Farley the Mountain Dog

Farley went on his first hike yesterday, and contrary to my expectations, he did really well. I was concerned that he'd be a major pain in the butt, but other than a bit of pulling (I wish he would have pulled harder going uphill), he was fine. I think he really liked it, and he certainly got some exercise. When he got home after the four mile round-trip, he curled up and didn't move for a couple of hours.





He certainly is getting big! On his first trip to the vet, he weighed just under 15 pounds. A month later, he's up to about 23! Here he is, with a wine bottle to give you a sense of scale.









He's also changing color! He used to be pitch black, and now his face is getting noticeably lighter. I'll take a series of pictures of him a month apart to see how his color and size change.









And check out the link to Natalie's site. She's a hoot, and makes people laugh whenever she's around. And not only is she fun at a party, but she actually gets up in front of a paying crowd and does stand up comedy on a semi-regular basis! I can't imagine anything more intimidating.

Hillary and XP

After watching some of last night's dismal Pennsylvania results, I needed something else to occupy my mind, so I tried to replace the Linux OS with Windows XP on my baby laptop. As usual when I mess with computers, I had three hours of frustration before finally giving up sometime after midnight. But at least I wasn't thinking of that smug cackling bobbing-head bitch Hillary. (The next time you see her on TV, if you can stand it, watch her bob her head after giving what she thinks is a particularly good line.) So I went at it again this morning, and after several hours of slow progress, I have it installed, and it works! Now that I've done it several times and made all the mistakes that could be made, I could probably do the install in an hour or two rather than the 6-8 it took me.

I'm not sure what it is about Obama that he can't seem to close the deal. I think he's too nice a guy,and is genuinely trying to avoid the politics of personal destruction. He could demolish Hillary if her really wanted to, but unlike her, he wants to also preserve a sense of decency and not destroy the Democratic Party. And I think there is a fair bit of racism and black fear in the old white women and working class men who are the strongest Hillary supporters.

Obama will kick Hillary's fat ass (how sexist is that!!) in North Caroline and will come close in Indiana. Maybe an upset in Indiana will seal the deal for him. But that's what I hoped would happen in PA.

Oh well. Another two weeks at least.

AOADD

Until today I was beginning to think that I was afflicted with Adult Onset Attention Deficit Disorder. Then today I finished Touching the Void, a book that I started reading yesterday. Megan (the Elder) had recommended this book and the subsequent movie, and on a trip to REI, while waiting in the checkout line, she pointed it out, and I bought it. I'm glad I did. This is only the third book I've read this year, and I was beginning to think that my attention span had been permanently shortened to that necessary to read the typical web page.

I guess all I needed was a good read, and this book certainly filled the bill. It's the true story of a couple of twenty-something British climbers who took on a 20,000 foot peak in the Peruvian Andes. Not long after they summited, Joe Simpson, the author of the book, broke his leg badly and could no longer climb. His climbing partner Simon Yates managed to lower him down nearly impossible slopes until Joe slid over a cliff and ended up dangling helplessly by the rope. Simon was belaying him with his own body weight dug into a snow seat on the steep slope. After about an hour of hanging on to him, and with his own perch sliding out from under him, Simon did the only thing he could (short of suicide) and cut the rope. Joe's fall of 50-100 feet into a crevasse was broken by the snow cap that was covering it. He found himself on a ledge in pitch darkness with no possible way up, and no idea of what was beneath him. Rather than waiting for death on the ledge, he lowered himself down and was lucky enough to find the bottom before he ran out of rope. When daylight came, he saw his predicament, with no way own of the crevasse except by climbing a cone of snow back up to the top. Needless to say, he miraculously makes it out,but his adventures are far from over. He spent days on the mountain, with no food or water, a terribly fractured leg, and no hope of rescue. The book reads like a horror story where the villain keeps coming back to life every time you think the hero's been saved.


So if you think you might be afflicted with AOADD, pick up this book. I guarantee you won't be able to put it down.

Enough Already

I’m hoping that after tomorrow’s Pennsylvania primary, Hillary will see the light and pull out. The polls show her winning by 6-8 points, well below the double digits she needs to claim “momentum.” Even with “momentum” I can’t see a scenario where she wins the nomination unless Obama is caught on video in bed with a live boy or a dead girl. If she somehow manages to twist enough super-delegates' arms to overturn the delegate count, the Democratic Party will implode into civil war and McCain will win. But unless Obama actually wins in PA, I suspect she’s willing and able to trigger that war.

One thing about the polls that nobody seems to talk about much is that the polling is done by making calls to land line telephones. A lot of people I know, including me, and especially young people, don’t have land lines and use mobile phones exclusively. Where do they fit into the polling demographic? I think this is a major reason why the polls this year have been all over the place.

Even as a self-professed political junkie, I have a hard time watching the cable TV talking heads blathering on about total nonsense. Last week’s “debate” took the cake. When they could have been talking about the never-ending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the financial market meltdown, torture, the price of oil, world-wide food shortages, and a host of other real issues that affect ordinary people, Obama is asked about why he doesn’t wear an American flag lapel pin!!! And to think that I used to think that George Stephanopolous was an OK guy. Obama didn’t do all that well in the debate, but I think a big reason is that he tends not to speak in sound bites, and he’s not always politically correct. He’s learning to be careful what he says, and that makes him less than his usual eloquent self.

Oh well. I’ll watch the results as they come in tomorrow and hope that all this comes to an end soon.

I'll be moving slowly today

I think that every muscle in my body, with the possible exception of a few finger muscles on my left hand, are sore as hell today. But they're sore in a good way. I played five matches in a racquetball tournament yesterday, and won all of them except the final one. I choked in the final match against a wily old fart, and I ended up in second place. He was in much worse shape than me, and when I discovered I couldn't beat him with my killer serve, I thought I'd try and wear him down with long rallies. Unfortunately, I always ended up blowing a shot before he did, and he had much more left in him than I thought. He beat me pretty badly in the last game.

I'd be the last to say that it was a high-level competition, but it was a real tournament nonetheless. I played my guts out, and I'm reasonably pleased with the results, considering I've only been playing a couple of months after a fifteen year hiatus. Racquetball is one of the few forms of exercise I actually enjoy and that I don't have to force myself to do. I'll continue playing a couple of times a week, working on the finer points of the game, and I'll do better next time.

WaveGuide Update

Yesterday I was flying pretty high because the "buyer" had scheduled a haul out and inspection for next week. He backed out on the deal today. As my broker suspected, the "buyer" was working another San Juan 38 in Maine against my boat. The Maine boat has apparently won.

There is some possibly good news in that another potential buyer has surfaced in California, and I may get an offer next week.

I'll keep you posted.

ASUS EEEPC

Here I am, updating my blog on my newest toy. It's the baby computer on the left. It has an 8G flash drive instead of the more usual hard drive, so it doesn't have the memory capacity to be my main computer, but it's small and light and will be great to use on my travels. It has built-in Wi-Fi and built-in Skype, so I'll be able to use it for emails, blog updates, and phone calls anywhere I can find an internet connection. It's also very user-friendly. I sent my first email 5 minutes after I got it out of the box, and not long after, I made my first phone call. Way cool! And all for only $500! The operating system is Linux, but because I want to install a couple of programs that run only on Windows, and even though I'm not a fan of the evil Microsoft, I'll install a slimmed-down version of Windows XP.

In other news, I took WaveGuide out with the prospective buyer yesterday, and it went well. I put many hours into cleaning her up, and she looked pretty good. The comments of the prospective buyer were favorable, so I'm hoping to have a survey scheduled and close this deal soon. The buyer can still back out anytime for any reason, so I won't be counting any chickens until some actually hatch. I hope to know more later today.

And in yet more news, I weighed myself this morning, and my weight is at a 30 year low! I weighed 205 pounds when I got married in 1977. This morning, I weighed 204!!! This is a great incentive to continue working out, eating less, and keeping my consumption of beer and wine within reason.

Barack the Elitist v. Hillary the Douche Bag

Or is it douchebag? However you spell it, this whole scandal over Barack's remarks about guns and god makes me crazy. It shows the shallowness and herd mentality of today's media and the shallowness of Hillary's win-at-any-cost, scorched earth ambition. She wants to win, and if she doesn't she'll make damn sure no other Democrat does. She'd rather have McCain win in 2008 so that she can do this all over again in 2012. It makes me crazy that every talking head and every cable news program is focused on whether or not Barack really is an elitist. I don't think there's nearly enough talk of Hillary's role in all this. What Barack said about working class, small town and rural whites, though inelegantly stated, is essentially true. Books have been written about this phenomenon, and the right has exploited these people for years. Instead of agreeing with Obama and using this to attack the Republicans, she's doing Rove's work by excoriating him with her relentless attacks. When she talks of learning to shoot with her grandfather and going to church, does anyone really believe her? When she was recently asked when the last time she shot a gun or went to church, she refused to answer saying it wasn't relevant to the debate. How can a woman who has lived the ultimate political life in nothing but mansions for the last 25 years and, with her husband, made $110M since leaving the White House, claim she's in touch with the common man? The only thing she's in touch with is her own relentless ambition. I really hope this backfires on the bitch.

Teak and Boats and Skiing

Farley and I spent Thursday and Friday working on cleaning up WaveGuide for the sea trial and inspection this Tuesday. He seems quite content to sit on the foredeck, supervising and watching the world go by. One problem though, I bought him a life jacket a couple of weeks ago, but he's growing so fast he's almost outgrown it already!





On Friday my friend Joe came to help me clean the teak decks. They were weathered silver and had a few stains, but I was reluctant to clean them and brighten them up because I was afraid I'd screw something up and make the teak worse. Well, Joe reassured me that all would be well. We washed and scrubbed the deck down with a cleaner that was essentially oxalic acid. We did this a couple of times and then rinsed the deck thoroughly before washing it again with a light scrubbing of teak brightener. We let that sit for a few minutes and then rinsed it again. I think the results were quite remarkable. The teak has its golden hue back, and they look almost new.

Thanks for your help, Joe!


On Monday, I'll continue the cleanup by detailing the engine compartments and rubbing down all the interior woodwork with Pledge. On Tuesday, I'll give the boat a good washdown and towel dry the hull. The new buyer will not be able to resist! At least I hope he won't be able to resist, because yesterday I made an offer on the C&C 121 in San Diego, and today, after a little negotiation, that offer was accepted! So if all goes well, I'll be sailing in a month or so!




Today was the second-last day of the ski season at Crystal. It was a gorgeous day, with bright blue skies, and temperatures in the low 70's. We left early, because as the day wore on the snow got really sticky, and lousy skier that I am, I had trouble staying upright. But nonetheless, it was a great day on the slopes, and a great final day of skiing for this season.

$1128 Milk Duds

Last Friday night I was watching a movie and munching on the traditional movie fare of popcorn and milk duds. A couple of hours later, I noticed temperature sensitivity in a couple of my teeth, ran my tongue across the area, and realized that the crown was no longer there! "Oh well, it's not too uncomfortable," I thought. "I'll get this taken care of on Monday."

Well Monday came, and I got an appointment with my dentist, and he installed a temporary crown. That's the good news. The bad news is the cost. $1128!! I gave the dentist a bit of a hard time, and knowing that boats are expensive, asked him if he had a boat payment due. He denied having a boat. I said that most of the work was already done, so why does the replacement cost as much as a new one? He said the labor wasn't all that much different, and the major cost is the crown itself. He said that if I had the crown, he could clean it up and re-install it. I told him that the crown must have gone through my digestive tract, and that I wasn't about to strain the digested remains of the milk duds and popcorn through a sieve to retrieve it.

Had I known then what I know now, it may well have been worth the effort!

Then and Now

I went skiing again at Crystal Mountain yesterday. What a great day on the slopes! Decent weather, decent snow, and no major lift lines! It doesn't get much better.

Years ago Marian dug up an old picture of me skiing, had it cleaned up and blown up, and gave it to me for my 50th birthday (I think). It was taken at Blackstrap "Mountain," literally a ski hill made out of garbage (well, OK, landfill) near Saskatoon. So here I am, circa 1969, on skis for the first time. I think they may have been wooden skis with lace-up
boots.




So here I am almost 40 years later. I tried to get a picture of me with the same semi-out-of-control stance, and the semi-terrified look on my face, but I wasn't successful. So here's a more usual picture of me skiing now. As I've become older and wiser, I'm not out of control as much as I was in my misspent youth, but my wide-stance technique hasn't changed all that much.

Crystal Mountain closes for the season next weekend. I've learned to love skiing at Crystal this year, and I may well go back for the season finale.

C&C 121

This afternoon I'm going to look at a C&C 121 sailboat. The seller is asking for too much money, but the boat's been on the market for a year-and-a-half, so the seller should be motivated to negotiate. The C&C 121 is a relatively light and quick 40' boat with two good sized cabins and should be well-suited to the sailing conditions here in the Seattle area. It also has some race capability, so assuming that this deal goes through, I could well be racing this year. I won't race in any serious races, but there are enough "fun" races where you can be as serious as you want to be. I don't have the killer competitive instinct that a lot of otherwise mild-mannered skippers have, but I like racing because it's a great way to learn how to sail, and it's a great way to learn how your boat handles at the extremes. I should know within a couple of weeks whether the deal on my boat goes through. If I play my cards right, I should be able to sell my boat and buy the other immediately, thereby avoiding the sales tax. It's like trading in your car. You only pay sales tax on the difference, and since I'm buying a less-expensive boat, I won't pay any sales tax at all. Cool!