Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Happy Birthday Nicole!

Happy Birthday to my beautiful daughter, who always makes us smile, and laugh. Enjoy your day (working ha ha), and have a nice refreshing beverage later in celebration. Wish we could be there with you. We Love you, Mom and Pops People you share a birthday with:
George Clooney turns 48 years old today.

Willie Mays Baseball Hall of Famer 75 Richard Shelby U.S. senator, R-Ala. 64 Jimmie Dale Gilmore Singer 64 Bob Seger Rock musician 62 Alan Dale Actor 62 Ben Masters Actor 57 Gregg Henry Actor 56 Tony Blair Former British prime minister 54 Tom Bergeron TV host ("Dancing with the Stars") 49 Roma Downey Actress ("Touched by an Angel") 49 John Flansburgh Rock singer (They Might Be Giants) 45 Tony Scalzo Rock musician (Fastball) 44 Leslie Hope Actress 42 Mark Bryan Rock musician (Hootie and the Blowfish) 38 Chris Shiflett Rock musician (Foo Fighters) 37 Martin Brodeur Hockey player 26 Adrianne Palicki Actress ("Friday Night Lights") Robert Peary 5/6/1856 - 2/20/1920 American arctic explorer; led the first expedition to the North Pole Sigmund Freud 5/6/1856 - 9/23/1939 Austrian neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Incommunicado

I'm tuning out. Nothing but boat work, and maybe some yard, or house stuff during the rainy days. I don't care about work, or anything else going on in the crazy ass world this week. If I get on the web, it will be to look up boat stuff, or comm with the kids, or update the blog :) I'm willing to bet that my blood pressure will drop, and I'll sleep like a baby. In fact, why is that 60 minutes show on right now? Is Andy Rooney scary looking, or what? If I had kids watching right now, I think they would cry. It looks like I will have to fill all the stupid holes in the hull before I can put up the rubrail. The rail has pre-drilled holes, and they do not line up, of course. So that will take a day or two to get that done. I still have three more ball valves to replace, and they are the hardest to get at. I tried today to remove that crappy black exhaust/water hose from a valve, and it would not budge. I will have to cut it off, and replace with new. I hate that heavy duty hose. I got so frustrated today, I left the boat early. Hey Nic, we made another trip around the sun!

Saturday, May 2, 2009

layoff

I should not have any problem getting the work done on the boat and house this week, as I'm on layoff. Temporary layoff (TLO), has been going on for most of the year now, and this is my third week. The first week I just stared at the walls wondering what happened. Now I'm a little more prepared, mentally, to get some things done. So by the end of the week, SV Alert should be ready for the water. The weather looks good for most of the week, and I look forward to a stress free period of boat work. I will be incommunicado for the whole week, avoiding the news about flu, banks, autos, taliban, warming, Dems, Repubs, blah, blah, blah. Not sure where the auto industry is going, or what part Delphi will have in the future. We just sold our first Marine emissions components. California requires boats to have emission systems, so we are now in the boating business. I think Delphi will liquidate, and GM will scoop up the good stuff. Not sure where all us engineers will fit in, but I'll look at it as a good thing. This may be the kick start Deb and I needed to get to warmer water. Supposedly this will happen next week, while I am on TLO. Won't care, but I'm sure a text message will pop up, or some retiree at the marina will tell me "Have you heard? You're screwed!" I'm installing new rubrail along the toerail this week. It's the typical Catalina grey rubber that fits in a aluminum track. They must have drilled a million friggin screws into the topsides to attach the old one. Not sure if I'll use all the screw holes when putting up the new one. Why would you drill every six inches? Guess they didn't want it coming off. I suppose I should do the same, but it seems ridiculous to me. She's getting there. Won't be long, and we'll be sitting in the cockpit drinking a nice warm drink, trying to stay warm while floating in 40 degree water.