Praise General Electric

En Route, Erie Canal near Whitehall
43 22.64 N 073 29.27 W

Just a few weeks ago, we remarked in this blog that the bottom of our keel had an unusual number of barnacles because it was so long since we ran aground. Well, we solved that yesterday.  We did it good.

It is the weekend and we can't get the mast stepped until Monday.  Therefore, we were in the mood to do a little exploring of places we haven't been before.   At Lock 7, right next to ground zero of G.E.'s dredging of PCBs in the Hudson, there is a side channel that leads up to the Fort Edward Boat Basin.  We've never been there before.

We called ahead to inquire about water depth.  "Six feet", they said.
OK, up we go.   Well, we got only halfway there when bang, we were high and dry on a sand bank.   We've been aground before but this time Tarwathie was riding more than a foot higher than ever before above the water line.   Uh oh.

Well, first we called for help on the VHF.  The lock keeper thought that he might be able to raise the water level.  He also put in a call to Tug 44, a privately owned vessel the subject of the very popular www.tug44.org   In the meantime, I put on my bathing suit and swam a line over to a tree on shore so we could kedge off.  I didn't mind the swim, it felt good on a hot day.

Before we got too far, a skiff with a man and a 50HP outboard came over to help.  The G.E. dredging project had sent him.  Not only that, but this guy knew well how to do it.  Soon he had us heeled way over 30 degrees, then he dragged us sideways off the sand bank.  Thank you very much G.E. and G.E.'s contractors.

The man told us that if we had stuck closer to the green side we would have been OK.  Pilot error, plain and simple.  Libby was very happy that she was not at the helm at that time.

The other good thing is that we no longer get upset or terrified when we run aground on mud or sand.  We just calmly set about the job of getting off.   That attitude must be wiped before the next time we visit Maine.  Running aground on rocks is something entirely different.

Oh well, the Fort Edward Yacht Basin will forever remain just out of our reach.

FLASH: I anticipate getting sight of Vermont within the hour!.  Hooray!!!

Vermont Bound!

En Route, Champlain Canal
42 48.01 N 073 40.01 W

We just began the final leg of this year's northward migration == we are on the Champlain Canal heading for Lake Champlain.  :-)

We live pretty good when we visit the Capital Region because we get to visit so many good friends.   Last night, our friends Roger and Carolyn took us out to dinner.   Thank you very much, it was great to see you two.

The dinner also gave me an opportunity to test my new hearing aids.  They worked well in the extreme background noise of a busy restaurant.  I think I'm ready to say that I'm well satisfied with them.  There's a story behind that though.

When I was 19, I worked in a soda factory handling the (noisy) empty cans.  Ever since then, I've had a severe hearing loss.  I tested it many times.  Basically, my hearing is normal up to 2 kHz, and zero at higher frequencies.  It robs me most of comprehension of conversation.  Noisy environments are the worst.  Now, in my senior years, my hearing becomes a bit worse each year.

I've been reluctant to invest in hearing aids for two reasons.  First, I've been told many times by professionals that my type of hearing loss is hard to compensate for, and that my chances of being dissatisfied with hearing aids was very high.  Second, they are unbelievably expensive.  $2000-$4000 per ear, is not uncommon nowadays.  Most insurances, including Medicare and including the new Affordable Health Care Coverage Act, exclude coverage.

Of course when you pay $4000-$8000 for a pair of aids, you get 30 days to return them if you're not satisfied.  Even so, I'm reluctant to take that risk if I expect failure as most likely.

Last year I decided to try an inexpensive ($200) one as an experiment.  If it worked, I would be way ahead.  If not, then I would not lose a fortune.   I bought only one.  It helped marginally, but not much.  Worse, after two weeks I took it off to protect it from salt spray one windy day when I was rowing ashore.  When I reached in my pocket to fetch it, it was lost.  Warranties or insurance do not cover loss.

Last month, I spotted a discussion on www.slashdot.org entitled, "Why are Hearing Aids So Expensive."  I learned a lot from that.  Most interestingly, someone said, "They sell last year's models as cheap hearing enhancers for hunters."  I went to Cabellas.com and sure enough, they advertised a pair for only $50 (camouflage colored).  Those are the ones I bought, and the ones I'm very satisfied with.  Lucky me.

In the restaurant, the pair of aids amplified all sounds, noise included, but I was much better able to follow the conversation at our own table.  I even understood what the waitress said without asking Libby to repeat it for me.

This experience only reinforces my bitterness and suspicion of the American health care system.   I have no doubt that if I went to an audiologist, that he/she would have steered me to the $4000 per ear solutions, despite the fact that they are inappropriate for me and unnecessary.  They would do everything possible to discourage me from considering an inexpensive solution.  Their motivation is greed.

Two years ago in Vero I went for a "Welcome To Medicare" checkup.  I found the only GP in town who accepted walk-in patients.  He took my blood pressure, listened to my heart, and looked at my eyes and years.  At the end he ordered me to come back for a battery of additional (expensive) tests.  When I came back, the nurse found out I had signed up for a Medicare Advantage Program instead of regular fee-for-service.  She said, "Go away.  We will not treat you under any circumstances."   Upon reflection I figured it out.  That doctor found nothing wrong with me, and had no foundation to order follow-up tests. He was just trying to run up a big bill.  When they found out I had something other than fee-for-service, they rejected me.  The whole setup was a scam designed to cheat Medicare.  Down  in Miami, some doctors are sending geriatric patients for monthly $10,000 MRI scans, "just as a precaution."  The doctors get 60% of the MRI fee, and several earn more than $1 million per month on this perfectly legal scam.

Sorry for the rant.  I've had that bottled up for a long time.

Flame The Band

Waterford, NY
42.79N 073.68 W

I mentioned that there would be a free concert in Scotia right next .   to the dock.   We went over there last night and were completely surprised.  The band was comprised of six developmentally disabled adults.   Their music however was terrific, and there was an enthusiastic bunch of small kids enthusiastically dancing.

Libby thought that she recognized some of the performers.  After all, she worked at Schenectady (and Saratoga) County ARC and this is Schenectady county.   After checking, we found that no, this group was from Fulton County.

What a great idea though.  All of us, Libby and I included, can so easily underestimate what they can accomplish, and what hidden talents they might have.  My sister is similarly disabled.  She lives in a group home near here.  Libby has many years working with disabled adults.  We're both very familiar with their uniqueness and their problems.  Both of us though were dumfounded at the accomplishments of this band.

Here is a picture of the concert.  The web site for the band is here, and the story of their origin is here.  I urge you to read it. Nobel prizes aren't given for such things, but whoever initiated this band deserves some kind of prestigious prize.  Don't you think?

Man Oh Man, The Nostalgia

Scotia, NY
42.83 N 073.96 W

The first couple of times up the Erie, we stopped here in Scotia.  Then the free docks disappeared for a few years making it impossible for us to stop for a visit.  Much to our delight, newer bigger better city docks appeared this year.  What a treat.  Below is a picture of us at the docks.

You see, we lived in Scotia 1968-1980, just a few blocks from where we're docked today.  That makes it home ground.  Below is a picture I took this morning of our old house.

1980-1983 we lived across the river a few blocks away in the other direction in Schenectady's Stockade section.  Below is a picture I took this morning of that old home.  I also worked, ate and shopped, in downtown Schenectady for 21 years -- half of my professional life.

This morning I walked around Scotia and biked around downtown Schenectady.  Man what a rush of nostalgia that brought.  When you recognize every building, every place of business, and can associate one or several memories with them, that's powerful stuff.  Even when the businesses are new, I know what business was there before, and the one before that.

We have begun to acquire that kind of familiarity-in-depth with Vergennes, Oriental, Elizabeth City, New Bern, Vero Beach and Marathon.  However,  the roots go much deeper here.

I'm sure that in the future we'll find excuses to visit Scotia again and again.

By the way, thank you to the Scotia Fire Department for building the wonderful new dock facilities.

 

Poor Canajoharie

En Route, The Erie Canal
42 53.72 N 074 30;81 W

I'm sure you have heard the term "Rust Belt"  it refers to a string of formerly prosperous cities that are now in steep decline.  Many of them depended on heavy metal industries; hence the reference to rust.  Perhaps Detroit is the largest and best know Rust Belt city.  The belt continues down through Ohio, and up through Central New York.  Alas one of our favorite stops, Canajoharie, seems to be hit especially hard.

Canajoharie's enjoyed its former prosperity as a company town.  The Beech Nut Company (makers of baby foot and life savers) was the major benefactor, and Beech-Nut's owners The Arkell Family.  Many formerly grand homes remain, of which the Arkell's is most prominent.   Clearly, at one time Canjoharie enjoyed the high life and benefits of great local wealth.

Now, Beech-Nut has finally moved the last of it's operations out of Canajoharie, leaving behind the massive and ghostly white painted concrete buildings of the factory complex.  Sucked of it's life blood, the rest of the village seems to be just crumbling away.

A vestige of the good times is the wonderful library and Arkell Museum in the center of the village.  The museum has wonderful art on display from Winslow Homer and other American artists.  I spent quite a bit of time there, and at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art in Washington DC.   Let me say that the Arkell can stand shoulder to shoulder with the Smithsonian.

Sadly, I saw a notice in the Library/Museum yesterday.  It said that the community recently voted "no support" for this institution and that it's future is in doubt.   I'm not sure exactly what "no support" means, but it sounds ominous.  If you haven't seen the Arkell Museum before, I urge you to do so before it's too late.

Curiously, different rust belt centers have very different outcomes.  Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, Schenectady and Albany were all in the rust belt.  Rochester took a double hit with Kodak down and out, and Xerox way down.  Schenectady's GE employment went from 28,000 to 3,000.   But Albany seems to do fine based on government money as the state capital.  Syracuse and surroundings seem to be supported by universities and hospitals.  Schenectady's downtown had been force fed to survival with government and health insurance service workers.  It suggests a massive shift from private heavy industries to public (or quasi-public) services.