Tag: Rubber Duck

Blackburn Challenge Wrap-Up

Posted on by paultmorrison

Couldn’t ask for better weather. Cloudy and not too hot, wind really of no consequence. I’ll cover the race from most crazy to least crazy, just the highlights. The full spreadsheet of race results go to Cape Ann Rowing Club Web site here.

First up, the Stand Up Paddle. Local Bay Viewer, Gloucester Will Rich put down a time of 3 hours 57 minutes last year. Less than 4 hours all the way around Cape Ann. Standing up. That is crushing it. So this year he cut that down to 3:37:45 on a SUP. That is officially the most crazy.

Next up, the boats that should not be on an ocean with waves. Sliding seat racers, single and doubles as well as some of the high performance kayaks (HPK) look like they would be insane to paddle with any chop. Place rubber duck in any of them and they would flip in 10 seconds. But Daniel Gorriaran and Scott Whitney posted the best time in a sliding seat racing double at 2:19:54. Are you serious? (But not a Blackburn record. 2009 a sliding seat racing double did it in 2:15. Not sure if that is the overall record. A BC historian could comment and I will correct.)

And last but not least, Rubber Duck. Well, totally improving each year. Here are her times the past four years: 2009 DNS “did not start”, she had bronchitis. Quack. 2010; 5:30 there was beer left in the keg, that was fun. 2011; 5:22 Ed, the duck, and I stop at Andrews Point for a beer and also finished before the keg is done. Cool. 2012; 4:49 OK, cutting off enough time to get under 5 hours and I didn’t fall in the water getting out. The best part is Rubber Duck paddled past Jimmy T before the DogBar Breakwater. I am sure it wasn’t because he saw the rubber one pass him but he definitely picked it up in the last two miles in the harbor but the rubbery one held him off finishing just 25 seconds ahead of him. Mister Tarantino was in a Banks Dory that was more than a few hundred pounds heavier than Rubber Duck’s kayak but pwnd is pwned.

Next year Rubber Duck goes under 4:30 heading for under four hours by 2015. Gotta set goals.

As always the Cape Ann Rowing Club did a superb job officiating and taking care of every racer’s needs, even a slow whiny duck. Best pulled pork ever.  See you next year on the Essex River. Time for a nap.

ps. Only 362 days (unconfirmed July 13, 2013) until the 27th Blackburn Challenge. Start your training now!

Thank you all for the Blackburn Challenge Coverage

Posted on by paultmorrison

Rubber Duck felt like a movie star. The ultimate was paddling like crazy and I hear my name called but I am going under the A. Priatt bridge how could … then I see Donna at the rail way the hell up there (that was a long lens she shot of me with my mouth open stopped in the water agog.)

The whole race Rubber Duck got a shout out from so many points. The race was so much fun I wanted to go around again. Improved my time a bit. Having Rubber Duck face me was much better aerodynammically and we were able to chat so much more.

Time for pizza, thanks all, Rubber Duck and Paul M.

ps. I can’t thank all the photographers because there were so many and special thanks to Ed Collard who not only was at the start along with Donna and Rick, (and all were at the finish along with Kathy Chapman) but he held my kayak as I exited and I did not fall in or over. So, improved time, nice exit, the weather and tides could not have been more perfect,   and this Joey coverage I am just now reading with all the maps is just a hoot.

Paddling around the circumference of Cape Ann, looking into every nook and cranny, cove and craggy point, underlines to me how lucky we are to live in such a place. But it would just be a rocky island without the amazing people who inhabit it.

pps. my internet and mail are down and out and even my iPhone mail is plugged up (you all might get a bunch of mail on a Monday morning reset) so I am back to finishing Joe Garland’s Lone Voyager. I thought I knew the Howard Blackburn story but this dude was amazing.

ppps. And I would be completely remiss if I did not mention what an amazing production that the Cape Ann Rowing Club pulls off for this race. Over 300 racers swarm into Gloucester High School but the behind the scenes work is done as smooth as silk. The pulled pork and cold beer are delish and throughout the race there was a red flagged boat out there making sure we did not paddle off to Nova Scotia. Donna Lind et al., you do an amazing job and I hope it is so much fun you do it again and again because I’ll be back.

Two Days to Blackburn Challenge and Everyone is Ready

Posted on by paultmorrison

Including Rubber Duck. She has been pumping iron (and a one and a two, OK now)

and has now moved on from the Horribles Parade hat she was sitting on last week and is now safely strapped down to the forward kayak cockpit with the secret Rubber Duck Tracker GPS System® attached below the black seal. Click the link to go to the Rubber Duck Tracking System®.

The Blackburn Challenge will start behind the Gloucester High School and the starting gun for her race is 8:20 AM this Saturday. She will start paddling and activate her Rubber Duck powered GPS system around 8AM. Then it is up the Annisquam River over to Halibut Point, down Sandy Bay past Rockport then all uphill into the tide and southwest wind along the backshore to the DogBar Breakwater then turn right for another uphill two mile paddle to the greasy pole. Right now the tracker is showing Rubber Duck as she went to Falmouth Inner Harbor to catch a bluefin tuna on Tuesday (photos when available). Be sure to “refresh” the page and you will know exactly where she is all day which will be about two hours behind the winners although she is quite svelte now for a Rubber Duck and might burn some rubber on the track. So if you have nothing better to do check it out and meet us on Pavilion Beach a little after noon Saturday. Paul Frontiero will be there to capture the exit from the kayak on video.

Countdown to Blackburn

Cape Ann Rowing Club Website

Blackburn Challenge Just 7 Days Away on Saturday, July 14

Posted on by paultmorrison

And Registration ends tonight, Saturday, July 7 at midnight.

So click here to register now!

Click here for a map of the course.  Look familiar? That’s because it’s Cape Ann. All you have to do is get into your watercraft with an oar or paddle at Gloucester High School and paddle over to the Greasy Pole but go the long way around Cape Ann. You’ll have lots of company (304 already signed up) and cold beer and a pulled pork sandwich awaits you at Pavilion Beach.

Cape Ann Rowing Club Website

15 Days Until Blackburn Challenge

Posted on by paultmorrison

This has snuck up on the Rubber Duck so she is doubling her work outs.

And a One and a TWO, OK all done. As always if you are tracking Blackburn, the timer to the starting gun is here. And a map to track Rubber Duck is here.

Rubber Duck promises to have a real time Rubber Duck tracker so you can track her progress around Cape Ann and meet her at the Greasy Pole. She promises to be there before the beer runs out.

Of course, to check out the names of the 224 plus paddlers just go to the Cape Ann Rowing Club website or go to their page here and the link is in the middle of the page.

Registration is still open but do it today or else you might have to settle for just cold beer, the pulled pork and the massage but not get the uber cool T-Shirt. If the Rubber Duck can do it …

What to do with Round Rocks? Make Art.

Posted on by paultmorrison

The backyard came with a bunch of round rocks. Sort of out of place. The cut granite left over from quarrying is cool but these round ones want to be back on a beach. But at 80 to 180 pounds they aren’t going anywhere fast. Sue wanted them to be sprinkled past a garden so it would look like a dry riverbed but that didn’t work. Now she wanted them out.

What to do? 30 yards was as far as I was going so Ted and I rolled them out of the way into a nice pile. They still looked kind of stupid but then a lightbulb went off.

Why not make some art? What do you think? Ted is taking the under that they won’t be upright next weekend. I’m taking the over because I think they will last forever.

ps. If you bet the under and then sneak over and push them over Rubber Duck may have a webcam set to record motion. Great for the Cat Birds. Are the Cat Birds more funny then usual this year? They are acting like they got into some ripe catnip.

Rubber Duck Leftovers

Posted on by paultmorrison

I don’t know where you been laddie but I see you won first prize!

There are fresh teeth marks in that duck’s butt. Now I know when it happened but by who?

Paul Morrison Contemplates Rubber Duck Pasties For His Upcoming Male Revue Act While At The Dock To Pick Up His Midnight Sun T Shirt

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

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Rockport Beach and Dump Stickers Now Available

Posted on by paultmorrison

Today was the first day for stickers and Rubber Duck made it in early with no line and no waiting. Bring car registration and a tax bill (if your registration is not Rockport) along with a check or cash to Town Hall Conference Room A (that’s downstairs).

Monday and Friday from 10AM to 2PM during the month of May and June. Learn something new every day: as a residence be sure and bring a dime for the meter in the Town Hall lot. Quarters do not fit.

So early we headed over to Bean and Leaf for a treat and a coffee.

John Coonley (father of Josh) showed the Rubber Duck around while Haley hid because she was having a “bad hair day” (Rubber Duck could not tell). Find Bean and Leaf on Twitter the web and Facebook so you can find out the secret word and good promos.

A new Beach Sticker on your car and almost ready for summer. Now all we need is Mister and Misses Bathroom Sign to go up at the Rockport Info Booth and it’s official.

Did You Know: Rubber Duck Debugging

Posted on by paultmorrison

From the Rubber Duck Debugging Wikipedia Page:

Rubber duck debugging, Rubber Ducking, or the Rubber Duckie Test is an informal term used in software engineering to refer to a method of debugging code. The name is a reference to an apocryphal story in which an unnamed expert programmer would keep a rubber duck by his desk at all times, and debug his code by forcing himself to explain it, line-by-line, to the duck.

To use this process, a programmer meticulously explains code to an inanimate object, such as a rubber duck, in the expectation that upon reaching a piece of incorrect code and trying to explain it, the programmer will notice the error. In describing what the code is supposed to do and observing what it actually does, any incongruity between these two becomes apparent.

 

Homie programming in FORTRAN.

Today is Homie and Rubber Duck’s First Anniversary

Posted on by paultmorrison
Homie: “You’re not from around here are you? May I show you the cove?”
Solitude of the lonely Homie.
Cold, lonely, rubbery, but Patriotic!
A little stand offish at first.
They’re eyes locked and Homie was in love.
“So how many children should we have?” Homie wasn’t wasting any time.
“I have a lovely nest on Milk Island.”
You’re not listening to a word I’m saying!”
“We could make it work!”
“Do you think it’s safe to come out?”
Your friends are rude Homie.
Rubber Duck out on the Town at another Fred Bodin Christmas party.

I cannot believe it has only been one year since the Rubber Duck met Homie on a blustery day just like today, April 18, 2011. When I posted that first part of the Rubber Duck saga I was only joking about it being a twenty part series. Little did I know that maybe a hundred posts later the story is still not finished. To commemorate their anniversary I repost the first few chapters. Later this week will be an update of how Homie and Rubber Duck spent their day today. Part I posted April 18th, 2011:  (This will be a twenty part series.) Part II posted April 19th, 2011: But first, the back story. Two lonely birds:  But soon the connection was made and time stopped. ”  “I am so out of here!”  But Homie came back of course and took Rubber Duck all over. The Rockport Dump, Thacher Island lighthouse, Maine, Florida, meeting Santa when he arrived in Rockport, wine tasting at Passports, Duck Confit at Duckworth’s. Then, just a few months later, things got a little weird: Last sighting of RD was at the Spring Fling two weeks ago with rumors that she was at the Thirsty Golf contest at the DogBar last week when Joey caught her again staring at him.  Flexilis anatidaephobia is the fear that a rubber duck is staring at you and Joey has got it bad.

100 days until Blackburn Challenge

Posted on by paultmorrison

Yikes, according to my Blackburn Challenge Timer there are only 100 days left to prepare for the paddle all the way around Cape Ann starting at Gloucester High School and ending at the new Greasy Pole July 14, 2012.

 Click map for details.

Who is going to do it? Rubber Duck had fun last year but this year she is going carbon fiber and a decent time. Rumor has it that there are several people who have never done a 21 mile kayak but are seriously thinking about it. Reply to this post and lets get a pod of you together that will aim for one goal, finish before the keg is empty. Next month once the water temp gets past 50F we can start doing a couple of training runs. Who’s in?

[edit] Essex River Race May 19, 2012. A five mile jaunt from the Essex Ship Building Museum out and around Cross Island and back. Any GMGers want to do that? I’ll loan you a kayak. Sign up here with the Cape Ann Rowing Club. Start your season early this year. Life is too short so make the season long.

Rubber Duck Review: Birding Binoculars

Posted on by paultmorrison

I’m not a birder with a life list but I wanted to get Sue a pair of decent birding binoculars. So I asked my sister who does have a life list and does go to Panama to crouch behind dumpsters to check out birds. She said to go to birdwatching.com and see what pair scored highest in the mid-priced binocs. There was a pair at the top of the list scored by how they function as birding glasses for $350.00. After going back and forth to Amazon and a bunch of other sites I bought them through birdwatching.com since they had the best price and availability. Showed up three days later. These puppies are awesome.

Vanguard Endeavor ED 8×42 Read the review here.  So why 8×42 and why this particular pair? At 8×42 you get the best fit for a pair of binocs you don’t mind hanging around your neck all day. See a bird and instantly have it in view and focused. Higher mag and all that gets a little more difficult. This pair gathers so much light with great eye relief (your eye can move around a bit behind the pair without the image going black) that they are just a lot more fun to use than the old pair we had been using.

They are also perfect for checking out the moons of Jupiter or the Orion Nebula. Can’t wait for those warm evenings laying on my back out on Halibut Point checking out the stars. With these binocs it is as Carl Sagan said, there are billions and billions of stars. More than the estimated 2.6 billion birds in the United States.

Now That’s a Rubber Duck

Posted on by paultmorrison

Click photo to go to Florentjin Hofman’s project page for a rubber duck that would look awesome in Gloucester’s Inner Harbor staring into the window of Joey’s office. Just the right height.

Passports Wine Tasting Diner Tomorrow! Thursday March 29

Posted on by paultmorrison

Rubber Duck checked out the Passports Wine Dinner last month and she is still flapping her rubber wings about it.  Passports does it again tomorrow and you may still have time to get a reservation. Well worth it, 978-281-3680. Tell them Rubber Duck sent you.

Last month:

Chili Sullivan leads you through the courses and the wine pairings. I know what you’re thinking, some hoity-toity dude to tell you how to breathe and snort when you taste the wine. That’s not Chili. He tells you where the wine came from, describes the environment so you can imagine the fog rolling over the hills cooling the Grüner Veltliner as it grows to a crisp, tasty grape. He also throws in a little history. Don’t worry, it’s short, painless and you don’t have to put your fork down. And speaking of Grüner Veltliner, which was paired with the Cajun fluke last month, it’s the reason why I’m late with this review. I wanted to add where you can get some in Gloucester but I keep forgetting to check out the white wines when I’m in Sea Breeze picking up my Knockabout Gin. The Grüner Veltiner that Chili served was from Sepp Moser, Austria. Tasty. Rubber Duck wants some more.

Poll- Does Paul Morrison Need A Duck Intervention

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

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Lest any of our FOBs think that I, Joey am the man behind R. Duck I would like to clear up that misconception immediately.  People have been sending me ducks and I’m not sure why.  The official logo is a seagull (homie) and the popular segment where I would feature a seagull with a caption is the”What up Homie?” category here on GMG. You can see the 550 “What Up Homie?” posts here

The wonderfully quirky Mr. Paul Morrison has introduced GMG to the world of one R. Duck.  Since R Duck’s introduction I have yet to see Paul Morrison travelling without his trusty sidekick.  This includes Mug-Ups, The Blackburn Challenge, breakfasts, and even Wine Dinners at Passports.

Now you, as I, might think that to be a little strange- a grown man lugging a rubber duck around everywhere he goes.  But to know Pal Morrison you also know that something isn’t quite right to begin with.  His poor wife simply rolls her eyes at a mention of the duck.

So I ask you, does Paul Morrison need a Rubber Duck Intervention?

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Paul and RD

GMG Spring Fling this Saturday 6PM

Posted on by paultmorrison

The real kickoff to the entire season is upon us this Saturday, 6PM at Fred Bodin’s Historic Photo right here in our historic West End. All FOBs (friend of blog) and FORDs (friends of Rubber Duck) are invited.

RD has been thinking long and hard about what to bring. A bottle of Ryan & Wood Knockabout Gin (she loves the licorice accents) is a must but what else?

OK, to steal some photos from EJ, here is RD’s Vaseline Glass and Geiger Counter.RD will bring a piece of Vaseline Glass and demonstrate the radioactivity using her geiger counter. Perfectly harmless although maybe I wouldn’t microwave popcorn in it.

Also a contest. Pretty easy. Correctly guess where RD is in the next photo.

 All winners will be given the honor of showering Rubber Duck with gifts. As a good example RD will be wearing the necklace given to her by Beth Williams.  Beth could also bring a piece of her antique Vaseline glass she has in the window that I am betting pegs the geiger counter. If you have a piece of Vaseline glass just bring it to the hoedown at Fred’s and we’ll see if it’s hot.

But back to the gifts. Rubber Duck is a little bit bigger than you think so if you are going to make her a little Red Sox baseball cap her head is about the size of a lime. Hmm, limes also make great gifts as RD will never turn down a Gin and Tonic.

Andrews Point today ready for Surfin’?

Posted on by paultmorrison

A lone surfer with board was looking at it but sense prevailed. At low tide there was no way to get into the water without having your brains bashed out by Cape Ann granite.

Click photo for twenty more shots:

Also included are some shots of some cute plump birds dabbling in the rocks. Same ones we saw at the end of Dogbar Breakwater last week. They are amazing little flyers in formation.

Rubber Duck Tip of the Week: The Weather

Posted on by paultmorrison

I love weather websites. Watch the clouds roll in, compare forecasts. Weather Underground is my favorite. But then I ran into WeatherSpark. Check it out. Dodgeball weather looking good:

Click the map to go to WeatherSpark with some of my settings. It looks complicated, and it is. But well worth figuring out. Besides forecasts all graphically shown. You can select the cloud cover graph, wind speed graph, wind direction graph, rain accumulation, all sorts of stuff. But the cool thing is to go back into the past. Currently anything after 2007 and you can playback the storm. Watch the clouds roll in for last year’s Halloween storm. Watch the wind direction as Irene comes ashore.

It’s in beta testing so the data will likely go back all the way to your birthday soon.

Rubber Duck Bonus tip: once you pull the slider back and forth (down in the bottom right) so that a past storm is showing, CLICK and DRAG across the hours you want replayed in the map on the left. Now run the cloud movie (slider below map.)