"different strokes for different ......."

Hello my friends, long time no hear. Sorry, nothing much happening around here. Just trying to stay cool, half sober, and earn a few shekels for the cruising kitty. The weather here on the Texas Gulf Coast is finally cooling down although we are experiencing one of the worst droughts in memory. In my area, Houston-Galveston, we are 2 feet behind normal for rain. We are  water rationing here. The water levels in most all of the Texas lakes are way down and most rivers are nearly dry. NO!! Its not 2012!! I can hear some of you now! No, its just a periodic weather cycle that has presented itself many times in the past and will eventually fade away only to re-emerge again somewhere down the line like El Nino and La Nina.  However!!!! There is one alternative that some of you might want to contemplate and that is "what ever became of the engineering plans and drawings for the secret weather machine that the Russians stole from Nikola Tesla in the 1930's?" One of the guys on the dock, we call him "Radio Free Darryl" commented just the other day that he heard that Vladimir Putin, the current president and prime minister of Russia, was recently heard commenting about this machine that has now been perfected by the Russians and how he is going use it to retaliate against the George Bush's by screwin' with Texas weather.  Well according to Captain Thirsty another fixture on the dock, this is probably true because, according to Thirsty, we all know that Tesla designed a flying saucer for the Nazis in World War II and they perfected the design near the end of the War as the secret weapon that was going to win the conflict for the Third Reich but  WWII ended before the saucer could be mass produced. Thirsty maintains that these are the facts and he knows because  when he was a secret operative for the super secret NIA he saw the actual captured Nazi films of the saucer flying around blasting the crap out of stuff with its electronic weapons systems. Thirsty thinks that the Russians who confiscated the plans at the end of the War traded them and a few  saucer prototypes and engineering specs to some militant Jihad group in exchange for future interests in Mideast oil , industrial diamond futures,  and free access to Mideast seaports. All this kinda infuriated "Party Bill" the captain of the 32 foot Irwin center cockpit "Love Palace". He doesn't take it out. He just party's on it all the time. Matter of fact, this boat hasn't had a bottom job in eleven or twelve years and  has not been out of the slip for ten or eleven years. Anyways, "Party Bill" maintains that if we would have elected Barry Goldwater as President in 1964, we wouldn't have to deal with all this crap now cause those commieragheadbastards would of been all nuked off the face of the planet and straight to Hell!! Radio Free and Thirsty were pensive for a moment but in a short while they both shook their heads in agreement. Ahhh, Consensus. Take care my friends.
"I hate storms but calms undermine my spirits" - Bernard Moitessier

We need more elephants here.........

We have been silent for a while now, but we're still here. Still planning to leave in the Spring. You know what Mike Tyson said about plans dontcha......"everyone has a plan 'till they get punched in the mouth." Well, this kinda describes my sentiment at the moment. My attempts to bolster my cruising kitty have met with dismal disappointment lately. Its been very discouraging....What has been said by cynics everywhere thru all of time about the best laid plans? ...."one step forward...two steps back"  Aanyways, the boat projects are slow to complete mainly because I'm in a lazy state right now and of course the 100 plus degree heat doesn't bolster my enthusiasm for working on Zosha. "Quit whining" you say....."Manup"..."When did you get so pussified?"
You're right my friend. Thank you.
Take care my friends
"We will either find a way, or make one" - Hannibal Hannibal

Eight more months but who is counting?

 We are still here!!! Toiling daily to make it all happen.......Its been a long road .....more than 25 years trying to go cruising........its comforting to know, though, that many of us  are of the same circumstance....we harbor the dream for decades....never giving up the faith....taking care of our responsibilities....educating our children....taking care of our frail parents....laying them to rest....fretting money....falling into periods of frightening despair that it might never happen...never losing the faith  that somehow, one day we are going to step aboard our own boat and depart the dock reborn......!
Keep checking in on us.....we are getting closer.....
"it is rarer to find a really happy person in a circle of millionaires than among vagabonds"
-Thor Heyerdahl

4th of July salutations!

Happy Fourth of July to you all..........!! May your beer stay cold and the fire in the smoker stay lit till the brisket is done.!  We are on the way to Austin, Texas today to visit Tana's family...can't wait ! Its been so HOT here...........high 90's........high humidity......typical summertime Gulf Coast Texas misery....during the  mid day its really too hot to do anything  but sit in a pool and enjoy a cold brewski or three....! Maybe it will be a little more temperate in Austin? Boat work is difficult to accomplish. Top side or down below it doesn't matter.....its hot everywhere ! The seahood is done....just needs to be varnished.
The staysail on the W28 is self-tacking which is nice except that the spar for the self tacking spar takes up the entire foredeck which is no bueno for a cruising boat of limited size so I've taken it off and need to install some i-track on the cabin top for the sheeting the staysail....no big deal. The stainless dodger frame is ready to go....just need to call a canvas guy to do the dodger part. Need to fabricate a full boat shade awning. Going to upgrade the alternator and save the current one as a spare.....my computer woes are back with a vegeance. I've had to re boot 10-12 times just while writing this blog.....ARGHHH!! gues s we can't blame it on Tawny afterall.....

Hello.....we're back....

Do you remember the days when we all were not instantaneously connected? No Internet, no cell phones, no email, no PCs...........man those days were barbaric weren't they? this blog has been silent for a coupla weeks now because my laptop had some issues that needed an IT PERSON  to analyze and fix......so off to the computer repair guy with my heart and wallet all a flutter. Well, Chris the computer guy called me today and said to me "cmon' by I need to talk to you"...............OHHHHHH!!!....my wallet just about jumped outta my pants..........well, an hour later I'm at at the computer guys shop ready for the hammer to fall.....and he says " I ran all the diagnostics and can't find anything wrong...it runs fine....all I did was clean the heat sink and cooling fan because it was all gunked up with some fuzzy stuff that impeded air flow...and these laptops will shut down if they get too hot."  Oh? fuzzy stuff huh?"  I comment.  Did it look like cat hair? I again ask.  "Coulda been" he said. MMmmmmmmmmm..cat hair? Well, its not in my nature to blame these computer woes on Tana's defenseless Tabby named Tawny who loves to cuddle up against the laptop when its sitting on the big glass coffee table in our living room. But she does like to get right next to it and nap. My surmise is that she likes the hum of the fan motor or the little breeze from the exhaust port or maybe she likes the vacuum on the intake side..........don't know but Chris  pulled all the fuzzy stuff off the fan motor and heat sink fins and everything seems to be working OK.  Cost to fix? you ask....twenty bucks!.........Chris is a good dude.....good karma! So Zoshas Wake is up and running again.
OK OK you lament but this is supposed to be a sailing blog isn't it? I admit to getting a little sidetracked about maybe trying to go out and get a job and earn a 'little more money' to feed the cruising kitty....but you know what?.....forget it....lets get back on track here...forget going back to work..nobody wants to hire me anyways....too old...!
Tana is happy because the sea hood is finally off the dining table and I'm not glassing inside the apartment anymore and dropping little epoxy droplets on the carpet and Tawny is no longer covered in fiberglass fibers from the mat that's been lying around and we are no longer living in an acetone fume enhanced micro environment, our 700 sf apartment. Wonder how many days I've knocked off our lifespans in the last few weeks with this indoor sea hood project. Don't ask.....we can't afford to rent a workshop.
Timeline?  ....our plan is to head outta here Feb or March 2012....Florida first...my brother lives in the Keys.....from there....not quite sure yet......keep checking in on us....
............"Dreams are necessary to life." -Anais Nin...........
Be well my friends.............

No axe to grind on this one...........!!

Actually, to my amazement, there are a couple of people who read this blog. This makes me  feel so Horace Greeleyish...thank you....
Anyways one loyal reader contacted me and informed me that the font size was kinda small and for them the text was hard to read.....so it has been changed  and now there is larger font on the blog......if you want it bigger, let me know....
The sea hood is about to be reinstalled.....We all know that "a picture is worth a thousand words"....did Horace Greeley say that? I'm not so sure that he didn't.......back to the point....the usb cord to my digital camera that allows me to post pictures directly from the  camera to my computer to the Internet has gone missing...........so to post pictures, it is necessary for me to create a picture CD and then upload...no big deal except that it is a pain in the "arse" to go to Target and create the CD and spend $3.99 per...so a new camera is in order.....but being "sparse of purse", the new camera has to wait until the root canal is paid for.....once embodied with a new camera......the visuals will flow....

"when you cease to dream, you cease to live" -Malcolm Forbes
Be well my friends..............

Where have our manners gone....?

Have yet to hear from the dream job selection committee that weeks ago received my resume and copious amount of required documentation that was necessary for me to apply for this job that has been an obsession for 25 years............what has  happened to courtesy and common decency and respect for our fellow man in our brave new contemporary cyber world ?.......Just finished reading a blog from a poor guy who has sent out over 2000 resumes in the last two years in a still unsuccessful attempt to find employment. He stated that most of his submissions were totally unacknowledged by all those potential employers and that out of all those resume submissions, he only received a handful of replies and even fewer rejection notices!!...for the most part this gentleman was totally ignored!!  this is wrong!!  it seems to me that in today's world whatever powers at be treat others of perceived lesser status as meat...not worthy of consideration or acknowledgement. How many times have we read or heard this same story about someone who is trying to find work and diligently remits to these prospective employers all the required documents and vitaes.... and resumes, and recommendation letters only to be totally ignored..no communication from these employers that this info was received...no notification that their application is being considered or even that it has been sent to the circular file..........nothing, we are  nameless, faceless, non-entities in the cyber-world  mindset of so many people today.....there is no loss of dignity  to the individual human spirit for one being out of work and trying to secure employment..PERIOD!...but yet, this seems to be the prevailing attitude of many in this "screw you Jack, I've got mine" world who are fortunate enough to have a secure job or  who have hiring decision input power over those who are in need employment.............this world scares me now because it seems to me that the collective noble conscience of our spirit as compassionate human beings  has totally eroded away......why do so many of us look to past generations for solace of personal spirit?
Generations lost....the last surviving American WWI vet passed away this year, 2011!.. about 1100 WW II veterans die each day! About 400 Korea Conflict veterans die each day. About 300 Viet-Nam veterans die each day. Sadly, the non-veteran counterpart members of these same generations are also passing on at probably the same or slightly lesser rate. This is normal....we are all born to die...life is a series of transitions that culminates in death....but why are these statistics so important you ask?  The real tragedy in the passing on of these  generations is that with their loss, so it seems to me, is  also the loss of the last remnant's of our nobility of spirit as a society, lost is our collective cultural literacy, lost is our societal compassion for each other as Americans, lost is our sense of duty as patriots...it seems to me that our country is no longer a citizenry composed of a cohesive agglomeration of American patriots all of differing heritage but bound together by the concept of the American spirit. These statements are in no manner way shape or form meant to even imply that the American spirit is not well found and guarded in the hearts of the brave men and women who now comprise our armed forces and who are sacrificing daily in three foreign conflicts. These men and women embody the American spirit and are committed to safeguarding all that is America; however, are there enough of them to be the catalysts for the maintaining our heritage????  There is no doubt that as a society we are now transitioning.......but to where? Don't know what this has to do with sailing.....have to think about it.....
"He who has a why to live can bear almost any how." - Friedrich Nietzsche

Be well my friends...................