camping again!

this weekend we went camping again! it was sort of a trip for jamie's birthday which was last week. we went up to lake santeetlah, which is near robbinsville, nc. it is a beautiful lake, not very crowded at all, since over 3/4 of it is national park. we took both trudy and sadie, because we were able to secure our favorite spot, which is a small island. neither of them swim, so that way they could run free and not be tied up. it rained a little bit, bit we were the die hard campers that we are, so it didn't bother us much at all.
it mostly rained at night. jamie got his socks and boots wet when unloading our "new" boat into the lake. the boat was great! the engine did suck more gas than we expected, but we got everything back in one load.


everyone has eyes like sadie. look closely!


jamie caught some small mouth bass! 5 of them! it was exciting.


tomorrow i have to do my taxes. this sucks. last year was a complicated financial year with getting married and also incorporating my business. wish me luck. argh!

on another front, my friend lee called me today and said that national geogrpahic has done an article on india banning rickshaws from the roads. this means human-pulled rickshaws, not the motorcycle rickshaw we in the west think of. in india, they call the motorcylce rickshaw an "auto". apparently, the ban is on because bicycle rickshaws inpede the flow of traffic and make it dangerous. i found this info:
"2006: as the year starts to wind down, India is just two years short of inaugurating a network of roads that is 14,000 miles long and that will completely change the infrastructure of the country. The big cities of Calcutta, Madras, Bombay and Dehli will be linked together that no one could ever have thought possible. And what’s more – on these new roads will be cars. Lots and lots of cars. An estimated 600 autos for every 1000 people. In the next 25 years it’s projected that more cars will be sold in India than in the countries entire history. By the year 2030, India will be the third largest market in the world, tucked closely behind China and the United States."
better safe than sorry, but sad to see an old traditional for of transportation come to an end. sad to know that all those people will be out of work. have any of you read The Good Earth, by Pearl S Buck? there is a lot of interesting information and good stories about the life of a man who at one point becomes a rickshaw man. (it is a good book about the hardships of life to any extent.) i imagine it is not that much different in india.

my friend billy sproul has started a blog. he is making some killer kinetic sculptures and furniture with hand poured concrete. really awesome stuff. check it out here.



fermelenge!