11/14/2023

Tuesday working from home due to a late meeting at work. 

Already a Support guy was on me first thing in the morning wanted to know where a enhancement request status was.  Had to explain to him I don't schedule the project I just schedule the work on the projects.   You talking to the wrong dude bro! 

Elliptical this morning again. Little cold outside.  I have to wait until this cold seems warm. Was 72 last week, so 40's right now seems chilly.  Amazing how it will feel warm in a few weeks. 

Being decadent, having a flavored coffee topped with whipped cream.

Thinks kinda went downhill after that. One of those day that I could not come up for air.  

Ended up just sacked out in my chair for the evening. 

11/13/2023

Monday Working from home.

Good Weekend!  Umbrellas all covered sofa to be covered in the yard next then snow tires and pressure washer after.  A couple of chores left to do for winter. 

M took Lauren to a Dr appt on Friday.  Took all day! She didn't get back till 5:30 or so. We could have scheduled stuff better. 

Went flying on Sunday. Lights were a hit John and Larry both liked them and wanted links.  Not too much wind but the wind that was there was eddying and blowing stronger as you got higher.  

Flights had some bad landings, nothing broken, just didn't look good. 

M was trying to figure out about what were hearing over the weekend, It sounds like fire works. M was a bit scared as she was wondering who would be shotting fire works off over the weekend. I think she was going with gunfire. If gun fire was going off that long this would be  a war zone! Turns out it was just Diwali!  The temple up the road was probably having a couple of fire works displays! 

Cold this morning, about 25, did a session the elliptical, looking forward to one this afternoon. 

We've been having popcorn after our shopping trip to Nuts about Popcorn.  However, going to Hatboro when we need popcorn is a pain and it's pretty expensive for popcorn. The Philly Grit is da bomb! We got a air popper we'll give that a go this week.  Popcorn with garlic and parmesan cheese is in out future. Also, Philly Grit seasoning is at Altomonte. 

Had chicken sandwiches for lunch.  Remind me not to buy two packages of meats again.  That was too much and we had way too many chicken dinners. 

Work was uneventful.  Therefore a great day at work! 

Did another elliptical work out.  Glad to get 2 sessions a day.  I just have to get into the groove of doing it on a regular basis.

We got the air popper and kernels and made popcorn.  Was OK. Ordered a more premium popcorn kernel  see how that works. 

11/9/2023

Working from home today.  Late afternoon meeting. 

Did elliptical watching "Strange New Worlds". Ugh cliffhanger have to wait for season 3.  

I totally skipped the episode where they break out into song.  I just hate musicals, even start trek  musicals.

I plotted out a bunch of seasons of streaming so that I can exercise in the basement on the elliptical as I gets colder and we go out for the holidays.  Star Trek, Bosch, and Justified on the streaming menu.  There is a bunch of seasons of each so I'll not be out of stuff to watch while I use the equipment. 

Late afternoon meeting moved to Tuesday.  Yahoo!  A rare win! 

Chicken made in the slow cooker was great over some brown rice.   I consider the chicken rescued!    Good part of it maybe was the brown rice recipe for loseit. Think we got a better handle on the portions control for brown rice. 

Maybe make some rice with chickpeas and roasted ( maybe grilled ) veggies.   Hmm, grilled veggies and tofu with chick peas.  

1:1 with boss this afternoon… more stress.  Then done for the weekend.

Weekend started!  Good start, did a second elliptical session.  

Mike coming over at 10 ish for the 14 mile ride.  We are going out for a walk before breakfast tomorrow morning. 

John is OK to go to the flying field on Sunday.  Calm winds, well it will be a cross wind from the north and chilly.  Ready to get out there. 

Battle bots tonight. Watching the one I fell asleep last week. 

11/8/2023

Going downtown.  Walk from 30th street today.

Chilly morning not too cold, but after being warm yesterday... 

Walk done.  Coffee make. 

Found Pizza Hut is selling snake pizza in Hong Kong.... Are you kidding me.  Another crime de cuisine!

Work done for the day.. Hooray!

M went with Meg to a wine tasting.  

Put chicken which I overcooked on the grill and was tough, into the crockpot with broth, tomato past and curry.  Let it cook slow over night and get shredded. 

Tried to just relax and forget about work …..

11/7/2023

 Tuesday, Election Day.   Staying home to go vote later on in the day.  A sign up the street said “ Had Enough? Vote Republicans!” I was a little ambivalent about voting until I saw that sign.  Not sure that is was the people who posted it wanted.  But for damn sure I’m going to vote and NOT for republicans. That mob is rotten from the head, and any body who considers themselves republicans should be embarrassed. 

Did the elliptical machine this morning. I feel really good after the workout.  I need to do a workout post work. 

I really need not to get stress out by the end of work.   I have to get into the right mindset.   I just get so aggravated by the end of the day I’m pretty useless. I have to get into a mindset to decompress to let everything go, to leave work at work.  

Coffee good this morning, K cup coffee with a shot of espresso.  It works wonders, brings the dead back to life!  

I have a color Hue bulb on my desk, ready to change the one over the fire place. I'll try to do that this weekend.    

Warm outside today. Window open in the office.  Ugh, have to restart my laptop for updates… 

Always a crapshoot… 

Waked over to the school and voted.  Glad to do my civic duty.  If you don't vote then you have no right to complain. I like complaining!  

Got a stress headache again after work..  

Just relaxed after work… bed early. 

 

 

 

     

 

  

11/6/2023

Monday morning arrives….  M went to sort bagels and bag baguettes this morning at Weavers Way.  I jumped on the  elliptical  this morning.  Coffee was good 

Yesterday I updated KiCad. I'm going to make those board for the radio and gyro this winter. First I need to decide on what the exact radio I want and sketch out all the inputs and outputs. 

Took care of the AWS issue for now.  Will have to access the offsite backup strategy that will not be over 3 tb. Ugh. 

Working from home.  Going to work from home tomorrow for election day.  Just got a meeting request for a 4 to 5 pm meeting on Thursday.  Going to use that as an excuse to work from home Thursday.  So only going downtown one day this week.  A victory! 

Watched a KiCad tutorial at lunch time. 

M is back from weavers way.  She did great, if I were prepping bakery items for sale I'd buy most of them. She only came home with a couple of rolls and those are going to Lauren.

There may be an issue with Lauren today, M will see later if she is still going over there. I had packed soup and grilled chicken for her.

Got the nav light for the planes. They look workable. I'm going to charge them up. John replied that he would like to fly Saturday, I'm thinking Sunday may be a better day for the outing. 

I was so stressed after work I could not get myself together to go for a walk.  

Lauren is Ok, M brought soup and other food to her.

Watched Equalizer 2 this evening. 

11/5/2023

Sunday,  got an extra hour of sleep from fall back of DST. Got up and went to Wegmans to get bagels and stuff for the week. 

Waned to get San Marizano tomatoes but no diced or crushed only whole.  Ok just regular tomatoes. That won’t affect the taste too much anyway.  

We had coffee and bagels with lox this morning.  Then we made tomato soup and grilled chicken for the week.  M is going to bring soup and chicken over to Lauren’s tomorrow. 

Sunny day should be good for solar generation! 

We did a 3 mile walk on the path. 

M was working in the gardens.  Mid day we had tomato soup and chicken for lunch. 

We made our voting plan. We are going to vote Tuesday. Have to make sure that no Mom’s for Liberty get elected.  Oh well we only have one vote each have to use them wisely. 

Brought the planes to the workshop.  Put away a bunch of batteries that were scattered about.   Going to turn up the sig lt-40 as next weekend looks like it may be pretty good for flying.  Maybe the sig 4 start and the LT-40 and the Jet?   Have to think about it. The two plane rule should stick….

Went out to the yard to write the journal entry.  Really nice day out here!!

Sunday evening stress starting.  I really hate Mondays.

Watch a Poirot mystery.

   

11/4/2023

Still Dark on Saturday.  Seems like AWS backup is going haywire.  Saving too much again. Gottata fix that. 

Made breakfast, leftover biscuits and eggs with melon.  

Tuned up the planes. Taking the 4 star and the Rebel jet.

Flying at the field was a joy!! It was forecast to be light winds. When that usually means that it’s blowing 18 MPH at the field. Well not today. John and Larry were there. I brought the 4 star and the Rebel jet.  Sent the 4 star up and it tune was great it flew like a boss.  However, I did have one mess up where I brought all 3300 batteries but on was only a 3s not a 4s. The plane took off but had no power and was a handful to bring down.  Came down with a smooth landing. The rebel went up and had an issue with not enough elevator control. Was on the hairy edge of control and brought it down fast and generally ok. I had to twist the front landing gear to get the retract to warm again.  Set more control throw in the transmitter and I found that I needed to have mid flaps settings to take off. After that the both planes flew like they were on rails. Transmitter, Gyro and controls were dialed in. Had an incident with John’s planes his receivers had to be rebound and they lost their trims. He got his t-28 landed but smashed up a me109.  

Came home to soup and tomato pie. Made some hot peppers that… well were too spicy and gave me heartburn in the night. 

We went for a 2 mile walk on the path.

We watched Morse and Vera mysteries and munched on popcorn and Italian lemon sodas.

11/3/2023

FriYay!!!! Day sleeping late. Made biscuits and eggs with fresh squeezed OJ for breakfast.  Steamed milk for cappuccinos.  Then we made my three bean minestrone.  5 quarts of soup on tap for the week. 

Too cold for a walk still only 40 at 10am. Going to popcorn place in Hatboro they open at noon.

I should go work on planes this morning. Want to take the 4 star and the jet to the field tomorrow.  Have to tone down the controls a bit.

Wow, wanted to print out the page of control throws for each plane, took way longer than it should due to Chinese font. Work fine in PDF, printer hated it.

Mike stopped by. We had coffee and talked about going to see the battleship.

M and I then went to Hatboro to get popcorn for M to take to Lauren's.  We had to order ourselves some!  Finally to Altomonte's to get tomato pie for lunch.  

Lunch we had the minestrone soup and a slice of tomato pie. 

Going for a walk on the path to burn off the great lunch we had. 

Walk was good, great fall day. 

Think going to fix planes tomorrow morning.

Watched Jack Ryan and had popcorn with M.

 

11/2/2023

Flipping cold on the train platform this morning. I think it was 26 degrees.  Going downtown with a new mindset, let's see how long this lasts. Have at least on more support case from last night.  In the office now having warm oatmeal. 

Not many meetings today.  3pm looks good to get out of here.  Still keeping with new mindset...

Turned on the heat at home.  It was getting a little chilly there.

M going to stay at Lauren's house on Monday. She had surgery and needs some help.  We should send over some soup, maybe my tomato soup recipe, and some popcorn from nutz about popcorn.

Got M's new e-mail allocated. Now this weekend set it up on her system. 

Cup of constant comment and a small bag of cookies

Walking to station.  Saw a Rivian Amazon van on market street.

Mindset is holding… have to do some exercise this evening.

Cold and tired. Going to bed early.

11/1/2023

Cold morning downtown. No walk.. Eeek! it's cold.  Got to warm up the blood, or at least a warmer jacket.  Stopped and got a couple of boxes of quick oatmeal that was on sale at the corner store.  

Picked up a Septa Story for M. 

Getting a big stress headache while working today.  

Lunch was good, however interrupted with Phone call.

Still stress headache... SoS meeting going long....  think going to later train.

Got another story from the Septa Story machine for M on the way home.

I think the SoS meeting is like a gas… it will expand to the limits of it's container.  If it was 2 hours it would expand to that time limit, with no increase in any real content. I never heard so many people who just want to talk to hear themselves. 

Home! Hoooray!   I just want to decompress.  I HAVE to get into another mindset. 

I just want to veg tonight.

10/31/2023

Tuesday Halloween… going downtown.  Will do a walk from 30th. Pick up 1/2 n 1/2 on the way.

Did the walk got the creamer.  Having a coffee and bagel at my desk.

Chilly this morning. Need to make sure that the hose is off the faucet when I get home. It will colder tonight.

Great, just got an email we are on another program?!? We don't have the bandwidth to finish what we have.

Trying to get some LinkedIn Learning done today. 

Lunch was great.  Pork, stuffing and soup.

May have gotten @Paolino.net up and running... Needs more testing..

Have a major headache... taking some IB. Is it a headache or stress?

Got Paolino.net email working for me... Have to set it up for M.

Nice walk to station after work. When I got home M and I walked a couple of miles on the path.

Sunset is coming quick these days!  Going to be cold tonight. Outside water faucets are locked down for the winter.

Tomorrow I have a late meeting so I'm going to do elliptical after work. 

10/30/2023

Monday… rainy day and working from home.   Not real great to go walking this morning so I went and did the elliptical in the basement.   Got stuff to do this morning.  Finish writing up a support case that came in over the weekend and the end / beginning of sprint e-mail.  

Thinking of doing another round on the elliptical this afternoon.   Feeling up for it.  I think….

Looking into setting up new e-mail addresses for  @Paolino.Net.  Bought the domain and we'll see if we can set up economical hosting… One more subscription… UGH.

Read a review on the beta of the IOS journaling software . The reviews says am I missing something?  Said it seems basic and really not worth using.   Well then this set up I have looks like it's working and no great need to change it. 

Cloudy again today… not going to break any solar production records! 

Hour before lunch, felling quite empty… Come on lunch!!!

Going to have to shut off outside sink today.  Going to be freezing this week at night.  Want to get to it before it destroys the sink. 

Made lunch, leftover grilled pork sandwich and salad, for M bbq pork and stuffing. 

Shut off water to outside sink. Just have to disconnect hose from faucet.  Then ready for cold weather. 

Ugh.. Been all stressed out today at work.  Had 3 conversations going on at once. Juggling support, now and future all at once.  Just want to do good at work, not great just good. 

Went to the store to get shampoo and small stuff. 

Getting set up to use the iPhone to journal at work… Company laptop not giving me access to my OneNote. 

10/29/2023

Early wake up on Sunday.  Getting ready to jump on elliptical. 

45 min on elliptical.. Coffee, oatmeal and music on the radio.  Good Sunday morning!

Espresso has been great! Have a shot in my coffee.. K cup Cuban coffee, café buestelo nice and strong and tasty.

Rainy day… not much solar production today!   Only thing I have to do is clear out the planes in the back of car.  Good day just to rest

Chatting with Mike and Chris about Electric cars over text. 

So far the blog looks good. Got a good cadence going.  Journal during the day and post the next day. 

Went to Wegmans. Going to do an financial experiment. Only going to Costco and Wegmans in November. I can get a list of everything I purchased there on the website.  I know a little creepy eh?  However, it will be good to see what I’m spending on groceries. 

Made some cornbread stuffing. The stuffing has been hanging about in the closet still good however it needs to be gone and I was not in the mind to toss it.  So Chicken and stuffing for lunch!    

Before going M gave me a hand bring in the RC planes from the car to the basement.  I found two more batteries down there there are way past their prime and I’m discharging them and going to have to bring them and another one over to Home Depot for recycling. 

Don't know why but I always feel stressed on Sunday.  Didn't help I had to set up and respond to a support case today.   I really hat Mondays… and it's still Sunday!!!

Watched Vera mystery tonight.  

Setting alarm for the morning.. Elliptical on tap for tomorrow. 

10/28/2023

Saturday.  Nice.  

Made steel cut oats for breakfast.  Going for a 3 mi walk this morning.  

Did the path this morning with M.  3 mile walk before breakfast.   Oatmeal and coffee was excellent this morning. 

Watched Inspector Morse last night.  The series is a little deflating after watching Endeavor.  I think the writing was much more crisp on Endeavor. Maybe it will pick up in later episodes. 

Winds may be a bit high, I going to the flying field none the less.  Tomorrow the winds would be better but rain is in the forecast.  Bringing planes that I tuned to be better in the winds, Lets see if that works out.

Oatmeal looks good, needs a bit of water.  Ugh, It's still dark at 7am.. 10 more mins before walk

Went to the DVRC field. Wind was blowing out of the west at 9 gusting to 15.  At least its down the runway.   Brought the Tundra and Bighorn. Both flew well. Has to turn up the bighorn elevator a bit.  Both planes cam home in one piece.  

Made the Costco boneless pork chops marinated in Peruvian marinade.  Got the marinade from Wegmans.  

Super nice day today. Could not be better. Solar is only generating 35kwh per day.  Used a bunch for charging the car kinda breaking even. 

Charging the iPad to do streaming tomorrow morning.  It will be raining and I'm going to use the Elliptical for 45 min while streaming. 

Going to make more slow cooker oatmeal for tomorrow morning.  

Watched Van der Valk mystery for fun tonight.

10/27/2023

TGIF!  Day off, not doing stand up for work. A full free day! Yay! 

Watched Battlebots last night. Texted with Mike.  A lot of meh fights. I want to see parts flying, batteries burning and lots of mayhem.  

It did not deliver last night.

Dropping Bolt off for inspection, having breakfast at Pumpernick's and getting passport photos this morning.   The going on a bike ride.  Have to charge the warning lights. 

Fun word of the day: salubrious : promoting health or well- being.  

Remembered paperwork for the car before leaving. Always a good move. 

Had breakfast at Pupmernick's, got passport photos, mailed off passport apps. Car was done so we picked up the car.   Now drizzling… thought weather was going to be better.   

Awesome just got a call from the Chevy dealer reminding me that state inspection is free there since I bought the car…… ufff what a dope

Mike sent a story on baked bean pizza….. I thought pineapple pizza was a crime de cuisine!!

No ride today as something clearly not sitting well with me… No more breakfast like that again. 

Went to Costco for groceries. Stayed home afterward. 

Reading stories on CNN. One billionaire from Blackstone saying people aren't working hard enough and on in India saying people should work 70 hours a week.   Are you kidding me! 

Well tomorrow looking like a better day to go to the flying field.  Maybe a little windy but it will be right down the runway.

Looks like Septa strike is off.  Good for them. However, I was hoping to stay home next week.

10/26/2023

Working from home today on a  Thursday dammit! I just want too.

Been feeling run down.  Eased up on the exercise for a few days. Going to walk today. Bike tomorrow.

Going to try to keep the mac open for a few days..

OK testing putting picture from iPhone in to journal.  Looks good!  

Also, this is my latest try for espresso. Using a distribution tool I get some killer crema.

Tomorrow bringing Bolt in for inspection.  

Why am I just so captivated by the trash truck with the mechanical arm?  It just looks so slick.

But it's still a trash truck!

Going to make grilled marinated chicken for lunch today. Pounded and marinated the chicken last night and we'll grill today… 

Happy days! Mike S. cancelled our 1:1 …. A good stress free weekend is on tap!  

Chicken was killer!  Going to try pork chops next ordered Aji pepper from amazon..

So I have been waiting for the IOS journaling software it still is nor coming.  This method seems like it will work ok, served me for a few years.  Only after my breaks in journaling I have this need to recap what has happened. This causes me to put off journaling and just prolongs the gaps.  So, I'm just going to get over it. 

It's another week in 'Murica. Some MAGA dumbass elected into an important position. The courts can't seem to handle the orange Cheeto, and another mass murder.   Is this all there is?

 

Hello all out there!
Would like to with all
Happy Holidays!
Enjoy and safe travels.

Back to work

Ugh back to work after a very long vacation and holiday.  Monday is going very slow.....

Adjusting the treadmill

We have a Precor 9.31 tread mill. There has been a series of errors on the thing.  Error 27 which is an over current error.  Now I'm a big guy but I'm below the max load of this thing.  Me and Mrs adjust the belt to stay in the middle of the rollers and we loosen the tension of the belt a little bit. The belt had been put on with a lot of tension. The belt is not slipping when we walk on it and the Mrs can run and have no problems.  We lubed the deck just to be sure.  It seemed to work fine this morning.

More workouts.

Did an other hour of workouts today.  That make 3 workouts in 4 days.  Not too bad. now just have to keep working at it....

Pizza TIme....

M and I had Marj and Roy over for the New Year and pizza yesterday.   We made homemade pizza. Margaretta and garlic and oil varieties.  Marj brought over some homemade toffee.  All this food is stressing the new found workouts.

Happy New Year out there!!  Me and the Mrs stayed at home and celebrated.  Earlier in the day we put together our culinary skills and made ravioli pies. Small ravioli size pies made with pie crust and filled with jam.  

Workout.....

After a nice coffee yesterday at Starbucks I went to the local Korean supermarket for some fresh veggies. Planned a nice dinner of baby bok choy.   I hit the exercise bike and the treadmill for an hour when I got back. Got a good sweat on and think I'll be able to go again tomorrow.

Back Home...

Ok we are back home and starting to get back into the swing of things....  Marilyn at work. Me I sitting at at a Starbucks having coffee...  Pondering the imponderables....Also, delaying the moment I am going to jump on the exercise bike.

 --Rico

Breakfast in O'Fallon

Blog resurection ???

Should we restart the blog?

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

Marilyn runs first 5k

Went to the Abington June fete 5k. Marilyn has been training to run the 5k for a while now. She had a great run. I went to cheer her on and ended up walking the course. Which was great because I won a lottery of numbers and got a stuffed bear which I gave to Marilyn.  First 5k and teddy bear great day!

RC club at airport open house

I went with the Bucks County Radio Control club to the Doylestown airport open hose. My friend Joe is part of the pilots association so we go there and have a static display of our models to support him. It was a good time and we had a demonstration pilot, Nathan. It was a good day the airport guy had a good time and so did we.

Prius Nice BUT.....

Marilyn and I saw the Plug in Prius, the Prius c, Prius v and the regular Prius.  They seemed very nice and we dearly wanted to take one of them home. BUT, I was really not convinced that we need a car at this time. So we are going to save our pennies for a while yet.

Going to look at a Prius Plug in Tonight

We are looking to replace Marilyn's Honda with a plug in Prius. The car had an 11 mile range on batteries and the train station is 3 miles away. we may not have to gas it up for a long while.

Out for walk...

Did my 3 mile walk this afternoon. Marilyn went to the Ballet with Meg.

Blog Vacation

Gee that was a nice blog vacation! Let me try and put some more info in a timely manner.

SailNet Raft Up

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......

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.

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

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!

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

All double lined and tied down.

Thursday... Prep day

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

Fenderboards

Rainy Day

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

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

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

Rocky night in the anchorage

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?

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

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?

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

Sunset

Wish you were here!

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

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

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!

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

Outside Hartsel boatyard. About to be stormed on.

In the West River...

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.....

... 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.....

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

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

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......

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

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...

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

Emptying the boat.

back in rock hall

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

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!

From the Corsica river

View from the corsica river

From the Corsica river

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

Boat from the narrows

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

Boat in Knapps Narrows

Tilghman creek

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

More sunset

Sunset in oxford

Knapps narrows

Our sail

On the bay

Just ducky!

More travels

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

--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

--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

--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!

--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

Vacation rainy day

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

Labor day extravaganza

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

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!