"Mr. Simpson, step forward and try on the glove"
-----TIME's list of the 100 worst ideas of the century
RIP Nicole and Ron

Yesterday we went out to the Port of Sacramento, which is really in West Sacramento, to see the Endeavour (with a "u") sail in. This is a replica of Captain Cook's ship, built in Fremantle Australia in the early 1990s. It sailed from Fremantle 9 December 1993, and then, after a trip to New Guinea, it was sailed back to Fremantle for a necessary refitting. This round-the-world trip was started in 1996. They sailed, first, to England, then last fall they were on the East Coast of the U.S. Christmas was in the Panama Canal, and they are now sailing northwards to Vancouver, where they'll spend a couple of months before sailing to Hawaii and home for Christmas. There's a permanent crew of 16, plus the support (non-sailing) crew who set up the stores and the docking, etc. The other crew of 40 is made up of people who spend $750 for the privilege of working like a dog for 6 days and sailing. They do get a t-shirt for their money, too. I guess, since I want to pay the Royal Tyrell Museum for the privilege of doing their work digging for dinosaurs, I have no reason to think these people are totally crazy. We talked to someone, a Sacramentan, who had sailed from Newport Beach to Point Hueneme, earlier this spring. Apparently the winds were not favorable, and they sailed south, first, to Mexico, and back and forth, till they were finally able to beat north.

The original ship was built in 1765 and called something else before being purchased by the Royal Admiralty in 1768. Captain Cook was to sail to the south seas to measure the transit of Venus across the face of the Sun. This was for measuring the size of the Earth. He was also to look for the Great Southern Continent. (He had to settle for Australia, though.)

It was exciting seeing this tall ship coming up the channel, beating from side to side (motoring, darn it). They shot off their cannons, which certainly got our attention. I took lots of virtual pictures, but realized my camera was empty before I completely blew the day. After the bark was tied up, we listened to one of the crew talk about "shipcaping" (keeping). The volunteers spend the night on the ship. They don't even have to pay for this privilege! (They get a t-shirt, too, I believe. We saw a woman who is doing this today at a different volunteer activity.)

A nice way to spend some time. We aren't going to tour it, we've been on 18th century ships, but it was sure nice seeing it come in.

Then last night we went to the street dancing in Old Sacramento. We missed it last week, since the notice wasn't in the paper and the weather was too foul to go try for it if it wasn't there. I had had a bad night with my shoulder, and made sure Rich danced on my left, so he didn't pull too much. We were both remembering our first year, when every word was "oops". It's a lot easier now! Anyway, a couple of the faster ones did pull my arm a bit, and I sat out a couple of times, about 4 dances. I'd have liked to do it all, as the next two weeks we'll be late, because of RailFair. Anyway, it was fun. We first walked around to see the setup for RailFair.

At home, I took a pain pill, the first in a couple of months. I guess I've been stretching the shoulder, since it's letting me know about it. I slept like a baby.

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4 months of the reign of King William the Lucky Rapist. 589 days left. Wonder what he'll do to amuse himself now that the war is over?