Saturday
N34’ 29.023”
W082’ 49.277”
Sorta.
This amounts to improvising a bit, but with Ken’s technical expertise (and the help of a tiny laptop) I’m doing my best to get back to regular posting.
Wow, the past few months have been hectic. So let’s get started.
JUST SOME CATCHING UP AND GETTING CURRENT Department
It’s
MEET MY NEW HOUSE
Calypso is a 1984 28-ft Carver “
Of course I’d seen her before many times over the years, but our relationship was nothing more than a flirtation. (Brent Sears himself was with me when I finally met Calypso, btw.)
THIS IS WHERE I LIVE:
I’m down about halfway, on the right.
THIS IS MY FRONT YARD:
WOW, THAT SOUNDS EXTRAVAGANT Department
Calypso is 11 feet wide, has central heat and air, an electric stove and microwave, a shower, toilet, two bunks in back, a diesel generator … but cost much less than a new a 4-door luxury sedan.
Insurance is virtually the same as for my car and the monthly slip fee is significantly less than half what I was paying for utilities at the house.
Even with two gasoline engines, Calypso will cruise at 7mph sipping only six gallons per hour. Not bad fuel economy considering you’re driving your house around the lake … (although it was a shock the first time I filled up at the gas dock; $2.75 x 180 gallons=you do the math :-))
AND THE WORST PART IS Department
Doing laundry. I don’t mind cooking or not having mail delivery or even not having routine web access.
But the nearest Laundromat is a 4 mile drive each way. The washing machines only hold about as much as a motorcycle helmet and the dryers eat quarters by the handfuls.
$12 bucks to do laundry? Ridiculous.
If I could find a scrub board at the Jockey Lot I’d hang a clothes line alongside my slip and get busy with a soap bucket, I’m serious.
PAPA’S GOT A BRAND NEW BAG Department
It’s true. Three weeks ago Mike “The Asphalt Mariner” asked me if I was interested in being his assistant. Mike does it all when it comes to fixing and maintaining boats, everything from overhauling outdrives, rebuilding engines, installing toilets, repairing fiberglass or replacing damaged woodwork and cabinetry.
Shoot, he was even willing to pay me to go to work for him … heck, I woulda shouted “YES!” and jumped at the chance even if I’d had to pay HIM … so having the chance to learn from and watch “The Master” at work, and getting paid to boot is awesome.
It’s like getting a crash course at
HOW GOOD IS MIKE REALLY?
Here, decide for yourself:
A through-hull is a plumbing coupling that threads into the bottom of the hull, under the waterline, from the outside to inside the boat, to allow a controlled flow of water either into or out of the boat … like, for cooling pumps.
Actually installing a through-hull amounts to drilling a 2-3” hole in the bottom of your boat, pushing the through-hull in from the outside and then threading and sealing it more or less permanently in place to keep the hull water-tight. (Remember the words Controlled Flow, hee hee).
Drilling holes in the bottom sounds like something you’d want to do when your boat is out of the water , right?
Not so:
Mike can drill a hole in the bottom of a boat while it’s in the water and screw in a through-hull from inside the boat all by himself. Figure that one out.
Yesterday Mike told me, “I don’t want everybody knowing my tricks. But I don’t mind showing you, because you can’t remember.”
Ha ha.
A JOE OF ALL TRADES Department
In the past three weeks I’ve learned lots of useful stuff that might come in handy someday. I’ve also met somebody who’s hinted about teaching me a thing or two about TIG welding.
If there’s a downside to my new job it’s that now when I tell Mike, “The trim tabs aren’t working on Calypso” or “The manifold risers on Ben are leaking and need replacing” or “The genset’s solenoid is stuck” he just shakes his head and says, “Well, schedule yourself to go over and fix it.”
Time consuming, but Cool.
BUT HEY, WHAT ABOUT BEN? Department
Ben’s excited about moving west to a new home on
LOOK! LOOK WHAT HAPPENED TO MY STUFF! Department
I finally sold the house. The new owners bought the furniture, and even asked to keep Luke too (taking dogs to
DJ, Will and Lloyd helped move the mini-mountain of my personal stuff to a mini-warehouse a half mile from the marina. Everything’s carefully boxed and labeled, but that doesn’t mean I can find anything or know where such and such is.
Seeing all the locked doors at the mini-warehouse complex reminded me somehow of visiting a graveyard. And that’s what those storage facilities amount to, vast mausoleums of materialism. We have so much stuff we end up renting space to bury it in because our stuff seems so “valuable” it’s worth keeping.
Even a month later, when we forget what’s even there … nonetheless, every rented space is sealed with an expensive lock.
THIS MORNING’S FUNNIEST TXT MESSAGE Department
Arrived from TPW around
“Don’t you know only monsters are awake this time of night?”
I GOT A SHARK IN A JAR Playlist:"Mack the Knife"
HOW'S ABOUT AN OLD-TIME PLAYLIST Department
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