 rounds.  Just another winter in paradise.
      I eventually found the micro spikes.  I’ll wear them from now on when I feed the birds.  Spring is less than 30 days away.  Around here that usually means second winter.  Best to keep those micro spikes handy.

    • Benedict Arnold

      Growing up in the United States of America, you heard a version of history that made our Founding Fathers and the generals who fought the American Revolution out to be heroes.  And in many ways they were.  The winners write the history, no doubt, but they did create a democracy that was the envy of the world while fighting off the greatest military power of the day.

      I’ve read that if Benedict Arnold had been killed at Saratoga instead of badly wounded he would be remembered as one of our greatest heroes.  There’s no doubt that he was a complicated man; aggressively ambitious to a point where he drove those he commanded, was loathed by many of his peers, but loved as a true leader by anyone who saw him in action.  
      Had Benedict Arnold not turned against the colonies, he would have been celebrated as one of our greatest military leaders for his raid on Quebec, the raid on Ticonderoga, the Battle of Valcour Island on Lake Champlain against overwhelming odds, the Battles of Ridgefield, Connecticut and Saratoga. In all of these, Arnold exhibited courage, persistence, strategic vision and competitive spirit critical in war.  He sacrificed an enormous amount of his personal wealth and political power for the Revolution, and was a key reason the British were ultimately defeated.  And yet he’s best known for his betrayal.
      You can’t take omit that betrayal when considering the man.  There’s no doubt that he deserved the condemnation and infamy he received and receives to this day for not just betraying the colonies, but also betraying George Washington and the troops he served with.  But it’s… complicated.  If Arnold weren’t such a hero in 1775-1778, his betrayal in 1780.  He remains the most famous traitor in history, and the most forgotten hero.
      I’ll try to visit a few of the places that Benedict Arnold made history in.  Not because I admire the man, but because without him I’m not sure that the Continental Army would have won in the end.  And what would our history have been then?  Unlike Washington, there aren’t a lot of “Benedict Arnold slept here” placards on the sides of colonial era homes.  But there are monuments to what he accomplished, and I’d like to explore a few of those in 2019.

    • What’s Up is Down

      What’s Up is Down

      While it makes sense that to go up a river or a lake that is fed by a stream or river, intuitively when you live in the Northeast you think of going up the river as going north or west.  That’s because the majority of rivers that flow to the sea do so in a southbound or eastbound way.  To go “up the river” to SingSing was to go up the Hudson River from New York City to Ossining, New York.  But there are several examples in the region where the opposite happens.  

      Watershed maps indicate several rivers that flow north to the St Lawrence River.  These include the Chaudière River (Rivière Chaudière) and the Richelieu River, which is fed from Lake Champlain and Lake George through a series of smaller rivers.  Because these two lakes flow north to the St Lawrence, going “up the lake” means going south, and going “down the lake” north.  This upside down world of navigation makes perfect sense when you think about water flowing down, but is topsy-turvy when you think about north-south.
      It’s a good reminder that your way of thinking, based on your experiences, isn’t necessarily correct.  Next time I think I’ve got something all figured out I’ll reflect on nature’s reminder that what’s up can indeed be down.  That’s a good reminder for all of us.

    • Timelessly Human

      Timelessly Human

      “How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself?” – Epictetus

      Epictetus died 1,884 years ago.  And yet there’s so much truth in this quote.  Mankind has struggled inwardly with the same things for as long as we’ve been thinking.  If I’ve learned anything from history, philosophy, stoicism and religion it’s that we’re all very human.  And that’s timeless.


    • Storm Warnings and Salacious Distractions

      Storm Warnings and Salacious Distractions

      The Northeast is going to get four-to-eight inches of snow this afternoon.  This wasn’t the lead story on the national morning shows, but only because there was an update on the budget debate in Washington, DC.  We live in a world where six inches of snow becomes a stop the presses! moment.  If it weren’t a snowstorm it would be the latest scandalous celebrity affair, or some other salacious distraction.

      “Nie mój cyrk, nie moje malpy
      Not my circus, not my monkeys.” – Polish Proverb

      Stoic philosophy would dictate a similar approach to this insanity.  Ignore the noise, focus on your own priorities.  And that’s what I shall do today as “Snowmageddon” approaches.  Use the information for appropriate planning, and tune out the rest.

    • Smallpox

      Smallpox

      During the Revolutionary War more than 130,000 people living in North America died from Smallpox.  Of those fighting in the war, about 7000 died in the war, while more than 17,000 died from disease.  And smallpox was the biggest killer on the continent.

      Variola virus, or smallpox is spread through physical contact, airborne through breathing droplets from an infected person, or through bodily fluids.  About 30% of the people who got smallpox died from it.  The disease was declared eradicated in 1980.

      During the Revolutionary War soldiers would deliberately infect themselves with a small amount of the virus on their skin as a crude form of self-inoculation.  They would become sick but nowhere near as sick as others who got the disease through normal transmission.  It’s a terrifying gamble to infect yourself with a disease that kills 1/3 of the people who contracted it.  There was also significant debate within the colonial army about the wisdom of inoculation.  Major General John Thomas threatened his troops in the Northern Army with the death penalty they were found to have inoculated themselves.  There’s some tragic irony in Thomas succumbing to smallpox himself within weeks of his order.

      Once you had smallpox (and of course, survived) you were immune to it.  There was speculation that the British army, who were largely immune to it from dealing with outbreaks at home, deliberately introduced smallpox to the colonies as a form of chemical warfare.  As horrific as this sounds, it’s not entirely farfetched.  After all, Jeffrey Amherst had done just that to the Native American population approving smallpox-infected blankets being given as gifts to Chief Pontiac and his Ottawa Indians during the French and Indian War just a decade earlier.

      George Washington was well aware of the threat posed by smallpox, and increasingly looked to inoculation as a way to save his army from being decimated by the disease:

      “In February 1777, while encamped at Morristown, Washington became convinced that only inoculation would prevent the destruction of his Army.  Emphasizing the need for secrecy and speed, Washington ordered the inoculation of all troops.  Because Virginia forbade inoculation, Washington asked Governor Patrick Henry to support the program, writing that smallpox “is more destructive to an Army in the Natural way, than the Enemy’s Sword.”
      In the end, the gamble paid off.  Fewer than 1% of the Soldiers died from being inoculated, and the program was so successful in controlling smallpox that he repeated it in the Valley Forge winter of 1778.” – Army Heritage Center

      For people who complain about living in the times we live in, I’d point them straight at smallpox as an example of how much better off we are today than we were years ago.  Advancements in healthcare have completely transformed our lives for the better.  Longer lifespans for sure, but also a better overall quality of life without the threat of smallpox, polio and other horrific diseases.

    • Pass the Flowing Bowl

      When Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys helped Benedict Arnold seize Fort Ticonderoga, they apparently wanted to celebrate the occasion.  In 1775 these two men, who couldn’t be more different, led the attack on the lightly defended fort, winning it without a fight.  British soldiers stations there hadn’t heard about Lexington and Concord yet, and had no idea that they might be attacked by people who were supposed to be loyal to the crown.  For the Green Mountain Boys, the best way to celebrate was to pass the flowing bowl around.  The bowl was usually filled with punch.

      The recipe for punch varied from place to place across the globe, but in the American Colonies it called for rum.  Punch rivaled ale and flip in popularity, and in some colonies exceeded it.  Punch had an added benefit over Flip or ale in that it helped introduce fruits and juices into the diet of colonists, which certainly improved their overall health (rum aside) and fending off scurvy.Wayne Curtis in And a Bottle of Rum referenced a recipe for Planters Punch that was published in The New York Times in 1908 in the form of a ditty:

      “This recipe I give to thee,
      Dear brother in the heat.
      Take two of sour (lime let it be)
      To one and a half sweet.
      Of Old Jamaica pour thee three strong,
      And add four parts of weak.
      Then mix and drink “I do no wrong – 
      I know whereof I speak.”

      Back in my college days, I thought I’d be clever and mix up a batch of punch for a party.  Not being an expert in the art of mixology, I was pretty aggressive in my pours, adding several spirits into a bowl and adding Hawaiian Punch or something like it.  After celebrating a bit too much with this concoction, the night took a turn for the worse.  It was the first and last time I’ve ever made punch.

    • Joshua Slocum

      Joshua Slocum

      On April 24, 1895, Joshua Slocum sailed out of Fairhaven, Massachusetts on his gaff-rigged sloop Spray.  He returned to Newport, Rhode Island on June 27, 1898, and documented that incredible solo sail around the globe in his book Sailing Alone Around the World.  His trip and the book were worldwide phenomenons, and Slocum was a celebrity on par in the minds of commen men with Presidents and royalty.

      Slocum was born in Nova Scotia on the island and grew up on Brier Island, where his grandmother was the official lighthouse keeper.  Brier Island, on the eastern edge of the Bay of Fundy, was the site of many shipwrecks over the centuries.  I’m sure that childhood molded the man who would become world famous with his trip around the world.

      Slocum made a second voyage with Spray up the Erie Canal to Buffalo for the Pan-American Expo in 1901, which is famous for the execution of President McKinley by an anarchist.  There’s a fascinating picture on the Wikipedia page for Slocum that shows the Spray moving through one of the locks of the Erie Canal on his voyage west to Buffalo.  That would have been an interesting voyage as well.

      Slocum, a restless spirit for sure, would try another voyage with the Spray in 1909 exploring the Amazon River.  Slocum and the Spray disappeared on that voyage, never to be seen again.  Did the Spray sink?  Did natives raid the sloop, kill Slocum and dismantle the Spray for use in other ways?  Was there a fire onboard?  We’ll never know, unless someone unearths the remains of the Spray someday in the mud of the Amazon or while diving off the coast of Brazil.

      What remains is one of the great books on adventure travel, some old grainy pictures of the Spray with Slocum sailing her, and a few monuments to the two.  I visited one of those monuments in Fairhaven.  It’s a quiet little spot with a view of the harbor.  A monument behind Slocum’s pays tribute to the last surviving pilgrim, which is notable company, but Slocum’s monument stands closer to the water.  I think he’d have liked it.

    • Foraging in New England

      Foraging in New England

      When Roger’s Rangers were hiking through the hostile woods of Vermont trying to evade the French and Native Americans, more than 40 died of starvation.  When Benedict Arnold and his troops hiked through the woods of Maine on their way to invade Quebec, starvation was a very real possibility.  And yet years before either of these events when Hannah Dustin and others were kidnapped and marched up to Quebec they survived by foraging as their Abenaki kidnappers did.  Clearly in foraging in the woods of New England can provide enough caloric intake to survive if you know what to look for.  That’s never more critical than in winter when finding any food can be a massive challenge.

      Some options for edibles in the woods include Black Birch, wild carrot roots, wild parsnip roots, hog peanut roots, Burdock roots, Jerusalem artichokes, Teaberry leaves, cattail shoots and roots, groundnuts, watercress, duck potatoes, reindeer moss lichen, and several mushroom/fungi like chaga (grows on Birch trees), hen of the woods, chicken of the woods and a few others.

      Arnold’s party was able to fish in the Kennebec, Dead and other rivers on their hike north.  It’s hard to tell what Roger’s Rangers were acquiring for food, but in the dead of winter, hiking on snowshoes with many people trying to kill you, spending a lot of time foraging, fishing or hunting were unlikely to happen.

      I’m not particularly inclined to become a survivalist stockpiling canned goods, or a hunter, a fisherman, or to forage for a hobby.  That’s largely because I’m putting my faith in humanity and our supply chain of food that enables me to maintain a fighting weight that’s about 30 pounds heavier than I should be.  I hope that doesn’t come back to haunt me, but if we get to that point I may just find a boat, grab some rum and sail off to parts unknown.