Years ago we had a cat we named "Haku", which is Hawaiian for "master" – an entirely appropriate name for this fellow. He was one mean hombre of a cat!
He was a street stray that we took in (it's sort of a hobby of ours) and took care of. He lived in an outdoor cattery that we'd built to house the kitties we'd rescued that didn't have the right attitude to live indoors. Haku was very friendly with us, and got along with the other kitties just fine. He was enormous, but not at all fat; he was all muscle. Being white, his hair did little to protect him from the sun. Eventually all the exposure caused skin cancer in the tips of his ears, and at our vet's recommendation we had them amputated. This did nothing but enhance his already ferocious look!
Haku had one ability that always amazed us. On more than one occasion when we visited the kitties in the cattery we discovered a bunch of feathers all over the ground – and Haku looking very pleased with himself. It sure looked like he was catching pigeons and eating them – but how could he do this from within the cattery? Finally one day we watched it happen. Haku was curled up, apparently asleep, about eight feet from one wall of the cattery. A pigeon strutted stupidly around just outside that wall (sort of like a politician at work, don't you think?). Then when the pigeon was about 18 inches from the wall, Haku moved at relativistic speed across the cattery floor and extended one front paw an impossible distance through the wire fence that made up the wall. Claws were extended, of course – and they snagged the pigeon quite handily. A few minutes later, nothing but feathers – and that big, ugly grin on Haku's face!
Click on the small photo to get an album of Haku photos...
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Estonia
I miss Estonia; it's been over two years since my last visit. Starting in 1993 and continuing through 2003, I made many business trips to this little country. Two different companies I worked for had software development teams there, and I met with them fairly frequently.On most of those trips, I managed to get a weekend or two to go exploring on my own. My habit was to rent a car (in the early years, this was an adventure unto itself!), and take off on a solo expedition with only a map as my guide. On a few memorable occasions, friends from work traveled with me as guides.
My solo expeditions were always interesting and fun. Enough people spoke English so that I never had very much trouble getting answers to my (many) questions. On many occasions, a child acted as a translator for us -- they all get English in school, whereas many adults (especially outside of the three main cities) never did. Despite their reputation for reticence, the Estonians I met were never reluctant to help me. On a couple of occasions, I was invited into someone's home for a dinner and talk.
Those who know me won't be surprised that the main attractions for me were off the beaten track. I chased down famous trees, meteorite craters, the Takhuna moment to the children lost in the SS Estonia ferry sinking, remote islands, all the national parks, the "erratic boulders" of red granite from Finland dropped by the retreating glaciers on Estonia's limestone, ancient castles, wildflowers and birds. The photo above is of a tiny spit of land projecting a kilometer into the Baltic Sea from the island of Hiiumaa. Estonia has all these things in great abundance; for a traveler like me, it is a heavenly place.
In the most recent years I visited, I could see the beginning of the end of some of rural Estonia's charm. The coastal areas are being "invaded" by wealthy people (often foreigners, mostly Finns) who block off access to the coast and build a private home. Talking with some of the farmers on the northwest coast, I discovered that this was an windfall for them; some of Estonia's most impoverished people now have newfound wealth. This is easy to sympathize with, but still it is indisputable that something beautiful and peaceful is disappearing. I am glad I was able to see it before it disappeared.
On my visits after 1996, I carried a digital camera with me. I have taken thousands of photographs from all over Estonia. Many of them were previously published on a web site which I no longer have running. Some of them have been published by various government and tourist web sites in Estonia (usually, but not always, with my permission <smile>). In recent months, several people have written to ask that I publish those photos again -- so in this album I published a selection of them.
Enjoy!
USS Long Beach
I enlisted in the U.S. Navy in the early '70s, and served for six years. For approximately four of those years I was stationed on the USS Long Beach CGN-9, a nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser. This album has quite a few images of the ship, and the USS Long Beach Association web site has all sorts of information about the ship, its history, and its crew.