An old friend pops up...sailing around the world!

Today I received an email response (to an email I actually sent erroneously) from an old buddy from my days in Tempe, Arizona. It turns out he's in the middle of a sailing expedition around the world.

Hey, why not.

Here's his blog chronicling his sailing adventures; I guess you'd call it the official Captain's Log: ~ The Blue Water Log Of The Yacht Barraveigh ~

All aboard! Sorry, that's a train...what do ship captains say? Ahoy matey! Anyway, it was good to hear from Whitey, who appears to be going by Cap'n Bobby as the, um, captain.

As buddies we've been out of touch for years, but we go way back...let's just say we were hanging out before Cobain pulled the trigger...which was also before everyone kept in touch online.

He was good to me. He let me crash at his place repeatedly when I'd had too many. We had many interesting conversations, including a philosophical discussion about "what constitutes a speciesist?" in which we decided that we "favored mammals" over all other species. He helped me problem solve when I ran into college-related financial crises. One of the good guys.

I also recall that he let me store my belongings at his place over the summer (piled up in the entryway room, mind you) for virtually nothing, except for the price of one of my good kitchen knives...hey, maybe it's on the boat with him!

I can't imagine the numerous friends I would have had the luxury of keeping in touch with using the net. Keeping in contact with Whitey was one of those casualties. It's good to be back in touch!

As I thought about it, I recall Whitey mentioning that he always had a dream to sail around the world...it's a fluttering memory, but it's familiar. At any rate, it's what he's been doing over the last 3 years...read all about it at ~ The Blue Water Log of the Yacht Barraveigh ~...and you'll get more out of it if you start at the beginning and work your way forward.

Here's an excerpt from one of his posts on April 27, 2006:

"Whenever I pull into a new anchorage I have a little procedure. Once the anchor is down, and I'm sure I'm not dragging, then I shut off the engine, put on The Police's De Doo Doo Doo, De Daa Daa Daa on the outside speakers and then I do a naked back flip off the stern rail. That's my thing. Mine. Don't copy it. This time there was a human watching from the pier. I couldn't tell if it was male or female. Pretty far away. I did hear them call their friends over though. This island was a prison colony. Not much for entertainment and they must have been hoping for an encore. One's all ya get."

Here's one more excerpt from May of 2006:

"My first stop was Paquera where I met my taxi driver Lecho and his family to take them sailing (remember the previous 12 hour trip to Tamarindo to pick up the outboard and his kids and I scooped melons off the road?). Only thing that was strange about this sail outing is that it was a different family. Different wife, different kid. When they went to the head I asked him what was up. 'Shh, I have 3 families.' I guess a taxi driver can pull that off."

So there it is...one of the more interesting blogs I've run into recently.

So since Whitey set sail in December 2005, it would seem to me that he's missed quite a bit back here in the States...heck, I still hear trickles from things I missed after 3 weeks in Peru last month. Something is recalled in the news or something, and you think: "Oh, we must have been in Peru during that."

Anyway, here are some thoughts about what he's missed, most of which he's probably better off:

• McDonald's ushering in the healthy menu in the fast food industry (merely in response to the documentary Super Size Me)
  
• The new Batman movie...sorry Whitey, it was really good
• Carbon Footprint Obsession Disease
  
• The new Radiohead CD In Rainbows, and the following tour in which they kept track of their carbon footprint.
  
• The new Rush CD Snakes & Arrows, and their world tour that followed...I KNOW he's bummed about that
• My obsession with Neil Young
• The deaths of Tim Russert, Bernie Mac, Syd Barrett and Rick Wright
  
• The rise of Barack Obama, the primary drama that ended in the defeat of the Clintons, and the surprise of Sarah Palin
• McCain explaining how he knows how to use "THE Google"
  
• Crocs (and Croc beads)
  
• Computer hard drive size expanding into terabytes
• The first AND second issues of the iPhone
  
• Wide use of wiki technology (depends on his online access and usage)
• Gene Simmons Family Jewels
  
• Seedless watermelons? Maybe not.
  

...but what would YOU rather be doing with your apathetic life? That's the REAL question. S