The Underground Man

Jim Clark

I have a portfolio of fine B&W photography of racing that I picked up at Sears Point Raceway in Northern California many years ago. Recently, I started framing them and I brought one into work.

I didn't know who the driver was until I Googled the name of the photographer, Jesse Alexander. This particular photo was taken in 1962, at the very beginning of the Scot's GP racing career. Sadly, I don't know where it was taken. As it was related to me when I purchased it, he had just won a race and a close friend had been killed in the same race.

I have come across a reference to Wolfgang von Trips being killed in a collision with Jim that also caused the death of 14 spectators but that event took place during the 1961 GP season.

Nonetheless, it remains a timeless photo. Some have called Jim Clark the greatest driver who ever lived.

kitten update

Well, Gandalf appears to have found a sterling home. A very nice woman who is a MICA student came over last week and met him and took him home. He was on the verge of what I think of as "conversion" - where the feral cat accepts the human being as mom-substitute and gets really friendly. He was coming up and sniffing me, curious that the boys would sit on my lap, and he responded really well to being petted while he ate.

Of course, moving to a new home is a bit of a step back, but Katie (our MICA friend) has been giving me regular updates and he seems to be adjusting. I told her she has a guarantee if he doesn't work out I'll take him back. I think there is little fear of that.

The boys are doing very well, though Bandit remains more social and more inquisitive than Brownie. Brownie is still a little timid when I come home but quickly remembers who I am. Bandit already has a bad habit of trying to climb my trouser legs in order to get higher and see what I'm doing (like when I'm preparing dinner). This morning, he tried it while I was shaving, naked in front of the sink. Ouch! Something I hope to break him of quickly.

Both kittens take to grooming when I'm performing my ablutions in the bathroom. Very darn funny. They are pretty bright.

Evenings seem to include a period of sitting on my lap/chest and passing out. They have the whole run of the house now (except the bedrooms) and seem to be gaining in confidence every day.

Now the onus is definitely on me to put the house in order for the coming holidays. I'm thinking of having a big Thanksgiving cook-up. Have to figure out my guest list soon though.

Antietam

I've decided that as long as I'm living in Baltimore, I need to explore the surrounding area a bit. So far, I've been down in the Shenandoah (before moving here, last October), down to DC (to watch the Kentucky Derby with family) and that's about it for getting out of town.

So I've resolved to do something about this woeful inadequacy and headed out to Antietam today. It has the sorry distinction of being the site of the single bloodiest day of American history - something like 23,000 men killed or wounded on that single day in 1862.

Antietam, named for the nearest body of water (a Northern habit where the south named their battlefields for the closest town), is near Frederick in the upper west-most corner of the State of Maryland. Distances being so much smaller here in the East, this means its about 70 miles from where I live in B-City.

Of course, I took the scenic route, and it took me something like 3 hours to finally find the battlefield. Along the way, I stopped in what I think was Burkittsville and went into a period general store. The proprietor, Paul, is running for delegate for that region in the fall elections, and over the next hour or so we smoked cigars, talked about small town politics and energy policy and he told me about the battle of South Mountain (which I will detail another time).

The general store has been one since 1821 and he bought it and refurbished it, selling period artifacts/replicas, a couple of years ago.

Seems like quite nice motorcycling country and an easy ride so I propose to take my new Ducati up there - as soon as I buy one. Pity that we will be subsumed in snow in another eight or nine weeks. I just realized that it's only about eight weeks to Thanksgiving.

Wow.. time passes quickly.

We lost a cat this week

I'm on the third leg of my vacation right now, near Lake Travis in Austin.

I got here from Seattle on Thursday night and it was with a heavy heart.
One of my parents' barn cats, Tangerine, had to be put down. When I came
into the barn on Monday morning, I noticed that she was bleeding around the mouth, and ears. I was quite concerned that she had been poisoned - given
the damage evident around her mucuus membranes. My mom thought it likely that she had tangled with something like a raccon.

In any event, we took here to the vet the next morning (Monday having been
Labor Day) and they did an x-ray and blood test. The vet thought it could be
feline lukemia, HIV or a liver problem. In the end, it turned out to be catastrophic liver failure.

I hope to never see the like again - but at least we got to say goodbye to her before she was in too much pain. As my mother said, and I believe as well, its our final responsibility to our animals to put them down when they can no longer be cured or are in pain.