One of the reasons I don’t like e-mail is because I am a virgo and therefore I have a tendancy to very thorough and to explain something in words can take a thousand but a picture can say it all and e-mail is mostly words.Any way from the earliest part to today …..
I started out being raised near alexandria In northern virginia in a little community like pungo named Franconia as a kid we called it funconia.I graduated farm high school in 1964 and worked around the area at different dead end jobs never thinking of college so I got drafted.
The army trained me to be a radio operator and I spent nearly a year in viet nam as an advisor to a troop of viet namese cavelry trying to teach them how to talk to black guys from Detroit or Burmingham or white guys from New York or any where else where people talk with a heavy accent. There was a communication problem when the viets tried to call in an air strike or artillery support and called in and gave a number coordinate and could not pronounce the numbers so the guys on the other end could understand them it was like mass confusion and the air or artillery would at times fall on the friendlies instead of the enemy. This is where I learned to question all authority.
I returned to the world in Jan 68 and started to go to college studying political science and economics. I got involved in anti war activites on campus and joined John Kerry and the Viet Nam Veterans against the war. Testified befor congress, spoke out, became a hippie, went to woodstock, got an associate degree, decided to find another place to live after seeing a bumper sticker that said “america love it or leave it” I took that to heart and went to mexico for a month just to see if I liked mexicians. I bought some things down there among the goods were lamps made out of brass and glass that were portch lights or ceiling lights as showed them to the owner of a place named tri-state lighting over in Bethesda so he gave me some photos of lights and I went back to Mexico and Fulhenscio made the lights up and gave me a price. I brought them back to Bethesda he liked them and I started an Import company and my banker financed us and I started traveling. {not loving what Nixon and Agnew were doing to amarica I thought I just have to leave}
Back in 72 there were so many people that I met that were doing the same thing I was doing {searching for a new place to live} in Mexico and they were for the most part all 27 years old.
There were so many of us that Jimmy Buffett wrote a song it was titled “expratiated americans” and Costa Rica got settled by rich americans and used the dollar bill as their currency and started the environmental movement to save rain forests.
Mean while back home R. J. Renolds tobacco in richmond was copywriting names like alcapulco gold, panama red, michuocan and other names that we used to call marajuana because the word back home was that nixon was going to legizalize dope. My banker got in touch with me and I don’t really know how but some how he was hooked up with R. J. Renolds tobacco probably because his bank was R.J. Renolds virginia bank and they wanted an import company ready bring the newly legalized product to them in Richmond . The catch was they did not want any one to know what they were up to and my banker thought {damm lee could do this} so he paid me to work on the side developing a net work of farmers who could produce tons and tons of herb. They even to sent me to europe in late 72 to make the same connections over there.
Well all that never happened but I had a heck of a lot of fun about that time I read a book by a revolutionary named Che Gevara and in his book he said “you americans are so lucky you live in the heart of the monster and you can change everything with your vote” and that statement impressed me so much that I returned to the U.S. and got involved in local politics where ever I was. About that time I went to work for a bricklayer and went through a masonry apprenticeship and learned to lay brick and block and built things.
I would return to mexico when work was slow and rent a place to live and buy and sent things back to my old import partners then when I ran out of money I would come back to where ever they were laying bricks and work for a few months till I wore my welcome thin and If I managed to save enough to return to mexico I would go back or just move on to another Job.
While I was going back and forth living some in Mexico Some in Northern Virginia I would take RT. 55 west to RT. 66 and RT 81 south or I would take RT. 211 west through Luray to RT. 81 south and I always enjoyed the ride west through Virginia and Luray.
Luray is a lovely little town and so is Page county so when I met the childrens mother Maureen {another 27 yr. old expatriated american leaving california} in Mexico and we fell in love{a whole other story that could be a movie} and she wanted to start an herb farm, we got together came to Virginia, I showed her Luray, we found and bought a 100 yr. old victorian home and 9 acres of land in page county started an herb farm.
Maureen and Heather {mo’s daughter by her only husband} and I moved here {Luray} to live on the farm we had a son Damon 79 then Mollee came along in 83 we birthed both of them a home and raised the three of them here in the country
Heather now lives in Boston and has 2 sons of her own. Damon lives in reston Va. works in the IT field he graduated from James Madison university with a degree in computers and Mollee is a juinor at James Madison majoring now in music.
We ran the herb farm till the children were nearly grown and gone then in 1999 Maureen decided that she did not want to live with me any more so she tried to put every thing in to her
name but we were not married we were partners so every thing we own jointly was half mine and she never could raise the money to buy me out so now I live in this old 12 room victorian house with Mollee here while she is still in school.
I retired from bricklaying in 2003 and now I am renewing my original plans from before Maureen, the herb farm, and the kids and going sailing with lovers and friends that I both know now and some like you that I don’t know yet.
I know that this is probably more than you asked for and I probably could have just said “I was a bricklayer” but there is always more than meets the eye. Actually there is more to my story Peter Tompkins wrote a book named secrets of the soil and I appeared in chapter 1 and chapter 2 was devoted to my method of making compost on the herb farm with mo.and more…..
I don’t know if I gave you my web addresss it is aleemcwhorter.com on the site you can see a photo of me and get some of my political philosophy if you like.
If you work out as a crew member I think I could find a place up here for your dog to stay while you are gone. My artist friend Bill has a remote fenced in 20 acres with two horses and 2 cats he used to have 2 dogs and he would watch yours for you while you were gone but that is months away maybe light years right now lets have a picnic and get to know each other somewhat.
Fair Winds,
Lee
The next e-mail……and answers in near real time.
maria-maria,
Your time on the bay must seem like a dream that you are just waking from. Or maybe a night mare who could say?Don’t get your bowles in an uproar or you’ll never get enough coffee enemias to cure your self! By the way have you ever tried the brand of mexican coffee sold in the super mercados with the name marinaro. When I was in san carlos in the early seventies thay sold two types of coffee combate and marinaro in the coffee shops or super mercado.
I’ve been one of your readers like gw even after You told me I was to old to be in your crew. Now from the way you are writing you are on the quit. Why don’t you take gw’s advice “quitters never win” he cannot spell either.
When I get my boat back in the h2o next week and start heading south I’m going to write a song about your boat that never gets out of the bay. You might even be in the song.
Here is one of the lines…..”droping my bloomers when I shoulda been raising my sails, screwing with the moreing bouy puking over the rails. To much Tequila, to many nights of fitful dreams, not enough young crew on board, I’ll quit before I get outa here is seems. It seems it seems it seems to me… I’ve been dropping my bloomers I shoulda been raising my sails I’ve been watching the bottle bottom and overlooking to many details, in my best dreams…..”
It goes on from there and may end up with a carribeam or mexican fish taco marachi beat.
Fair winds
P.S. Are you scaming the boat or is it really for sale? If so how much? Does it really exist? Be honest now cause you know pictures can come from anywhere!!! And scams run rampant on the internet. A girl friend warned me about your blog and the pleas about money and not having enough she said “geting money out of sympathetic {pathetic} readers is the oldest trick on the internet” You wouldn’t do that now would you????
Marias answer…..Listen Mr Vet,
I don’t know you and you don’t know me so I find your ’song’ rude and offensive. And yes, I don’t want to sail with old geezers like yourself. But even if you were younger, you’re not my type. Not at all.
Go write a song for somebody else.
vet4sail said… Hay Stan,
Don’t get me wrong just cause you don’t like what I said. U know u don’t like a lot of things but I don’t try to be purposly offensive don’t you understand? Can u 4give don’t even want to try??
You have got a lot to learn about sailors and how they love the sea not sea creatures. How they love boats but not because they are feminine. How they love the wind but only when it blows softly. How they love rocking on the waves but not being washed over abeam by rogue waves.
Sailors love a lot of things especially new experiences but they don’t go looking for love in all the wrong places. They try not to run aground. They try like heck to keep their bottom clean.
Yea you got a lot to learn I don’t know how you know you don’t like me or how I am not your type but you are probably right. In some clairvoyant sense.
Aside from being a sailor, good looking. independant, free, witty, responsible, compassionate, environmentally concerned, an activist, friend to the less fortunate, and concerned citizen of the world, I have no std’s, hang ups, ropes, whips, or deviant thoughts.
In fact I have a lot of good going on in my life-I am not stuck anywhere, I have lots of time to sail, I don’t feel sorry for myself or bemoan how I got here, true my boat is on the hard but the weather is getting warm enough to paint next week and she will be back afloat right after.
I’ll be sailing and still looking for crew, as every boat does.
You probably don’t like the first line so what if I changed the word bloomers to anchor. You took offence at an inanamate word and there fore missed the point.
Older geezers are the only people who can afford to sail at least when I sail that is all I see. So far younger ones have’t matured to the point that they do not need constant attention {like a boat} or instant gratifigation {like some women}. Instead they need Morgage payments, high def t.v., game boys, ipods, new cars not new boats, new clothes, night life, ect.
I don’t hold a grudge so if you want to crew on my boat no lines, ropes, whips or chains, attached. Just sailing the carribean or the wesward islands with no bitching, complaining, wimpering, bemoaning, or feeling sorry for yourself in a pity party.
Here’s a list of who is not welcome aboard. Those not welcome include but are not limited to…..
sticks in the mud….
mood monsters…..
rigid opinionated people uncapable of change….
dumb asses unless they are funny…
clumbsy people…..
the forelorn of the world…
Those who cannot pay their own way or work it off…..
meat eaters {not because I am anti red meat but on the boat on the float you cannot carry and keep meat}……
drunkards or hard core addicts {get help first then join the crew}…..
inhibited people……
hedonistic assholes…….
thieves…..
people in the witness protection program…{I have to be able to run a check on
crew}…
The list of those welcome includes but not limited to.,.
known friends…..
family…..
musicians……
ex-patriots…….
free masons……
sailors……
Beer drinkers…..
organic fans…..
some bio-dynamic people…..
sun worshipers…….
travelers…..{if they do not fit in the not welcome list]
adventurers…..{if they do not fit into the not wellcome list]
These lists are not complete by any strech of the immagination but you can get my drift I hope.
To sum it up no one is getting aboard that wants to dictate what happens.
You probably don’t like the info on the number ten either do you?
Don’t close the hatch you may just change your mind stranger things have happened on the sea…—…
vet4sail said… Maria,
Does this really mean you don’t want to go as crew on my ship?
Holy manatee sharkskin I can’t belive she doesn’t want to join the crew.
Sharkskin said to vet4sail “give up” like her. She doesn’t want to join & sail on the good ship lollipop or the ship of fools either.
Wait sharkskin neither do I! I want a sophisticated ship that always has fair winds and smooth water. Where everything fixes itself, and no one burps {or _arts}out loud. Wherer no one wipes their mouth on the sleeves of their pirate shirts or smacks their lips. Where everything is just so hunky dory.
Sharkskin replied you make me seasick get a life. There is no free lunch or love. That was back in the 60’s, in California, on the left coast and that is where you must be stuck or aground.
No I’m heading south later…—…
Just A Sailor said…
vet4sail, I cant fathom how you imagine she is going to come crew for you. I have read some pretty obnixious comments you have left on this blog. She has been suprisingly tolerant I think. And you certainly do come across as someone with a grudge because she didnt want you.
new e-mail
maria or bead perkins,
Or whoever you are today I left a comment about quitting on the plog about lunch at JJ’s Y cosas. Sorry about the wrong day.
Happy day sails.
The comment…
You told me once that you did not want crew my age but you wanted crew more your own age. So far you haven’t got a crew or gotten out of the bay and now you are talking about quitting!
What the frack is up with that? And how can you quit something you havent even started????
I bought a ketch and she is on the hard getting ready to go back in the water and head south to the carribean I was hoping to see you there and hoping you wanted to join the fleet you can not if you quit…. The sea knows no quiters.
vet4sail said…
What do you think the 10 on the dice means?

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[Photo]
Too many recepticles on the table confuse the dice thrower.
And yes, I sucked the Baileys off them.
Waste knot. Want knot.
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- VET4SAIL said…
The Number 10
Deities traditionally associated with the number 10 include the Greek Gods Atlas, who bore the weight of the world on his shoulders and Uranus who was responsible for imagination and technology
Every Cosmogony began with a circle, a point, a triangle, and a cube, up to the number nine, when it was synthesized by the first line and a circle, the Pythagorean mystic Decade (10), the sum of all, involving and expressing the mysteries of the entire Kosmos –
FROM THE TAROT
This card represents the grasp on the personna by understanding who you really are. When this happens you will never be without material possessions. The number 10 represents a new cycle meaning that the number 10=1 in numerology. The humanoid figure with the jackal head represents the evolution of man with its ears just over the center of the wheel. This represents that intuition and that inner voice allow man to rise to higher levels. The sphinx at the top of the wheel represents the ideal that we all try to strive for, the completed cycle balancing both male and female characteristics in perfect control. The figures in the corner represent the fixed signs of the zodiac.
Wild Bill was playing poker in the Number 10 Saloon one day, …
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