Cleaning out the work shop

Today I was watching Don lower a green plastic drain pipe into a trailer with  a John Deere tractor. The pipe was maybe thirty two inches in diameter by twelve feet long. One end was sawed off at about a forty five degree angle. The other, the factory bell end, is the female end of a joint.They are just like the joints on a stalk of bamboo. Suddenly, I'm standing there watching Don load the world's largest cutting of Lucky Bamboo into a trailer.  I guess these days a fellow might need a really big piece of lucky bamboo.

Standing at an old work bench later. I"m cleaning off a lot of small but vastly handy tools, bits, drivers, small pressure and vacuum gauges, parital rolls of teflon plumbing tape, probably a gazillion screws, bolts and sundry other fasteners, many small bits of wire, and, and, and. There was about thirty or forty years worth of  accumulated small odds, ends, time savers and sometimes essential little things that Uncle Bill had on the back of his work bench. He died back last November.  We still do some work on boats and stuff out of there, but we also figure on having to move out of the rented space to make room for the new owners - like any time now. So....Sorting through all these small, dusty objects of utility, I can't help but hear Bill saying " you're going to want to have that right where you can get ahold of it when you need it."

Blue River Anthology

I've got a permanent link to Mr. Krieger's site down on the port side of this blog, but I really wanted you to see this part. You can get to the rest of his stuff from here. Beautifully crafted images that actually seem to mean something.  Ok, the old guy with the sheep is just slightly creepy, maybe it's just me.

Blue River Anthology

       I've got RUSH boat job in the shop we're about to be in a rush to move out of.  In last December there was plenty of time. Now there's not and I'm having my usual gel coat issues and thank God I've finally decided this is going to be my LAST ONE OF THESE F-ING GEL COAT JOBS!

      NO-REALLYREALLYREALLY!!!!!  Other people, some of whom know, say my results in fiberglass/gel coat work are good. Sometimes, really good.  The thing is, it costs me way too much in time, aggravation and general stress.  Since I already have a couple of different stress related illnesses, I think it's time to drop this particular stress bucket.  There is other boat work out there that is at least as lucrative and a lot less damaging to me.

     I step out back of the house. I turn my eyes to the sky. I'm watching the clouds, watching the fir trees and feeling the wind.  I've done this probably a thousand times.  I'm always looking to the sky.  I think it's a way of centering myself with the world.  "We are all of us in the gutter.  Some of us a lookin' at the Stars" - Chrissy Hyndes, -Message of Love.

At attempt at what music looks like, and a good one

Infographic of the Day: All Music Should Look Like This | Design & Innovation | Fast Company

I don't know squat about the term infographic. I know, as they say, what I like. When you go to Fast Company's page scroll down past the 1st image to the actual video. Watch.

Writers' Dojo A place for writers in Portland

I came across this site/blog while noodling around G-chrome for PORTLAND bloggers. I think it's a great idea. Don't think I'm enough of a writer to justify the expense yet. Perhaps though, that's kinda how one might get to be enough of a writer to hang with professional writers.

Writing Community, Literary Magazine, Portland Center for Writers | Writers' Dojo

Life goes on

It's been about a month, so I guess it's time to check in here.

Yay! I finally, thru the efforts of our local Geek Squad, have my inherited lap top on wireless. This is a good thing. I will now be able to be online at the same time as my wife or son, without going through complex negotiations or feeling guilty about wrestling the desk top away from one of them.

I can also recline on sofa or the "Dad chair", which is what we sometimes call our old leather recliner at our house, and simultaneoulsy be on the lap top and vaguely watching t.v.

That's probably about as close to conciously multi-tasking as I try to do.
Ok, I'm notorious for not being able to talk and drive at the same time.

One really anoying thing about this lap top is that as I'm typing, the cursor is jumping back through the previous text. Several times per line. Sometimes halfway back through the previous word, sometimes a whole line or so. I suspect that it may be somthing I'm inadvertantly doing on this unfamiliar keyboard, or perhaps I'm just hoping that's it and that I'll soon figure it out, without having to call Geek Squad back for a tune up.

Health continues to be an issue. I.B.S. is not going well. more tests going on, blood work, upcoming colonoscopy(oh, That'll be fun), etc. I was not aware that one can take daily vitamins and still be "seriously" deficient in vitamin D, or that they can/will write a prescription for weekly mega-doses of same. As you might expect, all that can put a serious damper on one's self employed earning ability, as well as one's ability to make obligatory work deadlines.

Hey, it's not like a single proprietor in a service industry needs a positive reputation for time-reliability, right?

The rest of this spring is set to be rediculously busy, hectic, a little scary, um, you know life.

Yesterday, I spent four and a half hours leaning into an aft cock pit deck hatch, attempting to fix a vacuum leak in a marine head system. It was less than totaly successful. The toilet will indeed flush, however the vacuum generator refuses to hold a vacuum, so the pump continually restarts every minute or so. What that means is that none of that time and painful effort is billable, and I still need to finish the job.

Imagine, if you will,(spoken in Rod Serling voice) lying on a boat deck, supporting your weight with your chest on the fiberglass edge of a long narrow hatch, stretching across about fourteen inches, down about a foot, over a flat topped square water heater, bracing your arms at about bicep level against the under side of the opposite edge of the hatchway , down about another foot, behind the water heater to work on water heater type hoses and a human waste pump system where you can sort of see about the top half of the system and get one, sometimes two hands on the work precariously, and with little leverage....for about four and a half hours. Oh, and all the while one is doing this, there is the pervasive oyfactory ambiance of well aged human poo, requiring serious hot showering IMMEDIATELY upon home arrival. I've got one line of welts(okay, bruises) all the way across my chest, two more across both biceps, more on my inner fore arms and wrists, and yes, they are pretty damn sore. And oh, did I mention I've still got to go back and fix the system, or - wait for it....switch the whole system over to a different type of electric system. NOW WE'RE HAVING FUN! It's good to have work, It's good to have work, It's good to have work.

Took AAron & his mom for new tennis shoes the other day. He is ecstastic with his new Sketchers light up "racing" shoes. He went out to the patio in the dark last night and did a little tap dancing type light show. It was actually kinda psychodelic. Kids get to actually display how adults sometimes feel about our new shoes.

Now I've gotta go talk to the boat head factory tech guy, then probably start researching ways and costs of changing to a new system.