Barco Sin Vela II

A fine Tuesday, it is!

2012-01-24T05:46:00.000-08:00

The weather is supposed to be grand today, temps to 78! SWWBO wondered if I should consider sanding some varnish, just to get outside to play on the Barco.

Here is a really nice video and song in honor of the Sailors from WWII who were fortunate enough to have to work on a sailboat.

Arrrrr!

And of course Nick, Dave and Bob. From 1958;

If I can't be out there, at least my mind can be.

Oh, almost forgot to say 'Happy Birthday', Gary!

Have a fine day!

Sorry for the long break, again.

2012-01-23T13:37:00.000-08:00

I keep failing my reader(s) out there and neglect doing the necessary duties of creating updates to keep keep this all interesting.

Very quiet weekend, went over to the boat to test out the fridge system. Learned the hard way that one must check fridge door storage shelves to make sure they are properly installed and capable of bearing the weight of a 1.5 liter bottle of wine. I rigged the top shelves just fine. But the bottom shelf kicked the bottle of wine out where it was able to shatter all over the small teak floor, with wine seeping into the bilges through the slats. I guess I can forget about walking in the galley barefooted for the next few months. It is a guaranteed fact of life that the last three invisible shards of glass shall wind up being inevitably located by the first or second feet that tread upon the teak floor!

It took over an hour to mop up the wine and pick up the shards of glass. She Who Will Be Obeyed stayed up in the Sundeck whilst I toiled. She thinks that He Who Breaks shall Unbreak...

I cleaned using a little of the bleach cleaner but there was a a slight residual smell of Pinot Grigio warring with the clorox cleaner for air dominance. So I opened up some doors and let the wind do the work. This was when we decided to go to the Club for lunch, and maybe a spot of unsullied wine and beer.

Lunch was finally over at about 8:00 pm, and when we got back to the boat it was as clean as can be. We retired to the master cabin and had a nice night away from home (and the three ever-present cats!) We were back home by 0830, Sunday. It was a full day of football and hanging out, subsisting on propane grilled hot dogs; my favorite kind of day.

The weather is really nice out here, too. It is in the upper 70's and we have beautiful blue skies to add the happiness quotient. I really enjoy this time of year, if you haven't heard that time and again. One must endure, I guess.

This would be a good time to begin varnish work. But I know deep down that the minute I break out the paint brushes will be the same moment that the weather will turn nasty, cold and wet. It seems that mother nature doesn't like varnishing teak, either.

Initiative comes to those who wait, Me Droogies... (We watched that little film yesterday afternoon. Still disturbing and very prophetic.)

More tomorrow. I promise!

Off to a retirement ceremony at NAS Jax

2012-01-19T04:37:00.000-08:00

A boating friend from the Navy Jax Yacht Club is finishing up his 22 years of Service in the Navy today. I shall attend the ceremony at the NAS Jacksonville Officers Club (1000 sharp!) and there will be the usual VIP's and crew to help send our Shipmate ashore, never to hear the bells and whistle of Naval Service again.

For some it is a bittersweet moment, but I think the Star of the Show is kind of looking forward to the next challenge.

I will bring a camera and record some of the ceremony for my reader(s). There is video of my ceremony from London, maybe I will upload that at some future date.

As for today, this is Steve's day. He is a fine Sailor and I hope he has all the luck and health for the future.

See you in a bit.

In honor of my last post, I thought I would add in some odd photos

2012-01-18T14:56:00.000-08:00

These are from a couple years later and forward. Here is a couple from '83, flying South down the coast of California. I was a Sonar Operator/Search and Rescue Swimmer in the SH3D/H. As usual, click to bigify.

Golden Gater 500

The following are the very few photos I took while in HSL-84 flying as a Radar Operator/ SAR Swimmer in the SH2F. I really disliked the time I spent in that particular squadron and was never very happy. The Sea Sprite had a less than stellar reputation among us aircrew and I know I was always ready for a crash. Our squadron was safe and we never had a major incident. In order to get out of this squadron I left the Navy in 1988.

We used to like customizing the Sonobuoy launcher covers

Our Squadron name was "Thunderbolts"

Blood Guts and Butts.

The early '90's found me in a new situation. I reenlisted and was assigned to HSL-44 flying in the SH60B Seahawk. I am in the doorway lowering somebody to the deck.

Sunday was Steel Beach Time.

I was perpetually annoyed, didn't realize I was having a good time.

I didn't work out as much as the other guys. I used the stair machine and such. They all pumped iron and I suspected they were all a little funny. Second guy from the left was onboard the Samuel B. Roberts when it struck the mine in the Persian Gulf, back in '88. He had some really good sea stories about saving a ship. I'm wearing a Jimmy Buffett shirt.

Every week we had to wash the helo. We were allowed to wear comfortable attire.

Steel Beach in '91, somewhere in the Med.

That is all for now...

Not much to report

2012-01-18T06:35:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I spent the afternoon at Mom's, helping her get her new computer running. It was during the booting and setting date and time when I realized the date; 17 January. Today is of course the 18th. This morning I do remember waking at 0500, 33 years ago after only going to sleep at 0230. Our first night was spent getting haircuts and new clothes, and throwing what ever contraband we were carrying into the Amnesty Box.

We did that stuff in the video at 2200 (Ten o'clock) at night. I think these guys were getting it easy because of the film crew.

MCRD San Diego was actually a little easier than I expected, on that tired and early wake up. They threw a trash can across the barracks and yelled a bit, but the Drill Instructors weren't particularly animated. I think they were a bit tired, too. We were in what they called "Receiving Barracks". I thought they would start off running the real show, but no. Receiving Barracks was a ruse to get us comfortable with the idea of being a Marine Recruit.

Heh.

Us recruits got up and fumbled into our stiff new camouflaged utilities and we were instructed to button the blouse all the way up. We were then invited to "get on the road for chow!" and got pushed out the door because we were too f%^$#@ slow. We got back on our footprints and were told to stand at attention, and all that. After a bit of wailing and gnashing of teeth we were diddy-bopped down a quarter mile to the chow hall, where we were asked kindly to form two lines.

After a rushed meal of fried baloney and oatmeal we were formed up on the road and walked back to the barracks to perform clean up. We made our messy bunks and swept and swabbed the floors. About 0800 we were again invited to go outside to the foot prints ("Feet at a 45 degree angle, Maggots!") and we bopped our way to medical where we got jabbed with needles, stuck with a weird sewing pin with a pustule like object on the end (Small Pox!) and drank a foul shot of polio vaccine. Then the inevitable double tap of the air compressors shooting God knows what into our arms.

Blood was drawn and we were probed and prodded and the famous short arm inspection came to pass. The Corpsman and a Drill Instructor would closely stare, apparently looking for critters and odd social afflictions. They also asked very private questions and laughed at our physiques. Every time I passed into another room, some smarmy Drill Instructor would ask in a faux-kindly way, "Is there anything you forgot to tell the processors at the Armed Forces Entry Station, hmm? "Maybe a small arrest that nobody would give a crap about, or that you like (Insert foul innuendo about a person's orientation), hmmm?"

"Go ahead and tell us now if you fibbed about anything, anyway. "You won't be in any trouble... Just get it off your chest son..."

I saw about five privates vanish after they admitted to whatever. One guy was in tears as he admitted he had no High School Diploma. The Drill Instructor laughed. We nervously giggled.

The next day we repeated the first morning's fun, only we got to bed at 2130 and had a bit more sleep. This time we retook the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery. This was to ensure some morons didn't use a "Ringer" to take the test for them.

As if being in Marine Boot Camp was some place a rational person would want to be.

I wound up having to take an extra test regarding languages. Apparently I displayed some accidental linguistic talent I was unaware of. But they caught it. They were aware of everything. That afternoon, a couple more young Privates had vanished away from our squad bay. We were down to about forty five recruits and I wondered if I would also be disappeared, too.

No worries. The next morning we continued processing as usual. The funny thing was that we didn't get punished too much, maybe ten push ups as a group and that was about it. We didn't get yelled at too much, either. I was wondering if the Marine Corps had relaxed and that boot camp would be like the Sea Cadet boot camp I had just gone through six months prior. Oh, how nice it would be that the Marine Corps had stepped up to the Twentieth Century, Age of Aquarius and all that! My nerves were on edge and I was scared.

I had good reason to be scared. On the fifth day, we woke up and repeated the routine; On the road for chow at the foot prints, eat, come back and sweep and swab...

Something was different. The nice Drill Instructor came back and told us to pack our seabags with our blankets and sheets. While we were in the midst of doing exactly that, there was a faint rustle in the wind. It was like the temperature just dropped and the air pressure was falling, too. Storm warning?

Four very hard-bodied Drill Instructors with tightly-tailored khaki shirts and green trousers came flying into the squad bay with a new kind of fury... It took all of us by surprise as things and bodies began to take flight around us!

"ON THE FUCKING ROAD, YOU SLIME MAGGOTS... YOU BETTER GET JETS IN YO' ASS MUTHAFUKKAS... "YOU!!! QUIT EYE FUCKING ME, YOU PIECE OF FUCKING GARBAGE, MOVE... YOU!!!! MOVE... IF I CATCH YOU LOOKING AT ME ONE MORE TIME I WILL RIP YOUR EYE OUT!!!"

And so on. There was more but it would all be repetitive, you get the picture.

Actually, I kind of condensed those first few lines. There was an endless staccato of resourceful and articulately clever cursing. We tried to get on the road with our gear but we kept getting kicked and shoved down the street. There were officers watching, to make sure nothing got too out of hand but the many Drill Instructors were pretty much free to kick and curse us down a quarter mile to our new barracks. Fortunately, we were given a ground floor squad bay so no one was hurt on the stairs. It really was an incredible clusterf&*; well, you know what!

Our particular crowd seemed to swell as additional recruits from other barracks mixed in with our group. A Series of Four Marine Recruit Platoons were formed at that moment. We were the first Series for the new year, and our group was it. I found myself in Platoon 3001 and the others were Platoons 3002, 3003 and so forth.

Once we were herded indoors we were ~~assigned~~ thrown by our racks and a roll call was ordered. We had to stand in front of our rack (actually at the head of the rack, facing the other row of privates) with our arms held high, like we were surrendering. We had to count off by numbers. The count would start at one end and circle around. I think I was number 15, or something like that. At the end of the counting (Which took about an hour and a half, really!) Us Privates had to say, "Sir, the count on deck is 59 Recruits, Sir!"

Afterwards, we were invited back out on the road, to form up. Well, that didn't work so well, so we were asked to go onto the dirt at the side of the road. The dirt was sort of soft, and the dirt part was separate from the grass part. In fact, the dirt part was Platoon Shaped. With room for about 60 Marine Corps recruits to frolic in.

We learned about "Bends and Thrusts" and "Lean and Rest", which was usually accompanied by "Down Up... Down Up!" Also, there was another fun thing called Leg Lifts. We sometimes were instructed to either throw dirt at our neighbor (That is the precise terminology!) Or make a dust cloud by blowing into the dirt while relaxing in the Lean and Rest Position.

The dirt area became known as "The Pit". And when we were allowed back inside later, they let us drink some water. I never thought that the taste of something so plain and common could be so delicious. From now on, anything we ate or drank was strictly monitored. As was everything else for the next eleven weeks, especially bathroom breaks.

Oh well, enough of that. I survived. The trick was not to get noticed. At least not in a negative way.

Into the gym and later I will do some shopping for wine and foods that are going on sale at a local supermarket chain. Said chain is closing down for good in Florida, the economy is still doing its best to stay on the ropes.

Have a fine day and remember that someone in the Armed Forces would gladly switch places with you!

Apparently, the dead vote without id!

2012-01-11T14:24:00.000-08:00

In New Hampshire.

https://www.theprojectveritas.com/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=90

Always wonder why I get treated like poorly when I vote. I guess I do not look literate enough to vote properly.

Well, anyway... Got the Barco back late yesterday afternoon. Left for the home dock immediately after because the water was ultra calm. I figured I could get her back and tied up faster by myself rather than wait for an extra hand.

Paid the bill from Sadler's this morning at 0900, sharp. Fourteen hundred big ones for the install of the fridge, repairs to side door, repacking shaft glands, repair of vacuum head system and finally recharging the forward A/C with freon. Add the nine hundred bucks for 240 gallons of diesel and we have a large hole in the budget for January!

O.U.C.H.

Ah well, could be having to pay for something else like legal fees or bail. Which is why we keep the Barco the way we do; it keeps us out of trouble! Like a home away from home, especially when we have had wine with dinner at the club.

The fuel price seems rough, but we only refuel about twice a year, at the most.

A set of sails for a comparable sized sailboat would run about 14K for main, and two head sails. Sails last about eight to ten years, so you can see for yourself that the propulsion costs are fairly even. And yes, I know the arguments for and against. This is my ship, and I'm the Captain!

Full speed ahead on the fun, ok?

Today, the winds have been very brisk and we waited for some showers which haven't materialized. Good thing I moved the boat in yesterday's calm. Looking at the weather map, looks like the approaching cold front is at Tallahassee and heading this way.

Not sure if we will actually get out for this weekend, playing it by ear and staying warm are the priorities!

See you later!

Back again!

2012-01-09T08:49:00.000-08:00

Survived the great weekend, the weather was top notch with temps reaching 78 yesterday! Even better with a full moon with clear skies to enjoy both night and day here in sunny Florida.

The Barco remains at Sadler Point undergoing maintenance, I hope to get her back in the next couple days.

Here's a new one for you readers; This morning, I heard what sounded like cats scurrying about in the billiards room. I looked and found that there were no cats present. Just a lot of rustling in the closed up fireplace, up the flue. It was getting pretty frantic up there and I could tell that either a raccoon or squirrel was trying to get out.

I went online looking for a solution. There was even a phone number for a local critter gitter, but I don't feel like paying an outrageous amount of bucks to some 20 year old to remove squirrels.

There is a mound of boating detritus by our air conditioning unit, outside. There is an anchor, two kayaks, two rubber dingys, and a dock box. And a fifty foot length of 3/4 inch anchor line.

Hmmm. Plenty of line for what I need!

Went into the garage, acquired a ladder (blew the dust off!), a broom (for whacking any larger creatures like possums or coons) and for weight, found a two inch zinc which was perfect for lowering into the chimney.

Climbed up on the roof for the first time, walked carefully to the chimney. I had no idea that our chimney was made out of galvanized steel. I thought it was white brick.

Anyway, got to the chimbley and lowered about fifteen feet of line with the zinc tied in a big not at the bottom. Tied off the line to the chimbley itself, and departed for twenty minutes to give any shy creatures an opportunity to free themselves.

Noise had vanished when I returned to the billiards room. I waited a little longer to be sure before returning to retrieve the line and weight.

Good deed for the day has been accomplished, I also did the gym and followed with the daily 20 minutes on the stair machine. Next up is a trip to the Barco and then returning to my studies this afternoon.

I think a trip up the St Johns river will be mounted this three day weekend. Especially if the weather stays as nice as it has, because someone has to do it!

Speaking of Squirrels...

The Suit's are picking up the bill!

I love this group!

Update on Maintenance

2012-01-06T12:19:00.000-08:00

Well,
Progress is being made. I stopped by this afternoon to check out the status and wound up being pulled into the effort. The Yard people were unable to remove and replace the fridge at the current dock so they had me move the boat over to the haulout berth. Took a few minutes to untie and move from the dock, muscle the Barco about to the right and move about 25 feet. What makes all this interesting is that the space between piers is about 50 feet and the Barco is 40 feet long. That means nerves of steel as we back up, stop, twist to the right, all while the current is merrily pushing to the east.

I looked adequate as a boat handler. Had I not appeared, the yard crew was going to use lines to warp the boat around. My way saved about an hours work.

Looks like something is missing...

Had to remove the side access to increase the clearance.

Looks like four monkeys doing something unnatural to a football!

Without a scratch or dent!

Got it?

One thing I appreciate is that there are four guys to help muscle that thing in. Once inside, they had to lift and clear a countertop and wiggle around until it was just right. There are some alterations that will happen to the fridge closet, the clearances are an inch or two off. That's why I hired the pro's. They have an awesome set of tools and a bit of experience to get the job done right.

Great way to spend an afternoon in the Florida sunshine, at a working marina!

Have a wonderful Friday evening!

Bad old jokes

2012-01-06T08:38:00.000-08:00

Stolen from here

SMART DOGS
Four workers were discussing how smart their dogs were.

The first was an IBM employee,
who said his dog could do math calculations.
His dog was named "T-Square"
and he told the dog to go to the blackboard and draw a square,
a circle, and a triangle, which he did with no trouble.

The Ford employee's dog was named "Slide Rule."
He was told to go fetch a dozen cookies,
bring them back,
and divide them into 4 piles of 3 each,
which he did.

The AT&T company employee said that was pretty good,
but he told his dog "Measure" to go buy a quart of milk
and pour seven ounces into a 10 ounce glass.
He did it perfectly.

The three of them agreed that their dogs were pretty smart,
and they all waited to see what the City of Jacksonville employee's dog,
who was named "coffeebreak" could do.
At the snap of his owners fingers,
"coffeebreak" strolled over,
and ate the cookies,
drank the milk,
screwed the other 3 dogs,
claimed he injured his back,
filed a workman's compensation form,
and went home on sick leave.

Prepare the Barco for getting underway!

2012-01-05T03:25:00.000-08:00

We are off at 0745ish for Sadler Point Marina. A new refrigerator has arrived and needs to be professionally installed. There are a few other tasks (Head system, forward A/C) that will also be checked and tweaked by the technicians, too. After the work is complete we will head over to another marina to load on about 300 gallons of diesel.

It is 35 degrees outside, so now I must rustle up some thermals and a warm jacket. I hate doing anything in the cold.

Have a nice thursday!

****Update****

Ok, back at home at 1100. It. Was. Freezing. At 0730 at the marina! I looked over the dock and waited for Barco Crew Phil to come pick me up at Sadlers. I was not too keen on going out in 35 degrees temps, but I was committed. Got to the boat, fired up the motors on the Barco at about 0800 and let those babies warm up for twenty minutes. The Generator was a real trooper and ran the A/C system which has reverse cycle heat. Blessed heat.

Underway at 0825, we backed slowly into Pirates Cove, made the clearing turn and opened the throttles to 1800 rpm, which drove us at a bit more than eight knots. There was no one else on the water but us freezing cats! It was so cold, I could not roll up the eisenglass flaps for visibility up in the fly bridge. I had to hold the flap up like a moron while I steered the boat away from the shore.

The chat subject de jure was Phil's upcoming trip to the Bahamas and South Florida. A much warmer subject, to be sure and full of what if's and what to do's. Wish I could go...

We passed through the half opened Ortega River Bridge and chatted amiably with the workers on the scaffold who were pretending to work as we passed, slowly. About five minutes later we were greeted by one of the Sadler Point employees who was nice enough to grab lines as we docked.

The sun was definitely over the yard arm as we tidied up for work. In fact, it was getting down right warm and I wish we could have stayed out for a bit more of boating on the empty river.

'Til later...

Let's have some Música Nueva (from 1955) from Cuba to warm us up!

Happy Birthday to Mom J. Cat!

2012-01-03T08:44:00.000-08:00

I will be taking Mom to the club for lunch.

Lets hope Mom has a good lunch and a happy birthday, too!

End of 2011

2011-12-31T07:05:00.000-08:00

Amateur Night!

Tonight, those who never partake will be out in force at parties everywhere. So don't drive. Your chances for a mishap are higher than normal and it is not worth it. Let the dummies get together on their own, ok? Let us also try not to imbibe too freely, there is plenty to go around and we can do this over a long stretch of time.

I hear that the AAA will be towing people home for no charge. But supplies are limited! Plan accordingly.

2011 was a decent year for us here at the Barco Sin Vela. A new job was acquired with the appropriate bump in pay, one of us has disengaged from society, and overall our health is good. We would ask for continued good luck for next year, since no one knows what kind of challenges await us.

//Rant On: I'm hoping that our Country gets it's act together, that's for sure. I grow weary of the Media, who act as Willing Lap Dogs of our President and who are making every Republican Candidate look dumber than our current Vice President! Then again, it's easy to see why quality Candidates are unwilling to put their families through the cruel wringer of microscopic study. Only a true egotistical jerk would do that to their loved ones. So that's what we get as candidates for public office...

We need to kick every incumbent out of Con-Gress (Both Sides!) since they have not been doing their jobs in representing the people. It's about time we have regular people who know how to balance their own checkbooks controlling the National Purse! It is inexcusable that the last Con-Gress (2009-2010) did not make a budget for 2011 and punted the fiscal ball. This stunt was to make the current Congress look as foolish as possible for the 2012 election. Throw. The. Bums. Out. The House of Representatives was not meant to be a lifetime sinecure for Our Betters.

But back to the close at home stuff. Anybody can have an opinion; Opinions are like anterior orifices: We all have one.

Rant Off!//

I will try to accomplish every one of my goals that I started on in the last couple months. The Boat Captain test is happening in the early part of February, so I have that to look forward to and a bit more of study, too. Also we have an attic that needs clearing and re-insulated. I have a number of boat items out back that need to be sold/traded and a refrigerator needs to be installed onboard Barco. There is much to do!

The ugly word must be mentioned; Varnish. Varnish will need to be applied to wood surfaces on the boat, too. I really don't like to do that kind of stuff but since I am unemployed I shall have to person-up and perform. Responsibilities, and all that goes with my-good-deal!

2012 will be tomorrow, we have much to do and only 365 days to do it in!

I promise to do more boating and to report on such activities. There are many out there who cannot, so it is up to the Barco Crew to again be at the pointy end and do.

Please, everyone; Take good care of your health and be here for the next New Years Eve!

Cat Calming

2011-12-29T10:55:00.000-08:00

At the Barco Sin Vela, we know that our main mission is the care and support of Them. We humans are staff for the kittehs and they know it. During the hustle and bustle of the holidays, we discovered inadvertently, a method of keeping Them happy and out from underfoot.

The new method is called "Cat Calming".

Normally, a kitteh is either in a state of complete rest or in motion. Motion consists of running back and forth at break neck speeds, begging for food or attention, or hunting.

Rest is usually in a lap or bed, anyplace will do.

Here is a display of Mao, our Big Boy Cat.

Him begins to get a bit dozey

Fighting to stay awake

Gives in to natural instincts

Now, the problem is that Cats may decide they want to be following us around the house. Especially into closed off rooms or escaping outside. Other times, we may just need them out from under our feet as we perform household tasks.

Cat Calming is material condition set when a warm towel is placed on a bed. When the announcement comes over the Ships 1MC, 'Now set Material Condition: Cat Calming'.

I place some towels into the dryer, set on very warm. Run the dryer for about five minutes and reach in, pull out towels and let the door slam.

Upon hearing the door slam, Them will usually make way for the bedroom at great speeds while communicating their displeasure at me. They know that I'm gonna pull a fast one on them, but they want the warm towel, firstly.

Spreading the towels in a visually pleasing manner, I get out of the way for the final act of setting the Cat Calming Condition.

Results:

In place, ready for the next step...

Cat Calming is now in effect. Continue Ship's Work.

Now I can get stuff done. I have laundry drying, cleaned out the cat bathroom and washed down the kitchen. Now I am free for just doing whatever. Without interruption!

Coming up; There will be a celebratory Wine Dinner for the New Years Eve at the Yacht Club. I have my tux ready and She Who Will Be Obeyed has a new formal dress for the occasion. It seems like we were just doing this a couple of months ago. The years certainly do get shorter...

Have a great evening!

Wednesday: Keeping an eye on important stuff.

2011-12-28T06:46:00.000-08:00

Saw this video a few minutes ago, very nice song and even better imagery.

Off to the gym in a minute, then I have an appointment at Mom's with the garage door repair dude at 1130.

I'd rather be sailing in the warm trade winds... But until then we have the memories!

Boxing Day report

2011-12-26T12:23:00.000-08:00

I have been accomplishing, today.

Up at 0600 with a fresh X-Mas hangover, I prepared Bacon sammiches for the Spouse and myself along with coffee. Actually, I cooked bacon for the complaining cats and was able to save enough leftovers for a wee sammich for the two humans.

I bashed about on the radio controller, took it apart and restored it with no appreciable change. I will contact a twelve year old, tomorrow. Expert help shall be required before I destroy my model helo.

We got this from here.

Eleven o'clock, I was underway for the Mom's house. She has some issues with the garage door and her back fence. Nothing was done with the door, way out of my minimal skill set. So I went into the back yard and dug two post holes, placed fence posts in said holes and repaired fence. The fence no longer resides in a 45 degree angle but is in the upright position. I nailed the fence to the new posts using metal plates. Not too professional of a job but it would be proudly displayed in Nigeria or Kenya. This was the first time I had ever used a post hole digger or repaired a fence.

Woo.

Even Mom had a diagonal scrunch in her face as she inspected my work from the house. 'Free' is a nebulous term and my work was worth exactly what she paid. Hope it works for a while!

There are grand leftover foods for us to sup on later; Have a nice Boxing Day!

Happy Christmas, and all of that.

2011-12-25T06:26:00.000-08:00

The big day is here! We were on Skype last night for an hour or so. It was nice to watch some relatives get together and do the presents thing, it was as if we were there, too!

Then we turned off the Skype, finished the champagne and hit the rack in a peacefully quiet house. I like technology! Keeps us away from the crowds.

Speaking of technology; I now have an RC Helicopter, a Hughes 300 model which is huge! My problem is that I am afraid to fly it because the instructions are literally in Chinese, and some technician merely used google translate from the original Mandarin to engrish and now the destructions are unreadable. Inscrutable, even. The other problem is that our other computer is a PC and it has Vista. The CD that came with the model is not supported by Vista, but can be used on machines with XP/ME/Windows 98.

WTF?

But the Chinese masters do not use Mac. So my problem is trying to get the radio control unit calibrated so that I might be able to fly the helicopter and not move the wrong lever and smash our expensive model to pieces.

Peking duck is hanging in the breeze out back, drying for the past twelve hours in the gym under a fan. Around Noon I will cook said duck over charcoal and serve for Christmas Dinner. It's a tradition for us to have Peking Duck. I suppose it is from watching that great film, "A Christmas Story", where the family has to eat at a Chinese Restaurant. But first, Mimosas and smoked salmon...

Fa, rah rah, ruh rah, rah rah...

I'm hoping that everyone has a wonderful Christmas and Boxing Day, and that we all have a most pleasant New Year.

Oh Noes! Kim Jong Il is a parrot!

2011-12-19T03:29:00.000-08:00

I don't know what to say... This is such a terrible bit of news; Apparently, the Great Reader of the Nork Land is no longer just ill.

He's resting. Gone to meet his maker, bereft of life... well, you know the rest. (bad pun!)

What will Jihad Gene do? It's gonna be a tough go for those guys, for sure.

Saturday; Baking Day

2011-12-17T04:27:00.000-08:00

I type this with the big Boy Cat pacing on my lap. Him wants something (To Go Outside) but it ain't happening. So he leans on my arms hoping for pets or just to slow my action down.

It is always something with Siamese Cats. Them require staff to perform tasks. Now.

Reveille was held at 0555, Them wanted food and it was so. Now, preparations will be made to start the baking marathon that always happens, just about this time of year. Russian Tea Cakes (Little dry flour, butter and powdered sugar balls, which require coffee for safe consumption), Snickerdoodles (cinnamon sugar cookies made from a recipe in that Better Homes New Cookbook binder that was published 40 years ago), Oatmeal Cookies with dried cranberries (Oh, yes... they are the new favorites!) and of course the flat white cookies shaped like Christmas with colored sugar. I'm sure the last ones have the least calorie content.

But Christmas isn't about calorie counting, is it?

No, Christmas is about rude shoppers at the Navy Exchange and Commissary, pushing zombie-like as they zero in on that one object to your right and they shove you aside in haste to grab it. Parking lot kamikaze's with cell phones driving their family vans aimlessly in search of the last parking spot. The endless ringing bell of the homeless guy standing in front of Publix, with that Salvation Army Bucket gleaming accusingly at me as I try to slip by, hoping to be ignored.

I'd rather write a check. Anonymous cash in a bucket may not make it to the good folks in need. Am I too cynical? Yes. Relax Francis...

I'm not trying to sound like a Dr Seuss character, but I really dislike the seeming hypocrisy of people wanting to make large purchases, and thus show love and affection for their families. All to the exclusion of good manners, while trying to run me off the road. Harrumph.

We shall endeavor to persevere, as Chief Dan George said many years ago. That, and enjoy the cookies and hope that next year is as good as the past bunch have been for SWWBO and myself. My large girth being evidence of such good living.

The good news is that temperatures are holding in the 70's around here, I love warm weather in December. Makes me feel somewhat smart for living in Florida. Maybe I should go see what the boat is up to at the dock.

Have a great weekend, and may all your cookies be tender and sweet, and coffee hot!

As promised; Mo' Later is here...

2011-12-14T12:03:00.000-08:00

But first, read this review of a pocket knife from Amazon:

1,129 of 1,248 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Epic all-situation survivor's kit, December 24, 2009

A. Gift For You "MidlightWest" (the moon) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Wenger 16999 Giant Swiss Army Knife (Tools & Home Improvement)

First of all, let me tell you a little about myself and how I came to need such mystical tools of survival.

In the beginning, I was born from the ashes of Lincoln and Roosevelt then raised by Hemingway, a troop of firefighters, and werewolves. I was taught to fight evil of all forms from politics to the undead. I can tell you from experience, there has never been a tool half as useful as the Wenger - The Giant Knife. Let me give you a brief example from yesterday:

I woke up after my amazing night's rest in the Wenger's king size murphy bed (with satin sheets). Once the women were dressed and out the door, I made coffee from the Wenger's cappuccino machine. Then I headed out the door, Wenger in hand.

I came across a two old women selling crochet crosses. I pulled my Wenger out of my pants to get to my wallet. The ladies saw this and died in ecstasy just at the size of my Wenger. Now Armed with two crochet crosses, I went to the cave.

This cave was the home of a 58 mouthed snake that looked more like a chainsaw blade than a snake. After traveling 5 miles on the Wenger's hoverboard, I reached the treasure surrounded by the serrated beast. I unfolded my 3 Spartan army and easy bake oven from the Wenger and went into battle. After 15 minutes, the 3 Spartan's had dismantled the toothy monster's 58 mouths just as my cupcakes were ready. The four of us enjoyed my marbled chocolate-vanilla cupcakes (with sprinkles) while counting the treasure and mocking the mouthless snake that lay before us.

After counting the treasure, I pulled out the Wenger's Millennium Falcon and obliterated the Spartans. Seriously, I obliterated Spartans with the Wenger. I think that alone is enough reason to get one! Anyway, Spartans suck at sharing.

I flew out of the cave in the Wenger's Millennium Falcon and crossed the River of Desolation just east of The Mountain of Despair. I was hungry, so I pulled out the Wenger's giant spider legion and they shot down 4 flying dragons with their dark matter tusk lasers. It was pretty cool. Lunch was alright.

I remembered the crocheted crosses the old ladies left me. Their memory should be honored. So, I went to my local vampire castle. If you know anything about Twilight, then you know that everything you once knew about vampires is completely wrong. Inside the castle, there were dozens of tragically fake "glistening" vampires pining over this wimpy goth chick. The tension and virginity was so thick and everlasting that the only thing I could do was slay them all. I pulled out the Wenger's entertainment system and played the first Twilight movie. Mission... accomplished. I put the two crocheted crosses over the Vampire King's eyes. "You're welcome, old broads."

Now that I'm exceedingly bored, I pulled out the Wenger's hot air balloon and went to the moon. Moon men are pretty cool dudes.

I got to the moon just in time to catch the double sunset. I pulled out New York City from the Wenger and sat in the crown of the Statue of Liberty watching the Moon's double sunset with some chicks I found and a couple moon men drinking burnt martinis. Again, moon men are pretty cool dudes.

We partied all night inside this sweet party tent in the Wenger. Chicks love party tents. You wouldn't think a full wet bar would be something you'd ever use in a pocket knife, but it really comes in handy. And it makes the Wenger - The Giant Knife worth it, even if you don't drink.

That's all I can remember from yesterday. The pictures afterward were hilarious. I almost lost it when the penguins arrived. I must of gotten the Extreme Wenger because I didn't know the Arctic Circle was one of the tools. But even if you don't get a Wenger with the Arctic Circle... still worth getting. I highly recommend it.

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I followed a link from Ace of Spades to find that little rhubarb on Amazon. Why do I bother to write anything after reading that outstanding piece?

Back to our trip;

Saturday morning was a bit hazy (It was cloudy) so we hopped in the family truckster to look for morning vittles. We turned right out of the Hilton and headed East. The speed limit on the island is 35, so there were packs of bicycle riders emboldened by our slow speed.

The wind was blowing strong form the North so it was cold and not so happy out. We trudged slowly down miles of white sandy beach with the occasional homestead to break the view.

After a long while, we found our selves at the end of the island, so we made an arbitrary left turn and pulled into a grass roofed complex of party shacks. There we found a small restaurant/bar which served an excellent brekky. I mean the eggs were too hot along with the coffee and such. That never happens at restaurants anymore, they are supposed to let your order sit and cool to the mandatory room temperature, right?

The winds were howling as we departed. I got a photo of a sailboat that had dragged anchor in the night. Sucks to be them! At least the seas could not rise up and flog the boat to pieces, like what could have happened on the Gulf side.

We drove across the Navarre Bridge to Gulf Breeze, and made our way down US 98 headed to the.

Florabama!

There was no way we were going to miss out on visiting that old tourist destination! I used to go there regularly during my stay in Pensacola (Back in 1982...).

The problem for the day was that it was freakishly cold out there and I forgot how to get to the bar. I thought it was on Hwy 98, but there was another left turn I missed. We wound up having to look on line of the I-Phone. Damned useful, that phone is.

We got there about Noon and the bar was looking pretty ragged compared to our old memories. That, and the hurricanes that had completely destroyed the bar back in 2006. We chatted for awhile and had a coke with the oyster shucker lady. Turns out that she is from Kalamazoo Michigan.

Everybody in my life is from Michigan, it seems.

Lots of graffiti and bumper stickers. Like Wall Drugs, in South Dakota.

They tested the snow machine and the drinkers were offended.

No idea why the servers were drying their unmentionables over the dance floor.

Everywhere, expensive foundation garments.

This is the second floor request and tip line for the band.

View of the Gulf from the Florabama.

Another method of separating the tourists from their quarters.

A crystal chandelier lives at the Florabama.

Upstairs outdoor bar. Arctic style.

Everywhere, laundry dries.

Just so you know: Method #1 of avoiding the Cover Charge.

There was a snow machine cranking up in the out door bar area and there were four Marines in Dress Blues looking kind of out of place. The 2Lt looked about seventeen and the Master Sergeant was prolly twenty five. Santa was going to air drop into the beach and give/receive presents at 1400.

It was too cold to stay, and besides our hotel was twenty miles away. Wouldn't make sense to have a beer or three and have to stay at another no-tell motel while our gear was at the Hilton. So off we went back to Pensacola Beach, disappointed with our jaunt to that fabled club on the Florida-Alabama border.

We got back in time to walk over to Sliders to watch the Army-Navy game. Even the Sports bar was relatively empty. We ate some burgers and I drank about six draft PBR's while watching the Army take the loss. Ok time but not noteworthy.

Off to the Dock, next door. Of the four places we visited from our past, the Dock looked like we remembered. Very slow in there, we sat alone at the large bar chatting with the bartender. Like a fool, I started drinking Rum. There was no drinkable beer on tap, just the Anheiser-Miller krep. And Yuengling.

My problem with Rum is that I like it. And drink it fast as if it were beer.

We met a 60ish Gent who came in with a couple of young wimmins. (His Daughters, or something like that) We started chatting and having a nice time. He mentioned that he was a retired Marine (Colonel, of course) and I replied with "Everyone's a Marine, even me."

I said that I had been a reserve Marine 32 years ago and went on to the Navy, blah-blah-blah. That was okay with him, so we got to have a drink, or so more before we departed. Nice guy, he invited us to some Irish Pub on Sunday afternoon and we said we would consider popping by.

We headed home to the hotel before I got to really hitting the rum and we were home in bed by 2130.

Brekkies at the hotel at 0830, Sunday. It. Was. Freezing. Outside. Temps were in the low forties.

I was starting to really feel like winter was trying to target my good time.

The decision to walk the pier was made and we trudged across the tundra (Parking Lot) to the entrance. The person in the tourist shop stopped us and said we had to pay $1.25 each. I gave him a twenty just to see if he could make change. The Pier was even more frigid, and there was a number of hardy fishing folks. Fish was being brought in and we saw many coolers filled with large examples of the prey. One Asian family was really working it, they had a couple coolers with two foot fish flopping around on the dock waiting their turn to enter the blessed relief of the ice chest. Either they were going to use their catch at a restaurant or they were going to fill some freezers with the frutti de mare. I admired the hard work in bringing in all that fish!

But they gave me the stink eye for observing them from 20 feet away. I did not bother trying to get a photo, they may have attacked us thinking that we would steal.

The lonely beach ball

The Dock in the light of day.

Scoopin' up the cigarette butts

The Asian family hard at work making a living.

This one .22 bullet that happened to be on the dock.

I managed to get a shot of one of the dinner selections

Cold.

The Hilton is the middle bldg.

Tourist trap where we bought stuff. Military discount!

At the Irish Pub

That's our buddy Phil, from the night before. He is well known at the Irish place.

After freezing, we decided to warm up in the room for the afternoon. A bottle of Champagne was opened along with a jug o' orange juice and we mixed Mimosas. The television was turned on and we set awhile luxuriating in the new found warmth. By 1500 we felt we should make a move or take naps, so we took off for the Irish Pub on the Pensacola Beach. It was a very Local's kind of place but they were nice. Phil was there and introduced us to his friends. We spent a couple of nice hours getting to know everyone and soon enough it was 1730, time to head home for dinner.

Back to the Hilton, we watched the last two minutes of the Denver game with the Bar folks. Fun! Soon, we sat for steak dinners with the obligatory wine. Dessert was a plate of cheese, and no Port! I asked, no insisted that our server go across the street and acquire some Sandeman Port!

We tipped them well, to say the least. That was the end of our weekend.

The drive back to Jacksonville was rainy and gloomy. At least it got warmer as we got closer to home.

Wonderful, but cold weekend!

Post trip Report

2011-12-13T10:18:00.000-08:00

Well,

That was four nights on the road!

We got underway at about five minutes to Four and head into the setting sun. We were packed, the kitties were fed and all was good. Why, we were at least an hour earlier then planned, so the weekend would be the best.

About two hours later, we stopped in Tallahassee for fuel and food at a Burger King. Mistake #1 was trying to eat a stupid f%$&*@ Whopper while driving. I wore most of the toppings on my shirt and I was very angry at my bad choice of food and the muy estupido moron who thought he could actually eat while driving. I really hate smelling like a dumpster from Burger King for two hours. Next time I ask for the burger my way without all the rabbit food fodding the sammich.

We got to the base by 1930, local. I haven't been to Pensacola in many years so I missed the turn to the Navy Lodge. It seems that they leave the sign unlit to save electricity. All the clerk would do was shrug her shoulders as to why the lodge was difficult to locate.

The first view inside was a group of young Air Force folks watching sports on the tv and sharing a box of beer. I asked if there was a mini-mart on base or club where we could get a snack and some beer/wine.

Chiefs Club was closed, as was the Officer's Club. The Mini Mart was closed too. Lucky thing I had a bottle of champagne in the bag.

We lugged our gear to the second floor, walked through a tv lounge with more Air Force guys drinking beer. They looked at me kind of funny, and I almost asked where they had their beer hidden. At least they were very well behaved, because if they were Sailors or Marines, it would have been a loud and rowdy party. And I would have joined them...

Anyway, got into the room which was a cinder block affair reminiscent of the 1980's. It was adequate, but the scent in the air was one of frustration. Nobody wanted to be there at that moment. There was no laughter or jocularity, just doom and gloom of being trapped in a Navy Barracks.

The next morning was cool and clear and we were enjoying a power outage. I was definitely feeling the deja-vu of being in the service again. When I commented to the lady at the desk she just looked at me with glassy eyes and she said, "So?".

Indeed. So we checked out on the spot. We decided to just stay an extra night at the Hilton. At least there would be food and beverages without the oppressive gloom of the barracks.

"You're not supposed to check out until tomorrow...?" Said the nice clerk.

"Yeah, about that: I'm leaving now." I replied. "There is nothing going on here and we would like to enjoy our trip a bit more."

"Well, the CPO Club is open today until Nine O'Clock tonight..." She sniffed.

"That's nice, what happens after Nine? "Sorry, and thanks... "We'll just move along to the Beach and leave the room open for someone who may need it."

The Department of the Navy has been working hard for the past 20 years to de-glamorise alcohol and basically have shut down all the clubs. No fun at all.

We had breakfast at the local I-Hop vice the Golf Club on base. I figured if the Lodge sucked as bad as it did, the Golf Course Restaurant would definitely disappoint us, too.

1979 is calling, They want their phone back!

Nice Balcony outside our "suite"

Playground for the kids

View of the Gulf from our room

The coffee was okay.

Lounge where Air Force guys drink beer.

We went to the Museum around 1130. As we entered the door we were greeted by one of the volunteer Docent's who made sure we dropped some money in the big plastic bin. I dropped a twenty and idly chatted for a bit about Naval Aviation. It was kinda tough to get this guy to leave us alone so we could eyeball all of the displays.

It was a very slow day, thankfully. No lines, maybe about fifty kids wandering around on the tour. We did a fast orbit around the main building and then took the trolly tour of the flight line. That tour would have been better by foot, but the flight line is a working one and they can't have thirty people wandering about getting into an unsafe situation. The Tour Driver was a retired S-2F Pilot who talked on about his service in the mid 50's to the mid 70's.

Navy Helicopter Squadron Patches.

My first Squadron 1980-1985 We flew SH-3D's

My final Squadron 1990-1995 SH-60B

I flew in the SH-2F at this outfit for a couple years.

Our Tour Driver is a Retired Stoof Pilot.

Simulators!

All aircraft are the originals, no model planes on the ceilings!

A1-Spad (I mean Skyraider)

They even had a downtown display of wartime shops

Remember these old comb displays?

I remember these being sold in 1970

The Cubi Point Cafe. The staff were less than cordial.

One of my readers will recognize a certain LT's name.

These are the original cruise plaques on display There were a number of names I remembered from long ago.

I finally stopped taking photos because there was so much to admire...

We got back to the hangar and began walking around in earnest. The highlight of the afternoon was using the full motion F-18 flight Simulator ($20 bucks for about eight minutes) The simulator was quite realistic and the Spousal Unit worried aloud that I was going to take it upside down which would cause her day to be ruined...

Not a chance! I was not going to fling the simulator around in any way that would cause discomfort. The seat harness was not up for upside down anything, as far as I was concerned. After we finished I asked for another spin while the Spouse exited to safety.

Next launch I had that sucker doing 750 knots at about 1200 ft above ground and I yanked it into a 90 degree turn while pulling all the stick back. A female voice started squawking about excess gee's.

Heh!

A few moments later I was invited to leave, but the staff person (who had been watching my antics, closely) commented on how smooth my handling of the simulator was. I mentioned the situation with the harness, the lack thereof and all that. I was just having a bit of safe fun with no intention of wrecking the machine before the weekend.

The fun thing was that I got the second ride, gratis!

Seems that my girlfriend told them it was my birthday weekend. Hmmf. I'll take the good deals but I would prefer that no one knew about the significance of the date.

Anyway, we departed at 1600, dropped the top and drove by the Aircrew Candidate School. It was fun to see the same building (Still in use!) from my tenure there, thirty years ago. Many of the old hangars were gone along with the old seaplane ramps.

We made the drive to the Beach and we had to use Nancy the Navigator, since it had been over twenty years and some roads were changed. It was a cool ride, the temps dropped to the sixties.

Check in was smooth and we had the bellman carry our gear to the room and we let him park our car, too. We hung out for a bit waiting for evening so we could make the rounds. We decided to stop at the Elk's Lodge, which happens to be on the water.

After we enjoyed three beers, or so, we made our way to Flounders, across the street. I had been there in 1982, but remembered little. She Who Will Be Obeyed was a regular there in 1989 and 1990. She ordered a "Diesel Fuel". We had the good fortune to meet a couple of nice ladies who sat next to us at the bar. They were great fun and it was nice to be part of a group. One interesting coinky-dink was that they were friends with a person I used to work with ten years ago. You should have seen their faces when I casually mentioned Mike B's name.

"How do you know Michael B???"

"I know everything about you ladies..." I teased.

I explained that I had worked with Mike from 2001 to 2003 and he fondly remembered going to High School in Gulf Breeze with another famous football player. So when these nice ladies mentioned that one player, I dropped a name of my own. Small world, right?

View of Dock from room

Really too bad it was so cold, great looking beach!

We stopped over at the Elks Lodge. They bought our first round!

We went over to "Flounders" and met some new friends.

Saturday Brekkies at Navarre Beach

It was getting windy and cold. Road trip!

Navarre Beach, Pensacola Bay side.

More Later.

Off to Pensacola in eight hours!

2011-12-08T03:46:00.000-08:00

We depart on our five hour journey later on today. I have a reservation at the Navy Lodge and we should be there around 2100. Packing will be light, it's not like we going on an expedition. But we will pack some Gevalia coffee along with those long life Moo-Milks. Because one never knows if the hotel has anything that might pass for coffee in the room. Bet on not having drinkable morning breakfast beverages. And I don't care for that powdered ersatz creamer, made entirely from petroleum.

Have you ever noticed that "coffee" in a motel room usually has a flavor resembling slightly stale paper? Maybe it's just me, but disappointment in the morning at a rooming facility is as common as sunshine in a desert. In fact, I just may bring a coffee maker with us to ensure drinkable bevvies are ready at that most critical time; The Morning After.

Ok, so packing is underway, the Meezers have a warm towel and I better get moving.

By the way; For those interested in in burgling our house: Don't bother. Our home shall be occupied by a 2X Large slacker who is well versed in firearms. He shall be the Staff-Who-Brings Cat food, and empty-er of kitty litter.

More later.

Ok, back again. Malli is on my shoulder, connected to me via very sharp claws. She is purring a staccato fugue in my right ear. Love...

I have returned from the beverage barn with a fresh keg o' Sierra Nevada and a case of White Burgundy wines. Beer has been installed and is operational.

Last minute packing is all that is left and we are go for a1630 launch. A nice benefit this evening is gaining back an hour; Pensacola is on Central time.

See you later...

I just got this great story via email from my buddy Butch.

2011-12-07T08:44:00.000-08:00

This is an Army Aviation story, but the sentiment applies through out Military Aviation. When I was a Helicopter Aircrewman, I understood the reasoning for precision very well, and I was only in one minor mishap towards the end of my career, we struck the tail hard on deck while in an autorotation. The flight was over but we all walked away.

There is no substitute for the Standardized Procedures, your way is never the better way.

Zero/Zero by Charles Svoboda

It happened sometime in 1965, in Germany. I was a copilot, so I knew everything there was to know about flying, and I was frustrated by pilots like my aircraft commander. He was one of those by-the-numbers types, no class, no imagination, no “feel” for flying.

You have to be able to feel an airplane. So what if your altitude is a little off, or if the glideslope indicator is off a hair? If it feels okay then it is okay. That’s what I believed. Every time he let me make an approach, even in VFR conditions, he demanded perfection. Not the slightest deviation was permitted. “If you can’t do it when there is no pressure, you surely can’t do it when the pucker factor increases,” he would say. When he shot an approach, it was as if all the instruments were frozen – perfection, but no class.

Then came that routine flight from the Azores to Germany. The weather was okay; we had 45,000 pounds of fuel and enough cargo to bring the weight of our C-124 Globemaster up to 180,000 pounds, 5,000 pounds below the max allowable. It would be an easy, routine flight all the way. Halfway to the European mainland, the weather started getting bad. I kept getting updates by high frequency radio. Our destination, a fighter base, went zero/zero. Our two alternates followed shortly thereafter. All of France was down. We held for two hours, and the weather got worse. Somewhere I heard a fighter pilot declare an emergency because of minimum fuel. He shot two approaches and saw nothing. On the third try, he flamed out and had to eject.

We made a precision radar approach; there was nothing but fuzzy fog at minimums. The sun was setting. Now I started to sweat a little. I turned on the instrument lights. When I looked out to where the wings should be, I couldn’t even see the navigation lights 85 feet from my eyes. I could barely make out a dull glow from the exhaust stacks of the closest engine, and then only on climb power. When we reduced power to maximum endurance, that friendly glow faded. The pilot asked the engineer where we stood on fuel. The reply was, “I don’t know--- we’re so low that the book says the gauges are unreliable below this point. The navigator became a little frantic. We didn’t carry parachutes on regular MAC flights, so we couldn’t follow the fighter pilot’s example. We would land or crash with the airplane.

The pilot then asked me which of the two nearby fighter bases had the widest runway. I looked it up and we declared an emergency as we headed for that field. The pilot then began his briefing.

“This will be for real. No missed approach. We’ll make an ILS and get precision radar to keep us honest. Copilot, we’ll use half flaps. That’ll put the approach speed a little higher, but the pitch angle will be almost level, requiring less attitude change in the flare.”

Why hadn’t I thought of that? Where was my “feel” and “class” now?

The briefing continued, “I’ll lock on the gauges. You get ready to take over and complete the landing if you see the runway – that way there will be less room for trouble with me trying to transition from instruments to visual with only a second or two before touchdown.” Hey, he’s even going to take advantage of his copilot, I thought. He’s not so stupid, after all.

“Until we get the runway, you call off every 100 feet above touchdown; until we get down to 100 feet, use the pressure altimeter. Then switch to the radar altimeter for the last 100 feet, and call off every 25 feet. Keep me honest on the airspeed, also. Engineer, when we touch down, I’ll cut the mixtures with the master control lever, and you cut all of the mags. Are there any questions? Let’s go!” All of a sudden, this unfeeling, by the numbers robot was making a lot of sense. Maybe he really was a pilot and maybe I had something more to learn about flying.

We made a short procedure turn to save gas. Radar helped us to get to the outer marker. Half a mile away, we performed the Before Landing Checklist; gear down, flaps 20 degrees. The course deviation indicator was locked in the middle, with the glideslope indicator beginning its trip down from the top of the case. When the GSI centered, the pilot called for a small power reduction, lowered the nose slightly, and all of the instruments, except the altimeter, froze. My Lord, that man had a feel for that airplane! He thought something, and the airplane, all 135,000 pounds of it, did what he thought.

“Five hundred feet,” I called out, “400 feet……..300 feet…….200 feet, MATS minimums…….100 feet, Air Force minimums; I’m switching to the radar altimeter ……..75 feet nothing in sight……50 feet, still nothing….25 feet, airspeed 100 knots,”

The nose of the aircraft rotated just a couple of degrees, and the airspeed started down. The pilot then casually said, “Hang on, we’re landing.”

“Airspeed 90 knots….10 feet, here we go!”

The pilot reached up and cut the mixtures with the master control lever, without taking his eyes off the instruments. He told the engineer to cut all the mags to reduce the chance of fire. CONTACT! I could barely feel it. As smooth a landing as I have ever known, and I couldn’t even tell if we were on the runway, because we could only see the occasional blur of a light streaking by.

“Copilot, verify hydraulic boost is on, I’ll need it for brakes and steering.” I complied.

“Hydraulic boost pump is on, pressure is up.” The brakes came on slowly---we didn’t want to skid this big beast now. I looked over at the pilot. He was still on the instruments, steering to keep the course deviation indicator in the center, and that is exactly where it stayed.

“Airspeed, 50 knots.” We might make it yet.

“Airspeed, 25 knots.” We’ll make it if we don’t run off a cliff. Then I heard a strange sound. I could hear the whir of the gyros, the buzz of the inverters, and a low frequency thumping. Nothing else. The thumping was my pulse, and I couldn’t hear anyone breathing. We had made it! We were standing still!

The aircraft commander was still all pilot. “After-landing checklist, get all those motors, radar and un-necessary radios off while we still have batteries. Copilot, tell them that we have arrived, to send a follow me truck out to the runway because we can’t even see the edges.”

I left the VHF on and thanked GCA for the approach. The guys in the tower didn’t believe we were there. They had walked outside and couldn’t hear or see anything. We assured them that we were there, somewhere on the localizer centerline, with about half a mile showing on the DME.

We waited about 20 minutes for the truck. Not being in our customary hurry, just getting our breath back and letting our pulses diminish to a reasonable rate. Then I felt it. The cockpit shuddered as if the nose gear had run over a bump. I told the loadmaster to go out the crew entrance to see what happened. He dropped the door (which is immediately in front of the nose gear) , and it hit something with a loud , metallic bang. He came on the interphone and said “Sir, you’ll never believe this. The follow-me truck couldn’t see us and ran smack into our nose tire with his bumper, but he bounced off, and nothing is hurt.”

The pilot then told the tower that we were parking the bird right where it was and that we would come in via the truck. It took a few minutes to get our clothing and to button up the airplane. I climbed out and saw the nose tires straddling the runway centerline. A few feet away was the truck with its embarrassed driver.

Total damage---one dent in the hood of the follow me truck where the hatch had opened onto it.

Then I remembered the story from Fate Is the Hunter. When Gann was an airline copilot making a simple night range approach, his captain kept lighting matches in front of his eyes. It scarred and infuriated Gann. When they landed, the captain said that Gann was ready to upgrade to captain. If he could handle a night-range approach with all of that harassment, then he could handle anything.

At last I understood what true professionalism is. Being a pilot isn’t all seat-of-the-pants flying and glory. It’s self- discipline, practice, study, analysis and preparation. It’s precision. If you can’t keep the gauges where you want them with everything free and easy, how can you keep them there when everything goes wrong?

__._,_.___

__,_._,___

Great Story!

End of the week!

2011-12-02T04:48:00.000-08:00

Who can say that they don't like Fridays? And I'm not talking about that chain of eateries, either.

There is a large mound of videos on the computer that have not been polished for public viewing. No, there is nothing embarrassing like questionable clothing malfunctions and such. Sometimes I may use colorful language; Like calling somebody a "red assed baboon".

Actually, I have never called any human a rouge-buttocked orangutan, but I do use some blue words here and there. I could just put music to videos, but then you may not like my favorite music. (I'm not sure if the Ramones are appropriate, do you? Click on the link and be surprised... I really dig the blonde chick!) So then the Copyright people get involved and delete your video because they own the rights to the music. Nope.

Here is an interesting essay on the gangsters who control the music industry ostensibly on behalf of the copyright holders, but I suspect it's really about the gangsters' own bottom line.

Here is another great essay by a singer/songwriter named Phillips, and his personal fight with ASCAP/BMI.

ASCAP and BMI can all sit and spin on the cosmic utensil, as far as I'm concerned. Because I don't want any trouble, I will pretty much refrain from loading on music to my poorly edited videos. (Heh-heh; I said refrain, heh, heh).

That's a digression!

Anyway, the latest video edit appears here.

She Who Will Be Obeyed is not in the video because her hair looked funny from the wind and she did not want anyone to see shagginess.

I hope my mish mash of videos are not boring people. This is because when we are home we are not creating new videos, so the only way to retain the feeling of doing is to watch videos of what was done. That, and telling sea stories, which we all know about how troof-full dey be!

I still love a Friday, even though every day is a weekend day for me. But I stay engaged and busy; Yesterday, I did 24 hours of continuing education in Insurance on the web. Today I will do a bit more study for the Captain's License. Tonight we shall bring the Barco Crew to the Yatch (sp int) Club for dining and boozing. We will even bring our house guest (Her Dad) to join us, if he is good.

Tomorrow evening, we will form up two teams at the Elks Lodge for their trivia competition. I plan on destroying the other teams. After all, no one is more trivial than I.

Please enjoy the video sensibly and have a fine rest of the day.

Thursday morning and I am still pining for the sea...

2011-12-01T07:41:00.000-08:00

Hope I didn't depress everyone with the last post, it was not meant to be maudlin.

The temps are in the low 40's today and I am wishing I was out in the ocean again.

Hmmmph, like that is some mysterious revelation... I am avoiding my chores and looking at some pictures from the various cruises. Click to embiggen...

January 2000

August 2010 with ten years of extra tonnage! Still wearing safety gear...

I like infinity pools, how about you?

Sept 2010 inshore, so no safety gear.

Sept 2010

August 2010 Clear, warm water!

Yesterday, I passed on some info on a Seidleman 37 sailboat in Lauderdale to a friend. The listing is for 34K but I think it could be acquired for a lot less than the asking price. I suppose I am really wishing to get the boat for myself, take off across the Atlantic and head to Portugal for next Summer.

Alas, can't happen. Or should I say A Lass...? I wouldn't want to go without SWWBO, there is no real fun without the better half who makes long journeys tolerable and even fun. But it is nice to remember the motion of the ocean, the warm rays of the sun on your skin while looking to keep the boat trimmed properly. All the while wondering what new treats will come out of the galley for the next meal.

I've been re-reading an old book, "Blown Away", by Herb Payson. Very inspiring story about a 40ish couple who get rid of everything to sail a wooden boat across the Pacific. I sent an email to Herb asking for an autographed copy of a couple of his books. Hope I hear back soon.

Instant communication has been a neat thing over the past 15 or 16 years, I have emailed famous sailors with boating questions and received personal replies from all of them. Nigel Calder has corresponded with us on issues with our Wind Hunter debacle, and we have communicated with Reese Palley on a couple other occasions. I am forgetting a bunch of other sailing notables, but you get the drift. (Oh, puns...) The sailing community is a friendly one, overall, and very available to those of us that they've inspired. Plus we all buy how-to books, right?

Now, to get other people to pay for my boating aspirations; That's the art and talent I need more of, getting others to help me sail along. (It's all about me, that's for sure!) The biggies never use their own money to sail or travel. Why, they use the strength of the name/reputation to get others to chip in. Especially the sponsors who make marine products, the Brand Names want to be associated with successful sailors like Chay Blythe and Robin Knox-Johnston. The prices for quality marine parts are not cheap because of those sponsorships of America's Cup Sailing, and various regattas like the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers, better known as the ARC and other such sailing events. The coordinators of those events make all the loot and have all the fun, at no real expense to themselves.

Great work if you can get it!!!

I wonder if I could set up a Regular Guy/Gal Rally for those of us on a real budget. Those big events cost the individual participants some real dosh, and I think I might be able to do it cheaper. I think the ARC runs a couple thousand for the boat and a certain minimum per person onboard your boat. This is to cover parties, inspections and other expenses. To be fair, there are some expenses that I am not thinking about like lawyers, insurance for the event and so forth. It's all a good value if you have never crossed an ocean before and would like expert advice and follow up during the journey. Helps to get those jitters down to a minimum, and believe me, I have had some of those jitters.

The Wildebeest/ Barco crew is way too cheap to pay that much money and we feel that we miss out on learning the cruising business the hard way. Thriftiness aside, I think my reluctance is also a real dislike to submit to anybody's authoritay.

Some people over think and over plan the sailing journey and don't realize that there is a real "paralysis by analysis" problem in boating. Which is why Florida is a graveyard for sailing dreams and sailboats. The organized sailing events help people through the fear and unknown of cruising.

Back in '99, The World Cruising Club had a round the world rally in which the club would make all the arrangements for entry in ports around the world and throw parties for the cruisers on arrival. The cost was about $40K. At first, I thought of how that was not such a bad value. All the palms get greased wherever corrupt officials lurk and all you have to do is comply with the where and when your boat should be.

Just too many rules for my liking. Here's an idea; If you want to sail around the world and give me $40K each, I will gladly take two or three of you aboard and you can enjoy the journey without having to worry about the World Cruising Club's requirements for sailing experience or education. I guarantee it!

Let's pile up a crew of our readers and get out on the ocean!

Or not. It's fun to plan and envision possible trips and it doesn't really matter if we do it or not.

Have a nice Thursday!

****UPDATE****

The sailing author I mentioned above, keeps crazy hours like I do. Herb Payson was kind enough to respond to my request for three of his books. It must have been about 0630, his time.

Sailing people arise with the chickens, it's just what you do on a boat and the habit is hard to break!

Now go buy some of his books. Maybe he will give me pointers on how to get published in the tough world of sailing literature...

I dug this ancient video up and posted "as is".

2011-11-29T14:14:00.000-08:00

Back in March of '90, I had a friend drop by unexpectedly. Geno Parker was traveling the world and looking for his next domicile. He had gone to Australia, Thailand, China, Japan and all over America. He was looking for the place that was warm, had cheap wimmin and a good local economy. Or was that Good weather, warm wimmin or whatever.

He calls me up at One in the morning on a Thursday to tell me he was in Daytona and for us to meet up.

History: Geno was my room mate in the BEQ at NAS Alameda back in November of 1979. We were very close friends from then on, although he got out of the Navy in 1982. We kept close via phone and infrequent visits.

So I drive to Daytona to visit him (Having cancelled my third date with a hot babe in Pensacola...) and we were at the MTV Spring Break show starring Molly Hatchet. After the show we drive back to Jacksonville Beach where I lived about 50 yards from the sand and I had a Hobie Cat that I had purchased a few weeks earlier, but was still learning to use.

This is the evidence of that weekend, and good thing; She Who Will Be Obeyed was disappointed on my no show, and this proved that Geno and I were up to good. For a change...

I wish Geno trusted me to use his camera because there is no images of him on this tape. But those things were about $800 bucks back then and breaking was not an option.

The tape is in the same condition as when I received it in the mail a few weeks later. I asked for a better copy but it never was to be.

There was a few minutes on the early part of the video but it is unwatchable. So I edited it and the set up of the catamaran out of the end product.

It was a great weekend and I was sorry that my friend had to go traveling. He wound up in San Diego for a number of years and finally returned to Tennessee. He sent me a quick email letting me know that he was moving to Old Hickory to be near his family. I got that email on a friday afternoon, 21 Sep 2001 while at work. I knew we would probably chat that weekend. We usually did.

Instead, his brother called me up that evening.

That's why I kept the video, because it's more important to have a physical touch on the more important memories!

P.S. I got better at the sailing hobby!

Nationwide Gravesite Locator > Search Results


1.	PARKER, GENE EDWARD
	DP3 US NAVY
	DATE OF BIRTH: 03/04/1959
	DATE OF DEATH: 09/21/2001
	BURIED AT: SECTION PP SITE 323
	NASHVILLE NATIONAL CEMETERY
	1420 GALLATIN ROAD, SOUTH MADISON, TN 37115
	(615) 860-0086

More sailing, please.

2011-11-28T07:53:00.001-08:00

Another blast from the past.

****UPDATE****

Just got in some 7 year old Panamanian Rum.

Heh.

Looks like a Scotch ad... Starring Wilbur.

Wilbur be sellin'...

Those who know; Know.

This holiday stuff wears me out!

2011-11-27T08:59:00.000-08:00

It is Sunday of the Thanksgiving weekend, I have been up for a couple hours and had brekkies and cleaned the resulting mess. We have also set up our reservations at Pensacola's ~~Heartbreak Hotel~~ Navy Lodge for the 8th and 9th of December for a grand weekend at the Pensacola Beaches.

So this means we have been sort of accomplishing things.

The Barco Crew is completely shagged out from all of the excitement this weekend. Food has been consumed and we are all lethargically moving step by step; Like three toed sloths. Why, oh why, does a holiday for giving thanks result in so much gluttony?

I know how them feel.

Indeed.

Next year I resolve to fast instead of over eating. Like the sign says, "Free Beer, Tomorrow!"

We took the Barco Sin Vela out for a four hour trip to Doctors Lake. We went as far as Whitey's Fish Camp, but there were no vacancies at the dock so we went back home. Beautiful day on the water with hardly any other boats out there with us. (They were all at Whitey's Fish Camp...)

I forgot my camera so there are only a couple photos from the I-Phone. Click to embiggen.

Whitey's Fish Camp

We were back by 4:00 PM and stopped by the club to have some food and watch football.

I guess the next fun thing I get to do is Pensacola Road Trip. Since we will stay on base for two nights, we will be sure to wander around the Naval Aviation Museum and visit the Cubi Point O'Club. And since I am within walking distance, I can imbibe...!

There are also reservations for two nights at the Hilton on the Beach, conveniently located next to Flounders and the Dock. I have a feeling a good time is just around the corner, in just a couple weeks!

Like we don't enjoy ourselves a little much as it is.

See all of you in the next couple days.

Barco Out.

Thinking of Thanksgiving... and two updates

2011-11-24T08:56:00.000-08:00

We began our holiday yesterday evening at the house and burned burgers. We retired relatively early so that we could feel normal for Thursday's big meal. Naturally, the Spousal Unit and myself were roused by the Meezers at 0420, they wanted breakfast, now. The kitty's seem to know that today is the Big Bird day.

The preparations for dinner (including pies and stuffing) were completed by 0730. A new World's Record!

I wandered through some of my favorite blogs and came upon Lex's observation about some gloryhound Occupy Loser who claimed three tours in the Middle East with career ending injuries. I really dislike maggot's who lie about their service in an attempt to bad mouth their country. All of us Americans are cheapened by these rectum weasels.

As for me, the only Award I ever wanted but could never receive was the Croix de Candlestick. The reason for never earning this coveted award was that a normal day game at Candlestick Park was cold enough not to mention an extra inning game at night. Only a real Man/Woman baseball fan wears this little badge of courage and endurance.

Besides, an A's game in the afternoon was warmer and much more civilized. I still admire the Giants fans, though. Same goes for the Forty-Niner Faithful. Hardy and tough!

Charcoal is about to be ignited for the star attractions, I fear that Tech Sergeant Turkey will be in for a thorough roasting for his bad behavior, after allowing himself to get stuffed on the Spousal Unit's counter.

Away the all Star Eating Team!!!

Have a wonderful day...

****UPDATE 1****

The Guest is ready for his spa treatment...

I took 70 charcoal briquets and placed them in the charcoal chimney to be lit. I use the propane stove on the side of our propane bbq to enable the heating of charcoal. There is no lighter fluid just flame on the bottom of the chimney for five minutes.

When the charcoal is appropriately gray, I place 35 briquets on the right and left of the grate of the Weber.

After initial heating, I place the chimney away from everyone to finish heating

New Weber

35 Briquets on each side for indirect heat

Tent the Guest so it stays cozy and safe

Pretty new flowers

Serenghetti Spa and old Weber Kettle

Add ten briquets every hour on each side

Recharge complete replace cover

Every hour you must place the ten briquets on each side. Also, never peek at the Guest, he gets embarrassed and will require another 15 minutes of roasting.

Everyone is in the Sunroom watching the Lions/Packers game. Lots of snacks, cheeses, pickles for your feeding pleasure. Come on by!

To be continued...

Well. The Lions were trampled by the Packers so that left me with cooking. I had a 15 pound turkey cooking for four hours and did not realize it was well done.

Homemade Cran-Chutney

The Guest is ready

Resting...

Our Guest let loose the stuffing

Buffet Style Dining at the Veldt Lounge

The Dining Facility

Jack proceeds carefully through the Chow Line

The Wine for the dinner; Writer's Block Grenache

It's 2200 and most everyone is gone to bed or home. Wonderful evening and company. We may go out on the Barco Sin Vela, tomorrow. But for now it is time to hit the rack...

Please enjoy the rest of the weekend safely!

Begin the holiday craziness!

2011-11-23T05:48:00.000-08:00

Hard to believe we are at the beginning of the holiday season, especially since it seems that New Years was a couple months ago. As the years pass our time seems to compress and the months become as days.

We have the Spousal Unit's Dad visiting this week and more visitors will arrive at 1500, this afternoon. We shall all meet at the local Elk's Lodge for fellowship and crappy beer. Next on the plan of the day; We will swarm over to the Veldt Lounge And Serenghetti Spa for Bubba Burgers and good beer. Sierra Nevada is on tap along with proper wines and spirits. Guests will enjoy 100 proof Southern Comfort and Flor De Cana Rum while I shall tipple the afore mentioned beer.

I am still working on my online Skipper's course and have to relearn many skills I have slacked off on with the prevalence of GPS and Chart Plotters. For example;

Navigation

D.23.b. Example #2 At a speed of 10 knots, it took the boat 3 hours and 45 minutes to go from the Station to the

shipping channel. What is the distance to the shipping channel?

Step Procedure

1 Convert the hours to minutes for solving this equation. First, multiply the 3

hours by 60 (60 minutes in an hour), add the remaining 45 minutes, that is:

3 x 60 + 45 = 225 minutes.

2 Write the equation.

D = S x T/60

3 Substitute information for the appropriate letter and calculate the distance.

D = 10 knots X 225 minutes/60

4 D = 2250/60

D = 37.5 NM (nearest tenth)

D.23.c. Example #3 A boat has traveled 12 NM in 40 minutes. What is its speed (S)?

Step Procedure

1 S = 60D/T

2 S = 60 x12/40

3 S = 720/40

S = 18 knots

Normally I swag this stuff, but for the course I have to do it properly.

I will be redoing some of the book problems, it seems that I am not plotting the correct way and my heading answers have been a degree off, usually one to the right. My problem is not being used to navigating with the provided Parallel Rulers. So off to the Barco for a Trusty Portland Plotter.

Parallel Rules

Photo stolen from http://www.swiftsuresailing.com/Course.aspx?id=16

This is a well made video and I could not do it better, so I hope the person who posted this video does not mind my shameless thievery!

The Spousal Unit and myself learned how to navigate using Portland Plotters. We went to Royal Yachting Association classes held by the Little Ship Club in London, so I find it comfortable to listen to an English accent when the Portland Plotter is explained.

So now I will confidently plot my positions using a tool that is simple and accurate. Sliding rules back and forth is risky for me since I might not be as firm or steady with parallel rules (Or any rules, for that matter) and I cannot bear with failure.

The next few days will be busy with friends and family and I am hoping that my readers will enjoy theirs, too. Keep a thought for all who cannot be with their loved ones and who keep our society safe while standing guard in the cold.

Happy Thanksgiving and have a safe holiday season.

Barco Out.

UPDATE

Don't panic, people. I just completed a quick survey and found we are down to 170 bottles of wine. We may have to ration, but we can make it through the next couple weeks...

A moment more of levity

2011-11-18T09:27:00.000-08:00

To reflect on the frustrated Communists and Anarchists who are desperately working to foist their failed philosophies on us regular 'Muricans.

One of my favorite films!

Replace "Roman" with "Capitalist". Or even replace Roman with American.

I don't need any failed Marxists to tell me what's good for me.

Have a fun weekend!

Turkey Frying Safety

2011-11-17T05:26:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving is coming up and we are going to enjoy that day and meal with family and friends. I was spying around the 'net and found this Public Safety Ad concerning fried turkey.

I have fried a turkey, I really enjoyed it but didn't care much for the disposal of the hot oil and the plain danger of large quantities of very hot oil. I did not know that you were supposed to turn off the flame before lowering the turkey into the hot oil!!!

After we enjoyed the turkey, I never really used the fryer again, except to boil crawfish. Even so, I got rid of our fryer when we moved to Fort Lauderdale.

Here is the video, sponsored by the Good Neighbor's at State Farm and starring Captain Kirk;

Yikes!

That there scares me. Glad that these videos are getting out to the public and I hope no one has to have the tragedy of being hurt or losing their home because fried turkey is sooo good.

Safety first!

Charlie Mike*

2011-11-15T10:59:00.000-08:00

*Continue the mission.

Plowing steadily through my online Six Pack License course, finished and passed tests for the Rules of the Road Modules, and completed the Deck Safety and Environmental Modules, too. Either later today or tomorrow I shall hit the rest of the Deck modules and pass those tests too. The last portion of the course is Plotting/Navigation. I am stressing about that last part because it cannot be performed on the computer but rather on a chart.

Chart work is not difficult in real life because you can use all the tools available like the Mk One/Mod 0 eyeball and look out side for all the info you need. But in a book, they give you minimal info and expect you to use math. All you can do is potentially fail a test, but in the real navigational world, a failure is if you hit something hard and sink. Easily avoidable if you change course quickly...

Naw, it's having to move back and forth from the computer to the dining room table where the charts and tools will be set up for the actual performance of the charting tasks. So my worry? It's laziness, to be sure!

I hope to have this course done in the next few days so I can do all the other stuff, like prepare for the proctored final, getting a Gubmint ID, paying for a urinalysis and fingerprints (Again!) and then getting my boating resume together. You have to have 360 days of on the water experience, 90 of which in the past three years.

Oh, I have the time! It goes back to when you are 15 years of age. Including Naval Sea Time? Years... At least I have the four months in the Pacific from last year which is the bulk of the 90 days for the past three years requirement! The Coast Guard guys doing the application review should have an easy time with my stuff.

After I knock out this course I will seek to increase my qualifications by adding towing endorsements and of course the Sailing tickets. To what end, who knows?

Off to the gym!

Have a nice afternoon!

Heh. As for my history of assignments; I kept all the originals from my service record. The Navy got the copies wrapped in my actual service record.

Sunday boating

2011-11-14T04:58:00.000-08:00

Saturday was so nice that we decided at 1230 to go boating. We heard that a friend would be at the Crab Shack along with another boat, so we bustered South on the Barco. It was a three hour jaunt with an empty river and 75 degrees of Fahrenheit warmth. What I liked was that everyone was seemingly staying at home because the day had started out cold, approximately 38 degrees in the morning.

Hah! We got to be out!!

There wasn't any wind until we were about to cross the Shands Bridge, the wind began blowing a gentle ten knots from the Southeast. That meant it was breezy for us on the flybridge because we were moving nine knots into it. No big deal, we were soon at Six Mile Creek and tying up to the dock.

We were assisted by the crew of "Nocall" and once secured we prepared for socializing. The evening's plan was for us to visit "Ataraxy" and dine on various snacks. We brought smoked salmon and crackers. Dinner was fabulous, and we chatted until the wee hours of the night. I think we were back aboard Barco at 2130. After a last glass of wine in the quiet of the night we hit the rack by 2200. It was chilly out so I was glad we had warmed the boat with the generator powered heaters.

We were up with the birds at 0700 and enjoyed coffee in the early sunshine. We walked up to the Crab Shack and discovered that they were offering free breakfast. Turns out that Providence Bible Believing Church holds services there at 0900. We ate breakfast and took one of Providence Church's food donation bags back to the Barco and filled it with some of our canned foods for the poor. I dropped it off while the service was in progress. It was nice to see some country folks and bikers all getting their Sunday Church at the Crab Shack.

By the way, if you happen to be in the area on Thanksgiving day, Out back Crabshack is offering free Thanksgiving dinner to all who visit. We complimented the Lady who owns the Crabshack for her wonderful hospitality and expressed our well-wishes for the future. The Crabshack is definitely one of the great destinations for North Florida.

We got underway shortly after 0900 and headed North at about 1400 RPM which gave us 7.5 knots over the ground. We took the following video on the I-Phone. The video file came out looking odd and stretched, so I adjusted the width. Hopefully, it shows ok on the blog.

We were at our home dock at 1230 and called it a weekend.

Have a nice week!

Update:

I held the I-Phone in the vertical as I took the images. Should have held it sideways, duh... Eventually I will become proficient in Mac products.

TINS

2011-11-12T06:20:00.000-08:00

48°
Few clouds

Comment

1 dead following attempted armed robbery at Northwest Jacksonville business

Posted: November 11, 2011 - 10:21pm

Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2011-11-11/story/one-dead-following-attempted-armed-robbery-northwest-jacksonville#ixzz1dV6qEWER

Only in Jacksonville...

11-11-11

2011-11-11T07:08:00.000-08:00

I guess this day happens once a century, just like any other random number between one to a hundred. but the Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh day of the Eleventh Month took on a significant meaning in the Great War, The First World War.

After the end of that war to end all wars (Forget anything you read about Soldiers and Marines in Russia
after the hostilities ended) there was a desire to honor the Veterans of all the American Wars, so the Eleventh of November eventually became that day. I'm glad that the ever efficient Gubmint hasn't marred this hallowed day by making it a Monday of a three day weekend. Like George Washington's birthday.

The way I will mark this day is by taking a moment to remember and then living the rest of this day to the best of my ability.

For those who can't.

Have a great weekend!!!

Update:
I reread my next to last sentence and I realize my clarity is lacking. For Those Who Can't are those most honorable folks who are in a VA Hospital or any other Military Medical Facility and would rather they were at home with their loved ones.

Think about the twenty year old trying to learn to walk again, who would just like to know what a day without pain might be like. And I know how fortunate I am to be able to walk and breathe in a freedom paid for by so many others who were/are like you and me.

Links:
Paralyzed Veterans http://www.pva.org/site/c.ajIRK9NJLcJ2E/b.6305401/k.BCBB/Home.htm

Blinded Veterans http://www.bva.org/about.html

Marines Memorial Club ( I am a member, you should be too!)

Barco Out.

Great Wednesday!

2011-11-09T08:09:00.000-08:00

I really like the middle of the week. There is blue skies, warm temperatures and the promise of a nice weekend. Whether the forecasts agree or not, I'm hoping for good weather to match today.

Did the gym and that nasty stair machine for the third time this week, followed by two laps around the 'hood. I really like this time of year. Can you tell?

Yesterday, I started my online course for the Six Pack License. Got through three modules before the afternoon was done. It would be nice if I can get all this wrapped up by February. All up to me and my poor study habits. There are some week long courses available, I just don't want to have to drive somewhere when I can do my study wearing my jammies.

That, and I can cheat. The final test is proctored so I will have to honestly abide that one, and really, I will pass that one without having to use any underhanded methods. This boating stuff is not hard and I have used all the knowledge needed/ gained over twenty years of sailing to the good with no mishaps or moving violations. Now we must convince the Department of Homeland Security that I am safe and worthy of the title, "Captain". But first, I have to spend $528.00 for the course, $80.00 for the test, $128.00 for a "TWIC", which helps pay for another layer of Union Gubmint Bureaucratic Employees who are there to keep "us" safe (and maintain their f&*%#ing easy lifetime appointment jobs). There will also be a physical exam and urinalysis to make sure I'm safe for the waterways, too. Figure about a thousand bucks paid as fees and there is no guarantee that I will be able to barge (pun-tificating again, am I?) my way into the cloistered Local Tugboat drivers Union and earn dollar one.

Nope, doing this for ego and the possibility of doing something for pay at some later date. It's all about me.

And it keeps me busy at something.

The weather sure is nice outside...

Have a great day!

Sunday report

2011-11-06T16:38:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful time at the show, despite the hour long traffic jam getting to the parking on base.

We were walking along when we passed the USAA Kiosk and we were approached by an older gent who accused me of having been in the Navy. Turns out that he was a SH-3D/H Pilot who was a past Captain of the Carrier, USS Independence CV-62, out of Yokuska. I surprised him by asking if he remembered his Safety Officer, Buck B.

Well, this was a surprise to my new friend Hardy, and we may have personally met in 1998 in London when he came by for a meeting. I was serving the coffee...

Anyway, Hardy asks if we would accept tickets to the VIP tent (Free food and beer!). I said we would be glad to!

Well, good deals are everywhere! After showing our tickets to the disbelieving armed Navy Security folks who showed us the way in, the reality hit us quickly; We were at the same tent as the CO of the base and his personal guests! We quietly slipped to the back of the small seating area in front of the Blue Angels and grabbed a couple of cokes and really enjoyed the show.

First up was a 1943 Biplane who gave a super performance of skilled airmanship with a 200 horse powered aerial jalopy. Next was a few other nice aircraft who gave a show called, "Ten Sticks of Dynamite". Very loud and smoky. They caught the field adjacent to the runway on fire. TINS.

The Blue Angels started around 2:30. Not much to say, they had to do the low altitude program which is cool to watch but not as fun as the full ten thousand feet show. Oh well, one must endure, mustn't one?

Tough to catch Fat Albert!

Heading out

Full Grunt Launch

All these photos are from an I phone! She Who Will Be Obeyed had Jedi Photo Skilz today!

Slow pass

Landing

Choreographed Disembark

Hand Salute and the show is finished.

I will get some video put together tomorrow. We had a wonderful time at the show, especially because of the kindness of Hardy Kircher, of USAA.

Do your self a favor, if you are a Military Veteran with an Honorable Discharge; Call USAA and get an Auto quote. We have been happy members of USAA since 2000.

Thanks, Hardy! And thanks to USAA for being a part of our great fun today.

UPDATE:

Here be the video I promised yesterday. It's a little rough but it gets the gist of what we watched in the cold and windy airshow.

Crappy weather weekend

2011-11-06T07:06:00.000-08:00

It's Sunday and the weather remains crappy in Jacksonville.

We got the Barco around front of the Club on Friday and it was a nice, sunny day. Watched the Blue's do their practice and I did not get any good photos. I figured Saturday and Sunday would be good days. Not.

Leaden gray skies with 30 knot winds. And cold. The river was very bumpy with lots of spray coming over the dock.

As much as I tried, it was difficult to focus on the fast moving aircraft while the boat was rocking violently from side to side.

This is the best photo, taken from an I-Phone:

You can see some boats anchored in the distance. Click to enlarge.

We are going to clean ourselves up and head out to the base to watch the rest of the show.

Out.

Big Weekend

2011-11-04T04:11:00.000-07:00

Friday before the big Airshow at NAS Jax. The Blue Angels were here on Thursday afternoon and practiced for two hours. It was great to hear the F-18's going over my house in formation, something about eight engines harmonically in tune making a low rumble at great expense.

Mom and I will have lunch at the Yacht Club so that she can get a chance to see another practice this afternoon. Mom can't quite climb on the boat comfortably, so we will have lunch on the veranda which has a great view of the St Johns River. Not to mention the great bar service. One must make do, mustn't one?

The club will have a live blues band for entertainment tonight, all part of this big weekend. The City of Jacksonville is very proud of the Armed Forces and really turns out every year for this show weekend.

It was very refreshing to be stationed in the Jax area when you compare with Oakland. Oakland and Alameda loved the gubmint money but really didn't like military people. The quiet hostility to the Sailors and Marines was always in the air when they (The Locals) would see us at bus stops and BART.

Until the Navy left the San Francisco Bay Area. And took all the money with them. The local Congressman, The Honorable Ron Dellums, was heard to complain (After working twenty years to hobble the area military...) "I can't believe the Navy would close Treasure Island Naval Station, NAS Alameda (Which was home to at least TWO nuclear Carriers...) NS Mare Island and Oak Knoll Naval Hospital to spite me. What about the civilian jobs...?"

With many on the Left, it is always about themselves, right?

From Wiki:

Partisan affiliations

Though he ran as a Democrat, and caucused as a Democrat in Congress, Dellums describes himself as a Socialist. In the 1970s, Dellums was a member of the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC), an offshoot of the Socialist Party of America. He later became vice-chair of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA),^[9] which was formed by a merger between the DSOC and the New American Movement, and which works within and outside the Democratic Party. As of 2006, Dellums is no longer a vice-chair of the DSA.

While running for mayor of Oakland, Dellums was officially registered as a member of the Democratic party.^[12]^[66] All city offices in Oakland are officially non-partisan.

On October 1, 2007, Dellums endorsed Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary at a press conference held at Laney College in Oakland. He was named national chair of Clinton's Urban Policy Committee.^[67]^[68]

Shoulda thought about that over the 70's and 80's, Ron. You wrecked an entire region, but then that was probably the goal. Now it is tough for inner city people to get those good gubmint, union jobs on base.

Jacksonville welcomes all the services and can't wait to get more. Our community recognizes where the jobs are created and the locals like and respect the service members, too.

That's what Jacksonville celebrates in the first weekend of November, every year.

Service.

UPDATE:

I moved the Barco, with the help of our friend Phil and Pat. The F-15 was flying early followed by two P-51's and a Warthog. At the Commissary, the aircraft were turning and burning on top of the parking lot. After acquiring our snacks, I drove back to the club and was treated to the sight of an F-4, A-10 and P-51 doing the legacy formation on top of the Barco Sin Vela. I wonder if they could see me loading goodies onboard while they had all the fun?

Just got a call from Mom; She wants to know why I'm home and not at the club?

Have a great weekend!

Wednesday!

2011-11-02T07:31:00.000-07:00

Just two more glorious days to the weekend!

My routine is starting to gel; Hitting the gym and then accomplishing at least one small task a day. Kind of like the twelve step adherents who believe in one day at a time. Today, I shall try a bit harder to make at least one thing come true...

The past three days I have been doing indoor workouts vice the normal five laps around Confederate Point. Today, I did the machines in the gym, followed by 18 minutes on the stairmachine and a couple of laps around the neighborhood. Results so far are five pounds have been shed from the excess tonnage in the past week. Not. Good. Enough.

Also, I leave in 30 minutes to go get my fingerprints and new Insurance license card.

At last. Or rather; Glory-oskies!

This afternoon I have to take the Mao Cat to the vet for the second time this week. He slipped out late Saturday night and apparently took on all the cats in the neighborhood during the four hours of unauthorized liberty. He got a bad bite which we had treated Sunday evening. Now he is sluggish again and has a stuffy nose. I really hope he isn't heading the wrong way in all of this. We never let Him outside (except under tight supervision for maybe five minutes just to roll around on the pool deck) and this shouldn't have been a big deal.

It's my fault though, and I am feeling pretty low about the kitty being ill. I hope it is a coincidence.

After the vet I will pump out another session in the gym to try to get my attitude turned around because I have not the been most positive person to share a room with.

Other bucket list activities to follow in the next month or so:

Clean out the remnants from the past four moves from the attic and the gym closet. Go through and keep necessary junk but eliminate the trash.

Clean out the garage and organize properly.

Go through all the old sailing and boating gear that is lying around and either give away, sell or trade for stuff we need. This includes a six man life raft, two dinghies, a bimini top and frame with other boating related bric a brac.

Finally, I will progress to earning a license as a Coast Guard approved "Operator of an Uninspected Passenger Vessel". I have been intending to do this for the past ten years but fear and air have been keeping me away from my goal. Mostly having a J.O.B. (and laziness) are my excuses. No more excuses (or Job!), time to execute this goal!

Keep safe out there; One never knows when they are going to get bit in the ass by a bad creature.

Wildebeest II

2011-10-31T10:03:00.000-07:00

http://youtu.be/Q9Bsc4sB7-I

Idiots Aboard!

Since it is Friday we will move the boat!

2011-10-28T03:59:00.000-07:00

The Barco crew has been very productive these past couple days; Yesterday we retitled two cars, Lunched at the Yacht Club with Mom, changed the brakes on the truck, "fixed" the old T-Bird, and passed a State Examination (I missed the first take a couple weeks ago by .7, bummer!). So how do we celebrate? We take the Barco to Lamb's Yacht center for a bottom cleaning and refueling.

After this morning? Who knows. Lots of food and wines available for the festivities.

Next weekend the Blue Angels will entertain Jacksonville and close out 2011 airshow season. Did you know NAS Jacksonville was the birthplace of the Blues in 1946? We will watch on the Barco, hopefully, my old Boss from London will join us, as they did eleven years back. The airshow is very nice on the water and I think part of why is because of the dangers present. The crowd on land is of primary concern so the aircraft are always over water and away. Right above the water traffic.

Livin' La Vida Loca, someone always says. What ever that means. I'm going to enjoy the show without having to be in traffic or worry about parking.

These images are all from the U.S. Navy and ripped off shamelessly from the Official Site

1946 F8 Bearcat

1956 F9F Cougar

1964 F11 Tiger

2010 F18 Hornet

UPDATE:

We cruised the Barco over to Lamb's and had a thorough cleaning of the hull and some new zinc's added to replace the dead and used up zincs.

There was a fair bit of barnacles on the props and the rudders, but not so bad as to be notable.

The bottom is really clean and ready to go. We took a little jaunt on the river to celebrate and it was a nice time.

When the Barco was being cleaned, Bruce and I went wandering the docks to look at the boats and we found this:

Wildebeest II. A 1982 Watkins 27 that we purchased in '94 and reluctantly sold in August of '95 when we had to move to London. The telling sign is the Bowmar hatch on the front which I installed in June of '95. This is one of our favorite boats and it is a shame that it is in decrepit condition. I asked the front office if this was a derelict and the lady there indicated it might be. As soon as I can chat with the owner of the yard, I will see if I might be able to acquire this boat (at a low cost, I don't need another boat!), I would really love to bring this boat back home...

I ordered a video to dvd device for Mac and will be able to upload all of our old sailing videos from the 90's. Wildebeest II is a big part of our home movie collection.

For the eye candy department;

This is the lovely Catarina Candoni of Candoni Wines, Italy. She is autographing the case of Pinot Noir's I purchased from the tent sale at the Navy Exchange, NAS Jax. Very nice, and I wish I was in her league. Imagine, a hottie who owns her own Winery...! Click on the Candoni link. Nice family!

Have a great weekend and drive safe.

Speaking of sloth...

2011-10-23T17:09:00.000-07:00

My presence on the web has been sloth-like. I am a three toed sloth, I hang upside down in trees and only go to the ground every so often to defecate.

My morning routine lately is not spent on the web but rather doing five or six laps around the neighborhood (almost five miles) and cleaning up our habitat. Being alone in these endeavors, (my company is three Siamese Cats) I haven't had much to say. To anyone.

Some of the more interesting parts of the previous month was the notice and bill from the good people at the I nternal R evenue S ervice. Notice that Service is their last name. Seems that in 2009, I didn't report some retirement income.

Only I did. I just had not received a 1099 R from the DFAS, which is another Federal entity, entirely. Filled with Union Gubmint employees who had of course sent my 1099R to the I R S.

So now I owe in excess of eight thousand bucks for underreporting income and of course there was a penalty to be paid. Please remit payment by 26 October and nobody gets hurt...

I got my paperwork together and this was no small feat. We at the Barco Sin Vela have a filing system that more resembles the inside of a sixth grader's desk. Only without the cool hipster stickers on the top and inside. I have digressed again.

So after dialing a number I waited for thirty minutes until one of the nice people answered. After telling my life story for about five minutes I was informed that I needed to call someone else. Goodbye!

The letter was on the desk in front of me, so I reread the entire thing again. There, on page three was an 800 number for any questions, but there aren't anyone there to talk. Only pre-recorded answers. So I pushed the zero button over and over until a new menu was revealed; An angel in the darkness heard my plea for communication and I was thusly granted a brief audience. My story was again regurgitated and she said firmly that I had to document the reason I disagree with my audit, mail in the proof and such in the envelope provided...

"No way," said I, "I know that my little correspondence would be lost forever and I would still owe more in interest and penalties."

I implored her eminence to make an exception and help me out of this jam. And she did! We spent a worthwhile period on the phone going over the return and after a few moments of panic spent on hold: Victory!

The trip from the UP was fairly uneventful. We visited some more relatives in Traverse City and Holland and set off for the return to Florida. First, we had to visit the Leelanau Peninsula to pick up some wines for our Wine Club's wine tasting which would feature some Sutton's Bay white wines (from Black Star Farms).

We saw these posters all over town. I think it has something to do with local sports.

When we got to Ohio, we hopped off the Interstate and took some two lane highways to enjoy more of the local scenery. It was fun to see some of the Amish in their horse buggies, stylin' and profilin' with some wicked looking chin whiskers.

View from Ohio gas station

Soon we were back on the Interstate and traversing West Virginia. About halfway through we stayed at some Holiday Inn which was way overpriced. $152.00 for one night in hicksville was a bit pricey, but we had a good rest.

The next morning was our last day on the road, we knew we were about eight hours from Florida. We headed South and entered Virginia. Doing 83 miles per hour. We spotted the cop and I tried to exit the freeway and elude capture by ducking into a gas station. Not.

The nice Policeman was good enough to only write me up for doing 80 vice 83. 83 would have qualified me for a reckless driving citation but since we were so polite and cooperative he would cut me some slack.

My bad. I had completely forgotten how Virginia is crazy about the revenue from traffic scofflaws and have even outlawed radar detectors! I drove the speed limit the rest of the voyage in ol' Virginny and indeed, I spotted no less than six more hidden Troopers on the side of the road waiting for us cash cows to pass at high rates of speed.

The ticket will cost me about $121.00. Not too bad, but I am worried about points. I called USAA and they said that I won't get any grief from them on this issue, but that I should try to take traffic school if it is offered. There have been some letters written by Virginia Lawyers wanting my business, but I am not sure if I should use Law services to try to minimize my ticket.

Perhaps one of my readers may have an idea about Virginia traffic laws and maybe some advice.

So we got into North Carolina and returned to the old two lane roads, especially since there are such nice places to see at slower speeds. Once in South Carolina, we stopped at an old crossroad gas station and snack counter and enjoyed an excellent pulled pork sandwich.

Good Advice from Buddy.

I think we should consider stopping at Buddy's.

We chatted with the owner and I mentioned that his place was probably a really fun place to visit back in the thirties. He agreed and said when he was a kid in the forties, his parents would take the family on a Saturday trip to that very place for cold soda pops.

I am really glad we did find that one place to stop and visit. Made the day a little bit better.

Anyway, we soon ran out of two lane highway and had to get back on to I-95. We were back in Florida two hours later; Mission Accomplished.

Update from this weekend;

Our friend Bruce came over to visit this weekend. Pretty nice of him to come down, since he did return from Iraq on the past Monday. Poor guy, he had to help with the new keg of Sierra Nevada on Friday night, and then go out on the Barco for his first boat trip in three years.

Poor me. This weekend has been too much fun! I need to rehydrate...

Have a fine week out there!

Replying to a couple of nice comments for my previous post

2011-10-09T06:56:00.000-07:00

I started a typically long winded reply for two commenters whose regular visits I value;

Ken and Cheryl said, "Last day at your job ... congratulations! Sounds like the weekends will be a lot longer now!"

"... sounds like weekends will be longer now!"

Indeed. Thanks for understanding my need for the endless weekend!

Buck said: "So, what's after the Last Day? A new jobbie-thang? Or a life of indolence and sloth (which I can highly recommend)?

"... life of Indolence and sloth".

Yep. Count me in, sounds like fun!

My point today is that there is much in our daily lives that we all need to accomplish; The only problem is that a person can't get anything done for themselves if they are beholden to an employer during the most productive part of the day, right?

Irony alert: As I was approaching the final days at work I was offered a little thank you gift for my service from the company. I will show it to you at the bottom of the post. It ain't an iron.

There is so much that needs tending in our fun existence here in Jacksonville. And that varnishing on the boat won't appear by magic, by golly. Seven months ago, I paid someone to do that varnishing job, and he said he applied six coats. Well, the varnish is already flaking off showing that maybe two and a half coats had actually made it on. Not his fault but mine in not supervising the job properly. (That and I did let him know I was in a hurry...) Repairing the varnish will be one of the next priority tasks along with emptying the attic and decluttering our garage and side yard. Oh the crap I accumulate!

All that stuff while jumpstarting my physical fitness regime, again. As a slothful person I know about the need to get in better shape and stay healthy. For I am about to enter into the 50's of my life and I need to be in it for the long haul. Like Sinatra in 1965.

Along with my ambitious personal schedule, I hope to take some courses in creative writing in January, at the local State College. Maybe we can get some of my more readable drivel published in one of the sailing/boating journals. And no, I don't think there is any real money in the writing and publishing of boating articles! Anyway, if the writing proves ineffective I will have to reconsider the option of hanging my own shingle out as a self employed purveyor of Affordable Insurance (As if there is any such thing!).

I think we can count on me returning to insurance, as one of my other regular readers has published two books and he doesn't sound anything like he has given up his day job!

Now I return to my reply to Buck's comment; ...I have mentioned before about doing any and all of the fun stuff with the spouse; I am trying to make sure that I enjoy each moment with She Who Will Be Obeyed in a manner that I won't look back years later in regret. And yes, there is nothing more enjoyable than a day in Michigan during the warm season!

Apologies for the long rant which should be its own post. Ok, we will make it a post!

For those interested in my prize for six years ten months of toil, here it is!

1 Bissell Cleanview Helix Bagless Upright Vacuum

Way more useful than a Navy Commendation Medal, as you will probably already know and agree!