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Post by Siren on Aug 1, 2006 7:16:38 GMT -6
That's the rotten part of this summer heat - August has just begun. Scares me to think that these super-hot temps might be a permanent fixture of our summers. Today, our state was declared a disaster area, giving farmers and ranchers the chance to apply for low-interest loans. We've lost most of our crops and countless animals due to the heat.
Interesting that this weather is only national news after it hits California and New York.
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Post by Mini Mia on Aug 1, 2006 17:50:17 GMT -6
It's about time they created and installed those temperature-controlled domes you see over vast areas of land in futuristic earths in sci-fi movies.
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Post by Phalon on Aug 4, 2006 9:49:48 GMT -6
In the same boat here, Siren: For the past couple of weeks, one of Hubs' tasks at work was to call growers around the state, gathering information regarding crop losses, to determine which counties will be considered agricultural disaster areas.
Too late for some, but storms passed through much of the state Wednesday night, providing much needed rain and cooler temperatures.....just at the right time to ruin a lot of the blueberry crops this area is known for. Farming - such a tough, unforgiving job, and I have to respect those who keep at it.
The last couple of days here have been much nicer - in the seventies and eighties - a lot more bearable than those hot, humid, icky nineties.
And here I sit. Inside. Day Three of Banishment - a punishment imposed by Doc banning me from work, (she gave me a note - eye-roll), roller-skiing, getting that pile of plants that need planting into the ground, cutting grass, (my favorite chore), and even housework - anything that requires bending, lifting or physical activity that may cause my oh-so-infected eardrum to rupture. I hate being immobile. (Whine, whine, whine)
But the worst thing - this Sunday was to be the start of a three-day trip to Mackinaw - a cool little resort area up-north on this side of Lake Superior separating the Upper and Lower Peninsulas. And while I must have agreed to be a chaperon for 11 preteen, incessantly giggly Girl Scouts in a moment of extreme delirium this past spring, I was really looking forward to it. So was my incessantly giggly preteen. We even had mother/daughter matching "Girl Genius" shirts (huge eye-roll).
Doc says no. And so the Girl Genius shirts will have to wait for that dreaded, (by me), back-to-school shopping excursion. She considers this a good consolation for me not being able to make the trip. <smile> But she also thinks the matching shirts are cool; I'll have to take pictures and save them for when the preteen becomes a teen and is horrified to even be seen with Mom, let alone have Mom wear the same clothes.
I consider this future consolation for having to wear a purple, orange and green shirt with the words "Girl Genius" printed across the chest.
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Post by mabd on Aug 5, 2006 7:19:49 GMT -6
But the worst thing - this Sunday was to be the start of a three-day trip to Mackinaw - a cool little resort area up-north on this side of Lake Superior separating the Upper and Lower Peninsulas. Oh, Phalon, to miss Mackinaw/Fort Mackinac/Michilimackinac, how sad. I wish you were all better *right* now. I learned pipe stem dating on Mackinaw -- actually it is the only historic New World site I ever worked at. I think I was about 4-years old the first time I was up that way. Learned to ride properly there. Stared in awe at the Grand Hotel, never stayed there, of course. Then to swing south to the glacial lakes of the Nicolet in Wisc and have the loons relax completely around my canoe.... Thanks for reminding me. And hey, I get sinus earaches so often I actually have tubes in my eardrums -- it works... Oh, you have tickled my good memory box mightily, thank you. And, ye gods it *is* hot. We don't have a/c, but we do have a sleeping porch... after about 8pm, it is downright comfortable. But before then, ick. your friend FIPPER, Maeve
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Post by Phalon on Aug 6, 2006 22:27:59 GMT -6
That makes me laugh; it reminds me of that old television series, “My Friend Flipper”. Or maybe it was “My Friend Flicka”. “Flicker”? Either way, Flipper was a dolphin; Flicka/Flicker, a horse. Maybe a combo of the two: A seahorse. A pony with a dolpinitive porpoise. Anyway, Maeve, of former Fipperdom, glad for the good memories.
I haven’t been to the Mackinaw area in years, and years; not since I was a kid. I remember the fort. I remember riding the island on bikes with Dad, my brother, and my youngest brother – now in his thirties – in a baby-seat behind Mom. And somewhere in our family mementos is a picture in National Geographic of us walking across the bridge during the Bicentennial.
How cool you got to work there. “Pipe stem dating” – excuse my ignorance; this is like carbon dating pipes used by Native Americans or pioneers? Or the result of some bad pick-up line? Very neat stuff. And to have the loons about your canoe, (not another bad date, I’m assuming)!!! Wow, what an experience that must have been.
I’ve heard they do. But I’m not a candidate; I’ve probably only had a handful of ear infections in my life. And this one was not entirely the fault of my sinus allergies, though they started it all, of course. But swimmer’s ear – water trapped in the canal - was an adding contributor, and I could hear it sloshing whenever I moved my head. And then there was that tiny bit of stupidity of mine that rears its head every so often – the same cause of last year’s ear infection. You’d think I’d learn.
Warning: this may contain ickiness that may repel some readers. Proceed with caution.
I roller-ski; cross-country skis on wheels. I do this at least three times a week, four miles at a time. I sweat doing it. And I like to sweat; it lets me know I’m going fast, and working hard. In the ninety degree heat of the last couple weeks, I sweat a lot. To say I was covered in it is an understatement. It ran off every inch of my body in rivers. My headphones are of the old-style: foam padding covers the ear-thingies, and of course, they got sweaty, and once saturated, the sweat ran into my ears, which provided perfect incubation temperatures for the festering mess already present in there. Say it: “Eewwww”.
And if you made it this far – you might as well finish, cuz this is where it gets really good.
The previous week, while I was still of sound hearing, I stopped in the bike shop to get LX a new bicycle helmet. Cute Bike Shop Guy was working – the kind of guy I find irresistibly attractive: long, blonde, wavy hair always neatly pulled back into a ponytail at the nape of his neck, blue eyes full of expression behind small wire-rimmed glasses. Nice smile. Fun to talk with. Sigh. He was the one who turned me on…….to his friend up-north who owns the ski-shop, who ended up sending me my roller-skis.
Cute Bike Shop Guy shows me how to adjust the tension and straps on the new helmet, and as I intently listen to his every word, I think, “Hey”. Out loud I say, “Yanno…my helmet needs adjusting, but it doesn’t have those adjuster things. It slides back on my head most times.” “Ooooo, that’s not good”, says he. “You bought it here, right? Bring it in and we’ll make sure it’s a proper fit.”
Just so happens I have the helmet in the trunk, run out to get it, bring it back and Cute Bike Shop Guy sets about fitting it on me properly. His breath is inches from mine. I feel myself growing warm in my semi-sexy sundress. Tiny beads of perspiration start to dot both our upper lips as he brushes my hair back to fit the helmet to my head. Takes it off, adjusts some more, brushes hair again – now damp with trickles of sweat, and tilts my chin. I felt my knees grow weak, and was ready to fall into his muscle-laden arms.
Damn, I was hot.
Of course, this had nothing to do with the miserable, sweltering heat outside, which had to be ten degrees hotter and unbearably humid inside the small non-air-conditioned shop.
Helmets adjusted, we left, and as we rounded the corner of the building, I told my daughter, “I could have adjusted the helmet, you know. I just think he’s cute.” We laughed, until I was nearly ploughed down by Smiling Cute Bike Shop Guy Who Just Heard What I Said, as he came around the corner from the other direction.
I guess he got hot too, and needed to come up for air.
And so….in my newly fitted helmet, with my hair up in a ponytail instead of run-his-fingers-through down as it was when the adjustments were made, and headphones on, the tightened straps made the headphone ear pieces press too tightly against my ears.
Which is the reason I kept the straps loosened in the first place.
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Post by mabd on Aug 8, 2006 9:25:45 GMT -6
Cool beans!! Could this be foreshadowing??? That would be a really bad pick-up line. Before carbon 14 dating was considered accurate -- it has now been superceded by several other methods, archies had to use the material culture itself and some magic to come up with dates. You can't smoke a good pipe twice in a row -- no, I don't know why. So bunches of clay (cheap) pipes were imported from England. Figuring the mean age of ceramics is pretty easy. With pipe stems, the bore of the stem changed. In part, this could be seen as a technological change; in part, as a demic change. But if you wanted to measure population size at any given point in time, all you had to do was count the number of 7/64 bored pipes vs 4/64 bore pipes. Say you find six 4/64 bore stems and twenty-nine 7/64 bore stems. You reference your mean age of ceramics and you'll magically get a date as to when the site was most heavily populated (or had the most pipe-smokers). {deleted ick factor of sucky ear nfection} Oh girl, you are so BAD!!! This is great: LMAO so much I didn't want to cut any of it. Got my giggle of the day. Maeve
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Post by Phalon on Aug 10, 2006 23:16:40 GMT -6
The girls came back from their trip Tuesday and had much to tell. They of course, among other things, went to the fort. I piped in their excited retelling of the event, and said "You can't smoke a good pipe twice in a row -- no, I don't know why." And I don't know why I remembered that bit of information, but I did my best to explain the pipe stem dating. They were very interested; how did I know this? I know of someone who worked on the site. "Who's that, Mom?" "My Friend Fipper". This is where I lost them.
Oh and Maeve - surely you remember "The Call of The Wild". No, no, no....not that wild. But that touristy trap stuffed wild life museum/trading post in Grayling. The one with the jagged facade that is supposed to be mountain with a wolf howling at the moon on top; the place that on the way home from every Mackinaw trip us kids would beg to stop at, and sighing, Dad would oblige by pulling into the crushed gravel drive. It's still there!!!
I can't believe it; we first started going there when I was about five or six years old, and even then it seemed cheesy to me - but us kids loved it strictly for its cheesiness I suppose. The facade, according to LX's description, is still the same. The place has to be nearly forty years old. And no dear, we can not go back to Call of the Wild again weekend; a five hour trip each way for the free miniature golf round you won because you scored a couple hole-in-one's would not be cost effective.
Anyway - this weekend is Blueberry Fest here in town.
And we are over-run by FIPS.
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Post by Siren on Aug 11, 2006 22:23:35 GMT -6
Ladies, isn't Mackinaw where "Somewhere In Time" was filmed, at the Grand Hotel? Like almost every woman who has seen that film, I'd love to see that hotel.
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Post by Phalon on Aug 13, 2006 6:47:34 GMT -6
It is certainly a thing to see, Siren....the island as well. I'm not sure about the movie, though. Surely, knowing my lack of buffness in movie knowledge, you did not truly expect an answer from me?
Maeve?
Oh, what a beautiful morning! Followed by an absolutely goregous night! Love to tell about it now; one of summer's treats. But I have to get out in this perfect weather; don't want to waste a minute of it sitting inside.
Enjoy the day.
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Post by Siren on Aug 15, 2006 6:51:52 GMT -6
Rain! We got rain last night! What a wonderful thing. I looked out my back door to see if my purple jew was getting any of it, and saw my toad frog out getting a shower. Gave me a nasty look, wiped a raindrop from his eye, and hopped back under the cannas.
Aaaaaaaah, it smells so good outside this morning!
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Post by mabd on Aug 19, 2006 22:42:41 GMT -6
The girls came back from their trip Tuesday and had much to tell. They of course, among other things, went to the fort. I piped in their excited retelling of the event, and said "You can't smoke a good pipe twice in a row -- no, I don't know why." And I don't know why I remembered that bit of information, but I did my best to explain the pipe stem dating. They were very interested; how did I know this? I know of someone who worked on the site. "Who's that, Mom?" "My Friend Fipper". This is where I lost them. You knew I'd have to find the reason for the "can't smoke the same pipe twice" rule. Most pipes are made from either meerschaum or the burl of the briarwood. The word briar is from the French "bruyere" and refers to the heath tree. The burl is the dense wood which forms the center of the heath tree. When new, meerschaum pipes are white -- over time they acquire a golden patina. Literally, meerschaum means arising from the compressed whitecaps of waves, just as Aphrodite did. Meerschaum has a rigid crystalline structure called sepiolite. This makes meerschaum pipes "smooth smokers." Both briarwood and meerschaum have inherent flaws -- things like pits or pin sized holes. Though these are filled, they tend to make the pipe bowl burn slightly unevenly. Pipes also burn somewhat unevenly because packing the pipe perfectly is impossible. Allowing the pipe to cool completely makes it last longer and provides for a better smoke. Clay and corncob pipes were/are still used as cheap pipes to smoke while your "good" pipe cools. OMG. Yes I remember -- I always got 'Indian' moccasins and something I still covet, this thing made from birch bark, about a foot tall, of a tee-pee with a canoe next to it. I take it that The Call no longer has the brown bear you could buy sodas for and watch him drink? Now I shudder at the idea, but when I was a kid, I thought it was way cool. Maeve
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Post by Phalon on Aug 24, 2006 6:09:46 GMT -6
Wow! What a storm we had last night. And very timely too.
For weeks we have been waging war with yellow-jackets - and they are mean and nasty, attacking without being provoked and not even losing their stingers once they get you. Hubs did nothing so accommodating as serve them a last meal of fruit, as some do to bait and trap them in little cells with no escape. He bombed them instead, after trying to spray twice the nest they built behind the siding under the water spigot. There were so many flying in and out of the nest, we couldn't water the gardens for a couple weeks. The bomb worked though.
Finally, I was able to water yesterday. And as it happens when you wash your car, it rained when I was done.
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Post by mabd on Aug 24, 2006 22:47:57 GMT -6
We are deep into the season of the afternoon thunderstorm. Today's wasn't bad, but the one last Mon was really bad -- at least for us.
I didn't just hear the thunder, I felt it. Seriously, it was so close that the house trembled. And then I smelled burning wood. Figured out that nothing was actually on fire and that those extraordinarily large animals would eventually return to their normal size (although, in that moment I knew what it must have been like when there were sabre-toothed tigers).
Got everything settled and went outside. Roof check first, it is ok.
Then I see it. Our antebellum white oak had taken a direct hit. And leaves and twigs and whatnot from the tree had been blown tight up against the house.
There's a 3 inch wide gash from as high up as I can see and which disappears into the ground.
Guess we'll have to pine tar it...oh Phalon, ya busy?
Maeve
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Post by Phalon on Aug 25, 2006 6:17:47 GMT -6
Two words for you, Maeve: Carpenter's Glue. BOLL. Remind me to tell you the story of Hubs, a drum of carpenter's glue, and a 60ish foot maple - it's somewhat of an Urban Tree Legend around here.
But now I've gotta run off to work.
Later. Enjoy this one of the waning days of summer.
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Post by mabd on Aug 25, 2006 19:04:39 GMT -6
Enjoy this one of the waning days of summer. Um, Phalon, the summer isn't waning. It has just gone good dark (9pm) and it is still 87 degrees out. I have miles and miles to go before I wane. And you are scaring me. STP thought caulk was a great idea. Sigh. You keep doing that and I'll unleash STP and her armada of dremel tools. Maeve
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Post by Siren on Aug 25, 2006 23:15:58 GMT -6
I hate to hear about your tree, Maeve. Poor old beauty. (the tree, dear girl, not you!) But thank goodness it wasn't your house that was struck.
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Post by Phalon on Aug 26, 2006 0:56:57 GMT -6
Not waning? Not waxing either, I hope. riiiippppp. Ouch.
I suppose I always think of Labor Day and back to school as the end of summer. The girls go back the day after Labor Day, (kindergarten for BP this year - she's a big kid now, you know). Not particulary wanting summer to end, but looking forward to school starting. (says the Mom, not the children.)
STP thinks caulk is a good idea, huh? She and Hubs ought to sit down and swap caulk stories sometime. I'm thinking of getting him a holster for his caulk gun for his birthday, (eye-roll).
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Post by Phalon on Aug 27, 2006 21:26:16 GMT -6
Backing up just a bit...
Hhmm....nope. I don't remember the soda drinking bear, (pop if you're in Michigan). Too much pop and maybe he popped.
I did see my first brown bears though, up in the Mackinaw area. We'd camp up there, and one of the "big" nightly attractions was the campground dump. Cars would line up and down the road at dusk to watch the bears come out of the woods and rummage through the trash for food as all the on-lookers watched their antics. Not exactly seeing them in the wild, but it's as close as I ever got. And I'm sure their dump meals were just as bad for them as all that soda.
One more bit on Mackinaw - just a bit of history we experienced a couple of weeks ago. Hubs and I went on a sunset sail on The Friends Goodwill, a replica of a sloop built in the early 1800's which makes its home here in our harbor.
The Friends Goodwill took its name from an Irish sailing vessel, and was originally a merchant ship built specifically for the Great Lakes. Early in its career, carrying goods to Mackinaw it was overtaken by the British, who had secured the fort but kept the American flag flying so ships coming into port had no idea the fort was under British control.
It fought for a while for the British Navy before being recaptured by the Americans, and then was enlisted in the American Navy. After participating in a few deciding battles, it ran aground near Buffalo. The British got a hold of it once more, and burned it.
The evening Hubs and I sailed was overcast and without wind: no sunset and no going fast. Damn, I wanted to go fast. But it was cool none-the-less. The ship, though it is one of the smallest in the fleet of replicas traveling the Great Lakes, has the most complicated system of sails, and it was amazing to watch the crew raise them.
We slowly sailed - drifting mostly in the windless night - with a crew in period costume who alternatied between barking out orders to each other as if they were back in the 1800's, and cavorting with the passengers. And the passengers were just as entertaining as the crew. We starting talking to a group of older women who'd spent the day hitting three wineries in the area, and sampling way too many different wines.
Then the fog started rolling in. Such a very, very mystical thing the fog is on the lake. It's one of my favorite things to watch; it comes in like a great swirling wall. The sloop started its engines, (a near replica with just a few modern conveniences), and we raced ahead of the wall to make it to the channel in time. It was neat being on the other side of the lighthouse, its red beacon guiding our way home.
And still I wanted to go faster. Where's my dinghy captain when I need her?
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Post by mabd on Sept 1, 2006 20:03:28 GMT -6
Ladies, isn't Mackinaw where "Somewhere In Time" was filmed, at the Grand Hotel? Like almost every woman who has seen that film, I'd love to see that hotel. Sorry it took so long for me to find the answer. For some reason, about 30 minutes ago, I was handed a copy of the American Auto Association's Michigan Chapter's magazine. No, I don't have a clue as to how it got to me in GA. LOL. Anyway, Somewhere In Time was indeed filmed at the Grand Hotel. On Oct. 27-29, the Grand Hotel is doing a " Somewhere In Time weekend. Lots of food, freebies and such. The ad didn't mention cost though. For more info, they said to go to AAA.com/travel. The ad had a nice pix of the front porch -- maybe the site will as well. Maeve, awed at how dharma works
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Post by Mini Mia on Sept 1, 2006 21:48:02 GMT -6
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Post by Siren on Sept 1, 2006 22:31:32 GMT -6
Oh, that is beautiful! Thank you, Mia. And thank you for the info, Maeve. That would be a fun weekend to attend, especially if there was a beautiful Christopher Reeve-type around. Oh, the part where he lays his cheek against Jane Seymour's picture just makes my eyes well up!
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Post by Phalon on Sept 1, 2006 22:33:14 GMT -6
Oh, oh, oh! Now I remember that movie. Dang, I didn't realize it was filmed at the Grand.
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Post by Mini Mia on Sept 1, 2006 22:41:37 GMT -6
Oh, that is beautiful! Thank you, Mia. You're very welcome for the link....
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Post by mabd on Sept 2, 2006 15:28:34 GMT -6
Wow!! Joxcee, it is just amazing how you sneak in and fix everything -- you're faster than a speeding bullet. Thanks, Maeve
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Post by Mini Mia on Sept 2, 2006 15:32:31 GMT -6
Thank ya. I tried the AAA website and couldn't find the info. Every link I clicked on wanted my email, and I didn't wanna give it, so I googled.
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Post by Mini Mia on Sept 2, 2006 15:33:50 GMT -6
I've _no_ idea what I'd do without Google ........ Seriously!
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Post by mabd on Sept 2, 2006 16:51:58 GMT -6
Backing up just a bit... Hhmm....nope. I don't remember the soda drinking bear, (pop if you're in Michigan). Too much pop and maybe he popped. Here we just have Coke. Waitress, "what kinda coke you want, hon? We got IBC, RC, Pepsi, and sweet tea." Whoaaaa, I remember that. It was everywhere on the UP. The one I remember most was trash pit in the middle, cars on one side, bears on the other. For a long time I thought Door County hired people to put edible bear food in with the trash. You lucky woman. Did it have double jibs and all that?? How cool! And the smell is so fine. Once I did a sunset "cruise" in P'town. Beautiful 3 masted sloop built around 1910. We had a Nor'easter coming. And one steely captain -- he brought us in going side-under. I'll bet you raced in. I really, really would not want to come about in a lake fog. Even worse is trying to run the troughs and still nip into the whitecaps at 45 degrees. Maeve, having a inspiration based on sea anchors and caulk gun holsters
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Post by Phalon on Sept 3, 2006 0:01:44 GMT -6
Maeve, To answer this would require I know something about boats and sailing. Which I don't. Heck, before this I thought sloop was something that came out of a can labeled "Campbell's" in tomato or chicken noodle flavor. I don't know my jibs from my mainsails, or masts from udders. Or is that rudders? Dunno; I left the descriptions in my udder pants. Oh - that was an udderly terrible pun, and I should receive a heifer fine for uddering it....though I'm milking it for all it's worth. What were we talking about again? Oh yes, the sloop. Hang on Sloopy; I'll pretend I'm Joxie for a minute, and see if I can post this. The sloop is a Square Topsail Sloop and considered a rariety as far as sloops sloop. Here is a photo - maybe you can find your jib answer from this? www.michiganmaritimemuseum.org/friendsgoodwill/docksideandsailingschedule/
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Post by Mini Mia on Sept 3, 2006 17:40:15 GMT -6
Okay, this jib still left me wondering, so I kept searching, and found this jib with a photo. Ooooh! Here's a better jib image.
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Post by Phalon on Sept 3, 2006 22:53:05 GMT -6
Sooo....looking at that diagram, I'd assume it's a two-jib sloop? I'm not sure; I never had the patience to do jib-sail puzzles.
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