Good Friend

Got a text from a good friend yesterday, saying he wanted to buy me a beer on my birthday. Buy me a beer? I'm there dude. It was a brief, but good reunion, as we haven't seen each other in a long time. We caught up over a few pints, and then Charlie was off to band practice. Charlie will be 80 years old and still rockin on his Fender Strat. It is kind of cool that he can still get up on stage and do that. His life is still filled with drama, mostly women related, but he hasn't changed at all since 1977. Well, maybe a little around the middle :) We don't see each other much, but it's always a good time when we do. Well, it's time to wrap up my layoff week, with more boat work. The ball valve replacement is not going too well, as I swear they built the boat around the last two valves I have to replace. I can get a wrench around them, but there is not enough room to get any leverage. I do not want to take half the boat apart to get at them. One more try today, then Deb said she will take me out to dinner for my birthday.

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

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!

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.

Scoped

When you get to be a certain age, you have some things to look forward to, like retirement, an empty nest, free time, sailing, colonoscopy. Yes, that's right. I got a camera up the butt. Got pictures too! So, what did they find? Apparently I have to eat more fiber. I'll have to switch to a wheat beer :) I expected worse, as a person who lived on Buffalo chicken wings and pizza most of his young adult life, where the only veggie I would eat, was dipped in blue cheese. I thought I would be asked "What have you been eating?" Now that I have been eating smarter for the last two years, I kind of hoped the doc would tell me it was perfect, the best he's seen, and display my colon photos for all to see, and be jealous of. Not going to happen. All in all, it was OK, if not typical. So I'll strive for five from here on out ( 5 fruits/veg's a day), as I would like to be problem free while sailing the ocean blue. The day before this procedure, they have to clean you out, so you drink this terrible mixture, then wait for the hose to turn on. I waited 3 hours, and was getting concerned that I was totally plugged up, and I would have to cancel the appointment. Oh boy was I wrong. I went through three rolls of toilet paper, and the water bill is probably going to be doubled. It was so bad that the town sent out a crew to find the source of the excess flow. Not kidding.