Random thoughts and rants on boat design, boat building, and other boat bits for those in the 99%...
Regarding two senatorial assholes, more on the plastic plague from Latitude 38, and in the "There's some serious profit putting kids in cages" department...
I'm often surprised at just how many people don't seem to understand how the 'Cone of Uncertainty' works or how to use it. So, you might want to check this out.
Listening to Courtney Barnett
So it goes...
Some depressing reading, an interesting interview regarding Hunter S. Thompson, and Macron getting it right...
A must read post on Irma, something in the "simply shameless" department, tRumps anchor babies, and some reality numbers on a dangerous job...
Jose a non-event, it's a beautiful day in the USVI, and time to get back to work.
Still swatting mosquitoes...
Listening to Steely Dan
So it goes...
Walter Becker is no longer with us, truer words, and in the "we are so truly fucked" department...
So, yeah, the handy how close can it get calculator is telling me 90.3 miles which, I suspect, just may be the continuing trend.
Bummer.
Which means it is just about time to get the mangrove and mosquitoes show on the road. So much for this weeks project list...
Listening to Steely Dan
So it goes...
An interesting somewhat enlightening point of view, some needful reading, and some bad news on the Zika front...
So here's a cool tool in the decision making process of either hunkering down where I am or running to a place that is "safer".
A good reason to ask yourelf why you're buying Nestlé products, about that "middle class", and a little needful watching...
In the "Really Rare Thing" department some politicians doing something right, regarding John Oliver and the Guam case, and offhand I'd think New Jersey might want to re-check their math on this one...
So, Erika is now someone else's problem leaving "So It Goes" with one bent stanchion and the hindsight knowledge that, given enough wind, a Hobie Mirage Oasis double kayak weighing 93-pounds can fly.
Listening to Ted Drozdowski's Scissormen
So it goes...
Granny starvers, here's a thought, and something about climate...
Three puppies on Guam, a stop on the campaign trail, and Chuck Wendig recaps the Hugo awards (well worth reading!)...
Danny a non-event gone by and waiting for Erika to come visit. So much for boat projects getting done this week!
Listening to Bruce
So it goes...
Some needful common sense, the end of the movie industry I grew up with, and somehow I'm not sure inspirational is a word that fits here...
Meanwhile, I'm in the middle of doing the H-Ting two step at the moment so might be a little sparse on the blogfront for the next week or so.
Listening to Brent Best
So it goes...
What's important healthwise, some apt graffiti, and in the "with great glee" department...
Well it's that time of year again.
Yep, pharmaceutical companies would never put patients at risk for better profits, the new face of law in Texas, and on reaping what you sow...
Tropical storm Rafael was something of a no-show for us here in the USVI and in its place we had a very quiet windless night... Lucky us.
Especially so when you factor in that just yesterday afternoon Rafael was forecast to run right over us. So later today I can pick up my storm tackle and get back to my various and sundry projects...
Listening to Les Rita Mitsouko (because we're doing the happy dance!)
So it goes...
On doing the Eskimo thing with
Granny, something everybody
should read (really), and Mr Vigor making a good point...
So we're currently watching the weather...
Kind of goes with the territory this time of year and all but some
weather systems are more nervous making than others. 98L is just such a
beast because there are too many possible scenarios and most of the
discussion is more about whether it will be a threat to the US of A
mainland with bugger all concern about what it does while it's in my backyard.
Time to check the ground tackle...
Listening to Jimmy Buffett
So it goes...
My favorite penguin explains something important about crazification, a marathon man, and some excellent but uncomfortable reading...
Right now TS Leslie is getting further away and well on to becoming someone else's problem. Gives me a wonderfully warm and fuzzy feeling!
Better yet, yesterday while rowing back to the boat we passed a Royal Tern doing its thing sitting on a buoy watching the world go by...
One thing I've noticed about Royal Terns is that (being brighter than I am) they tend to get out of Dodge before tropical storms become a likely occurrence and don't come back until the season is pretty much over.
Of course, in this case it is just one bird who might have eaten too many fermented ballyhoo and has simply lost his way in a drunken stupor but still it's good to have a Royal Tern in the neighborhood again...
Listening to Flogging Molly
So it goes...
The sort of stupid that can make your head explode, something well worth reading, and some sustainable surf...
TS Joyce does not look problematic and the couple of computer models I'm looking at for invest 97l seem that whatever storm that becomes is likely to be someone else's problem. From where I sit, that's good news.
The downside is I have to retrieve and then stow the various anchors/chain/warp I put out and my back is killing me.
Listening to Spirit
So it goes...
One reason we don't have enough good teachers, some war-losing technology, and then, there's Baltimore...
As they say, so far so good...
TS Issac is definitely in the neighborhood but not a threat. The only real hassle is that all of the solar panels, surfboards, and suchlike that normally lives on deck make the interior of "So It Goes" somewhat crazy making.
Doing the happy dance!
Listening to 10cc
So it goes...
Some surf science, an interesting thought, and check out the dinghy stowage on this trailer...
Man, I hate it when the "H" tings come at night...
Much of what Americans think they know about illegal immigration is wrong, Christians against Tolerance, Equality and Awareness show what they're made of, apparently Wall Street is a NO PERP WALK zone, and just another "Protect & Serve" story from the Sunshine State...
I haven't read Cruising World in a while but have been reading the current issue...
Apparently there is something of a tempest in a teapot as some readers,
apparently, would prefer their sailing periodicals free of articles of a
"Green" nature and the letters to the editor reflect the various views.
Which has nothing and everything to do with the fact that I'm sitting in
the Caribbean during hurricane season without being panicked.
I've done my homework. Now, I mention this because in dealing with the
whole hanging out in a hurricane zone during hurricane season seems to
involve three very different mindsets...
I simply don't want to know...
The ostrich approach is that you simply ignore or put in the memory hole
any fact or information that would suggest that you might, in fact, get
hit by a named storm. Folks who follow this methodology are quite
interesting AFTER a storm because they will steadfastly intone that the
storm in question was a fluke, no one could have seen it coming, and
someone should have given them better weather predictions... Which is
interesting as in most cases all of the weather predictions were of the "big storm coming run and hide" sort.
I want a pony...
This is the cherry picker group who do follow the weather but simply
ignore anything that they don't like. So, if Jeff Masters says that such
and such a storm has a good chance of getting too up close and personal
they simply find someone else (including the village idiot) who will say something more along the
lines of what they want to hear. They are actually more of a subset of
the ostrich folks but with the important difference that they think they
can somehow make wishes real and, like most spoiled children, throw a
tantrum when they discover the world does not orbit around the orifice
they sit on.
The pragmatists...
Luckily, most of the folks I know subscribe to the third group who
watch the weather and find as much real information about weather systems
as possible so that they can make an informed decision about where to
hunker down or run to in the event of a storm happening...
Which brings us back to those letters in Cruising World. It would seem
that the I want a pony brigade and the ostrich clan don't like their
sailing magazines with talk of climate change or green subjects that
might make a small bit of difference for the common good. Personally, I'm
all for someone writing into Cruising World with some REAL information
based on FACTS that adds something to the whole climate/global
warming/green discussion but then, I suppose that would be too much to ask
for...
On the plus side, the ostriches and the I want a pony folks are on the Darwin express outbound. On the negative side, they really do seem to want our company on their slippery slide to oblivion and as such don't have yours or my best interests at heart. Which is something best kept in mind when things are of a serious nature.
When in doubt be pragmatic...
Listening to Guy Clark
So it goes...
A brief moment of judicial sanity, sure this will fix the problem, and just another week in Florida or is it something else...
Well it's "H" season all over again and, as usual, I'm not sitting in a sidewalk cafe sipping Pastis in some French town overlooking the harbor... Bummer!
Truth is, I really don't know what we are going to do for our "H" season bolt hole but having been hit three times with named storms in the last couple of years has me thinking I'll be somewhere else in the not-too-distant-future. That said, a lot of the problem deciding where concerns our long term plans and those are in flux...
Which reminds me I have still not got our new electronic anti-fouling kit from OZ yet and I need to sort out all my other projects in a hurry.
Listening to Richard Thompson
So it goes...
