WEEK 20 2008
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Saturday
- more sailing:
I'll write more when I'm rested up. Two long days (but great!) after a week of long days...
Video #1, Friday May 16th
Video #2, Friday May 16th
Video #1, Saturday May 17th
Video #2, Saturday May 17th
Friday 16 May
2008
Friday
- I went sailing. I didn't quite make it to Anacapa - I left too late,
but stooged around in the Santa Barbara Channel. Almost eight hours -
my room is still gently rocking.
More tomorrow, it's bedtime now, I'm beat.
Well, a couple more things.
Good sailing weather, perhaps 10mph wind, out of the north with very small swells.
The M.V. flies
on a slight downwind reach - 6.5mph according to the GPS. There may be
some current in that, but not much, I was near shore heading home.
Upwind we were looking at 2.5-3mpg.
M.V. is much steadier downwind than 'The Pig' (or as my brother has renamed her, 'Heavy Weather').
Full keels have some advantages over fin and spade. When tacking the
jib sheets kept hanging up on the shrouds - the knots attaching the
sheet to the roller jib are just too big. I imagine my tacks looked
pretty awful from afar.
And some sort of self steering would be nice - it keeps you busy,
single handing a boat. Yes, I've the Monitor self steering stuff, but
it's going to be a big job to put that on the boat.
I also need to put my great color GPS into the boat. I've been holding
off, because I wanted to rewire the electrical system, but there isn't
any reason that the GPS can't be first :-)
Thursday 15 May 2008
Thursday
- you can find all sorts of things in flood control channels. Bicycles,
lot's of them. Baseballs, soccer balls, old trailers, dead animals,
cars, graffiti, voodoo sacrifices. Today we found an electric organ:
I have tomorrow off. No one is available to work with me, and the
channels I have maps for are two man jobs - inches of water, mud, muck.
What to do, what to do?
Wednesday 14 May 2008
Wednesday
- another day. I am tempted to stay the weekend 'down below' and go see
the Chino Air Show. On the other hand, Chino is, after Yahoo
mapping it, 105 miles away. I am very tired of driving, so probably not. Perhaps I can talk my brother into driving.
Tuesday 13_May 2008
Tuesday
- a day in a fairly unpleasant drain. Chain work in six inches of
running water, moss and muck. Also a new guy to train up. Let's see:
that makes...eight or nine different guys in six months. Oh well, it
isn't all that hard, and the new guy picked it up quickly. But the
county has him doing something else tomorrow morning, so it'll be a short day for me. Not that I really mind getting up late and having a leisurely cup of coffee and a bagel whilst blogging - but it doesn't pay the bills.
Still inspecting down near the airport. A B-24, in what appeared to be
WW-II colors, went over at about 500 feet , shaking the ground. A bit a
later a P-51 Mustang went by. I heard on the radio that the Chino Planes of Fame Air Show
is next week, the crews are probably performing check flights and such
before heading there. I used to visit Chino when I lived and worked
over that way. The aircraft are wonderful, but I really loved walking
through the boneyard and looking at all the bits and pieces, ribs,
stringers, mostly and partially disassembled aircraft. Maybe that's an
engineer thing. I went to a couple air shows, they were very good shows.
In the evening there was a going away dinner for an inspector. The job
he is on is winding down (Matilija Dam), and he's off to flight school,
ATP in Jacksonville Florida,
starting in June. I envy him - it's good to pursue your dreams. Being a
civilian entering the world of pilot's can be tough, but apparently
there is a huge demand right now - the war has sucked a lot of reserve
pilots out of the airline market, positions are opening up. Good
luck, Brian!
Monday 12_May 2008
Monday
- left the house on time, arrived on time, did a days work. Not much to say about that.
We're down near Camarillo airport - I saw a DC-3 go over on Friday,
which was pretty cool. I've never seen one in the air before.
They are predicting warm weather for SoCal, in the 90's possibly. We'll
see. It was gray today, cool and foggy, the ground damp with a heavy
dew in the morning.
Sunday_11_May 2008
Sunday
- lessee, what did I do? A bit more work around the yard,
filled the hummingbird feeder. Haircut. Gassed up the Probe. I know I was busy, but...
I did
want to pick up some flowers for the front flower bed, but the lines at
Lowe's, and by extension at Home Depot, dissuaded me. Maybe next week.
My roses in the front yard, great bunches of red velvet, look
spectacular. I should trim them so as to get more, but forgot. Maybe
next week.
The new plan is: for every run-of-the-mill maintenance item on the house, an improvement as well. However small.
I did finish Book #19, Over
on the Dry Side, by Louis L'amour. I've had this old
paperback for months, slowly paging my way through it. It's a Chantry
novel, a series similar to the Sacketts', but the Chantrie's are kind
of highbrow. A fellow at the office down in Ventura had loaned it to
me, after picking it up for free somewhere. To tell the truth, I found
it wanting - kind of repetitious, unlikely and boring, all at the same
time.
