This day marks

THREE HUNDRED AND FORTY-NINE DAYS of hearty, and joyful howling on Sherwood brought to you by the Sherwood Howlers.

THREE HUNDRED AND FORTY-NINE DAYS.

CLOSING IN ON OUR ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY. SIXTEEN DAYS AND COUNTING.

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Tonight I am howling for those killed recently in Atlanta, Georgia.

Delainia Ashley Yuan, 33,

Paul Andre Michels, 54,

Xiaojie Tan, 49,

Daoyou Feng, 44,

Soon Chung Park, 74,

Hyun Jung Grant, 51,

Suncha Kim, 69,

Yong Ae Yue, 63,

And those killed recently in Boulder, Colorado.

Denny Stong, 20,

Neven Stanisic, 23,

Rikki Olds, 25,

Tralona Bartkowiak, 49,

Suzanne Fountain, 59,

Teri Leiker, 51,

Officer Eric Talley, 51,

Kevin Mahoney, 61,

Lynn Murray, 62,

Jody Waters, 65

These people’s lives were stolen from them by in senseless violent acts by cowards with guns.

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Tonight a mournful howl for these American citizens. Another shameful and sad story of gun violence in America.

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The self-righteous prattle on about how any gun control is an infringement on freedom. They tell other Americans to beware that the left wants to take their guns. That is false. Very few on the left are trying to take anybody’s weapons, a right encoded in the 2^nd Amendment. Rational people just want the murdering of innocent men, women, and children to stop. They want Congress to pass common sense laws to reduce the chance that lunatics can get their hands on guns.

In fact, a Pew Research Center poll recently found that about 60% of Americans say that gun control laws in general should be tougher.

Eighty-nine percent of Americans say Congress should pass more funding to screen and treat people with mental illness who are trying to buy guns legally.

Eighty-three percent of Americans support background checks on people buying guns at a gun show or through a private sale.

Seventy-two percent of Americans support “red flag” laws, which allow police to seize a person’s gun after a judge decides that individual poses a threat to themselves or others.

Seventy-two percent of U.S. adults say a person should have to obtain a license before buying a gun.

Sixty-one percent of Americans said they want Congress to ban high-capacity magazines.

But a private national gun rights organization, that would be the NRA, with plenty of pull and money, essentially has the genitals of most, if not all, Republican local, state, and federal government law makers in a vise, and they tighten it whenever some in their ranks squeaks about stronger gun laws. When your genitals are being squashed in a vise, you become irrational.

Money and power. That is the underlying debasement at the root of this discussion.

Meanwhile, the murder of innocent men, women and children continues in America.

Before getting a license to use a motor vehicle, one must show competency and knowledge of motor vehicle law. The vehicle must be licensed and ensured. Before practicing any one of a number of professional endeavors, one must show educational credentials, take qualifying exams, be in good standing with professional organizations and have malpractice insurance.

Building contractors have to pay licensing fees, show competency, and post bonds. Tattoo parlors, restaurants, milk producers, energy companies, truck drivers, railroad operators all have to be licensed, along with just about every other entity doing business in America.

Hell’s bells, even barbers have to be licensed in all fifty states.

Why is not owning a gun the same?

Money and power, that is why.

Steve Talley

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COMMUNITY NEWS – A REASON TO HOPE

Ladies and gentlemen of Sherwood Avenue.

I just had a conservation with Lee Hodge. Jim Hodge is doing much better. Yesterday doctors “permanently” removed him from the ventilator. The contraption is still in his room just in case, but he is breathing on his own now. They are reducing supplemental oxygen slowly and giving him pulmonary physical therapy so that he essentially can learn to breathe in his own. He is becoming more lucid every day – coming out of the Covid “fog”.

Jim is a very lucky man indeed. He entered the hospital on January 13, 2021, seventy-three days ago. Within two weeks of hospital admission, the docs had to ventilate him. So he has been on a ventilator for about two months. I have read that only 1 in 10 people survive covid 19 when it becomes necessary that they be ventilated. He is that one survivor.

Lee expressly asked me to tell the neighborhood to keep those prayers and thoughts coming. She is very thankful to have her husband back.

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AMERICAN TRAVELS

May 22, 2015

In the evening, another storm appeared in the west. The wind picked up to twenty, then thirty knots with gusts to forty. Rocking and rolling. We actually got supper fixed during the early stages of this blow. I had it in my mind that this thing would expire fairly quickly like the first one.

Wrong again. It blew all night long, pretty much at thirty plus.

Our anchoring “ground tackle” consists of the anchor (a very fine Bruce knockoff that has never failed us, never dragged) and two hundred and fifty feet of quarter inch high tensile chain, backed by two hundred feet of rope. Cruisers use chain because it’s strong of course but also because it’s heavy and lays on the bottom thus contributing “holding power” to the buried anchor. We have 100 feet of chain out at the moment.

However, chain is rigid so that in high winds with the boat is pointing into the wind one can experience a lot of rocking and rolling, and the bow can swing through a four to six foot arc. The chain is loose on the down-swing, but on the up-swing the force of that upward movement is transferred to the bow through that rigid chain. That force is tremendous. Makes for a very uncomfortable motion and, at the worst, a cleat could fail, which could have disastrous consequences, setting the boat adrift in dangerous circumstances.

The solution to this problem is a snubber line – a ten foot more or less length of three strand or braided nylon rope which runs from a cleat out through the bow roller (the thing on the bow which carries the anchor rode, in our case the chain) and is attached to the chain with a funky and expensive chain hook or simply tied with a couple half hitches. The snubber line is pulled tight so that it then takes the load while a loop of chain hangs slack. This line stretches considerable under tension, acts like a shock absorber and thus dampens the up and down movement of the bow. Makes for a very much more comfortable and safe ride in high winds.

So dutifully this night I deployed the snubber line just like I always do, after we have properly “set” the anchor. Chain and snubber running through the same bow roller on the bowsprit.

So we go to bed, all snug but also apprehensive about our very exposed position.

We woke to loud slamming and banging motion. It seemed like the bow was exploding. Winds very high, but the anchor drag alarm had not gone off. In fact we were not dragging, but the snubber line had parted.

Living on a sailboat is in part all about keeping your gear in good order, being prepared for whatever could happen, and learning lessons from your experiences and mistakes. We had sure made our share of mistakes over the past few months and have tried to learn from them.

This one was an important lesson learned.

The snubber had parted because I had run it across the same bow roller as the chain, just like I had always done. But this was the first time we had experienced winds like this. The snubber had worked its way under the chain which ate that snubber in half in a very short time, and the stupendous force generated in the up and down bow movement was suddenly transferred through that rigid chain to the bow, making for a very unpleasant and dangerous experience.

What I had to contemplate as a solution and knew I had to do, was to take my stainless steel artificial knees and arthritic hands forward in this weather to replace that snubber. We got on our life jackets, thought through the various steps in our solution and prepared for my journey forward. The basic idea was that Emily would drive the boat forward to relieve the stress on the chain and I would deploy a new snubber. Hopefully, the wind would cooperate and calm a little (which did not happen). We expected that communication would be nearly impossible in this howling wind and we were right on that.

With the intrepid Emily (otherwise known as “Your Highness”) at the helm and me (otherwise known as “Mister Potato Head”) supplying muscle power, we got it going. I clipped myself onto the boat using a six foot tether attached to my life preserver. Got to the bow and was astonished and frightened by the arcing motion there. Must have been six, maybe eight feet. There were times I was under water to my knees, then the bow would move upward at breakneck speed and launch me up with it.

But somehow, with my trusty high lumen Redline flashlight in my teeth, I got a new snubber in place and RAN THE NEW LINE UNDER A DIFFERENT BOW ROLLER! And it only took an hour.

I made my way back into the cockpit and very thankfully hugged my beautiful wife, who had done a superb job at the helm, thus the moniker, “Your Highness. Immediately the violent rocking motion calmed. We were cold and soaked to the bone, but safe for the moment. And that fabulous Bruce anchor had not budged an inch.

We didn’t sleep the rest of the night. Up at dawn, winds slightly down. Coffee sure tasted good. We debriefed the night’s experience and thought about what happens next. Which was a fun and exhilarating motor sail from our anchorage off Reeds Point north of the William B Umstead Memorial Bridge, out into Albemarle Sound where we crossed the eastern ICW route that goes by way of the North River to Coinjock and Norfolk. We intersected and joined the western ICW route, the Great Dismal Swamp Canal route, down which we had come last fall. We ran up the Pasquotank River, past the tethered blimp and the US Coast Guard Air Base and into Elizabeth City harbor, that bills itself as the most boater friendly town on the ICW (which means of course they are happy to have you spend your money there).

Everyone should have an airship (blimp) parked in their back yard.

Monkey Man and Monkey

We tied up at the free city dock right next to the town park, where you can stay for forty eight hours, but they are very loose on the rule. Five dollar showers in a city kept, very clean bath house.

We were met by Gus, who has been greeting boaters here for twenty years. With Gus, you also get Gus’ stories, of which there are many, and they start the very minute you get tied up. They are the same stories we heard back in the fall but somehow they sound fresh each time, and he is very entertaining.

The monkey man was there also, same guy, same monkey as last fall. I’m not making this stuff up. This guy is a daily fixture in the park. People, especially kids, are delighted. So were we.

So here we are and here is where we intend to stay. Tomorrow the Elizabeth City Farmers market and all kinds of goodies. We will stay here two nights then continue onward to Norfolk, VA.

Good night to you.

Namaste’

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Mass Murder Statistics

1. The United States has had more mass shootings than any other country. However, mass shootings accounted for less than 0.2% of all homicides in the U.S. between 2000 and 2016.
2. Between 1982 and 2011, a mass shooting occurred roughly once every 200 days. However, between 2011 and 2014, at least one mass shooting occurring every 64 days in the United States.
3. In years 2017, 2018, and 2019, there were 11, 12, and 10 mass murders respectively, the highest annual total murders in 38 years.
4. The US has the highest per-capita gun ownership in the world with 120.5 firearms per 100 people; the second highest is Yemen with 52.8 firearms per 100 people.
5. Many of the mass shooters in the U.S. suffer from mental illness, but the estimated number of mental illness cases has not increased as significantly as the number of mass shootings.
6. In recent years, many shooters have cited adult bullying as a reason for their deadly violence.
7. Several types of guns have been used in mass shootings in the United States. A 2014 study found that of 142 shootings, 88 (62%) were committed with handguns of all types; 68 (48%) with semi-automatic handguns, 20 (14%) with revolvers, 35 (25%) with semi-automatic rifles, and 19 (13%) with shotguns.
8. High capacity magazines were used in approximately half of mass shootings. Semi-automatic rifles have been used in six of the ten deadliest mass shooting events.
9. Mass murderers often show a desire for fame and notoriety.
10. Mass shooters learn from one another and often “copy-cat.”
11. Some people cite the failure of government background checks due to incomplete databases and/or staff shortages

A pictorial graph showing mass murder locations in America and some statistics:

https://www.theviolenceproject.org/mass-shooter-database/

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COVID 19 IN VIRGINIA, STAUNTON, AND AUGUSTA COUNTY

Today’s Trends and Notes

NO TIME FOR COMPLACENCY. COVID IS MAKING A RUN.

1. The state seven day positivity rate has been steadily rising for the past 10 days and now stands at to 5.7%.
2. New cases per capita in Virginia are at 240 today, a slow but steady rise over the past 10 days.
3. New cases in last 24 hours in Staunton and Augusta County are still in single digits and have been for 10 days. There have been no new deaths in Augusta County or Staunton for 10 days.
4. The average 14 day case rate for all categories of localities I follow rose today for first time in a while.
5. In the past 24 hours VDH reported that 994 people are in hospitals currently with COVID 19, swinging lazily around 1000, but much lower than a month ago.
6. Virginia administered a total of 3,403,097 vaccinations to date.
7. Virginia is now averaging 54,376 vaccinations per day.
8. 1,224,047 people have received two doses.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

“When a country with less than five percent of the world’s population has nearly half of the world’s privately owned guns and makes up nearly a third of the world’s mass shootings, it’s time to stop saying guns make us safer.”

― DaShanne Stokes