Life goes on, I forget just why

I promised a photo of what's left of the Morris Canal, at the Jersey City end. That's it, above.

The tide is relatively high, so that sunken lumberyard of imperishable 19th-century timber, to the left of the photo, isn't as impressive now as it will be six hours later.

The narrow body of water shown once stretched a hundred miles or so, over hill and dale, to the Delaware River.

This shot was taken at about 7:30 AM. This is what I do, now, weekdays: I ride my bike from Chateau Smithbowen down to 39th street, and from there I catch the 7 AM ferry to Jersey City. I ride the bike from the ferry landing up LaSalle Street and then, when that peters out, up Grand Street -- a busier street, full of the usual obnoxious aggressive entitled Jersey drivers -- to the unpropitiously-named Jersey Avenue(*).

Then south to the footbridge where the photo above was taken. Through various cunning byways I find my way into the boatyard. I go into the office and pester the boatyard guys, in my ineffectual, polite way -- I'm a squeaky wheel, but I squeak very softly -- and then I clamber up onto the boat and potter. Here's the result of some recent pottering:

Yes, the solar panel -- the thing that might have prevented the most recent disaster, if it had been installed three weeks ago.

Or maybe not.

That rail-mounting looks simple, but reflects a few false starts, and the unlovely but quite serviceable plastic rail clamps hide several uselessly drilled holes. (Who knew that when you order a stainless-steel U-bolt with an inner diameter of one inch, it arrives with an inner diameter of 15/16"? Clearly I went to the wrong schools.)

Back to the Morris Canal. Here's the view looking West, toward New York Harbor:

We take our pleasures where we find them. At the moment, mine are the joys of Jersey City.

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(*) Google Earth will show you all this if you're really interested.