Lake Forest: flew; Shackleton; Audubon; movement of cruising boats; the four components of war

18F when I woke this morning at 6 am.  Now in early afternoon a balmy 35F.  Obviously I am not on Hilton Head Island.  I am in Lake Forest, Illinois, having flown here yesterday.  Both my flights were delayed, but not disruptingly, and so it was merely a tiring day of sitting and waiting like obedient cattle.  I am glad it is over.

Lake Forest is a nice place, but I am not looking out at water and beauty.

I expect to be here for at least two months as Carol retires from a long and successful career and we get rid of a lot of stuff and close down her apartment, following which she will drive us east to Hilton Head for what should be the very last time.

I thank David for a link to a website of immense beauty, John J. Audubon’s Birds of America, which includes reproductions of 435 of his watercolors.  Almost everyone knows of Audubon, but I had never before studied his watercolors carefully.  They are wonders.  I have bookmarked the site and added it to my daily habits.  I now view four or five birds a day with awe and appreciation.

https://www.audubon.org/birds-of-america

I thank James for a link to a nine minute film SOUTH about Ernest Shackleton’s attempt to reach the South Pole.  The film contains fascinating original footage but requires some previous knowledge of what the men endured.  If you do not know here is a link:  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Shackleton

And here is the link to the film:

https://youtu.be/BJ-6RJkuLlQ?si=6TgbG_uJsrkQZRTf

I thank Doug for a link to Jimmy Cornell’s latest survey of the world wide movement of cruising boats which I had not seen.

I expect it still reflects residual effects of the pandemic, but perhaps people are truly becoming more timorous than they were.

It re-enforces my personal observations that the average cruising boat is now 45-50’ long and an increasing number are catamarans.

https://www.cruisingworld.com/destinations/global-movement-cruising-boats/

While sitting and waiting yesterday, I read a great deal of UNKNOWN SOLDIERS, a novel by Vaino Linna about Finland’s part in WW2 in which, having been earlier invaded by the Soviet Union, they fought as allies of Germany.  It is quite a good antidote to Horace’s Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.

A quote:

Besides being cold and hungry, the men were also sleep-deprived—so, of the four components we might say encapsulate the essence of war, fear was the only one missing.