Deep Thoughts from Dock #6

Hello, O.R.P. here, posting for Papa Ridgeback. He left a series of long messages on my voice mail, and here are the main points:

* Papa has done much introspection from his place aboard the CC on dock #6 (He reports that she is a vast improvement from his spot on the trailer on the hill). Papa has come to the conclusion that he must be the most boring man on earth. This is a conclusion with which I emphatically disagree, but no one asked for my opinion. He thinks of what promise a date with him holds: No sex, no drunkenness, no gambling, no pornography, nothing untoward at all. Just wholesome conversation, maybe some good food, and a moonlit sail across the lake on a very sophisticated little boat.. (I think that sounds pretty good, but once again, just my opinion...) ;-)

* Papa has noticed that each action has a ripple effect. For example, when Mike the Mechanic drops his wrench into the lake, it causes ripples that make Buck the Duck bob and quack ("I thought this was a no wake zone! Quaaaack!!). Someone invited me to New Spring and my life changed. Then I was the 1,276,998th person to ask Papa to come to New Spring, and he came and his life changed. That's a pretty big ripple. Kinda cool, huh? Makes you start to think about your actions, both positive and negative, doesn't it?

And Now, O.R.P. must be going.. I have a trip to pack for and a horse to go brush!

Luck Be A Lady

CC (Calypsa Carver) here. F gave me PR's password. I hope this isn't TMI but actually I call him "My Captain". It's my little pet name for him. So F asked me to tell all the readers a few things about myself. Let's see...first of all let me say that since Captain has come into my life things haven't been the same. Where as before I saw the lake as half empty, now it's half full. I love beaches, sunnshine and sunsets. Cocktail hour while at sea and music. My passion is travel. I love anywhere new, strange or exotic. Some of my favorite spots on Earth are Potistika, Kaputas in Turkey where you most stop at port for an amazingly refreshing pomegranate gin and tonic, next on to Italy where I love visit Pollara in Salina, Stromboli where my drink of choice would be a Campari Martini (by the way this is where Ingrid Bergman and director Roberto Rossellini had there 1949 affair), and of course anywhere in the Riviera. I love France, especially south France. When in France I recommend La Plage des Aresquiers as your first stopover. I am looking forward to a long and happy future with My Captain and hope we discover many new and exciting lands and waters together.
On The CC Playlist
Escape (The Pina Colada Song)-Rupert Holmes

Where The Wild Things Are

F here making a guest star post for Papa. Once again, Papa is out at the marina and unable to post. I guess I'll get right to the point and I hope I'm not letting the cat out of the bag here :), but....Papa seems to have a new relationship in his life. Mums been the word when I've talked to PR but I had a sneaking suspicion there was someone new. You know, that faraway look in his eye, walking a little taller...all the typical "I'm so in love I'm about to call Delilah and request a love song"symptoms were there. Finally I called his bluff. Actually, I happened to meet her by chance when I dropped by the marina to give PR his birthday gift (a Yankee candle) and then I knew my suspicions were true and called his bluff. So, she's from Wisconcin, twenty-two years old, very exotic, glamourous, well traveled, and seems to compliment PR in every way. She was not inimidated of me at all when we were introduced and to my surprise we took to each other immediately. Who exactly is she? Well, her name is Clyssa Carver and she floats atop the water on dock number 6!!!

On the PR Playlist (and probably on Delilah as well)
Will You Be My Girl-Jet

Come Sail Away

Hello, O.R.P. here. It seems I am now a regular poster here at the Blue Book. I talked to Papa last night. He was sitting on Ben at the Marina, watching Buck the Duck, who had anchored himself somewhere behind the boat and was singing duckish lullabyes to himself.

Apparently Buck got very agitated yesterday when Mike the Marvelous Mechanic and Joe Haul were moving a cabinet from a boat to the dock. He kept quacking that the cabinet smelled like bread, and that he was starving. "Can't you see my little ribs??" He quacked, trying to get the guys to open the cabinet for him. Papa reports that there was no food in the cabinet. He thinks perhaps Buck has issues. I wonder if ducks really have ribs? I know that birds have hollow bones, but... I digress.

Anyway, here's the latest playlist, straight from the duck's mouth:
Drifting - Jimi Hendrix
Axis - Bold as Love
Silver Spring - Fleetwood Mac

Taking the Sexual Test Drive

I've heard single women admit, "I'd never marry a guy without sleeping with him first." But this is geared toward men. What does it say about a man who shrugs, "I'd have to sleep with a woman first ... to find out if we're sexually compatible."

I must be a simpleton, because my thinking goes like this:

You've already read about Mike the Mechanic. Mike can make a boat walk sideways to its mooring without steering the wheel. I know because I've seen him do it.

Mike can make boats do amazing things. Mike doesn't need how-to manuals, parking aids, engine additives, Dr. Phil or batteries to get the job done. Mike has the soft touch and feels how to make boats the size of a small apartment building come around.

Even in near-gale conditions when the bass-boaters are running for shore.

It's not even a matter of experience.

Mike listens to what the boat's doing, knows how to judge conditions like wind and current & doesn't fight the boat's disposition, knows when to apply or reverse the throttles and back down ... but most important no matter what happens or suddenly changes Mike doesn't give up, start screaming, blame the boat or the manufacturer, jump overboard and start looking for a new boat if things start getting hinky once he's committed.

Hmmm. Mike sticks with the plan he had it mind when he first got onboard.

I'm guessing Mike doesn't much feel the need to take any boat out "for a test drive" before he commits to one, either.

Zing

Hope to be posting regularly again soon, but since there's no web access at the marina, updates remain sketchy.

"Hey, You there! Stop Sinning!" Department

You don't have to any more. Really.

Turning Over a New Leaf?

Hello, O.R.P. here, posting yet again for Papa, who is still among the technologically challenged, since Ben has no modern capabilities at all, unless you count high-speed leaks. Bless his heart.

Anyway, Papa reports that he has showers again, so we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief. ;-) Papa has also embarked on a new career and has subsequently changed his name. He is helping Mike the Magical Mysterious Mechanic move boats in and out of the water for repairs, etc. and is therefore to be known as "Joe Haul" from here on out.

He's made a new friend as well. The marina is home to a very angry little duck known as Buck the Duck. He quacks at our Papa incessantly until Papa throws something edible his way. Buck is very conscientious about mealtimes, and has taken to following Papa around his parking-lot, quacking something about new york strips from the Gallery.

Buck says that he has never seen a blog, but that he would try one if we threw it to him. He also says that bleu cheese is culinary pornography for humans, and that someone needs to alert Reverend Joe Dale immediately.

We haven't heard from him in a while...

C++ Change

I'm blogging from a Mac ... and AVCLUB.US is mine!

Ha ha, eeeeh.

Agua, por favor!

Hi, O.R.P. here, posting once again for poor stranded Papa. He is still on a boat on a trailer on a hill, only now the house is officially sold. Papa reports that he is dangerous and homeless, but I wonder how dangerous he can be when he is suddenly several tons lighter. ;-)

Ben has a new engine now, but apparently that may or may not be an improvement. In addition, Papa reports that the marina has turned off the water for some sort of repair work being done on site. That means no showers or potable water on board Ben.

So in other words, Papa is dangerous, homeless, and smelly. I would like to state for the record that he is welcome to come to our house and abuse our showers anytime he feels like driving over here. I have a plethora of lovely scented bath gels and soaps and little scrubby thingies and extra new toothbrushes. And since L and Trigger are both more or less bald now, and Papa has been tearing his hair out for the past month or so, he will fit right in!

On the Papa Needs a Shower Playlist:
Dirrrty- Christina Aguliera
Bring Me Some Water- Melissa Ethridge

A Few Ugly Words for Wednesday

The 6 Ugliest Words in the English Language:
I don't love you any more.

The 5 Ugliest:
You owe me for that.

The 4 Ugliest:
I won't forgive you.

The 3 Ugliest (tie):
I hate you.
What about me.

The Ugliest Two Words (tie):
I quit.
I can't.
I'm scared.

The Ugliest Word in the English Language:
Mine.

The Fool on the Hill

Ben finally got wet for the first time in two years yesterday afternoon. Trouble is, he never left his trailer. Just a few little things popped up tween here and yonder.

The transmission won't go into gear because something like a solenoid is stuck. And the replacement engine's starboard riser is cracked and sprays water all over the bilge while the engine's running (this type of thing can contribute in a huge way to sinking) .

Last but not least, the replacement engine's fuel hose leaks gasoline into the bilge (this type of thing can contribute to ... oh, never mind).

Meanwhile, here's a photo I took this morning.


"Moonrise over Ben, New Engine"

Over on Dock 4 looks like a beaver is building his own condo in the slip next to The Kid.

I like the open, airy feel he incorporated into the foundation. Very nature-friendly, me thinks.

Funny Thing

I never noticed there's a big fat "i" smack dab in the middle of PRIDE.

Blue Book Birthday Shout Out
to Mia in Seneca, who turns 18 today.

How things look from the west coast

-excerpt from D's recent email, a friend from Aspen. Now she's an attorney in LA:

I will confess to voyeuristic tendencies in checking your blog but I usually feel it is written in code for those who are in the know. One entry did give me pause. I surmised it was some reflection on past relationships ... I have never been around on the "down" side of one of your relationships so I never thought of you as one of the heartbroken ...

True enough. These days it's usually mechanical stuff that gets broken.

The Last Time I Saw FF

Was on the Ingle's parking lot on Highway 24. Seems like we'd done something, gone to dinner the night before ... yes, that's it. She even took our picture with her cell.

That was the night we announced our engagement.

Francis you are 5 feet and 10 inches of raven-haired, green-eyed fabulous and I love you to death. I always look forward to hearing from you and seeing you is always a secret treasure.

I'm on the phone with you right now ... which proves our friendship is not only amazing, but multi-dimensional as well. Even if our engagement only lasted for an hour.

The 3 Day Month

Wish I could tell Ken I'd created this complex multi-layered image in Photoshop, but it's actually just a closeup of some of the stuff that came dripping outta the old engine on the first day of what was supposed to be a three-day engine swap.

Been up since 1:10 AM this morning because my air mattress had a flat. And No, Ben's not back in the water yet.

Turns out even though the new engine wiring plug looks like the old wiring plug, there's an extra pin. So the old wiring plug's gotta go back in and be attached to the fuel and oil senders, the alternator, etc. So maybe Monday.


Happy Birthday to AF, who turns 22 today.
Can't wait to see ya next weekend!

We've got lots of catching up to do ...

Hall in The Hall?

Wow. Last night I had a dream I was in the Kingdom Hall of ORP's childhood.

First thing I wanna say is that the colors in my dream had the same look as the pics on her blog. Not only that, but the women were dressed same as in her photos. Just the same. And they talked in odd, simple phrases spiced with Little House on the Prairie.

One of the women gave me a small handmade silk pillow as a gift. As she handed it to me I got stuck by a sewing needle protruding from the bottom of the cushion. I didn't make a big deal about it in front of my hosts, but later when I tried to remove it and took a longer look, I discovered the sewing needle was actually a scalpel.

I'm sure Freudians would have a field day with that one but personally, I don't think dreams are anything more than static electricity firing across miscellaneous neurons, and mean nothing at all ... sorta like the ticking sound a motorcycle engine makes when it's shut off and starts cooling after a long high-speed run.

Weather Delay

Today's weather has pushed The Big Day back till tomorrow.

In the meantime here's a few images from yesterday's events ...


Bachelors know all kinds of stuff that's lost to married men. Like, a 30-gallon trash bag will hold much more than 30 gallons. Like, a whole lot more ... I'm pretty sure they're impossible to fill.


How far is it from the marina to Tanzania?



Mike does a lot of this.


Mike finally gets the last hose attached. Well, we thought it was the last hose.


Anchored out for the duration on Marina Hill. Nice sunset, but no engine.