Mark is a successful tech entrepreneur. And also a runner, cyclist, sailor, father and husband. When I met him in person several years ago he had sold two start-ups. I do not know if the number is greater now, but two, about which he was quite modest, is enough. He drove down from Madison, Wisconsin, one day to have lunch with me and gave me a great compliment. He said as he was driving he was thinking he was on his way to meet the Steve Jobs of sailing. I don’t know that it is deserved, but it is memorable.
During the pandemic Mark studied and wrote about wonder, the wonder that is common in children and usually lost in adults. Wonder that is lost and shouldn’t be about aspects of our lives we take for granted. He sent me some of his writings and I included part of at least one in the journal about the first military convoy across the U.S. not long after WWI led by the then obscure Dwight Eisenhower.
Mark has now completed his project, at least for now, and is offering a free newsletter with episodes to be sent at regular intervals. I have signed up and look forward to what he will make me aware of.
I must say that I have not completely lost my sense of wonder. Yesterday I responded to friend who was listening to Ravel’s ‘Rapsodie Espagnole’ that I have a performance of it on my iPhone along with more than 700 albums of music and more than 500 books and all the charts covering GANNET’s circumnavigation, in a device about the size of a deck of cards that fits in my pocket. The young take this for granted, but I continue to be amazed.
You can check out Mark’s website and if you wish sign up for the newsletters here. I expect you will find them entertaining and informative and wonder expanding.
While I was doing my weight workout Thursday my phone rang. Usually I would not have answered it, but I was expecting calls from the office of the beautiful skin cancer doctor and a bike shop where my bike is being serviced, so I stopped and answered. It was from the skin cancer doctor’s office. I had thought she sent only one slice of me to be biopsied, but she sent four. Three were benign, one pre-cancerous, which means that I only have to go in to have it sprayed with liquid nitrogen again. In making that appointment I became free to book my flight back to the lower flatlands. I like Lake Forest and enjoy being with Carol, but I am getting restless and miss being on the coast and near GANNET. And who would want to miss the height of the hurricane season?
So I googled flights from Chicago to Savannah. Non-stops from Chicago to Hilton Head end on Labor Day. I booked a basic economy ticket on United on Monday, September 13, for $41. When the extra taxes are added the total comes to $48.60. That is for a distance of just short of 1000 miles. Lake Forest to O’Hare and Savannah Airport to our condo on Hilton Head are both 25-30 miles and both will cost more than the flight.
If you have ever been to Brazil and are not a teetotaler you know the pleasure of caipirinhas, the national drink made with cachaca, limes and sugar.
An article on the BBC News site a few days ago about cachaca, seen by myself and Larry, reminded me of the drink.
Cachaca is made from fermented sugarcane juice, which differentiates it from rum which is made from molasses.
According to the BBC article cachaca is the third most wildly produced spirit in the world after vodka and China’s baijiu. I goggled ‘baijiu’ and learned that it comes from fermented sorghum or rice.
This morning we found a few bottles of cachaca at a large liquor store and this evening I made us caipirinhas as seen in the photo above. They are simple, delightful, and bring back memories of Brazil to those of us who have been there and I expect desire to go for those who haven’t.
As my continuing ongoing public service I provide a link to a recipe.
https://www.thespruceeats.com/caipirinha-recipe-759290
I changed some details.
We couldn’t find our muddler. Presumably it is in Hilton Head. So I muddled with an ice cream scoop.
We didn’t have any sugar, so I bought some powdered sugar, but I used only a single teaspoon. Neither of us likes sweet drinks and one teaspoon was enough for our tastes.
I made our first with three ounces of cachaca, the second, which is currently beside me, with two.
Here in Lake Forest I do my usual push-up, crunch, knee bend work out on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays. Somehow during the move from Evanston our weights went missing. As far as we can tell nothing else did. Although I am reluctant to add stuff here that will only have to be thrown out, I missed my weight workouts and bought another set of 10 pound dumbbells from Amazon and am doing my usual weight workout on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. But I chanced across an article about planks and have added them before and after the weight workout. I am in the plank position while doing push-ups, but more can’t hurt. Goggling resulted in a wide variation of opinion of how long to hold a plank. One scientist states that his research demonstrates that there is no advantage beyond doing three 10 second planks at intervals. Others suggest 60 seconds. On my first attempt I went to 120 seconds and got bored. Now I start the weight workout with a 60 second plank and end it with three 10 second planks. I don’t know that it makes any difference, but my aged body still wants to be used and I feel virtuous.
Having driven to the huge liquor store several miles away, we shopped at a different supermarket near it. While there I noticed 10 year Laphroaig for $49.99 a bottle. This is the best price I have seen since before the Trump tariffs. Unfortunately I had just bought a bottle at the liquor store for $64.99.
L’Chaim.
Webb, thanks for mentioning Because Wonder. For those of you that sign up, I hope you find it worthwhile.
ReplyDeleteAnd I do think you are the Steve Jobs of sailing, Webb. Except unlike Jobs, you have not received the widespread attention that your body of work warrants. Not yet, anyway.