Summer Starting to End on the Farm

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It has been good spending time on the farm. I really had forgotten how quiet and dark it is here. It can actually be a bit unnerving. The leaf doodle bug was put to work in the forest. However, it looks like the car will be going back on the road. We can say it failed field trials,but that would only be partially true. The better utility value at this point is more suited to getting a teenager back and forth from high school. The mycological aspects of the farm did not disappoint. The pics of these shrooms are not photoshopped. The coal stove (very heavy) is loaded on the truck. It will be rebuilt in Georgia if I can save it. Coal stoves are increasingly out of production. When they are gone they are gone. The small wood stove is now in its place. The pic of the red sky in morning was indeed a warning of weather. We had strong storms and tornados in Upstate NY. Although I was travelling much that day in the area, I missed the worst of it.
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http://www.catfastferry.com/the_ship/

Bonnie and I went to Toronto Friday night on the fast ferry. We stayed at the Westin Harbour where on Saturday the World Championship of Public Speaking took place. We came home on the ferry Saturday night. By the time we got to Berkshire it was actually Sunday morning.

The ferry was neat. It was clean, fast, smooth and fun. We went business class. We had fun chating and making friends on the way over. They serve food in business class and the leather couches are pretty comfy. I slept on the way back.

We didn't have passports with us. It turns out that to travel between Canada and the US you just plain need a passport with you these days. We weren't sure if they were going to let us into Canada.

The one little movie of the stern wake of the cat while under way got corrupted. Maybe I need a new camera. Grr.

The Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking was worthwhile. The top ten competed and the winner was named, Lance Miller from California. He nailed a speech using a mnemonic device of "Cha Ching" where the theme was that we "validate" people and we allow them to validate us, much like getting your parking garage ticket stamped in a professional's office. All the speeches gave us a lot to think about and made us laugh. The 1800 people in the audience were well behaved (no one got out of their seats for 90 minutes during the competition) and it is interesting to see the mutual support in each other even at these high levels of competition. I need to get a copy of the video of these speeches. It is impressive to anyone. To a Toastmaster that can pick out subtle flaws these speeches are impressive and inspiring. As I was talking to my brother I was reminded that I had been quoted that public speaking is the original multimedia.

Bonnie and I had a great dinner at The Old Mill on the west side of Toronto. It took me hours on the web to decide on that place before we went. We were not disappointed. It was quite away from where we were staying but we could still take the subway. The food was excellent and the service was exceptional. For an appetizer I had asparagus wrapped in smoked salmon.




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