Mid-August View

Stormy again last night.  Garage still full.  :-(

The last classroom session for cruising has been moved to the last weekend in Aug, the same time as my voice class.  :-(

Still, I don't think the universe is conspiring against me.  I am getting beyond depending on the need for some expert to take me through every detail of training.  Yes, they will have many pointers from experience, but the basic information is not going to be any different.  I can learn to tie knots on my own.  I can review the parts of a boat and sails and rigging on my own.  The first aid safety information will be a review/specific application adjustment for me.  And the meteorology/weather will also be a review/specific application adjustment.  Same with charts and navigation.

Well, that is an encouragement.  I had only glanced at the pages of expected knowledge for the basic cruising standard and had felt some trepidation.  I see now that a lot of it is information I already know, but need to structure differently in my head.  I will have to contact the fellow putting the class on and see about getting the course material to study on my own.  I will see if I can come in at some other time and do the exam/hands-on testing to pass the classroom portion.

I finally have pictures of the dead car to post it for sale.  It needs work, but still runs.  With any luck, it will be gone quickly.  That should cover the last payment on the voice class, and free up space in front of the house.

It has been a week since the Brooks Faire, I will ask Radar if she has a place for a future forge/hot work area.  I could then get the smithing gear out to the ranch where it can be used/played with.  We couldn't go to the faire this year, our daughter was visiting that weekend.

I was in the yard last night and looked over at the boat.  A few leaves and bits sitting on the tarp that covers it, it seems almost disappointed.  It is not meant to be a lawn ornament.  Like ourselves, it was built for more than that.  Just like a lot of the bits and pieces I have accumulated.

I have been offered a gas generator by a fellow at work, a 6 kW model.  He was going to take it to the dump if no one wanted it.  He had been using it, but bought a new one with an electric start.  I should be able to do a quick fix-up and repaint and sell it to someone who needs it at a good price.  I'm thinking of putting a better muffler on it as well, to quiet it down since I've been told it is pretty loud.

Only a few calls so far today, that is nice.  I'll need to follow up on a parts order that I sent the office a couple weeks ago, we really need the parts but they may have balked at the price.  Security equipment seems to be able to command quite the premiums, and we lost some in a lightning strike a month ago.

I will have to learn more about the options for the blog page.  The posts feel more like a stream-of-life place, so I will try to extract useful data to easy to read pages on the side.

We have been reading through a couple books this last month.  Nerd Fitness and The Four Hour Work Week.  They certainly can be inspirational.  Not exactly my philosophy, I find there is a bit of a cold self-centered edge to the execution of some of it.  Also, Four Hour doesn't fit well with a service trade job;  there isn't any way to telecommute and replace a receptacle or service a motor.  Nerd Fitness seems to take a broader approach, leaving the adaptation more with the participant.  Both help show that the biggest limiting factor we face (in developed nations at least) is ourselves.