“Yesterday was as glorious a day as any of us in New England has any right to expect: nearly fifty, partly sunny, an eight-knot breeze, and the waters of Fishers Island Sound a soft, rippled carpet of blue” – From “Moon Wind at Large, Sailing Hither and Yon by Matthew Goldman aka Constant Waterman (Breakaway Books, Halcotssvile, New York, 2012)
I was going to take some time this evening to write about my weekend. Instead, I decided to open the doors and windows and let the cool New England breeze push the heat out of the house, take a seat outside with a glass of wine and read a bit. I am halfway through Matthew Goldman’s book; the book is a wonderful collection of local sailing stories. If you are down to reading this blog, then clearly you are out of anything half-interesting or even coherent to read – go take a peak at “Moon Wind at Large.”
The wedding is only a month away. With the reception being hosted at our house, the ever shortening timeline to have everything ready has been causing lots of stress. The biggest outstanding project is getting the house painted. Or at least enough painted for the reception.
Yesterday morning we decided to both work on painting. Until yesterday, Susanna had been doing the vast majority of painting. I got out the spray gun, and we painted most of the walls. Of course, this still leaves a lot of trim and detail work around the windows to do. But those projects are more easily worked on before or after work in small chunks. The house feels (at least to us) much closer, and the painting doesn’t seem so stressful today. The only real remaining challenge is to find a 32-foot ladder (or taller) to borrow so we can paint the trim on the peaks.
We picked the house colors over a two years ago. I wrote about the color choice in April 2011. The colors are Concord Buff for the walls , with Rookwood Dark Green for the trim and Rookwood dark brown for accents. I picked these from the Sherwin-Williams historic Victorian Exterior color palate. I am very happy with how the house is turning out. And I am very thankful that Susanna has the time (and desire, and skill) to do the vast majority of the painting.
After we get done with the house, it will be time to get the barns to match. But not until after the wedding. And after the summer. I think we are going to take off from doing major projects this summer.
The porch color scheme (Sherwin-William’s Concord Buff, Rookwood Dark Green, and Rookwood Brown). The painting scheme was planned by Susanna. Now we need a new storm door to match.
Tonight the parts arrived from Nautos – USA for the boom vang. I took a few minutes to install the hardware tonight after work. The mast looks like it has a connection for the vang from before. The only part that doesn’t fit quite right is the curved key to fit in the boom. It is a little too large for the existing setup. I’ll keep looking for a slightly smaller key to replace it with (they are cheap). I got the rope as a remnant at Defender Marine over the weekend.
Boom vang installed on the O’day 22. The blocks are from Nautos and are laser replacement parts.Where the vang connects to the boom. The key is a little large for the slot – I’ll keep looking for a slightly smaller keyThe vang attaches to the mast with a line looped around the mast (and run though an eye strap on the forward edge of the mast)
I think having ADHD impacts how one remembers things. I tend to have a fuzzy recollection of childhood events. I certainly can’t go back though the past years and picture my life as a continual timeline. Memories are more of a set of snapshots, but with only a week sense of order. It is like a stack of pictures that someone dropped. The pictures aren’t all in order. Some of them may be adjacent to the proper pictures, but for the most part the order of the pictures must be deduced by the content in them. I’m not sure if this is how it is for everyone, and maybe it is this way to some extent for most people.
I periodically talk about memories with the boys (e.g. what do they remember from last year, or two years). I think Will’s memories are more like mine. Ben seems to have a much better memory for things that happened. Will has to be reminded a bit, and then the pictures come back. He told me that his memories are a little foggy. Maybe this is where a journal or blog will help. It gives us a book to go back to keep the pictures in order. I’ve suggested to Will that he think of his blog as a way to remember what happened, and he seems to be happier writing in his blog with that perspective.
I haven’t posted in a while. It isn’t that life is slow, and I don’t have much to write about. Just the opposite; things have been very busy this month. And I haven’t set aside time to write. I should be more consistent with my writing, I think a journal helps me focus. But of course, I think it is okay to take a break from writing as well.
My last post did get some attention. I got a comment was very angry about what I wrote about the photography company. And then a comment about 30 minutes later telling me how much I must hate this country if I don’t support the freedom of speech and post her comments. I love how the Internet can allow people to think that they have the right to be confrontational in a way that one would (hopefully) not be in person. Anyway, this is my blog. I pay for the website hosting and domain name. I am free to accept or reject any comments that I want to. I will continue to delete comments that are a waste of time.
Anyway, as I said earlier, this has been a very busy month. I had to go on travel for 10 days in the middle of the month for work. A trip to the Bahamas. Yeah, work can be tough. Of course the trip didn’t quite work out as planned. Submarines were delayed; my ride plan changed. I wound up being stuck on the base for 5 days with little to do most of the days.
The boys have been here for (what seems) is the majority of the time I haven’t been away this month. The house is much more alive when the boys are here; they days go by fast, and I am tired at night.
I have made some progress on my projects. I am in the process of building a floor in the garage for the wedding reception this summer. Ben helped me install the port lifelines on the sailboat. I’ll get to the starboard ones before we put the boat in the water later this month. Susanna started working again at Michael’s Dairy in New London and has had to work most evenings this week. I have also started the garden and had to mow the lawn several times this month.
I think tonight will be a night to go to bed early and catch up on sleep.
Today the boys brought home school portraits. The only problem is that we didn’t ask or pay for spring school pictures. Nor did we get notification of a second picture day for the boys. Their school photographs are taken in the fall, and we ordered (and paid for) pictures in the fall.
This time a pack of pictures came from the school (or rather, Lifetouch School Portraits) telling us to send a check for the pictures we want and return the rest. According to Connecticut state statute, Chapter 739, section 42-126b:
Unsolicited sending of goods. Cancellation of trial offers and introductory rate offers. Automatic renewals. Unfair trade practices. (a) No person, firm, partnership, association or corporation, or agent or employee thereof, shall, in any manner, or by any means, offer for sale goods, wares or merchandise, where the offer includes the voluntary and unsolicited sending of goods, wares or merchandise not actually ordered or requested by the recipient, either orally or in writing. The receipt of any such unsolicited goods, wares or merchandise shall for all purposes be deemed an unconditional gift to the recipient who may use or dispose of the same in any manner such recipient sees fit without any obligation on such recipient’s part to the sender.
I read that as meaning that the pictures are a gift to me. The thing that really gets me spun up is the thought that a bunch of parents will feel obligated to send money. So, I am keeping the pictures. If they send me a bill I will send a copy of the bill and the notification to the Attorney General’s office.
In addition I sent an email to the principle of the boy’s school complaining about Lifetouch. Hopefully we can get some other photographer to do school portraits. Maybe a bunch of other parents around here will keep the portraits and complain to their schools about the deceptive business practices made by Lifetouch Portrait Studios.
I’m happy to pay someone for services or a product that I want. But I cannot stand when someone sends me something unsolicited and expects me to either pay for it or take the time to send it back. I received a woodworking DVD that way several years ago. Needless to say, I didn’t return it or pay for it, and I will never do business with that company.
Now, time to stop being pissed off and try to appreciate the unsolicited gift I received today.
Completed 7-inch square trivets (two from walnut and one from possible maple)
I decided to do a quick project in the workshop with the boys today (and Will’s friend who was over for the afternoon). I had worked with Will yesterday to mill some (what I think is) maple to make trivets. And today, after I figured how easy they were to make, I pulled a scrap piece of walnut out of the wood pile for an additional three trivets.
I get the idea from one of the many woodworking books I have. The plans called for stopped groves made on a router table. I had a 1/2″ straight bit for the router and I tried to make one following the plans yesterday. The router bit is terrible, and it left the wood in terrible shape (so that one will go to the fire pit).
That of course made me head inside and look for a better router bit online. For $70 I could get a nice solid carbide spiral bit. But then I would have to wait to finish the project. And I would have to spend $70 on a bit to make a handful of simple trivets. Which would change the cost per trivet from nearly free (scrap lumber) to something more than nearly free. Though a nice spiral bit would be good to have in the shop… but I sat on my hands and didn’t get the bit.
I thought about it for a while, and realized, that if I changed the design, that I could easily cut 1/2-inch dadoes using the table saw (they would be through dadoes vice stopped). It took longer to switch blades than to cut all the trivets. The boys and I then sanded them. A 3/8″ piece of wood with adhesive sandpaper clamped in the face vice made quick work of cleaning up the inside of the dadoes. After sanding, the trivets were finished with butcher block finish (wax/oil mixture), and are all set for use. We made a total of six trivets in all. I think the entire project took less than 2 hours (including the first screw-up with the router bit). Susanna even used one with dinner tonight.
Overall, I am pretty happy with the project. Next time, I will have to be careful measuring the spacing between the dadoes – on a couple it is obvious that the spacing isn’t even. But for very little effort, and a chance to get the boys in the workshop – it was perfect. Maybe we will make some more sometime – anyone want to buy trivets?
Not a bad quick project for a Saturday afternoon. Of course I had to spend some more time in the shop making wood guns for the boys. Luckily, a couple of months ago I milled up a dozen boards that are the perfect thickness/width for making play swords/guns.
Wow, it has been a busy week. We had lots of activities planned for every day. And today is our day to rest. Will is up early, playing on his iPhone. I’m waiting for the coffee to finish brewing and will head out to the front porch to enjoy the morning.
It is foggy and damp this morning. I love the smells and sounds in the early morning. It almost seems as if the world had been washed clean overnight, and is waiting for the sunlight to dry out. That is one of the things I love about camping – it forces you outside into the morning as soon as you wake up. At home, it is too easy to stay inside and miss the entire morning.
Today we will just do nothing until after lunch. The only thing that the boys have to do is write about their spring break on their blogs. I’ll probably get bored sitting around and head out and pick up the workshop, but not until later. And we will be quiet to let Susanna and Ben sleep in as late as they want.
Our O’Day 22 sailboat in the Thames river for the first time
Our sailboat has spent many years, first sitting next to the garage in Ledyard, and then (mostly) inside our garage here in Preston. I got the sailboat before William was born, so it has been sitting around for over 10 years. Getting the boat in the water has been one of those great ideas. But for so many years, it has been just a dream. I loved thinking about sailing. I even loved working on the boat, but after a while, it would get old, and I would lose momentum on fixing it up.
Something always came in the way. First it was kids – it is a crazy change in how much free time disappears after kids (but it is well worth it). And then a second kid. It sat through a move, a divorce and my own ADHD. And pieces and parts that I had taken off wandered away, lost in all the transitions, and the trailer rusted away under it.
Will and Ben (and Panda) enjoying the day
I wanted to get it in the water last summer. But of course summer got in the way. There is always lots to do in the summer. And I’m not good at finishing things. Certainly not good at finishing things when there are lots of distractions (like in the summer). But I was able to get the trailer fixed last year.
So, this year I decided to pick a date to put the boat in the water. The boat didn’t have to be perfect. It had to float. Enough of the hardware had to be reinstalled or replaced to get it sailing. The trailer had to make the 10 mile trip to the launch and back.
My goal was to get it in the water on the 17th of April if the weather supported it. And, yesterday, I made that goal. We launched the boat near the head of the Thames river in Groton, CT. The boat launch is directly under the I-95 bridge over the river. We then motored under the railroad bridge (with a couple foot clearance for the mast) and put up the jib and sailed out towards Pine Island.
The weather was perfect for a first sail. The wind was very light – perfect for a first try. We didn’t have anywhere in particular to go, so we could just slowly move along. It is also very early in the season, so there was almost no traffic on the river (a couple of passing ferries, and an outbound submarine with coast guard escort).
Susanna and I enjoying our sail
After reaching Pine Island we headed for Ledge Light and then back up the river. The wind was heading directly downriver and was light. I had a lot of trouble trying to get the boat to move upwind at all – something I’ll have to work on. Eventually we gave up and started the outboard and motored the rest of the way in.
The light wind and bright sun made the ride warm and enjoyable. I had been worried that everyone would freeze on a mid-April outing.
Of course, a couple of things learned from the day out:
Stepping, launching, retrieving and unstepping the mast is a lot of work. I think we will try to find a place to keep the boat in the water for a month or two this summer.
The mainsail is in pretty rough shape. I’ll need to replace it before next season, but I want to figure out how to best use the headsails this year, so I won’t worry too much about the main.
We need a long dock line for launching the boat. The 20′ dock lines are a bit too short.
The cabin needs to be better organized. That is Susanna’s job.
A couple more cleats would make life easier topside.
I’ll need a way of telling how fast we are going if I am to ever figure out how best use the sails.
Before we go to sea again, I’ll reinstall the life lines. Not a big problem on a day like yesterday, but it will make everyone more comfortable going forward.
We need a curtain to give some privacy to the porta-toilet.
