(no subject)
All right, so it's been almost six months. What can I say? Partly, I went away because I didn't have much to say. Partly, it was because the weather turned crappy in October and screwed up my boat restoration schedule. Partly, it was because I didn't want to get into any more arguments with people who I consider friends where they called me a teabagger. Partly, it was because I didn't want to get into any more arguments with people who I consider friends where I called Obama even worse names. Partly, it was because work slowed to a crawl and I didn't want to write about having nothing to do. Partly, it was that I've written enough entries about shoveling snow that I don't think I should have to write any more. Mostly, I was just feeling burnt out.
The promise of Spring is helping to turn things around attitude-wise, and the presence of actual paying work doesn't hurt, either. So, what did we miss?
Well, in late September I went on a three-day sailing trip in the Apostle Islands. Six mostly-strangers from the Twin Cities Sailing Club, on a 35-foot Catalina for a long weekend. As it turned out, the six of us got along great, and we had a really good time. Leems and Fishtie didn't make it, because neither of them had any vacation days to spare. I tried not to rub it in too much.
In October, we had rainy, cool, crappy weather for about three weekends in a row. On the third weekend, Fish and I officially gave up and wrapped up the boat for the winter. This involved building some cradles for the mast, draping a big-ass tarp over the mast, and attaching the tarp to the trailer with a whole mess of bungee cords. Come the end of October, the weather got really nice for a couple of weeks, which just pissed me off more.
Meanwhile, I finally wrapped up the review and amendments to my club's by-laws, which was about as much fun as you'd imagine. Leems attended stitching retreats every weekend.
In November, Leems went to a bunch of stitching retreats. The two of us went to Pittsburgh for Thanksgiving, where we spent the better part of a week with her dad. Gramma's getting up there in years (she's 90), and since Lemur's mom isn't around to help with holiday prep, we took over and hosted it at Dad's. 'Twas a lot of kitchen work, but at least the house was already clean. Had the whole family over, and all agreed that it was a most excellent feast. We were pretty proud of ourselves for pulling it off. Spent the rest of the weekend laying around and feeling fat and stupid, which is actually quite a nice thing to do.
Then there was Christmas shopping, and the holiday with my family. Christmas eve was at my cousin's house in Minneapolis, and Christmas dinner was at my brother's place. On both occasions, we questioned whether travel was really a good idea, as the weather was supremely bad. We survived, though, and a good time was had by all. I even played guitar at the Christmas Eve party, which everyone seemed to enjoy. New Year's Eve was spent playing board games with our friends in Bloomington, which is something we thoroughly enjoy.
Then came January, and the post-holiday hangover. I watched a lot of football (domestic and metric) and hockey, and was duly disappointed. But when you cheer for the Vikings, the Wild, and Hull City, you quickly grow accustomed to disappointment. I also steadfastly avoided the exercise machine in the basement, which turned out to be quite easy. The weather was very cold, but Leems and I got an electric mattress pad for the bed, which meant that neither of us had to warm up the bed for the other. The cat also approved very highly of the electric bed. Smug bastard. Still, I appreciated the warm bed all the more when Lemur was at her bi-weekly stitching retreats.
February opened with the annual ice fishing extravaganza at the lake. My mom was in Colorado with some of her old friends, and Leems was at a stitching retreat, so it was just Fish, my brother, Dad and I having a proper bachelor weekend. Apart from the usual on-ice shenanigans, the four of us managed to play RoboRally into the wee hours of the morning. Then it was a quick dash back to the Cities so that we could hit the big Super Bowl Commercial party at E&M's new place. I flew to Manassas for a couple of days at the end of the month. It seemed kinda silly to do a two-day trip for what amounted to five or six hours of meetings, but it gave me a good excuse to watch the Olympics in my hotel room for a couple of afternoons. Suffice it to say that my history of cheering for Minnesota teams stood me in good stead for watching our curling teams in action.
Now it's March, and there's finally a bit of warmth in the sunshine. This makes the cat very happy when it shines on his favorite futon, and makes me happy when I leave the car parked outside. Fish and I spent this past weekend working on repairs to the sail cover and cockpit cover for the boat, each of which needed some significant TLC. We replaced three zippers, some velcro, about ten feet of reinforcing patch, and re-stitched a bunch of seams that were coming undone. We're not quite done, but a couple of hours of work this week will do the trick. Then we'll turn our attention to the circuit breaker wiring, which should only take a day. Then it's a waiting game, until the weather improves enough that we can put a few coats of epoxy paint on the hull (at least 65F, preferably 75F).
In the meantime, I need to get over to the state licensing bureau and nail down the paperwork for the boat, so that Fish can put in our application for a mooring buoy. Our friends at the club really want us to get a buoy on Lake Harriet. If this happens, I'm pretty sure we'd have to leave a spare key in the shed so they could sail the Red Mantis when we're not around. That's some cause for concern, but on the other hand, we'd have almost limitless assistance for all the interior and topside projects on our list...
So, fingers crossed that the weather warms up soon, so that I can finish painting the boat. Also, so that I can start riding my bike again, and try to drop fifteen pounds so that my pants will fit right. And also so that I can shave my head again, because I'm really tired of hair.
The promise of Spring is helping to turn things around attitude-wise, and the presence of actual paying work doesn't hurt, either. So, what did we miss?
Well, in late September I went on a three-day sailing trip in the Apostle Islands. Six mostly-strangers from the Twin Cities Sailing Club, on a 35-foot Catalina for a long weekend. As it turned out, the six of us got along great, and we had a really good time. Leems and Fishtie didn't make it, because neither of them had any vacation days to spare. I tried not to rub it in too much.
In October, we had rainy, cool, crappy weather for about three weekends in a row. On the third weekend, Fish and I officially gave up and wrapped up the boat for the winter. This involved building some cradles for the mast, draping a big-ass tarp over the mast, and attaching the tarp to the trailer with a whole mess of bungee cords. Come the end of October, the weather got really nice for a couple of weeks, which just pissed me off more.
Meanwhile, I finally wrapped up the review and amendments to my club's by-laws, which was about as much fun as you'd imagine. Leems attended stitching retreats every weekend.
In November, Leems went to a bunch of stitching retreats. The two of us went to Pittsburgh for Thanksgiving, where we spent the better part of a week with her dad. Gramma's getting up there in years (she's 90), and since Lemur's mom isn't around to help with holiday prep, we took over and hosted it at Dad's. 'Twas a lot of kitchen work, but at least the house was already clean. Had the whole family over, and all agreed that it was a most excellent feast. We were pretty proud of ourselves for pulling it off. Spent the rest of the weekend laying around and feeling fat and stupid, which is actually quite a nice thing to do.
Then there was Christmas shopping, and the holiday with my family. Christmas eve was at my cousin's house in Minneapolis, and Christmas dinner was at my brother's place. On both occasions, we questioned whether travel was really a good idea, as the weather was supremely bad. We survived, though, and a good time was had by all. I even played guitar at the Christmas Eve party, which everyone seemed to enjoy. New Year's Eve was spent playing board games with our friends in Bloomington, which is something we thoroughly enjoy.
Then came January, and the post-holiday hangover. I watched a lot of football (domestic and metric) and hockey, and was duly disappointed. But when you cheer for the Vikings, the Wild, and Hull City, you quickly grow accustomed to disappointment. I also steadfastly avoided the exercise machine in the basement, which turned out to be quite easy. The weather was very cold, but Leems and I got an electric mattress pad for the bed, which meant that neither of us had to warm up the bed for the other. The cat also approved very highly of the electric bed. Smug bastard. Still, I appreciated the warm bed all the more when Lemur was at her bi-weekly stitching retreats.
February opened with the annual ice fishing extravaganza at the lake. My mom was in Colorado with some of her old friends, and Leems was at a stitching retreat, so it was just Fish, my brother, Dad and I having a proper bachelor weekend. Apart from the usual on-ice shenanigans, the four of us managed to play RoboRally into the wee hours of the morning. Then it was a quick dash back to the Cities so that we could hit the big Super Bowl Commercial party at E&M's new place. I flew to Manassas for a couple of days at the end of the month. It seemed kinda silly to do a two-day trip for what amounted to five or six hours of meetings, but it gave me a good excuse to watch the Olympics in my hotel room for a couple of afternoons. Suffice it to say that my history of cheering for Minnesota teams stood me in good stead for watching our curling teams in action.
Now it's March, and there's finally a bit of warmth in the sunshine. This makes the cat very happy when it shines on his favorite futon, and makes me happy when I leave the car parked outside. Fish and I spent this past weekend working on repairs to the sail cover and cockpit cover for the boat, each of which needed some significant TLC. We replaced three zippers, some velcro, about ten feet of reinforcing patch, and re-stitched a bunch of seams that were coming undone. We're not quite done, but a couple of hours of work this week will do the trick. Then we'll turn our attention to the circuit breaker wiring, which should only take a day. Then it's a waiting game, until the weather improves enough that we can put a few coats of epoxy paint on the hull (at least 65F, preferably 75F).
In the meantime, I need to get over to the state licensing bureau and nail down the paperwork for the boat, so that Fish can put in our application for a mooring buoy. Our friends at the club really want us to get a buoy on Lake Harriet. If this happens, I'm pretty sure we'd have to leave a spare key in the shed so they could sail the Red Mantis when we're not around. That's some cause for concern, but on the other hand, we'd have almost limitless assistance for all the interior and topside projects on our list...
So, fingers crossed that the weather warms up soon, so that I can finish painting the boat. Also, so that I can start riding my bike again, and try to drop fifteen pounds so that my pants will fit right. And also so that I can shave my head again, because I'm really tired of hair.