Rico's Tiny Universe

SailNet Raft Up

2011-09-11T22:36:00.000-04:00

Marilyn and I have been hanging around an internet sailing forum. We have been talking to a number of people on the site that are in the Chesapeake Bay area. We have met a few people and they have been fun to talk to. This weekend we got together and rafted up at the Magothy River we a bunch. We wanted to sail Saturday from Rock Hall. The weather was a bit iffy. So we stayed at the dock for a few hours. Ann had the inflatable kayak in the cove this time. She and Marilyn and Barbra were paddling away in out into the open water. The weather opened a window and we headed out. No wind so we had to motor. Halfway across we hit a debris field. Logs, grass, branches and all manner of garbage. We went slowly thru it only to hit a denser field in the entrance to the Magothy. We had to take the engine out of gear and float thru the field. We rafted up with Chris and Eileen, Dan and Jaye and Dave. We talked and then it rained.. Just splashed us pretty good. It was short enough for Marilyn to see a rainbow. Snacks were prepared and brought over the Cinderella ( Dan and Jaye's Boat ) and we talked and ate thru the evening. Sunday we all had coffee and the conversations started again. We then did boat tours. Looking at each others boats and admiring how all the owners had made themselves a home. We broke anchor and had to brave the debris field again. The debris field is caused by the opening of gates on the Conowingo Dam. The flood water from Irene and Lee mixed with all this junk and is washing it down the Bay. Luckily it did not cause any damage and we got back to the slip a bit slowly

Rain Rain and more rain......

2011-09-08T07:13:00.003-04:00

When we left the boat this weekend, actually Tuesday it was in a torrential rain storm. Got drenched loading the car in a lull. Yesterday morning it was still raining. It let up in the afternoon, but last night ho-boy! With the flooding the trains are not running and the Turnpike entrances are closed. Quite a mess.

Measured 7.53 inches of rain in this storm. That's more that hurricane Irene.

But so far the basement is dry. :)

Lazy Labor Day Weekend.

2011-09-04T15:28:00.002-04:00

Woke up in Swan Creek. Which is good because that is where we anchored! Would be more exciting if we anchored some where else. Spent a lazy morning having coffee and watching the time go by there. Motored back to the slip and we jumped into the pool. You have to jump in the pool Memorial Day, July 4th and Labor day. No more till next year. Found the backup battery in the boat was dry, almost dead. Added water to it. See if it will revive at least till next spring.

We had 50th wedding anniversary here on Friday. Al and Ann celebrated 50 years married. The porch was filled with well wishers.

Marilyn and I met another Sailnet couple. Dave and Janet stopped in Rock Hall as part of there bay tour and we vistied their boat at Rock Hall Landing. They seemed like an nice pair and we did not keep them long as they were eager to continue the trip north on the spinnakar. We may raft up with a bunch of SailNet people next week if the weather holds out.

In Swan Creek

2011-09-04T09:29:00.001-04:00

Spent most of Saturday cleaning up and putting things away that we
tied the boat down with for the storm.

We then went out for a day sail. It was a nice wind from the south
about 8 kts. We dropped the hook in Swan Creek for the night.
--Rico
I was all thumbs typing this in!
Sent from my iPhone.

Boat Ok!

2011-09-02T08:24:00.002-04:00

Went to Spring Cove on Thursday. Check up on the boat and it was ok. No damage. None. Perfect. Started to put the canvas on the boat for the weekend while I was down there. Got the Bimini up and the Dodger and the Jib sail. Need to move cushions and other stuff that we had stored. It still will take us a few hours to get back into shape. Now we have to check our weather windows.

Boat may be Ok

2011-08-30T17:48:00.002-04:00

A friend emailed that he had stayed over the weekend during the storm. He reports that the boat may have had no damage. Others were not so lucky. One boat had smashed against a piling repeatedly during the storm. A few jib sails unfurled and blew out and shredded. I'm going down on Thursday to check it all out.

Hurricane is over.

2011-08-28T22:38:00.000-04:00

Now we have to get back from vacation and go back to work tomorrow. This vacation is not one I want to repeat soon. Struggling to get the boat working, bad weather, flooding rain, earthquakes, hurricanes. Next time I'm just going to stay in bed.

Maybe not out of the woods yet.

2011-08-28T13:45:00.000-04:00

The wind is still blowing pretty hard yet. Gusts as bad as we had during Irene. The ground is just mud soup and not draining yet. A neighbor's tree just went down. We may have a power outage yet.

Morning is we are Ok

2011-08-28T08:52:00.001-04:00

The storm is winding down and things are alright. Inside all is ok. We'll go outside later to see the condition of things. Now I have to see how to put 6 gallons of gas from the generator into Marilyn's car without making a mess.

During the storm.

2011-08-28T08:47:00.000-04:00

Last night during the storm the rain was being blown thru the back door. We taped the back door with metal tape and it slowed it to a drip. The basement was running like crazy but the sump pump kept up with the water. If we would have lost power I figured that we had about 10 minutes to get the pump running before we had makings of a basement swimming pool.

Rain Begining

2011-08-27T15:58:00.000-04:00

We we are all snug today. Marilyn is working in the sewing room, I'm making wine poached figs. Checking the weather at Thomas Point Lighthouse the wind is at 33kts and Rock Hall is about 5kts and 4mph here. It's making its way up the bay. Suprisingly there is no expected storm surge in Rock Hall. Very excellent, one less thing that we have to deal with. The figs have been simmering for 20 min and I have to reduce the liquid... and get some vanilla ice cream!

All tied up

2011-08-27T06:08:00.000-04:00

On Saturday we tied the good ship Imagination down as best we could. Fortified her with fenders in case she rubs a dock or a piling. Gave her tripple lines in the direction of the wind. She'll be fine I think she was better held down than most of the boats. But against 70mph winds and 5 foot storm surge.
We did the best we could do.

We left her in the afternoon. Traffic was one big parking lot took us nearly 5 hours to get home. But we stopped a the store for water and extension cords for the generator and flash lights and batteries.. And I have a two day supply of gas in the generator. I may get the bigger gas can this morning. The stores looed like they were stripped by locusts. We have supplies for french toast in the morning.

Sunday the storm......

Lull before the storm

2011-08-26T12:18:00.001-04:00

All double lined and tied down.

Thursday... Prep day

2011-08-25T18:44:00.000-04:00

T -2 days.... We got the head sail down this evenning as the winds died down. ( lull before the storm? ) Also, you see Marilyn showing you the latest in fenderboards that we installed. The bimimi top and dodger will be down tomorrow and the double dock lines will be installed. Honda Generator is now in the car. We'll then empty the boat of non essentials and anything that will go bad in the fridge. We'll lend a had to anyone else and be gone on Saturday. As a last act we will film the boat if we need it for insurance purposes.

The forecast is now for 70mph gusts. The forecast is getting worse as the storm gets closer. We will be long gone but the good ship Imagination will be here to weather the storm without us.

I was second guessing if we should have hauled the boat.

Fenderboards

2011-08-25T15:32:00.003-04:00

Fenderboards

2011-08-25T15:32:00.001-04:00

Rainy Day

2011-08-25T13:51:00.001-04:00

This is just a normal rainy day....some say an appetizer for the hurricane but not anything related to Irene. We spent the day prepping and relaxing before the main event. We went to West Marine yesterday to get extra dock lines. I went again to West Marine and the hardware store to get the makings of fenderboards. I made one and the rains came. I'll finish making the other one later. Donna, a friend from a neighboring marina come over. She had her boat hauled ( taken out of the water and put on land ) for the storm, They are in a much more exposed marina. We talked about the storm for a while and about the upcoming get together.
Marilyn is planning on reading for the rest of the afternoon and I'll finish that other fenderboard if the rain slows down!

Kent Narrows

2011-08-24T21:03:00.000-04:00

Kent Narrows has a draw bridge that opens on the top of the hour and we were lucky enough to time our trip so we caught the bridge opening -- no waiting. In fact, when we hailed the bridge tender told us: You can make it if you "speed it up." (Sailboats, even when motoring, are not built for speed.)

We powered up and because we had the right of way (based on the current) we entered first with just a working boat meeting us on the other side. (Traffic on summer weekends is very hectic.) But it gets tricky - not just the current - but the water levels here can be very low here and we don't want to hit bottom. We entered at high tide and that worked to our advantage and then carefully navigated the channel. Whew!

And we traversed two bridges today, the first was Knapps Narrows bridge, which is an open on-demand bridge. It is also known for its challenging channel that has low water and drop-offs. We saw a sailboat get stuck here last year - and we even cautioned the Captain about the markers. It is all part of the fun ? of sailing.

Back in Rock Hall

2011-08-24T20:15:00.000-04:00

We left the anchorage after a rocky night. The wind was blowing all night which kept things cool and nice. But it was from our only unprotected side so we were getting waves from the Choptank. But it was nice sleeping when the rocking was gentle. Sunrise was just as beautiful as sunset. The working boats were out crabbing. We had our tea and coffee watching them. We left before 8am and went thru the Narrows again. the Bay was not too bad bu the wind was right on our tail so we motored the whole way. At Kent Narrows we fueled up and continued north. Nearing Rock Hall we were in a following sea and the boat was surfing and hard to control. Before you knew it we were tied up at the slip. A jump into the showers and we went to West Marine to get extra dock lines to double up the lines for the hurricane. Irene looks like its going out to sea but we may get a North wind at tropical storm strength. We wento out to have a nice dinner as we both were too beat to make dinner and clean up. Our reward was a big ball of a sunset........

Crab boat at dawn

2011-08-24T06:47:00.000-04:00

Rocky night in the anchorage

2011-08-24T00:14:00.001-04:00

Wind has picked up and the boat is rocking tonight. Clear starry
night. Lots of star gazing. We even spotted satellites earlier in the
evening. Now sitting anchor watch. Wind is shifting south should be
more protection after the full wind shift.

--Rico
I was all thumbs typing this in!
Sent from my iPhone.

Cruising for 20 years! Could that be us?

2011-08-23T19:41:00.000-04:00

I was stepping onto the cockpit when I saw this big ole friendly dog at the bow of a motorboat. Rocket, we was his name, and he was nearly as big as this 12 foot boat. I waved and the real Captain of this vessel stopped and introduced himself. He said he and his wife had a custom built 50-foot motorboat that would support them for 2 or 3,000 miles off shore with the fuel tanks, storage and creature features. They had traveled much further than the Chesapeake and had ventured to the Bahamas and even navigated the Mississippi River among the 300-foot barges. (The Mississippi has always been a busy waterway from when Huck Finn's was dodging steamboats on his raft until today. Its strong currents, big bends and heavy traffic prove difficult.) They sold their boat last year but it is still in the Chesapeake to serve out its time. By the way, 20 years is still young for a boat. Remember "Beautiful Star" was 30 years old when we bought her.

Should be a clear night and good for stargazing. Signing off for now.

Dun Cove

2011-08-23T19:25:00.000-04:00

We got a vist from the unoffical harbor master and his dog rocket. Nice fellow his family owned the farm that surrounds the cove. He was telling us some great crusing stories. He said that he had 100,000 miles under the keel! He was telling about crusing the Mississippi River Wow! We exchanged cards and felt that we made a new friend.
Now back to chopping veggies for dinner. Sunset on the deck later!

Earthquake?

2011-08-23T16:59:00.001-04:00

We were at Knapps Narrows Marina for a shower. When it felt that a
boat ran into the floating dock. But we were on land. Wow! Earthquake!
The trees were swaying and the building alarms were sounding. Crazy!

We got an email from a sailing friend to check the weather. Hurricane
Irene is coming up the cheasapeake on Saturday. So tomorrow we are
going to make a run for home.

Floods,earthquake, hurricanes!

Currently we are anchored safely in Dun Cove.

--Rico
I was all thumbs typing this in!
Sent from my iPhone.

Sunset

2011-08-22T20:05:00.001-04:00

Sunset

2011-08-22T19:37:00.000-04:00

Wish you were here!

2011-08-22T19:23:00.000-04:00

We are sitting on the coach roof waiting for sunset. I made crab cakes
for dinner. They were just a little too soft. I used egg beaters( we
use them because they just close up and we don't have to worry about
breakage) but I think real eggs would be better.

Having trouble reading info from NOAA. Weather was for 11 to 16 kts
winds and the small craft advisory was for to 33 kts. The forecast was
correct.

Flies were biting me all day long...Rat Bastards!

Rhode River

2011-08-22T15:50:00.001-04:00

We day sailed a bit in the west river. The winds were gusting to 20.Anchoring in the Rhode river was what we wanted to do. Nice sunny and breezy best describes our anchorage. It is near the YMCA camp I hope we do not get woke up by a bugle!

--Rico

Day two

2011-08-22T07:45:00.000-04:00

We may stay and explore the Rhode river today. Small change of plans but we are here to relax. Cross the bay tomorrow. May have to keep an eye on Hurricane Irene. It may hit Atlantic Coast on Sunday and we'll have to get back before then.

Storm Passed!

2011-08-21T19:05:00.000-04:00

After torrential rain and some scary lightning we were still anchored firmley where we started! After the rain it was a beautuful afternoon nice cool brezzes and puffy clouds. sitting here planning our move tomorrow to Dunns Cove.

Anchored in the West River

2011-08-21T15:42:00.000-04:00

Outside Hartsel boatyard. About to be stormed on.

In the West River...

2011-08-21T15:39:00.000-04:00

We took off this morning to beat the thunderstorm. Met no storms in the bay but lots of wnd and waves. I was soaked by the spray. Now we are anchored in the West River with thunderboomers surrounding us.

Well the advernture began.....

2011-08-20T21:12:00.000-04:00

... not for us. A boat came into the marina looking for the gas dock.... "Is this Spring Cove" Yes we told him. He went asking someone else for the gas dock saying he can't see it into the phone..... Them it hit me "Which Spring Cove are you looking for" ... He was looking for a slip for Spring cove in the Solomons. He asked how do I get there..... South about 6 or 7 hours I told him. We put him in an empty slip for the night and let him get his navigation worked out in the morning/

Day One.....

2011-08-20T21:07:00.000-04:00

Got the pressure gauge installed. Going out for a sea trial....... Chartplotter does not power up. Get the voltmeter... darn battery in the voltmeter dead! ok get the cover off the helm wiring... darn stripped the screws! Drill out the screws...get a shower of wd40 and hot metal shavings. Out to West Marine for new screws. Now at 4pm all is working. Take the sea trial. No Problems !! YEA! Pumpout the tanks and take all the canned goods from the car to the boat. Ready to go...... But tonight showers to get the shavings out of my hair and dinner at Yarmoth.

Tomorrow after breakfast the adventure begins.......

Oil Pressure gauge

2011-08-20T11:37:00.000-04:00

We installed the new oil pressure gauge! It works and the oil pressure
of the engine is good! Now we have to clean up do a sea trial and
provision the boat. Then we are out of here!

A Little Background

2011-08-20T07:02:00.000-04:00

We are starting vacation again WoHooo! But let me take you back a few months to update you on what is been happening to the good ship Imagination....

First we had to move our solar panels. The winter winds almost tore them off the Bimini structure.
Then we had to fix the autopilot. When we would set a course the boat would wander.
Also, I wanted to update the electronics. I had bought a chart plotter with the boat and never put it in.
But, we had a breakdown of sorts. The riser pipe, part of the exhaust system of the boat had corroded and was leaking both water and exhaust.

The solar panels were put on an arch on the back of the boat. The arch took about 8 weeks to fabricate and can be used for davits, to haul up a dinghy, and to support a radar system in the future. The arch people were great to work with. The guy who installed the solar panels, not so much.

The auto pilot and electronics upgrade was a bit of a pain as the chart plotter that I had bought had problems talking to other equipment. The guy who ran the wires was great Terry Willis is a wizard and understood what I wanted and how I wanted to do it. We now have a functioning autopilot, chart plotter at the help and navigation station, that has AIS, ship anti collision software, and weather.

The riser pipe had us sitting for 6 weeks waiting for the part. Swan Creek installed it. The wait caused a build up of marine life on our prop. Last weekend we took the boat out and the engine overheated. Lee came over and hauled the boat to scrape the bottom eject the barnacles.

Also, this summer we have been chasing a problem with the oil pressure light. The light would come but we would have oil. After a shut down and restart the light would stay off. I need to change the oil switch and put in a oil pressure gauge to see if there really is a problem. This I am doing today the first day of our vacation so that I have confidence in the boat for a week! This should only take an hour. ( Famous last words! ) We also need to sea trail the boat to see if everything is working correctly.

Now on to work!!!

Ok Where Have I Been......

2011-08-11T10:30:00.000-04:00

Well I gues not in the state of mind to write the blog. But soon I get off my butt and write something, maybe even something interesting!

Out Last Night

2010-09-23T06:54:00.000-04:00

Marilyn and I had theater tickets to the Walnut Theater last night. We first stopped at EL Vez for dinner. It was resturant week in Philly so they were offering a special menu. We had mojitos and dinner it was great. The play was called "Curtains" a musical whodunnit. It was pretty good much better than the plays at the Wilma! Then we had to run thru the rain to the train station. The trains were runing late due to the storms. Getting up this morning was pretty hard again!

Back to work...

2010-09-21T10:01:00.000-04:00

Work has been piling up since I've been away. Went to the dentist yesterday. Got a permenent crown put in. Now I'm in the office today and I'm being pulled in 5 different directions this morning. I'll get it sorted out soon.

End of vacation

2010-09-19T15:41:00.000-04:00

Emptying the boat.

back in rock hall

2010-09-18T21:34:00.000-04:00

We sailed down the chester river trying to avoid all the fishermen.
Back in the bay we had to avoid a race of about 30 sailboats. They
were all flying colorful spinnakers. We motored back to rock hall and
into our slip. We rinsed off the boat and cleaned up a bit. Haven
harbor next-door is having a end of year party and we did not go.
After spending quiet nights a raucous part is not what we had on the
adgenda.

--Rico
I was all thumbs typing this in!
Sent from my iPhone.

Heading back

2010-09-18T09:20:00.000-04:00

Going back to rock hall today. Many adventures but we have to come home.

--Rico
I was all thumbs typing this in!
Sent from my iPhone.

Good morning!

2010-09-18T09:14:00.001-04:00

From the Corsica river

View from the corsica river

2010-09-17T17:50:00.001-04:00

From the Corsica river

2010-09-17T17:49:00.000-04:00

This morning we were In the wye river. There was wind blowing to 25
knots in the bay as we headed to Kent narrows for fuel and to have our
tank pumped out. We were taking spray over the bow. It was pretty
rough. When we went under the bridge and fueled up the chester river
was pretty calm. We put up sails and headed to reed creek. But the
entrance was too tricky. We continued on to the corsica river were we
are anchored tonight.

--Rico
I was all thumbs typing this in!
Sent from my iPhone.

Morning on the Wye river

2010-09-17T08:29:00.001-04:00

Boat from the narrows

2010-09-15T17:26:00.000-04:00

The boat is an old lobster boat from Maine. The boat has been slowly
restored. Look at the navigation lights they are kerosene.

--Rico
I was all thumbs typing this in!
Sent from my iPhone.

Boat in the narrows

2010-09-15T17:22:00.002-04:00

Boat in Knapps Narrows

2010-09-15T17:22:00.000-04:00

Tilghman creek

2010-09-15T17:05:00.001-04:00

We started the day in Oxford. Tomorrow is going to be windy and
choppy. So we headed north. On the way we stopped in Knapps Narrows.
We docked for a few hours to swim in the pool, get some groceries and
get cleaned up. Heading around Poplar Is we had schools of rays
swimming with us. We were past by the cruise ship American Spirt which
was heading to St Micheals

--Rico
I was all thumbs typing this in!
Sent from my iPhone.

Tilghman creek

2010-09-15T16:55:00.001-04:00

More sunset

2010-09-14T19:30:00.001-04:00

Sunset in oxford

2010-09-14T19:28:00.001-04:00

Knapps narrows

2010-09-14T15:36:00.001-04:00

Our sail

2010-09-14T15:35:00.001-04:00

On the bay

2010-09-14T15:35:00.000-04:00

Just ducky!

2010-09-14T15:28:00.001-04:00

More travels

2010-09-14T15:27:00.000-04:00

After a quite night we head out to oxford. The wind was ripping at
20knots. This gave us a rough ride to oxford. Upon arrival we found
the town was closed on Tuesdays! Pool, book store,and Icecream shoppe
all closed. Sitting on the docks looking at the ducks trying to plan
our next stop

--Rico
I was all thumbs typing this in!
Sent from my iPhone.

Our mast going past the brodge

2010-09-14T15:20:00.001-04:00

--Rico

I was all thumbs typing this in!

Sent from my iPhone.

Begin forwarded message:

From: Marilyn Paolino <marilyn@paolinonet.net>
Date: September 14, 2010 3:18:19 PM EDT
To: Rico <ricopaolino@paolinonet.net>

Going thru. Knapps Narrows

2010-09-14T15:19:00.001-04:00

--Rico

I was all thumbs typing this in!

Sent from my iPhone.

Begin forwarded message:

From: Marilyn Paolino <marilyn@paolinonet.net>
To: Rico <ricopaolino@paolinonet.net>
Subject: Photo bridge

On the bay

2010-09-13T16:46:00.001-04:00

--Rico

I was all thumbs typing this in!

Sent from my iPhone.

Begin forwarded message:

From: Marilyn Paolino <marilyn@paolinonet.net>
To: Rico <ricopaolino@paolinonet.net>

Sails up!

2010-09-13T16:44:00.000-04:00

--Rico

I was all thumbs typing this in!

Sent from my iPhone.

Begin forwarded message:

From: Marilyn Paolino <marilyn@paolinonet.net>
Date: September 13, 2010 2:32:01 PM EDT
To: Rico <ricopaolino@paolinonet.net>

Marilyn filling water tanks

2010-09-13T09:52:00.001-04:00

Vacation rainy day

2010-09-12T10:42:00.001-04:00

You can see we are still tied up to the dock. 60deg and rain today.
We'll go see a movie in Chestertown. Tomorrow will be a sunny day
better for sailing on the bay.

--Rico
I was all thumbs typing this in!
Sent from my iPhone.

Vacation rainy day

2010-09-12T10:38:00.000-04:00

Labor day extravaganza

2010-09-07T07:39:00.000-04:00

We had Marj and Roy down to the boat over the weekend. Earl was an
unwanted visitor. We experienced the tail end of the hurricane winds.
On Friday I was working on the laptop on the boat when it refused to
work for me anymore. I had to kill it. I smashed it into small
pieces. Time for a new computer! The winds were blowing at 25knots on
Saturday and the waves were up. It would not have been a fun ride. So
we sat in spring cove on Saturday. Sunday we went out and had a great
sail. But our destination was beyond Kent narrows and there were
hundreds of boats out. We would have been stuck in a jam at the
bridge. We turned and sailed to swan creek. It was a great sail back
and the night was fantastic. Nice clear and cool evening. Fast
forward to the drive home. In chestertown I got a warning from the
police for going too fast. No ticket but I'm the one who warns
everyone who comes down to watch the speed!

--Rico
I was all thumbs typing this in!
Sent from my iPhone.

Money Laundering

2010-09-01T10:38:00.000-04:00

I left my darn wallet in my pants When I threw them in the wash!

The money would be nice and clean.... If I had any!

Dental Appt Monday.

2010-08-30T12:38:00.000-04:00

After a fun weekend a Monday must come. But got to go to the dentist today. Not really looking foward to this.

Stuffing's Done

2010-08-29T21:17:00.000-04:00

Adjusted the stuffing box on the boat this weekend. It was a success despite the fact I left one of the two wrenches home. A brrowed wrench, some lube, a busted knuckle and a few choice words the problem was fixed.

I returned the wrenches and cleaned up the boat and myself then Marilyn and I were going out to lunch. Then we heard a pop and a whump! Pete was fixing his boat loosened up some of the stays and his mast came crashing down. The mast hit a friends boat after smacking a piling. No one was hurt. It could have been very ugly. But the end was just Pete's mast is now wrecked.

On a lighter side Saul and Ellen came by for a visit. They were down at Rock Hall and came by on Sunday morning.

Happy Birthday Meg

2010-08-29T17:44:00.000-04:00

On Friday Marilyn, Mike, Gail and I took Meg out to Hokka Hokka for her birthday. A very nice sushi place in Chestnut Hill. The fish was flying off the Love Boat faster than you could say "More Ginger Please!" Tasty little morsels were had by all. The topper was when they lit a sparkler on top of a device that sent sparks flying and opened flaming flower petals, too bad they put it in front of Gail.

Happy Birthday Meg

First it was the MicroBrews then the Bloggers Now the Cupcake Lady.....

2010-08-25T12:15:00.003-04:00

Who's Next?!? Seems the City that Loves you back and The Cupcake Lady could not see eye to eye. Therefore the City of Brotherly Love sent out it's goons to confiscate the Cupcake Truck. Sounds like Mayor Nutter is really working on his small business initiative! You can buy all the crack you want in the city but woe is you if you sell cupcakes! She was at LOVE park this afternoon at lunch time a few of us went out for delectable little morsels. I was hoping for some red velvet ones. But after the city's buttercream caper the news was out and all of the cupcakes were sold out in a flash.

Fly Night

2010-08-25T08:36:00.000-04:00

Jerry, Stanley and I were in the basement of a local synagogue last night flying our tiny radio controlled helis last night. We were trying to tune up our flying kits for the coming indoor flying season. We had a bunch of laughs as we sent helis skittering around the room. I bent my new little heli up as I was trying to show off a bit. Just a bent linkage and a few stripped gears.

Philly Blog Tax?!?

2010-08-23T22:58:00.004-04:00

Looks like the the zeal to increase revenue Philly is going to require a business licence to have a blog. You can choose to have advertising on your blog. Google will send you a check based on the clicks you get on the ads. Real small potatoes. If I were to have ads it would garner a few cents if anything at all. Anyway Philly want to charge blog owners up to $300 for a business licence and a cut of the profits. Are you kidding me! This is worse than the swat teams looking for unregistered beers!

Philly Blog Tax.

The City Paper Take on the Blog Tax.

Hey Nutta'!!!!

I'm not in the City and I don't have ads!!!! So There!!!!

Float switches and Pumps

2010-08-23T22:45:00.000-04:00

Float switches and pumps are the bain of my life right now. Both on the boat and home I have had the failure of float switches. In both cases have averted disaster. On the boat I have a device called the stuffing box which is in the picture. It allows the propeller to turn and keeps the water out. Well mine is leaking. Bad enough but the float switch on the bilge pump failed and the boat took on water all week. Luckily we went down and we got it all pumped out. I had to go the West Marine and get a new switch and that fixed it. At home the float switch for the sump failed same as the boat. I changed the switch a week ago. Tonight it is raining and filling up the sump. The switch was not adjusted right. It was keeping the pump running. It almost burned out the pump. I found this out at 10pm with the local Lowes closed. I'm pretty sure I saved the pump and I readjusted the switch. I'll find out if we have a flood in the basement again. I took all the stuff off the floor just in case.

Front door inside

2010-08-21T10:09:00.001-04:00

New front door

2010-08-21T10:08:00.000-04:00

New Door

2010-08-19T10:10:00.000-04:00

The new front door has arrived. It was installed Tuesday! Its really nice and the window makes the room much brighter. I'll have a picture this afternoon.

The bad news is the side door frame was much more rotten then was thought. The door company had to order a door to replace it.

Last Weekend

2010-08-19T10:07:00.000-04:00

We spent the weekend home. We were going to Rock Hall but at the last minute we both had to take a weekend off of taking a weekend off. Marilyn was puttering in the garden and I went off the the flying field.

Not that Bill

2010-08-12T08:46:00.002-04:00

Yesterday Marilyn was out with Risa having dinner. I went to the flying field to fly some models, after which I went to the Dublin Star Diner. While I was having dinner they were talking about the Dublin Volunteer Fire Dept Carnival. They had a cruiser night, guys showing their cars from the 50's and the musical entertainment for the night was Bill Clinton.... What?

No not that guy !!!!

This Guy .... Bill Clinton and his band.

Big difference!

Look out! Pirates!

2010-08-10T12:44:00.001-04:00

Pirates weekend down at Rock Hall the weekend. I'm hoping the weather will be good to get out of the slip pretty quickly on Saturday. We'll try to get out before the little buccaneers get into full swing. Where are we going?? Don't know yet.

Saluti ai nostri amici italiani che visita il nostro blog

2010-08-09T23:05:00.003-04:00

I have noticed that we are getting a lot of traffic tonight from Italy. Welcome!

Boat Maintainence Weekend

2010-08-08T20:42:00.000-04:00

Marilyn and I when to Rock Hall this weekend. It was a great weather weekend high 80's but now wind. Which was ok becauce I had to fix a few things on the boat. I was looking around the boat for leaks as the bildge pump was running funny. I found that the float switch for the pump was bad. So I had to get down in the bildge to see what was the mattter and found a corroded connection. I also replaced the head ( aka toilet ) pump. Not the most pleasant job. But I got it done. I got washed up and then napped for the rest of the afternoon. After dinner we watched the sunset from the docks and then went Al and Anne's boat for wine and conversation. Marilyn got in to a card game they called Oh Hell. I headed for the showers and then my bunk. ( all that napping made me sleepy! ) This morning I found the bildge switch still was not working so I went off to West Marine to get a new one. This replacement job worked and the bildge pump was left working. We left for home in the morning. After unpacking the car I set up a hose on the new faucet I had the plumber put in to the side of the house. So Marilyn can water her flowers. I loaded up the car and went to the flying field. I flew a few turns with my trainer airplane just to shake the cobwebs off. I haven't touched the planes or the computer simulator in a few months. I still could fly but I'm rusty. The wind at the field ( notice no wind at the bay! ) did not help.

Arguh!!!!!!!

2010-08-06T08:34:00.000-04:00

Holy messy spills! Not in the gulf of Mexico but in my Cube. I spilled a bowl of oatmeal in my cube. All over me, my desk and the floor, yech! Missed the computers entirely. Can't seems to get the oats out of the carpet. I'm going to need some custodial help!

Not Started yet.......

2010-08-05T12:38:00.001-04:00

Procrastination..... is making me wait....

Hmmm Not how that song goes eh.

But I'm still waiting because I'm still procrastinating!

Still no start on the cleanup project. I just got to start.......sometime.

Flying guys meeting tonight. Maybe I'll get to it Friday.

More stuff I gotta do....

2010-08-04T08:52:00.001-04:00

Gotta clean up the hobby room in the basement today. This heads up a list of stuff that really need doing. The hobby room, my computer room, my dresser, my closet ( What do all these thing have in common? Their Mine! ) all are disaster areas in the house. I just have not had the time or energy to get them straightened out. Also, I have the parts for the weather station and as you see in the lower right the station is not up. Maybe this week and the tail end of this weekend I'll get a start on some of this stuff.

Pump arrived

2010-08-04T08:42:00.000-04:00

The pump arrived from Defender Marine today. Over the weekend the head ( toilet fer you landlubbers! ) had a small leak. I like to quote Sun Tzu on this "Meet your enemy on your terms." So fixing the head at the dock instead of rigging it up in the middle of the weekend when everyone has a "need" is a good thing. I'll also go over and inspect a bunch of things in the boat to make sure that all is ship shape after the "washdown" that we got last weekend. I'm sure that it will be limited to a post season steam cleaning for the cushions.

Big Adventutes

2010-08-02T08:44:00.001-04:00

Meg accepted our invite to come on down to the boat for the weekend. So at 6:30 Marilyn and I pick her up and we drove down to Rock Hall. We loaded up the weekend stuff we put our stuff on our bunk in the front and gave her the tour of the boat. We buttoned everything up and got going out to the bay. When we go to the mouth of Swan Creek a big motor yacht hit us with a wake that sent about 50 gallons of water over the deck. This would not be a problem except all Marilyn's and my stuff was under an open hatch. our stuff was soaked as well as our bunk and the whole inside. We continued to the Magothy River and anchored. We proceded to mop up the mess and put our stuff outside to dry. By late afternoon all was dried up. The three of us jumped into the boat pool, a jellyfish protection barrier, and we had many laughs as the boat swung back and forth in the wind dragging the pool. For dinner we had grilled chicken and lots of wine and cheese and watched a great sunset. We taked and had a great time to late in the evening. Meg said that she slept like a baby on the boat. We had coffee an the only drama was the bannana muffins spoiled. We then had a nice trip back to Rock Hall passing the Baltimore Light house.

I know how the kebobs feel......

2010-07-25T22:32:00.002-04:00

On Friday we took off early for the boat. I finished up around in the early afternoon and went to pick up Marilyn at work at 4. Ouch the Philly traffic was awful. Took us 3 hours from downtown. Turn the A/C on at the slip and had a comfortable night. We fueled up and got out of the slip. The wind was blowing hot like a hair dryer by 10:30. We just anchored in Swan Creek. First off I smelled something not right. Turned out I put on all the fans to get some breeze in the cabin. And the solar array was keeping up but the heat affected the breaker by loosening a screw. That overheated the breaker to the point it started to melt. I shut down the solar system and all was ok. We jumped into the bay. The water was so warm it was not refreshing. Coming out cooled us off. The ships thermometer showed 102 degreees. We jumped back in until we saw a jellyfish. No more bay warm or not!. A coworked e-mailed that he was staying home and just grilling kebobs and how lucky I was hangin on the boat. I replied that I had more in common with the kebobs on the grill! I then tried to start out generator set to get the A/C going. And the fuel hose popped off! I could not fix the thing without taking it apart. So went back to the slip at Rock Hall for the night. Hooked up the cooling system and spent a comfortable night.

Ladies Book Club Night

2010-07-25T22:32:00.000-04:00

On Thursday Marilyn had her book club over. It would be the first time that people would be seeing the renovations. I made saffron rice, lamb kebobs and salad for club dinner. I had to make dinner for people and keep the place clean an presentable. It worked out well in the end. Meg, Ellen and Kiren came over and had a nice time. They enjoyed the dinner and were wowed by the renovations.

No rain last night.

2010-07-22T12:07:00.000-04:00

No rain last night so we did not flood,.

We spent the night preping the hose for the book club meeting. It'll be the first time we have people over.

Grilling some lamb kebobs and making saffron, cardamom rice and a spinach salad for the folks.

Emergency sump repair

2010-07-21T07:29:00.002-04:00

To avoid the flooding like we had this spring I changed the sump
switch. It had burned out in the spring flooding. The plumber has a new pump on
order but this had to be done in the mean time. We are going to get hit with T-storms this afternoon. I really hate working on the pump as I always seem to get a basemanet blidge water shower.

--Rico
I was all thumbs typing this in!
Sent from my iPhone.

Moving back into the house

2010-07-19T09:44:00.000-04:00

Marilyn and I spent all weekend moving all our stuff from the storage lockers back into the house this weekend. A small problem of a clogged kitchen sink threatened to derail us. I got hit with the disposal geyser. But it took all weekend to get get the house back in some sort of order. Marilyn is having her book club, or actually the few people that are still around in the summer, come over Thursday for a meeting at the house. So we are trying to get the house back into shape for this event.

I did find that the sump switch is burned out. There is rain today I can run the pump manualy, I need to run home to do it.

Renovation Finished .... sort of.

2010-07-16T11:59:00.000-04:00

Yesterday with the arrival of the new furniture and the last plumbing hook up we are back in operation. A few details need to finished. Some floorboard need to be replaced where the plumber scratched them up, the new front door installation and putting the last Ikea bookcase in place. Nothing that will hold us up from moving back into the house. This weekend we'll be trucking stuff over from the storage locker and finding new homes for thing in the house. Gotta see if we can do it quickly and neatly as Marilyn is going the have the book club over for a meeting Thursday.

Sleep sofa

2010-07-15T09:15:00.001-04:00

Couch 2

2010-07-15T09:14:00.001-04:00

Couch 1

2010-07-15T09:13:00.001-04:00

Completed tilework

2010-07-13T21:54:00.001-04:00

Backsplash tilework

2010-07-12T17:01:00.001-04:00

New Furniture is in!

2010-07-12T09:23:00.000-04:00

Gamburgs gave me a call our furniture is ready for delivery. I just have to arrange it. By this weekend the house should be complete!

Back Splash Day

2010-07-12T09:19:00.000-04:00

We spent the weekend moving stuff back from the storage unit. Loading up the new bookcases I had to get the height extentions to make room again. Yikes! Sunday Marilyn and I went out to naBrasa a Brazillian steakhouse for brunch with some friends from High School. Karen and Victor brought thier spouses down to to our area from Central Jersey. It was really great to see them and I wish we had more time to get together. Today Marilyn is home waiting for the tile guys to come down to do the backspash.