Tomorrow, the Lobster Trap Tree Build in 3 minutes.
Author: paultmorrison
Santa in a Lobster Boat! Rockport December 1
Thanksgiving is still two days away but we have to get ready for Santa’s arrival now because it will be the earliest in history! Rockport will be visited on Saturday, December 1st by Santa Claus! That is only eleven days away. Dock Square today was adorned with the most perfect Christmas Tree ever. The little Christmas trees up and down the street are already up. Rubber Duck and I have our Santa hats all dry cleaned. Are you ready?
Last year’s lighting:
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A less rough cut of the Duck Sister’s Rocket Propelled Tour of Cape Ann
I am posting this outside my normal posting schedule because of the unfortunate accidents occurring upon viewing the previous rough cut of this time lapse video.  Several keyboards have been damaged and Ejay’s birthday cake has spoiled some new birthday shoes. This remake is after Rubber Duck read the directions. Much higher resolution since I am not rendering a 4:3 format to 16:9 format. The rubber ducks are much clearer. I also slowed it down by half so one does not have to wear a seat belt or snort an expresso to keep up. The music is also more Rubber Duck twin sister genre.
Rubber Duck has got the time lapse bug now and she has already designed some RDBM for quick mounting. (Rubber Duck Butt Magnets complete with felt padding.)
How about a map? 
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Rough Cut Rubber Duck Rocket Tour of Cape Ann
[Rubber Duck edit] We are inserting a more sedate video since the incidence of nausea and sea sickness is reaching epic proportions. Watch the second video at your own risk.
Rubber Duck’s sister came for a visit. So RD drank a quart of coffee then took her on a round trip tour of Cape Ann. From Andrews Point, Rockport Center, Motif #1, Bearskin Neck, back road to Rocky Neck, a dip in the water where we have to go swimming on January 1st, Eastern Point, stop inside Capt Joe and Sons dock, a visit with Homie having crab lunch on the state pier, Main Street Gloucester (did you see Fred Bodin do a double take?) Man at the wheel, Joanie on a pony, Annisquam Center, Lanesville, Save Our Shack, Folly Cove, Fire Trucks at Halibut Point (this is the only place where I got a “what the hell” chortle from a volunteer Rockport Fireman and back out to Andrews Point. All in barely three minutes.
Go wide screen, crank it up and finger on the spacebar to pause.
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Cape Ann from a Boeing 737
I was in San Francisco for 24 hours last week and had one hour free time so they took me to Chaat Cafe, an Indian Restaurant on 3rd and Folsom next to the Mosconi Center. Highly recommend if you are in a hurry or not. 
6AM flight out of Boston and I had the starboard view of Cape Ann as we turned west. From left to right, the Essex River complete with Cross Island just inland which is the turn around for the Essex River Race. Then Annisquam River cutting off Cape Ann from the mainland, Folly Cove, Halibut Point, Hoop Pole Cove, Andrews Point Sandy Bay, Straightsmouth Island and you can just pick up Thacher and Milk Islands. A tiny bit of Salt Island on the photo’s edge.
Packed so light I forgot a GMG sticker to represent!
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Tacos Lupitas for Saturday Lunch, Good idea RD!
I recommend the Enchiladas Lupitas Special. 
That’s what I had last Saturday. Haven’t had anything here I would not recommend. Has anyone had the tongue in a taco or enchilada? Haven’t pulled the trigger on that one, yet.
[editors note] It was pointed out by normbarr that RD was incorrect in an earlier rendition of this article stating she went to Sunday brunch when in fact Tacos Lupitas is closed on Sunday.
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Rubber Duck visits Rockport Arts Association at Halftime
Rubber Duck figured Brady had the Bills in hand so we went down to the Rockport Arts Association New Member’s Show at the half. Free wine and cheese? No brainer. 
A lot of amazing stuff. Every time I walk through the RAA I am blown away by the art on the walls. You can smell the waves, the beach, the waves crashing, the sails snapping in the wind, or the cat sleeping on a wicker chair. (That cat was a water color that has to be seen in person to be appreciated.)
So Michael Foley is someone I have been following on Facebook because he takes Cape Ann granite and carves it like butter. Because he is joining the Cape Ann Artisans Tour he is already earmarked for the Rubber Duck visiting his studio in the spring to find out how he does it.
Michael is to the right of the Rubber Duck who is appreciating the granite.  New Member Show until December 6th. The Rockport Art Association will be filled with gifts for that really hard to cover loved one all the way through Christmas.
As for Brady and the Pats they were just jerking us around making it a nail biter down to the last 20 seconds. Did Vince Willfork want to bite the head off of someone?
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If you don’t vote you can’t quack about the results.
Rubber Duck was only interested in the medical marijuana question. She was born without eyelids and she says the pot really helps.
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New iPhone 5 Panorama
Click twice to embiggen: sucker is 9,283 pixels wide.
Panorama on the new iPhone 5 is pretty slick. As simple as can be and no waiting. Sometimes it says to slow down as I pan across. Here is one of my first shots. Oh Em Gee! When I pointed the camera directly into the sun I detect a purple haze. Apple is going to die for this!
The pano stitching is pretty good. Handheld and turn the phone. The horizon is a tad ragged on the left hand side but the clarity through out is not too shabby. All three lighthouses , couple of boats, a dog and a duck. I over saturated the colors on a lower resolution and I can do a better job with a smooth sweep with practice. If dogs or people move when you are sweeping they can become quite amusing, scary, and mutated.
I’ll write my review of the iPhone after I use it for a week.
First impressions: I can talk in a monotone robot voice pretty easily so Siri can dictate notes and email. It does pretty well and I think I might use that feature.
The maps app with siri is seriously amazing. I have not driven off a cliff yet. Get in the car and tell Siri to drive to an address and #boom  she is a chatty little thing telling me the way.
Bizarre quirk: We haven’t figured out the command to tell her we have arrived and we would like her to quit the map program. Siri, quit maps, Siri, stop driving, Siri, shut up. None of them worked. Sue finally told her to shut the fsck up and she replied, “that’s not very nice” and quit the app. She is amusing and I hope I do not get locked up when found on a street corner swearing at my phone in one hand with a Rubber Duck in the other.
Click on the pick for the full monty. Stella, Rubber Duck, Chapin’s Gully, Pigeon Cove.
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Call me Bubbles
I could have used some movie editing. Nah.
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The Rockport Finback Whale is Gone!
The Finback whale, formely known as the Rockport Whale, aka Finny, aka Stinky, is no more. Or at least he isn’t the Rockport Whale anymore. As of 11:35 PM last night Finny started heading out and was well clear of his rocky beach resting spot by midnight. He was last seen floating high in the water (well, high for a large rolling bag of whale innards), heading WNW at about 1.5 knots pushed by the prevailing winds of Hurricane Sandy from the ESE . The current will also head west for almost two hours after high tide (midnight), so there is nothing stopping Finny from becoming the Gloucester Whale.
The  waves are pretty decent size scouring the back side of Cape Ann so depending how Finny surfs he could be on Good Harbor Beach by morning. But I doubt it. He either gets hung up on the beach in front of the Cape Ann Motor Inn or he heads out to sea to be seen no more because the waves busted him apart.
So Sandy did a good deed during her lively visit to Cape Ann. She didn’t clear away too many leaves but she did remove twelve tons of stinky whale.
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A Bit Breezy at Andrews Point
3PM at the point. Steady straight out of the NE at 56 mph, gusts to 69 mph but it feels like there isn’t much time between gusts. The sound is deafening between the wind, water, granite, moving, you can feel that in your feet. It seems to have picked up tempo in just the last ten minutes.
69 mph and not one leaf has left my yard? What the hell? Enough fun for one day. Meet me at Stone’s Pub for a beer.
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Sandy Pushes into Sandy Bay
High tide noon in Rockport. A few inches short. Midnight tonight there may be a bit more water.
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No Rest for the Weary
Four hours until landfall of Frankenstorm Sandy and do Jim Ketchopulos & Sons take a day off with 12 foot waves rolling into the property? No way. A basement needs to go into the ledge and a little wind isn’t going to stop them.
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Frankenstorm: We Will Rebuild III
Oak leaves! And pine needles! I called Triple A but when can they make it through the debris? We will rebuild.
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We Will Rebuild II
The one on the right, fell in the night. What if there had been a chipmunk walking by? I don’t want to look.
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Frankenstorm: We Will Rebuild
My son the barbecue expert without fail leaves an empty Heineken on the barbecue. I woke up to this devastation this morning.  How will I break the news? We will get a FEMA loan and I promise we will rebuild.
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One Last Whale Tale
If you click on the photo to embiggen then click one more time you can see that Rubber Duck is perched on the whale. She is sitting in the same spot as the previous photo.
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About 85 Rubber Ducks long: NSFL (this post may not be safe for viewing while eating lunch.)
The Finback is about 85 Rubber Ducks long.
Homie and half a dozen of his pals were working on this piece. Maybe some jaw with baleen attached.
Only a guess that there might be 5 or 6 tons of whale. In a few weeks it might be dangerous to be downhill of the body because when she pops there may be quite a landslide of whale innards. Also why I am not saying exactly where it is. It’s cute and all but better left to the winter storms. Another unit of measure is on a scale of one to ten, what does Homie think of it? Ten being potato chips and one being an old sock. Right now Homie thinks it only rates a 3 right up there with a dried three week old fish rack. That number might even drop once she really starts ripening. The blow hole flies might not lay eggs since we are past frost but there are a few smaller type flies interested.
My advice is to find it in the spring when there will be a cool set of whale bones that no one can touch because that is illegal or else a winter storm or three will send her on her way to Nova Scotia.
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A Rubber Duck Unit of Length
Unit of Measure: A Standard Rubber Duck.
Length including duck bill: 6 inches (15 centimeters)
Height: 5 inches (12 centimeters)
Width: 3 inches (6 centimeters)
In the afternoon I will be posting photos of the Rubber Duck sitting  on a dead Finback Whale washed up on the rocky coast of Cape Ann. It will help to realize that RD is not a small duck. (The closeup fisheye effect of the iPhone distorts the view but RD really is 6 inches from stem to stern.)
And yes, RD has a red fiberglass cast on her right wing. She thanks everyone for all the get well cards. She only misses being able to give Homie a big hug.
Good Morning Gloucester 