Wednesday, June 30, 2021

Hilton Head Island: furnished; The Day of the Seafarer: a male sports bra?; racing the peloton


I am presently sitting in the armchair on the right in my favorite spot in this condo, although now there are several new desirable alternatives.  A definitely more comfortable upgrade.  

The furniture taken from Evanston two weeks ago was delivered as scheduled yesterday.

Until now most of the furniture in the condo was intended to be outside and now it mostly is, cleverly arranged by Carol.

The chairs that had been here in front of the bedroom window are now on the screened porch, along with the circular wood table that was in the dining area, although it is open only to a half circle and against the outside screen wall.

Part of the plastic wicker sofa is on the open deck and two parts are in what might have been intended as a breakfast area between the kitchen and the porch and will now probably become the TV watching area.

The cherry dining table from Evanston is in the dining area.  The L shaped sofa, the coffee table, my desk and the carpet from Evanston are in the living area.  

We have still to hang photographs and art works on the walls, but now a mere three and a half years after we bought this place, it is finally furnished.


Google notified me that I have been quoted on a site of ‘Insipirational Quotes About Sailing’ for the Day of the Seafarer.

I did not even know that seafarers have a day, though I have had mine.  Many.  Countless.

You can guess what they quoted, but they did add, “Live passionately even if it kills you because something is going to kill you anyway.”

https://www.ibtimes.com/international-day-seafarer-inspirational-quotes-about-sailing-3235592



I have of course been watching the Euro 2021 soccer tournament which some consider superior to the World Cup.  Currently six of the top seven ranked nations in the world are European.  If you were watching yesterday, late in the match between Sweden and the Ukraine a Ukraine player scored what would prove to be the winning goal and as soccer players often do pulled off his shirt to reveal his muscular chest and to my surprise what appeared to be a sports bra.  What?

Carol googled and found the non-salacious explanation.

I am relieved.



From Sam, an American completing his Ph.D. in Australia, comes a link about an interesting challenge, a cyclist who is racing to stay ahead of the peloton in the Tour de France, carrying a tent and his supplies with him and camping out at night rather than being treated and pampered by team support members.

https://cyclingtips.com/2021/06/interview-lachlan-morton-on-the-gear-and-motivation-behind-his-alt-tour/

And here is a link to his daily position page:

https://www.rapha.cc/us/en_US/stories/the-alt-tour

He is presently ahead and I hope he stays there.

I replied to Sam that I used to watch the Tour de France but stopped after the drug scandals.  I was watching the day Floyd Landis broke away from the pack on what seemed a daring and successful individual effort, only to have it ultimately shown that he was on drugs.  Then there was Lance Armstrong and many others.  It seemed to me that everyone at the top was taking drugs because that was the only way to win.

Sam, who is a scientist as well as a cyclist, tells me he thinks the sport is now clean, so I am going again to watch.

Also in our correspondence and my reading about the current COVID caused hard lock down in Sydney and several other Australian cities I learned that only 4% of Australians are fully vaccinated.  I had assumed that the numbers would be similar to the those in the US and UK where almost half of the adult population is vaccinated.  The problem seems to be that only the AstraZeneca vaccine is produced in Australia.  While there have been relatively few COVID cases in Australia, I’d rather be vaccinated.  It would be deplorable to die of a preventable disease, though many will.




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