NH Election Day

Well it’s election day in New Hampshire. Sorta. New Hampshire state law requires that New Hampshire is the first primary state. Unfortunately, the National Democratic Party says otherwise. So now we have a Democratic primary that won’t produce any delegates. Biden isn’t even on the ballot, but he’s been pushing hard for a write in campaign. I don’t know how that’s going to work for him as a lot of Democrats feel disenfranchised -being disenfranchised and all. 

The interesting stuff is happening on the Republican side where it’s still a real primary. New Hampshire has a weird quirk where Independents can declare for a party on election day. There are a lot of Independents. My guess is that we’ll have a better idea how the candidates could do in the general election. The winner won’t necessarily be determined by the party faithful. 

All I know for sure is that the polls, as usual, will probably be wrong.

-Sixbears

Finally repaired

I finally managed to get the Blazer back on the road. We had a mix of snow and rain today so I was lying in a slushy mess to work under the vehicle. 

It wasn’t the worse conditions I’ve dealt with to repair a vehicle. That would be the time I changed an electric diesel pump on the ambulance/camper conversion. The repair was done in dry pleasant weather in central Florida. The weather wasn’t the issue.

No, the problem was that the vehicle was sitting in a field full of fire ants. I threw a tarp on the ground and did the pump swamp in near record time. In spite of my precaution and haste the ants bit me seven times. Being attacked by fire ants is a serious distraction. I hate those little buggers. 

Winter has plenty of issues, but it’s big advantage is it’s ability to kill of the creepy crawlies. While we have ants that will bite you, they don’t have the acidic burning sting of fire ants. It’s also nice to have almost no venomous snakes and no alligators. 

-Sixbears

Calm Before the Storm

I’m enjoying summer. The weather’s been amazing here in the Great North Woods. My lovely wife and I take the sailboat out on the lake. We’ve visited with friends and family outside and in a safe manner. The other day we even went to listen to a local musician play in the park. Home projects are getting done. Maybe not as quickly or as easily as during normal times, but they are getting done. In these interesting times we are doing better than most. New Hampshire is one of the states managing the crisis fairly well. However, there are signs of trouble ahead. Tourists have come into the state from all over. There are packed restaurants. Bike week, which had been rescheduled from June, will be taking place. That usually brings in crowds from all over. Some people have gotten very lax about precautions. I’m hoping that our luck will hold, but still taking all precautions. Too many places have gone from few cases to major outbreaks to relax. Now is the time to sort out any last minute preps. You don’t have to be Nostradamus to know the fall and winter are going to be challenging times. Don’t let this narrow window of prep time slip away. I’m expecting to be pretty much locked down when the cold weather sets in. I’ve plenty of coffee, books to read, and popcorn to watch the show. -Sixbears

The New People

One thing about the Internet -it's easy to find like minded people. You can get together on social media and have a community of sorts. That may provide some emotional support, but that's about all. It's hard to provide real world assistance when your “community” is scattered across the planet.

Then there are actual brick and mortal communities -places with neighborhoods and public spaces. Every community has people who are outside the community norm. Sometimes they are tolerated. Other times they are shunned. Once in a while they are just considered local color. If you are moving into a place, it helps to move someplace where strangers are welcome, not just tolerated or worse.

In the past few years I'm become friends with a number of people new to the area. They are attracted by a number of factors: relatively low housing costs, easy access to nature, walk-able city, no sales or income tax. We are also getting people who find our area fairly welcoming and tolerant. While people in the area have always been friendly, it used to take three generations to be considered a local. That's changed a lot, even in my lifetime.

I think that greater numbers of people are aware of the real value of community. If you have no friends and share few values with the people where you live, it might be time to move. When times get tough, you are going to need to be around people who will help you out. Finding your tribe is important. One woman who I talked to said she lived in many different places, but this is the first time she's ever felt like part of a tribe. It's not about finding people who'll always agree with you. It's about finding people who can acknowledge differences and still like you anyway.

It's can be tough living here. Winters are brutal. Good jobs can be hard to come by. Many people end up working several part time jobs to make ends meet. The social and political environment will not be to everyone's liking. That's fine.

The Internet can be a really useful tool when looking for a place to move to. You can get a pretty good idea what an area is like with some in-depth on-line research. Then you should probably visit the area for a while, to see how it feels. Some things have to be experienced in person.

-Sixbears

Welp, this is the day

Welp, this is the day Trump is sworn in as President.

Now a lot of his political opponents are hoping for him to fail. While I'm not a fan of the man, I do want his presidency to succeed. I want America to succeed. I'll support every program of his that is good for this country.

That being said, I'm going to fight against anything that he proposes that I think is bad for the country. In that way he's no more special than every other President.

I am not a Republican nor am I a Democrat. Frankly, both parties have some pretty dumb ideas as core beliefs. As an Independent voter I pride myself in voting for the best person for the job, regardless of affiliation. We are a pretty big percentage of NH voters. Part of the reason is that during primary elections we can declare for either party, vote, then undeclare and resume Independent status. Works for me.

I'm hoping things go without a hitch. The last thing we need is violence during the “peaceful” transition of power.

-Sixbears

Not enough popcorn

There's not enough popcorn to watch the political mess unfold.

For me the big thing that stuck out from the Republican convention was the overall tone of fear. That's a red flag in my book. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of stuff to be concerned about. The problem, at least for me, is that fear is a proven method of manipulation. Fear shuts down higher reasoning. It appears that the Republicans are heavily invested in using fear for their campaigns.

Surprisingly, the Democratic convention is turning out to be an even bigger mess. Their theme is unity, but that ain't gonna happen. A lot of Bernie supporters are only in the game because they want real change. Hillery is heavily invested in the current political and economic power structures so she's not going to really fight for change. It doesn't matter what language Bernie's folks get into the party platform. Once in power, politicians conveniently forget about that stuff.

Trump ran a successful outsider campaign. A good part of his success was not playing by the rules. Bernie also ran an outsider campaign, but the tried to do it within the party framework. Now it's come out that the party was sabotaging his efforts all along. Yes, there's a token resignation, but the damage was done. Of course, Bernie lacked Trump's billions so it's amazing he did as well as he did. That just goes to show how ready people are for real change.

How about third party candidates? The big argument against voting for a third party is that “This year the election is too important to vote for a sure loser.” That's always the argument. I say, if you really find a third party that appeals to you, go for it. Right now neither the Republican nor the Democratic parties are doing all that well. Might be a good year for a third party to get some traction.

I know it's tempting to stay home on election day. That would be a mistake. Local elected officials have a big influence on your day to day life. You can complain about the National politicians, but the local guy can double your property taxes while at the same time cutting property value in half. The loacl stuff can happen a lot quicker too.

In the interests of full disclosure, I'm a registered in the state of NH as an Independent. The way NH state law is set up, I can declare for either party in the primaries, vote, then re-register as an Independent before leaving the building. I don't' think there's ever been an election where I've voted a straight ticket as I vote for the individual, not the party.

What we really don't want to happen is to see the democratic system fail. Look at the mess in Turkey. The military coup failed and now the counter coup is slipping into a full on dictatorship. Let's let Turkey be a cautionary tale, not a road map.

Pass the popcorn.

-Sixbears

Another long drive

With our business in New Hampshire wrapped up, my lovely wife and I are back on the road. Originally we'd planned on a Friday departure, but my wife's tummy bug said otherwise. That's part of the reason we had a fairly late start on Saturday.

There was also a couple errands to run and one last stop at the house before heading south. A few things were dropped off, lightening the load a tad. When going through my charts I discovered my ICW chart book wasn't in the chart bag. It took some digging around my home office, but finally the chart book was found.

The previous owner of my sailboat sent an e-mail. He has the parts for an unfinished job and wants to help me do the final repairs. That, and he want's to take us out sailing to literally show us the ropes. We could sail it with what we know, but he's going to show us how to race it. It was with some pleasure I was able to inform him we were already in transit.

However, we aren't pushing day and night like we did on the northbound trip. Currently I'm in a hotel in PA. We didn't hit the road until after noon, but still put in over 465 miles. It's a start. While we were still three hours out my lovely and clever wife booked a pet friendly room, getting one of the last ones in the area. Nice.

With any luck we'll be on the trail bright and early.

-Sixbears

New woodstove installed!

I’d like to thank John, Adam, Tracy and Leane for the help moving and installing the new woodstove. The dealer would have moved it for me, but their moving crew is booked until the middle of next month.

The stove lists for $4000, but it was on sale for $3700. After looking at many stoves both on-line and in stores, I went with a local dealer. He’s been in business for years so he’ll probably not disappear tomorrow. Another advantage of dealing local is that NH has no sales tax. On this pricey an item, it makes a difference.

Still, $3700 is a lot of money, at least for me. Then again, it’s doing the work of both a furnace and a kitchen stove. Like much of New England, my old furnace runs on heating oil. The price has taken a big jump. Even with the money I’m spending on wood, the woodstove will pay for itself in less than 3 years.

I’ll do a full performance review on the woodstove after the winter. So far it’s running the way it’s supposed to. The house was toasty warm this morning. Outside it was windy and 33 degrees. The firebox still had plenty of hot coals left from the evening’s wood. I’ve cooked a couple meals on it and perked coffee. The oven easily gets plenty hot enough for baking.

The best thing about a woodstove is that I live in the woods. There’s no long supply line from Venezuela or the Middle East. My heating fuel grows on trees.

-Sixbears

New Hampshire day in Florida

Today my lovely wife, my dad and I went to a "New Hampshire Day," gathering here in Florida. For my dad, it was school reunion day. My wife and I ran into our neighbors from home. They come south at the first sign of really cold weather, and don't head north until the north warms again. Turns out we drive right past their winter home on the way to launching our sailboat. Small world and all that.

The whole snowbird phenomena is a product of several things that are quickly fading away. Of course, one thing is the retirement pension. Having a monthly source of income requiring no further work is a great thing. Unfortunately, it's a rarer thing. The traditional defined benefit plan is going the way of the dodo.

Then there is that the recurring issue, the disappearance of cheap energy. Travel was cheap and easy. Now, it's getting more expensive almost daily.

Historically, many peoples were semi-nomadic. The New England Native Americans would winter by the coast and move inland during warmer weather. Many herding people traveled from grazing land to grazing land, repeating the same circuit year after year. Other people followed animal migrations, or the availability of certain fruits and nuts. People always traveled, but distances were limited to walking distances, or animal transportation. A few others traveled by watercraft.

Today, it felt like we were seeing one of the last big snowbird migrations. My generation (early 50s) probably won't become snowbirds in the numbers my dad's generation did. We won't have the money, time or cheap energy. Winter's going to be long and cold for most of them.

Of course, things could turn out very different. Maybe there will be real train service once more, or sailing passenger ships will return.

Interesting times ahead.

-Sixbears

Who's saving who?

My dad retired to Florida. It made sense at the time as mom had medical conditions that cold temperatures made worse. She had five good years down there before she passed. Never came back north again as travel became too difficult for her.

Dad loves it where he's living. It's one of those double wide trailers in a fairly nice park. Living is easy. Not too much stuff to take care of. He's got friends. Dad's adjusted to the climate. In fact, he hates it when it's too cool to wear short pants. He never wore short pants in NH.

So we talked on the phone Tuesday. He's coming up to spend the month of August with my wife and I. We are really looking forward to it. Always enjoyed dad's company.

I'm watching the situation in the Gulf. Florida beaches have been hit by oil, not too near where dad lives . . . yet. A worse than normal hurricane season is predicted. In 2005 he lost part of his trailer's roof to a hurricane. After that, insurance rates went so high that he canceled all insurance on his property.

That's the background. I'm thinking he's living in a precarious situation. Toxic fumes from the Gulf, (he's not that far from the water) or one bad storm could make the place untenable. Unemployment is terrible in his county. Crime has gone up. He bought a new more powerful handgun last year. I've made it clear that he's welcome to stay at my house as long as he'd like.

Talking to him on the phone, he invited my wife and I to move in with him. As he sees it we could live really cheap down there, have few responsibilities and then have money to travel. Sure, I could sell my house in NH and have money to play with. Wouldn't have to live so close to the bone. Dad pointed out that I'm not getting any younger. Sheesh, I'm only 52. He thinks life is too hard here in NH. Winter can be tough. Moving to Florida looks good on the surface.

However, that's assuming that tomorrow will always be like yesterday. As we see what's going on the Gulf right now, those days are over. Not everyone's gotten the memo yet, but tomorrow will be different than today.

I like living in the middle of nowhere. Most of my family is in New England. Most of my relatives and many of my friends live within 25 miles. I could walk to see them if I had to. I've got some land, good water (free flowing spring), alternate energy, some garden space, some trees, and a house I can afford.

As I see it, my home is my refuge. It feels good to have mountains at my back. I really hope Florida keeps working out for dad. If it doesn't, we've got a room for him here. He'd have to get some long pants though.

-Sixbears