My Last Thoughts

Never Give Up

2011-01-25T21:03:00.001-08:00

Very recently a friend of mind posted a question on FB “Have you ever known a person who would never give up?” I quickly bashed out a comment about a man that I knew who wouldn’t give up and it cost him near everything. The memory of that man, has been burnt into my brain for years and since has caused me to withdraw a little where I felt someone could not succeed yet they seemed to have undying determination to push forward. The truth of the matter is that man did not fail he succeeded in trying.

I just read a story of two men who didn’t give up in spite of dramatic and impossible odds. One is Raphael Dinelli a single handed sailor in the 1996 Vendee’ Globe race, a race around the world under sail alone. Raphael was overwhelmed in the southern ocean by a storm carrying Hurricane Force winds and 60’ waves that bashed his boat which ultimately sank in one of the most desolate places on the planet, he shouldn’t have been in the race, he wasn’t able to raise the funds in time to get ready to make a 500 mile test run of himself and the equipment to qualify, instead he ran the race as an outsider. The storm had swept his life raft off the boat and he stood on the sinking hull of the boat certain he would die when an assisting plane dropped him two life rafts, he stepped inside moments before the final bit of his boat sank to the ocean floor. Huddled in the life raft 24 hours without food or water in sub freezing temperatures wet to the bone he had a message that another sailor was 10 hours away and headed in his direction, every minute of his life from then on was a battle to survive certain every minute he would die.

The other sailor was a Brit by the name of Pete Goss. Pete was another, shouldn’t have been there entrant, he raised all the money himself at times sleeping on subway platforms between appointments in distant cities with major corporations looking for sponsorship. On the dock the day of the race he nearly had his entrance into the race denied for failure to raise the last funds to participate, a friend threw down his Platinum Card at the last minute to make it happen. Pete was in the same storm 160 miles to windward barely holding on himself when he received the distress signal, he knew that turning towards Raphael would almost certainly mean his own death but decided to turn into the 70 mile and hour winds and huge seas and head towards his fellow competitor because if he didn’t make it he would ‘succeed in trying’ at the very least.

- Close to the wind by Pete Goss

Experience starts when you begin

2010-12-26T09:05:00.001-08:00

Am Struggling

2010-11-05T19:37:00.001-07:00

Hello me.

I am talking to myself as I know that only I read this blog and since it’s been so long that I’ve written myself I feel it’s time we got re-acquanted. I am now back in a corporate routine with the ever feeling of not enough effort given for my pay, the responsibility of time as an order above result and the burden of other people’s success. But mostly I am a suburban man who is responsible for all those things that make suburbans purr and soccer cleats tramp amongst the grass.

A friend of mine recently said that he observed early on that to be a good parent and husband took a lot of work so he never became one. He is right but he is missing out on some of the niceties of life, love to come home for, and hope for the future.

Tonight I am struck with the sense that I miss the water and have toyed with the idea that I need to part ways with my boat, a difficult disparagy to say the least. Such as life is there are time to plan for the future and times to grasp on to the present. This is of the first order. I have a dream to leave this area with a little money in my hand and a boat under my feat to find new lands and explore new lives but this is not without planning, planning that happens now and sacrifice that must be endured.

Top ten things my Dad taught me:

2010-07-06T21:00:00.000-07:00

1. Don't hire someone to fix anything you haven't tried to fix yourself first.

2. Family second only to God. Which puts them first for me.

3. Something borrowed should always be returned in better shape than received.

4. Friends are one of your most cherished assets treat them well.

5. Pay your bills before you feed yourself.

6. Don't borrow (see #5 for reason).

7. Don't Lend (See #4 for reason).

8. Tools are just a little less valuable than friends so treat them that way.

9. Work harder than anyone around you and you will never be without a job.

10. There's no such thing as sick days (see #9 for reason).

These are real things I took from my Dad what he taught me growing up in his own way. The older I get the more I cherish them, thank you Dad

RE: I miss you

2010-06-06T20:50:00.000-07:00

It’s very nice that you have found resources like Google to assist in what is otherwise known as education and practice. My mother would be aghast at the novelty of shortcuts available to students today! J. Glad to see you’re spending time with Hailey and teaching her some additional languages, you may want to consider Mandarin if things continue as they are it could be very useful.

As to the UFO’s I have come to the belief that humans in general make a decision as to what they believe in, then they find the evidence to back up their belief system, not the other way around. In some rare instances people will change their belief because of a new set of values, but I hold that the above is still true; they change their belief and then seek out facts to support the emotion of the change. I don’t believe there’s much difference of scientists, nor priests, it’s simply a belief that they then backed up by a series of facts that they chose to support their belief system.

Jerry Dale is an effective example, through years of study to support a belief system that maybe he had never fully bought into he then postulated a new belief system and sought out evidence to support it most likely not revealing the change in the belief until he could reveal his set of evidence that supports it. The evidence as he presents it doesn’t change any other’s belief except those that have already fundamentally adopted a similar belief system and are still searching out evidence to support it.

Ben Franklin said it best “The primary difference between Animals and Humans is Humans have the ability to rationalize ANYTHING.” Believe what you wish, for you will find plenty of evidence to support it and convince yourself of its truth.

So we can choose to believe that UFOs are appearing over Catalina Island and are rising out of the ocean, or we can believe the physics that they teach in college preventing such an occurrence, it’s neither here nor there. We cannot do the tests ourselves or quantify the math down to the singularly most basic principal. We have to take it all on faith, leaving us only to deem that what we believe is true and ultimately there is no truth, just belief.

From: rae [mailto:nu.advnturs@gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, June 06, 2010 7:37 PM
To: Tim@theehrlichs.net
Subject: Re: I miss you

Hola, Tim,

Asi pues, usted desea practicar su espanol? Bueno para las dos. Gracias Google, is posible. Algo que quieres hacer con Hailey para ayudarle un poco de espanol. He impreso unas cuantas reglas sencillas frases que se utilizan para comunicar sus deseos. Now I'll write in English. No sense overdoing it. Anyway, as to my comments re: the ufo's, I have reservations about some of what is presented as fact on the History Channel, but if you see any, let me know. Take care. Love, Mom.

On Sat, Jun 5, 2010 at 8:25 PM, Tim@theehrlichs.net <tim@theehrlichs.net> wrote:

Hi Mom sorry I missed your call. I have gotten away from work for the first time in a month and to the boat first time in 2 months. We have spent th weekend sailing and hanging out on the boat.

Today Valerie (yes Dora) and her friend. Also Danny Susan kerstyan also joined us.

We sailed all day it got a little cool so we came back to the dock and we r now cooking dinner on the boat.

Luv ya

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 5, 2010, at 2:48 PM, rae <nu.advnturs@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Tim,

Just wanted to talk to you. Miss you. Maybe Jacob will talk too? We are getting ready for a garage sale about mid-june. While going through things under the house, we found your old baseball glove, baby rattle and baby dish. They will be kept for you along with some other baby and childhood things. It always makes me sad to go through those things. I can't help but miss my babies. Those were some of my happiest times, when you two were little and growing up. Mothers are very sentimental about such things.

Anyway, I am looking forward to having a colonoscopy (not) on Wednesday. The most fun is drinking the prep. These kind of tests are recommended for people between 50 to 60. You have a while yet. Enjoy those years while you can. One day the scope cometh.

Mom.

End of a chapter

2010-03-28T18:45:00.001-07:00

So today was really my last full day working at my current location as a Funeral/Director and Cemetery Sales Person or Universal Counselor as it is more commonly known. I am going back into management at a location much closer to my home. Although I would prefer not to be the manager, opportunity and income of this position helped me make the decision. It’s exciting thinking about taking reigns of a location again, training new counselors, being able to try some of the creative things I come up with and having my name on the credits. I need to make more notes about it but I’m a bit tired after a final day.

That Is Dying

2010-03-24T12:13:00.000-07:00

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

Then someone at my side says: “There, she is gone!”

“Gone where?”

Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and she is just as able to bear the load of living freight to her destined port.

Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says: “There she is gone!” There are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout: “Here she comes!”

And that is dying.

- Henry Van Dyke

Someone gave this little poem to me the other day for a service. It was simply beautiful to me at first, as I thought about it I was reminded me of all that is wrong with human beings perception of death. The need to feel that somehow that person still lives, still has importance to someone somewhere, is still creating new memories. We have an overwhelming need to hold onto the life that was lived and it has spawned religion, sorcery, devil worship, belief in ghost and other supernatural fantasies.

I’ve said it before but this poem may inspire me say it better.

A crewman was on board working on pulling in a sheet. As he put the handle into the winch it slipped out of his hands hit the deck and bounced overboard. For a second everyone could see the handle slip down into the water and sinking into the abyss, everyone moved towards the edge as if they could somehow dive in and save it but it was lost. As it continued to sink out of reach and into the endless ocean everyone realized it was gone, no more. And that is Death.

Timothy J Ehrlich

Family Care Specialist

timothy.ehrlich@sci-us.com

(626) 691-2000

February 25, 2010 68 degrees and sunny

2010-02-25T21:40:00.001-08:00

Applied for a position as Sales Manager at Mtn. View with the full knowledge that I will be losing money for a little while as I build the location. I believe it can be done and I’ll be close to home which is nice. More to come.

Note taken on 2/2/10.

2010-02-02T10:12:00.000-08:00

These were goals and attitude reminders when u started my career in
sales. The attitude disciplines worked the goals, well o feel like I
might have set unreasonable expectaions. Still it was a difficult end
toy 35 th year recording that this had failed.

More Balls.

2010-01-25T12:55:00.001-08:00

It seems that balls will be re-occuring this year in my notes. Today it is purely the metaphorical balls that represent courage or courageous stupidity some may say. At my office workers are cutting down a few trees and as I see the worker dangling from a rope that I wouldn't hoist a sail with it occurred to me that it must take some 'balls' to do that on a daily basis. Weilding a chainsaw and cutting through sections of the tree that easily weigh 5 times his own weight while dangling 20' in the air would certainly put me into sheer verdigo.

I wonder what he thinks of my job, does he look at the guy in the office and say that sure looks easy? Or does he think that working for commission and dealing with rejection everyday must take a lot of 'balls'. Does he see me knocking doors in his neighborhood and go 'glad I don't have to do that, it sure takes some 'cajones' to sell cemetery property door to door?' These are the things that make me wonder.

Jan 17 2010.

2010-01-18T20:39:00.001-08:00

So i havent written in a while which has now fully broken my only new years resolution which is to write something here everyday. But I thought I'd ad something here tonight as everywhere I turn I am hearing about the plight of Haiti. Right now the world or from my perspective the United States is extending their long arm to avail bail out a small and inevitably doomed country in spite of their own woes. I know that at some point we will realize that our own cicvilization rests in our ability to take care of our own first to pay our debt to the guaranteer's of our financial stability but for now the worl should revel on our arrogance as wr thumb those lenders in their face and take credit for giving their money and resources to Haiti. Go US.

Sent from my iPhone

Jan 17 2010 65 rainy

2010-01-17T22:26:00.000-08:00

So i havent written in a while which has now fully broken my only new
years resolution which is to write something here everyday. But I
thought I'd ad something here tonight as everywhere I turn I am
hearing about the plight of Haiti. Right now the world or from my
perspective the United States is extending their long arm to avail
bail out a small and inevitably doomed country in spite of their own
woes. I know that at some point we will realize that our own
cicvilization rests in our ability to take care of our own first to
pay our debt to the guaranteer's of our financial stability but for
now the worl should revel on our arrogance as wr thumb those lenders
in their face and take credit for giving their money and resources to
Haiti. Go US.

Jan 11 2010. 76 deg

2010-01-11T17:40:00.001-08:00

Crazy warm winter as I and sure you can tell by the temperature in my
posts bmaybe that's why we are so busy in the mortuary. I've had the
most amazing day, it was challenging and full of problems but at the
end of it all everyone left a little better than they came in.

Jan 10, 2010 76 degrees beautifull

2010-01-10T17:37:00.001-08:00

I jokingly told my manager I was going to quit today and go sailing instead. She smiled and said she'd join me. It put me at ease about some of the crap that's going on at work right now, just a small sense of humility, empathy, and an understanding of where someone is coming from. Putting people at ease is the greatest gift I believe anyone in public relations can have. Being able to look them in the eye, upset, angry, grieving, or whatever emotion is taking hold of them. Ensuring them their feelings are valid and trying to see where they are coming from regardless of how you feel personally about their views is the key.

I just got in from doing something just like that. The family was upset with me, I made a mistake, they are mad, no getting around it. I could make excuses or tell them it's no big deal but that won't do. Simply coming to them admitting the wrong and validating their frustration always seems to lower the tension of the situation, I don't know how I picked this up because in all other situations I tend to infuriate people but here I got it right.

Jan 9 th 2010. Eve 68 deg

2010-01-09T20:39:00.001-08:00

Sitting here at the Vault A somewhat hip bar in Redlands smoking a
cigar and waiting for someone to ask me if I want a drink. Sad really
but the bad will be starting early and since Im not hip Im early
enough to have skipped the cover. I've always like this place it's but
up into lot of small different atmospheres. Right now Im sitting in
the patio where smoking is acceptable. The whole patio might be 500
square feet but regardless a full band will be firiing up here making
the decible level near intolerable for these middle aged ears.

Inside is a nice bar reminiscent more of a coffee shop than a bar.
Continuing around the patio it opens up to a cmall courtyard maybe 20
feet wide with 3 story building towering over it on all sides like a
super minature devils canyon. There's a small door on the right that
tekea you into a seperate buildingwith a satellite bar downstairs at
the narrow stairs. Going up stairs you find a colege like loft with
ratty velvet and leather furniture strune and mistatchex throughout
complimented by the aged origi al Rex brick of the century old
building surrounding the space.

Sent from my iPhone

Jan 7 2010 73 degrees

2010-01-07T18:13:00.001-08:00

Somebody presented me with the revelation that thin people don't eat
salads. Of course they don't if I was thin I would eat this shit
either.

I'm going through a time of serious discontent with my job, the
complication of the position, managements apparent lack of empathy for
the difficulty of our job has placed me square in the the dissatisfied
quadrant of life. It's important that I keep my job but I can't tell
you how bad I want to just walk out of there.

Sent from my iPhone

Jan 5 2010. 76 degrees

2010-01-05T17:54:00.001-08:00

Frankly I feel like I am a child in another man's body. I feel very
detached from the amount of responsibility that I have. That's why I
take a lot of credit and tend to do. Bit of Crowing about my successes
I truly feel like 'no way, did I just do that, now way!'.

Oh yeAh. "Excellent!"

1/4/10 about 73 degrees in CA

2010-01-05T08:13:00.001-08:00

I haven't written in a couple of days. Don'y know why certainly there was time it more or less slipped my mind. Today was my first day back to work in five days the usual nonesense still ensues. We are still not hanging anything on the new walls which means that necessary boards used for tracking are still tucked away in some closet somewhere and other necessities are leaning against cubicles on the floor making the whole office look messy. Not sure what the plan is but think the manager is more interested in just seeing how everyone deals with the chaos. It's her own little joke.

New years was good and the boy and I took his new Land Sailor up to El Mirage for it's first run. The wind wasn't cooperating terribly but it was nice to go somewhere so peacefull. After a few minutes of arriving I was sitting on the tailgate of my truck and could hear the ringing in my ears that inevitably has developed by the incessant and never ending noise in my life. Even at night I don't escape it as my wife has to sleep with the fan on. AARGG.

December 31, 2009 58 deg some rain

2009-12-30T23:55:00.001-08:00

I don't think women love as deeply as men do. They certainly don't understand the way we love. Men love people and things for vast amounts of time, it's deep and doesn't end. It's the reason why a man will own a boat through three marriages, or leave a woman cause she wants him to give up his car. That's love.

I think women love ideas more than people or things. They love the idea of getting married for example, this overwhelming urge from their youth to obtain this fantasy lifestyle of one man a few children a house with a white picket fence, you get the idea. It's all planned out, this idea in their head, then after all is said and done with their plan they seek out a man to fill that dark figure next to them atop their dream wedding cake. Who fills the suit is less important for sure than the fact that it's filled.

Men seem to go through life always looking for their love, their passion, and they are not necessarily stuck on one. How could they be, how can you have the feeling of love and not want to experience in greater abundance. It doesn't mean that when they love something new they love the other things any less, it just means they have more love in their life, more passion and more abundance of joy. There's no security in it for sure, it probably won't fit inside a photograph and it's very hard to describe.

If a woman is reading this take no offence to it, if a man falls in love with you he will probably always love you even if he divorces you cheats on you or simply decides to spend all his weekends on the boat. Don't confuse the desire to have more love in his life with not loving you those rules were created by women not by men.

Hopefully someday I'll read this and it will sound crazy!

Dec 29th 2009. 70 deg

2009-12-29T17:41:00.001-08:00

The reason for living life at it's limits is so you are always paying
attention.

The key to a good life
Love people
Love what you do
Have something to look forward to

The difference between being content and happy.... Money

---------------------

500 people sat in the dark perfectly silent for 2 hours and 40 minutes while they were brought into the cinematic exquisiteness that is Avatar.

Sent from my iPhone

Dec 28 2009. 68 degrees

2009-12-28T21:59:00.001-08:00

I was taliking to an elderly couple and their daughter when the
daughter said that mom pretty much makes all the decisions and dad is
just lost when she is not around. I told her my wife and I are still
working that out.

Sent from my iPhone

Dec 27 2009 65 deg

2009-12-27T17:03:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I took the strangest phone call and saying that please note
I've been in customer service salesmy whole life. I was not at my desk
but out where our records dept is with three other people they were
chatting and making some noise but nothing unreasonable, admittadly I
should have taken the call somewhere else but here's how the call went:

Hello this is T

Uhhh am I interrupting you?

No how can I help you.

Are there people in your office?

Yes, sorry about that they are just talking making some noise it's ok
how can I help you?

You sure they aren't tickling your balls?

Uhh no!

Well they aren't tickling my dad's balls he's dead!

Im sorry did your dad just pass away?

No he's been there for a long time have you seen him? Are you sure
they Are not tickling your balls?

Uhh no (by this time I got the Attention of the girls and quieted them
down) did you have a question.

Anyway you can see how thAT was going, after I hung up with her she
called back and used an alias to get back to me, I couldn't even
understand why cause we left the call on good terms. I just thought
the whole thing was humorous, she has scheduled and appt to come in
and do some other arrangements, she didn't show and that made me glad.

-—------------------

The people I work with must be the most adaptable people on the
planet. They have taken the changes around them with stride and have
not been too upset with the infringments on their space or time.

Sent from my iPhoney

December 25, 2009. 65 deg sunny

2009-12-25T21:24:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was Christmas Eve so I didn't get a chance to post
anything I worked most of the day and was happy that we got off a
bit early. Our office is still a disaster, the funniest thing about it
is that the GM left word before she went on vacation that she didn't
want any holes put in the wall so the staff took this to mean that we
couldn't hang up the various boards, shelves and boxes that we need to
function. The solution thus far for these basics of our workplace has
been to put them in various configurations on the floor creating a
sort of clustered maze in which to stumble through our daily activities.

Last night was nice our a nual Christmas Eve party went very well and
we got an opportunity to visit with many friends. What gets me every
year is the amou t of cookies and sweets that are put out, it seems as
if to run out of something would be an insult instead of what could
only be seen in my opinion a compliment to the great taste of something.

This morning Christmas was also at our home I must admit thAt I like
being able to stay home and ibwas thinking this morning how glad I am
that we don't have q broken home. Kari's parents are still together as
well as mine, there's no need to cart off to different homes for
Christmas and certainly Kari and I don't have to fight over who gets
Jacob on Christmas morning.

Either way the day went well and I got a new iPhone which I've really
missed. Have to really take care of it now.

Sent from my iPhone

Wed December 23rd, 2009

2009-12-23T22:05:00.001-08:00

Spent a good part of the day at work trying to reconfigure IP addresses on printers and getting general internet and the network functional at the office. I had help, actually.... I was the help E ----- has more experience and he got most of it together while I used my websearch abilities to get some troublshooting ideas. It is unbelievably dissapointing that the company left us holding the bag on the computers and the set up of this new office, the most dissapointing part is that the management being unskilled in technology generally seems uninterested in getting involved and making things happen....

---------------------

A friend of mine finished up a purchase on a 35' Cat Ketch up in San Francisco and I'm considering going up there to help him break it in. I've always wanted to sail that bay and sail under the bridge hopefully I'll be able to work it out.

--------------------------

What's the saddest part about about being a funeral director strivbing to become a comic, nothing funny to say.

December 21, 2009 Monday!

2009-12-21T19:26:00.001-08:00

Still playing with the subject date line on my new commitment to write something every day and if that wasnt' bad enough I've decided to add a goal with every entry; to write something funny about my life every day.

I've often contemplated the idea of becoming a comedian and with that goes the obvious necessity to be able to write jokes and have someting interestingly humurous to say. So today begins the new day of writing something that is funny, of all day sthis should be easy as you'd think I would also have the history of the 37 + years of my life to pick from in addition to the current days events of relocating our office from one building into a very new and possibly not well thought out new office space that replaced our old office space slowly over 3 months of construction. Of all those incredibly funny things that should have come out of it I can only think of one.

Hey we are all moving into the new office today where's the location manager? .... On Vacation. Wasn't she on vacation last time we moved? Yeah they were both on purpose.

Sad more than funny, and not writtten humurously so I got a lot of work to do to figure this out.

Cem

Sunday Dec 20, 2009

2009-12-20T23:53:00.001-08:00

Newport Harbor Ring of Lights. Temperature H 78 L 61 Newport Beach, CA

Rented a 30' Catalina tonight "Catatonic" from Marina Sailing. Cost totalled around $200.00 with fees and taxes. Had a wonderfull time. 'The boy' and I first motored outside the breakwater trying to do a little sailing before friends arrived late in the afternoon. We were rewarded for our efforts with glass seas and absolutely no breeze. After floating around for a few we fired up thumper and headed into the harbor to check out the route since it's been 2 years since I've been in Newport. After taking a little trip Danny, Susan, Kerstyan and her friend came down and actually found parking on the island, later Wifey, her mom, aunt and two other of our friends came and had to park in an alternate place and we picked them up at those docks about 10 mins away.

The light were nice and the weather could not have been nicer. I don't know if I'd do it again, at least not next year we'll have to see.

Saturday Dec 20, 2009

2009-12-20T23:49:00.001-08:00

74 degrees in Long Beach, light wind 10-12

Took Scott from Family Service at Montecito out for a sail. Beautifull day, can hardly believe it's December. Installed new bilge pump and replaced a few earings on the mainsail nothing much. There was a windshift on the way home that I thought might prelude some Santa Ana's but they never materialized.

Friday Dec 18 2009

2009-12-18T17:31:00.001-08:00

Temperature 70 clear no wind

Drove down to San Diego with Edgar to pick up a Sail Car. For those unfamiliar it is a three wheel cart with a windsurfer sail attached to it. You sit down low between the rear wheels and control the steering with your feet. These 'boats' as they still call them will do 40+ miles per hour. Professional boats will do over 70 and ice versions of the same have been clocked well over 100 mph. The boat I got is in OK condition but old, either way it is well worth the $50.00 and 6 hours worth of driving I did to day to get it, will probably take another 100 to 150 to get it going. I am suprising Jacob with it for Christmas in addition to the normal gifts he is getting and hopefully he will get excited about helping me fix it up.

Tonight is the judging of the Christmas Lights in our community. I've never really thought about it much but believe that I have a good chance of winning with the Nightmare Before Christmas themed characters that I have made over the years. I'm posting a couple of pictures of them but they are made of a symphony of different materials and methods all of which I learned as I was doing it.

Thursday 12/17/09

2009-12-17T22:16:00.000-08:00

Sunny 70 degrees light winds 58 low.

Went to Disneyland with the family and was awestruck at just how fat we are getting as Americans. I know this is no revelation and my own weight is certainly included in the calculation but for goodness sake does every man woman and child have to be following in my portly footsteps. Didn't used to be one fat kid for about every 10 kids. Even then the 'portly' odd fellow was just that a little portly not grossly obese the pudgy cheeks now encroaching on their peripherial vision as they stair out through the deep crevaces that previously would be describes as eyes. Clothes don't even work any more and in addition to being fat we've taken on self propelled electric vehicle to assist our jelly filled asses in getting around so that we can expell even less calories and continue in our slovenly domain.

Society certainly doesn't make it easy to obtain it's own version of the ideal weight. Opportunities to eat a normal healthy meal are few and far between when away from the home. Vendors disguise apples in caramel and sell celery with peanut butter and chocolate chips, a normal healthy sandwich on wheat bread sold at a deli will typically contain twice the mayonnaise and the bread contain twice as much sugar in its preparation as what you might buy for yourself at the store or prepare at home. Everything must taste better when it's purchased out side. A simple Chineese chicken salad will be covered in a soy sauce reduction, for those of you unfamiliar with the produce the indredients are simple, soy sauce, sugar heated and reduced till it's mostly sugar. Throw in a few candied covered tangerines and you got yourself 'candy lettuce.'

I was at the doctor the other day being evaluated post gall bladder surgery for some abdominal discomfort after eating, he offered and we did a Cat Scan of my abdomen to put my mind at ease but he said that in all likeliness I was eating food that were overwhelming my new digestive system and gas was builidng up in my Colon causing the discomfort. His suggestion, a simple one, eat what you would have your child eat! Awesome, my sons normal daily grind: 2 eggs with white toast and a tall glass of milk, Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich with applesauce for lunch. For dinner he will eat pasta, cereal, waffles with syrup, or some other very carb loaded sweet thing. Mind you my son is somehow not blessed with the fat gene that my wife and I have had, I imparticularly had harnessed this particular trait since well before his current age of 10. He also does not possess the appetite that I have had my whole life either and although he does not eat foods that are very healthy for him he also does not finish whats in front of hiim, rarely snacks and generally would skip most meals if he wasn't forced to eat. We are usually happy he partakes of any part of his meal and are less concerned that he has left his meat or veggies untouched.

So there you have it a short dicotomy of my current state of nutrition and my evaluation of the problem. So far my family and I have been unwilling to change so I might want to start putting some money away for the electric cart.

Too many thoughts in my head

2009-12-15T15:11:00.001-08:00

Last month I finished writing my first novel. A quickly thrown together collection of words that I wrote for the nanowrimo.com competition, and is certainly nothing much to brag about, still I am very proud of the accomplishment. This month I'm feeling anxious and unsettled. Work is tiresome and much of an extreme burden in an of itself, maybe there's too little going on and my mind is searching for something challenging, I don't know. In any case during this frustration, as it always seems to, reflection has crept out. During a lengthy conversation with a wonderful woman who just recently was widowed by her second adventursome husband I heard tell of great adventures the world abroad and a settled tone in her voice knowing that she was done with such ideas. In my life thus far I've been granted the ability to take many of my own adventures, not as broad and elaborate as hers as of yet but there is time. A brief recount I believe is in order and as I look at them I must say that my job was a significant benefactor to the list:

1996 One week Cabo San Lucas (SCI trip)
1997 Tyax Lake Canada SCI Sales Manager fishing trip
1998 Driving trip up the coast of CA in the wake of loosing our daughter Madison (Memorable as both and in and of itself)
1998 Sonora Canada SCI SAles Manager fishing trip
2001 Atlantis Bahamas
2002? Montana Trip
2004 Disney World Cruise through the Bahamas
2006 Trip with my Dad from CA to AR then meet up with Kari in NM and Drive back
2008 Road Trip from Buffalo NY to CA VIA family in AR
2009 Mission discovery driving trip for Jacob's school up the coast of CA

Some of these trips are chronicled in the Archives here and other's are scattered photograph memories in some old file somewhere. It's been wonderful for me to see these places and has only tempted my pallet for more.

2009-10-01T08:49:00.000-07:00

Orion rises out of the Eastern sky as if to say goodbye to Jupitor and
the moon now setting to the west. On the ridge above palms stand in
judgement over the small fleet of boats sitting in the harbor, mine
included. The beauty of it all is overwhelming and I can hardly
believe what I am seeing or where I am. This isn't my life the son of
a mechanic born on the wrong side of town but somehow it's how it's
worked out so far.

I don't mean to sound like I am rich by any means. But I have taken
advantage of opportunity when it's presented itself and believe that's
what has lead me to this remote location, just a few souls out to find
peAce. It's a good night.

- Catalina Harbor 0130 Oct 1 2009

Sent from my iPhone

Out of Time

2009-09-20T21:10:00.001-07:00

Well, I knew this day would come. Within two days I will be returning to work and my lazy schedule of walking, reading, modelmaking and writing will come to an end. I'll miss this time dearly. For the first time in my life I felt that time was a gift and not a burden, time was mine to control and however limiting, whatever I did was considered extra credit rather than expected. Truthfully even with my limited ability during this time I got a lot accomplished.

I completed most of the model America, now waiting on parts that were either lost or never supplied.

With the help of Darryl completed a ton of tasks on the boat bringing her back up to speed after a hard worked summer.

Got two new renters on the boat to cover costs.

Spent some time sailing, but unable to do any of the actual work, learned important lessons in communication from a leadership role.

Just about completed reading 'How to sail around the world' by Hal Roth (Excellent BTW)

Seriously considered new career opportunities should my current path come to an end.

Managed to engrain a strong walking regime that I hope will continue when back to work.

Maintained or even lost some weight through diet control and walking.

Even hung (early) my outdoor Halloween decorations today (with help from friends).

Learned to BBQ much better, with care and precision.

It's been a great time and I loved every minute of it. I must find a way to take at least one month off a year because this is simply wonderfull.

Time

2009-09-05T10:29:00.000-07:00

It's the oddest thing to go from no time to an abundance of time. I am currently recovering from Gall Bladder surgery and although the Dr. has me off work for three weeks I think the recovery time was more like 4 days. Now 7 days into it I find that drawing out tasks that previously I'd rush through are becoming more of the constant.

I'm of course limited in what I can do as lifting, pushing or pulling heavy objects are out of the question. This means I can't go refinish the boat or start to wrench on cars. Pretty much I'm limited to reading, walking, modelmaking, and watching TV. The latter a most common temptation.

Walking is the one that threw me into this tangent today. Normally when I go for a walk it's a question of distance over time. How far can I walk in the least amount of time so I can get on to the other things that need doing. Now I'm not in a rush, have nothing to do, so I just keep walking. Gone for hours at a time now when I get home my wife is wondering what the hell I was doing.

I can now easily see how retirees can eat up their time. A time waster becomes a habit that can't be missed and suddenly there's no time, it takes all day to go to the bank or get one's hair done, it's an event that can't be delayed.

Catalina Another Guys Trip

2009-08-30T08:29:00.001-07:00

Edgar and I went shopping on Thursday morning on the way to the boat. Mental note: Next time doesn't bring Edgar. The food bill for the weekend quickly escalated far higher than on previous trips as the list was quickly thrown out and immediate whims and desires prevailed.

Hoping for a cool dry solution to the large ice chest built in the boat we had frozen 6 one gallon jugs of water to use in the ice chest. Initially I feared there would not be enough room for the jugs and all the cool food but as it turned out that ice chest is larger than one would assume. So much so that I put all the dry goods in as well in order to lessen the free air in the space and preserve the ice longer.

Late afternoon as we prepared the boat and waited for Mark to arrive two young men with purposely ripped up dress shirts carrying a small chest approach us on the docks "We're looking for a captain to take a few scurvy Pirates to Catalina, any of you help us out?" Early on I was apprehensive about the prospects of a group of strangers hitching a ride on the boat and wasn't even sure that there was enough room but hearing more of their tale persuaded me to give them a ride.

They had been friends in Ohio at a 2 year college, after graduation they were scattered all over the country to different universities and technical colleges. This weekend they chose to meet here in Long Beach and came up with this adventure of burying a chest with some personal items in Catalina. Although it appeared they probably had the money to pay the Express to take them across and back I'm sure that hitching a ride will add to their stories in years to come.

We left about 6:00 shortly after Mark arrived and agreed to let the Pirates board the boat with us. The pirates cleaned the decks, bought some rum for the captain, "Chef" (called him that cause he just graduated culinary school) cooked in payment for their ride over. The night was beautiful with a nice steady wind of about 10 knots blowing from the usual direction all the way to the island, perfectly clear moonless skies and even a little phosphorescence.

We got into Catalina without tacking at about 1:00 am, met by the shuttle driver he led us to a mooring for the night. "The Pirates" were kind enough to pick up the cost of the mooring for the night even though they were not staying. They quickly gathered their things and jumped off. It was great having them aboard and certainly made the trip more interesting. One of them gave me his card to follow up with him but I lost it.

Friday was spent on the mooring relaxing and watching the boats come and go, we literally did nothing. Made breakfast, cleaned up, relaxed, made lunch, cleaned up, relaxed, made dinner, cleaned up, relaxed and oh yeah lest we forget, had a few beers. As the evening grew dim we listened to Channel 9 the VHF Channel for the island harbor department. They were turning all boats away by 6:00 pm but had alternate mooring for them a couple miles north.

Saturday morning we made breakfast and went to shore for a bit and went on my first Geocache up a little hill near the harbor. Frequented Cache it had a lot of peoples names in it but nothing of any interest, other than it's story. It was placed there by a guy who used that spot to propose to his wife and supposedly had a ring in it for the first person who found it. We were 100's of people later and all we found was a bunch of worthless stickers, feeling screwed, I replaced the sticker with a screw.

It rained just a bit the night before and it was still overcast and surprisingly a little cool, undeterred Mark and I decided to go snorkeling on the south side of the harbor while Edgar preferred the comfort of the boat. We found a little cove with a rock beach partially sheltered by Limestone walls. We stayed a little bit but decided to move on as the limestone was not all that stable and crows were throwing pieces of it at us, hit Mark on the head. A little way down near Fisherman's Harbor we pulled the dinghy out onto a larger beach and snorkeled up around the cliffs near there. Really neat area to snorkel and easy to get to from the Isthmus I'm surprised it wasn't more crowded.

The dinghy worked really well, it's light enough to easily pull up on shore and stable enough to climb into right out of the water. My little motor seems to be running good didn't really have any trouble with it until late Saturday night and I still don't know why because it worked Sunday just fine.

After we got back Edgar had started to prepare lunch (or rather was already eating his), Polish Sausage Sandwiches always a favorite. Clean up and Rest then I got a chance to jump aboard the 46' Ketch that was moored next to us the last couple of days. Owned and Built by Don she's a Ferro Cement Hull with Wood Bulwarks. Absolutely beautiful, I had been admiring her for days, like a beautiful women I couldn't keep my eyes off her and Don had noticed. I got the full tour, Don has had her in the water for 30 years, kept his wife through the process too which is amazing. It truly is a comfortable boat so I'm sure his wife doesn't mind spending time on it. He's 80 now but you couldn't tell, he has the zest of a man half his age.

Erik made it to the Island about 5:00 and I picked him up at the dinghy dock. Found out that Erik had sold his company this week and was going to be moving to San Francisco, he would no longer be renting the boat. We got back to the boat and Edgar and Mark took off to get cleaned up for the evening while Erik and I took off in the Kayak to check out a Tall Ship that was just coming into the harbor. "Pilgrim" is one of the tall ships out of Dana Point and they were there for their Saturday Overnight trip, mostly adults, it looked like a fun trip. "Pilgrim" however, looks tired and in need of a lot of work, makes you wonder how those programs make it.

We also found a message in a bottle which we returned to the sea on the way home as it was obvious it hadn't come far and stopped by and talked to a guy about his Trimaran. Large at 40' square it's a ""Piker"" design. Surprisingly he was saying that it's not all that fast, 7 or 8 knots for a 40' boat that's slow I'm a little shocked. I think something was lost in the translation, he also said they require being ultra light and you can't load them up with stores or people because they become dogs, this is not so surprising as they rely on getting the windward hull out of the water completely and some of the main hull out for speed. Additionally the outrigger hulls are small and not all that buoyant so you can't put too much on them.

They were Anchored off the beach there, it was a good anchorage, supposedly not as mild as where we were but it never seemed to be much worse and you have a nice shot of the beach so if you have kids they can just swim in and you can keep an eye on them easily. Definitely worth a shot.

After getting back the 4 of us loaded into the Dinghy (800+lbs with a 360lb rating) in our best clothes to check out the night life. We met a lonely guy with a big table and sat with him, turns out that he owns a 45' ketch in Rainbow Harbor where we are and just decided to come here for the weekend on his way to Alamitos where we all have to move our boats temporarily. Edgar kept the rum flowing, a little too much for me and I ended up tossing my last drink, and we were all way too happy when we went back.

As I was getting into the dinghy I washed a bit of water over the side which made the trip back a little less comfortable and just as we were getting up to the boat the motor died (still don't know why) and we had to paddle just a bit to get in as Mark decided to stand up and 'rock the boat' I was almost certain we were all going in the drink.

Sunday morning I got up early and climbed up onto the bow to watch the sun come up, unspectacular as we still had overcast and it's more like a florescent light coming on then the sun coming up. After messing around with the Hammock we borrowed from my Neighbor Adam Erik came up and we chatted a bit about great things going on before making breakfast and preparing to get home.

The trip home was tough, in that we had no wind the entire way. I've never had to motor for that long and the prop was due for a cleaning which wasn't helping our progress much. Only making about 4 to 4.5 knots the normally fast downwind trip took a lot longer in some pretty extreme heat. When it's 90+ on the water it's hot, we were all gathering under the mainsail for shelter. Still we saw several packs of Dolphins fishing and playing in the wakes of ours and other boats.

By the time we got to the San Pedro harbor entrance the wind had filled in a bit and finally we were able to shut off 'old stinky' and sail downwind in the Channel preparing the boat for a quick getaway once we landed. Took 7.5 hours to get home with no wind and a few headaches after the night before's indulgence. It was a great trip and may be the last time I get to sail with Erik, he will be missed as a renter and more as a friend, I wish him well.

I have no notes for this trip, it went well. Everything worked except the radio was getting testy towards the end of the trip and I don't know why. The dinghy towed well, engine ran well, but I might need to go to twice a month for bottom cleaning because when Dave and I painted the bottom we didn't know that we should have painted the prop which fowled doesn't perform very well. I'd also really like a tack so I know what the engine is running at.

Fixing things

2009-08-09T07:40:00.000-07:00

I am at peace when I'm fixing things. Doesn't matter if it's going
right or wrong my whole mind and body is focused on the experience and
I get a little OCD about it. Last week I found myself weaving palm
fronds into our rebar fence to create a block from a 'not so
attractive' side yard and my neighbors yard. It took hours. It could
have taken alot less if I simply went to Home Depot and bought the
bamboo screen my wife wanted me to, but NO! I much preferred the
solitude of creativity over the perfection of mass production solutions.

I guess that's why I've been in sales all my life. Sales is about
fixing something, creative, creation. There's a problem, the client
doesn't have my product and I believe they need it. I dint think I
could do it if I don't believe in the product. Even now I found myself
determining what the customer needs based on my experience. I realize
this many times results in downselling or even
Issing sales that may have been gotten, I believe however that this
ode of conduct has helped me gain trust and therefore increased my
sales, referrals and reduced cancellations.

Sometimes I don't like work but I don't associate that with theactual
act but more with regards to two things. First income I get more
frustrated the older I get about how much money it takes to live how
little we save and why whe. I make well over what most entire
households do we don't seem to be able to afford a quarter of what
many of my friends do. Second is how much freedom I've lost. I used to
have fredom to come and go from work pretty much as I pleased, thanks
in part to lawsuits but mostly a change in corporate philosophy now Im
required to show up to work at 8:00 and stay until 5:00 or later,
lunches are one hour long and I got to work all five days I'm
scheduled, it's heracy to a salesperson.

When I was on my own I probably worked twice as long as I do now but I
felt free. Still if my weekend projects became my job or at least my
income I'm sure I'd feel the same way eventually, as long as we are
dependent on all the possessions of life we are I terdepe debt to the
stress of trade

Back to fixing things.
Sent from my iPhone

Thankful

2009-08-04T12:48:00.001-07:00

This weekend I was able to choose whether or not to buy my son a Nintendo DSi..... Thankful.

I spent 50 minutes floating in my heated pool under a beautiful sun..... Thankful.

I spent an afternoon Sailing with Friends and another with family..... Thankful.

I worked, I ate, I drank, and I slept in comfortable beds....... Thankful.

I'm in love, I'm loved..... Thankful.

I'm alive..........Thankful.

A day in the life.

2009-06-02T16:53:00.001-07:00

8:00 am : Punch in at work and get to work processing 30 pages of paperwork for 4 different departments to schedule services for two families I met with yesterday.

8:30 am : Meeting to go over everyone's services, concerns, rants, and raves.

8:45 am : Leave to go to a families home from yesterday to get a signature from disabled mother.

9:45 am : Walk in family to review their property and other arrangements.

11:30 am : Walk in family that wants to sell their property.

11:45 to 11:55 am Lunch

12:00 to 1:30 prepared 30 ages of paperwork for afternoon at need appointment, get interrupted 5 times with miscellaneous questions and walk in families at front

1:30 to 4:30 Meet with afternoon at need appointment, plan entire service with 5 kids and 3 grandchildren. Get interrupted by a family in tears that I helped last month. She just wanted to say 'thank you'. Get back with family still unable to schedule services but field a muriad of unrelated questions while at the same time they are wondering why it takes so long. Leave them very happy and with a few of them asking me to contact them about pre-arrangements.

All great nice families and it's a good day, wish I could have appreciated the family that came in to say thank you more.

Loss

2009-05-09T09:52:00.001-07:00

Sailing in perfect conditions of the coast there was a little mishap on my boat. I was bringing up the main on my cockpit winch (This is a turning device used for leverage on a sailboat) and a piece broke of the winch causing the heavy metal casing to pop off it's base and roll overboard plummeting instantly to the depths below momentarily only leaving behind a trail of bubble just visible from the surface on it's way down. Lost! Instantly the reality of what just happened enters my head and chest, the desire to dive in and try to retrieve this vital and expensive piece of equipment for a moment enters my mind but quickly fades as I realize the futility of such an act.

It's amazing how we react when we loose something, and how something so trivial as a piece of equipment on a sailboat can make us momentarily congure up that feeling of Grief. Loosing someone you care for is likened to that feeling of dropping something over the side of the sailboat. The memory is there and for a brief moment you can see the life leaving and the trail they left behind. The desire to follow them is usually just at the surface, the only thing stopping them is the reality of that desire.

I don't mean to trivialize the loss of a loved, one or a piece of sailing equipment for that matter. In the place of my winch still sits the post it was secured to a constant reminder that I wasn't able to save it in those few seconds that it came apart. Eventually I'll take it off and plug the holes so I can make ready for the replacement of the piece, or maybe I'll leave the area blank as I have an alternative to raising the sail. Don't know really but I know that eventually, although I may miss it I'll move on, a lot easier than when our daughter died but still in the same process.

Too much

2009-05-06T14:28:00.001-07:00

I have too many thoughts lately to blog anything. Contemplating what to write has sent me into a writer's block that I can't seem to get out of. L8

What's the Harm

2009-03-22T10:06:00.001-07:00

I've heard of this website before but just had the opportunity to explore it. What's the Harm www.whatstheharm.net publishes articles about people who have been harmed or died as a result of believing in Religion, Life after Death, Pseudoscience, and any unproven faith based organizations.

It's well worth the read especially if you have someone trying to convince you that they got a new cure all for Happiness.

John Stewart Killed it

2009-03-13T08:46:00.000-07:00

I hope all of you had an opportunity to watch the slaughter of CNBC and it's Mad Money host Jim Cramer last night. John Stewart the self proclaimed "Clown of the Media Industry" exposed Jim and the majority of the CNBC pundits for their own rape of the American Investor.

John focused on the fact that "Experts" and the depth's of financial knowledge not only should have known that these junk investments were crap but should have investigated the companies that sold them. Their duty as "Journalists" were to expose the companies that were out to defraud the investors, but instead continued to sell the Buy and Hold philosophy at the expense of the average American's 401k.

When Jim tried to defend himself as a consumer advocate only trying to make "Good Calls" John brought forth a homemade interview where Jim was touting the very practices of shorting and market manipulation that he was so vigorously condemning now. Video after video 'Outed' Cramer showing that CNBC is no better than crooked politications lobbied by Corportate Donors just change the name of lobbiest to Advertisers, you don't even have to change the name of the Corporations, they are all the same crooks.

Catlina trip rocked

2009-03-10T20:46:00.001-07:00

Pics to come:

I wanted to have more to write about this trip but all good sailing stories require bad weather to have a punch, unfortunately for this blog but fortunate for this weekend the weather was great for an end of winter weekend. Even though things went smoothly we did have a few interesting things that came up.

On Friday March six we met early and took one car down to the boat, I had decied that I would take care of all food and expenses and the other guys, Edgar, Mark and Eric would just have to bring their drink of choice, clothes, sleeping bag, and toiletries. This worked great and I immediately noticed that the threat they would have to sleep in their berth with whatever they brought with them kept the size of their bags small.

I can't remember the last time I went on an all guys trip, maybe boyscouts, don't know but what was most noticable right from the beginning is how quickly and easily everyone worked toward accomplishing any task. Instructions were followed easily and quickly and most things needed no instruction at all, it was simply done, in no time the 150 lbs of food, booze, beer and necessities were loaded and stowed aboard and we shoved off out of the slip.

The weather had a small craft warning due to uncertain weather south of Long Beach, even though the WS only predicted 10 to 15 with gusts of 20 it was the short swells that keyed off the warning. Due to this and a slightly unusual wind angle I decided to take a little extra time to tack up to San Pedro. On the way we practiced a few man overboard drills that didn't make me feel entirely confident but enough to allow Eric to take the tiller for most of the time. On one of the last tacks in strong wind I instructed Eric and Mark to grind in the Genoa tight to get it as flat as possible and before it even reached the spreaders it gave away and split in two pieces. It was a great drill in being calm and making decisions while giving clear instructions, we made short work of getting the roller furling mechanism down and a new jib up and sheets run. It all went down with the tall ship Irvin Johnson watching as we had just made a tack past them, they even hailed us on the radio to make sure everyone was ok.

The swells were running at 2 to 5 secons and 2.5 feet, short and steep but Knotabus handled them well and Eric did a fine job at the tiller. Edgar did not and we didn't notice him turning white until the 2nd accidental man overboard drill when a hat went over and he got jolted up from where he laid, the next stop for him was the head, I told him next time over the side. After about 4 hours we reached Catalina about central Island and tacked up to get to the Isthimus, with wind and sun leaving us I gave in and fired up the motor to get us into harbor.

After scurrying around for a mooring and paying the fees we broke out the first meal, pork steaks, baked potatoes, and carrots. The new Magma BBQ worked good and my Mother In Law's suggestion of using a dutch oven to warm the potatoes and carrots on the stove was perfet and fast. We followed dinner with a few rounds of Mexican Train Dominoes but tired after a long day of sailing eating and drinking we all turned in pretty early.

Saturday morning after everyone woke we got the raft inflated with the power pump on the boat, as it was finished a guy from a neighboring boat in a Sevlor inflatabl kayak offered to give anyone a ride in that wanted to go to shore first. I opted for the ride to check out the area and take the proverbial 'dump' on shore as to not fill up and stink up the boat. After getting back made Chorizo and Egg burritos, again cooking and cleaning went smoothly with everyone's participation or simply staying out of the way.

We filled the day with exploring the Island, Hiking, putting down the beers, and an afternoon nap as I attempted to fish. Mark attempted a swim but was back out of the water within a minute complaining of the cold inspite of his shorty wetsuit. Dinner we had at the bar on the island and I'm pretty sure I had the best Hamburger ever, and it was only $9.00. Couple of drinks and pool and headed back for Dominoes, another early night after a long day.

I didn't even get a bite. The next day we left while cooking Braughtworst on the Magma hanging off the aft life rails, and I dragging two lines trying to get a bite near Bird Island. The wind was dead and clouds to the east, clear skys to to the west indicated we were running along a front of conflicting systems destroying any chance of decent wind. The motor ran too long on the way home and when it didn't the pace was slow and I found time to do some maintenance and even make some 'how to' videos for the famundo where the partners on the boat communicate.

Getting home took longer because we stopped up in Cabrillo marina to fill the tank before heading the last 8 miles back down to Long Beach, this little excursion added 2.5 hours to the trip so getting to dock took almost 7 hours. The last short leg we tried to race a 40 footer downsind, and lost. We got the boat ready to be put away and all our stuff together before getting into harbor so within a few minutes of getting in we had the boat closed up and washed down so we could load the car.

At the end of the weekend my biggest epiphany, Men work much better together than I've seen women, but there's one thing a group of women do better than men..... Be naked together!

The Crash

2009-03-05T15:09:00.000-08:00

Today in our turbulent Economic times many are searching for the bottom of the never-ending slide of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Some are comparing our current economic problems to the great depression, most still believe that our government has the ability to prevent a repeat of those times. Mostly I think people mistake the 'Crash' of the stock market of 1929 as a Single event that decimated the marketplace, this notion is not only entirely untrue it's dangerous to use as a gauge in our current situation.

In August 1929 the Stock Market hit it's peak, it wasn't until July 1932 that the stock market found it's footing and grabbed hold. Matter of fact the fall was slow and painful with many rallies and market corrections along the way. The reason this is dangerous is that those same market corrections and opportunities to re-enter the market persist today as investors attempt to find the bottom.

Today the market fell to less than 47% of it's highest value on October 2007 14 months earlier, this percentage of overall decrease has not been seen since December 1930 when the Dow retraced from it's hi at 47% 14 months from it's high. The Dow continued it's decent into oblivion until the before mentioned July 1932 when it reached just 12% of it's previous value, banks and manufacturing jobs were lost, consumers retracted their spending, and the few companies left raised prices in a less competitive landscape to make a profit and stay in business. Rampant inflation took hold and what people did spend was reduced to the absolute necessities further debilitating the economy. All this and we didn't even have a war machine going on to hold up the economy.

Be wary friends we could have a long way to go.

Givers

2009-01-23T21:55:00.000-08:00

I listened to a podcast www.furledsails.com last night where they interviewed a couple Dave Zeiger and Anke Wagner their cruising experiences in Alaska. The couple spend 9/10 of the year at sea living on wild grown plants, fish, and seaweed they buy few grocery store products and have a food budget of only $1,000 per year. Their sailing craft was built out of plywood and coated in copper and biodegradable paints, when they die at sea everything about what they do will simply be consumed and reused by the earth.

In the book "Ishmael" they discuss the idea of takers and givers. If you haven't read the book I don't want to take anything away, just that you should read it. In the book it outlines the fact that Humans give nothing back after their life, their lifestyles consume at the burden of all other living things on the planet. At the end Humans don't even donate their flesh back to the earth, selfishly they burn their flesh or bury it in concrete boxes to 'Protect' it from the bugs and planetary recycling system. Take everything and give nothing back.

Animals, plants and all other species on the planet are there to protect their planet and provide through "Consumption Recycling" and or their own death to provide a balance that protects and ensure the future. In the end they leave this planet and donate their bones and flesh back to it to support the smallest of creatures which in turn ensure vibrant healthy soil for plants, which provide food for animals, which provide meat for carnivours, which in turn die and provide food for the earth.

Humans truly 'takers' of the planets resources giving nothing back. The perfect example of this is the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" which is a grouping of floating trash in two sections of the Pacific estimated to be larger than the continental United States is further decaying the fabric of our oceans. Unseen it's not even visible on Google Earth and receives little media attention. Maybe it's not even there.

Recently two men sailed on a pile of trash lashed together with the cockpit of a smal Cessna Airplane to Hawaii to bring further interest to the area but few noticed. Bloggers and other people have tried to shed light on it, but no one is offering any solutions. I have a solution.

I believe it's time for environmentalists to creat their own nation. Self serving, self governing and self aware. LIke the men in the raft an area of floating trash lashed together, topsoiled and turned into a small floating continent. Although it would continually spin at a very slow rate it would hardly move. The rolling of the nation would be unnoticed after some time and the mild weather of that region would provide a wonderfull area for sustainable crops. Certainly no exports or imports could be allowed because in order to be truly a giver the floating island should only support the basic necessities and that which it could not provide on it's own should not survive.

Population could not explode because food and fresh water would be limited. Electricity could only be used that could be generated by wind, sun or current but most of that may need to be used to generate water. All things must be gathered from itself. Excrement should be used to creat soil with shreaded plastic (possible), burials should be done in the created land. Fishing should be done to sustain only the population on the land, and shelters should be created from the trash basis. Government will be needed with a strong constitution not singling out Human life as the priority but the sustainability of the land as the priority. When we no longer value human life over that of the land our decisions will change.

Why higher learing is as corrupt as politics.

2009-01-16T16:10:00.000-08:00

Get a degree!

It's getting more and more crucial that you get a degree to get a decent job. Even in the direct sales market it's becoming a requirement of many companies that applicants have a bachelors and some require a masters degree in order to be considered. On my recent job hunt a position that truly interested me with GE required a masters degree to be even considered, mind you no experience in sales was required, just the masters degree. Master's degree in WHAT?

I postulated maybe a masters in engineering as the position was an industrial equipment sales position and I could see how an engineering degree would be beneficial. Nope. Maybe Masters in Psychology, after all sales is psychological more than anything else, will over instinct, leading questions and discerning a persons true interest? Nope. Mind you any of these specialty degrees would earn an excellent income in their respective fields, so why would you put yourself into a sales position?

Actually the ad did not distinguish the type of Masters degree needed, just simply that you had one. Indicating that the true desire of companies is that you have completed higher education simply to weed through the pack regardless of the value or even the relevance of that education. I guess a masters in art would prove just as valuable to the position of Industrial Cleaning Products specific to the Automotive Manufacturing Industry, that makes tons of sense.

I guess that's what brings me to my real point. The value of that degree. My wife has recently taken on the challenge of becoming a teacher and has completed her first year of school and onto the second, I'm very proud of her. The first year she spent at University of Phoenix, sold on the idea of flexibility of schedule and expedited degree we ignored the outrageous price tag in favor of time. Besides after rashioning out the expense of books travel etc... it seemed like a good idea.

Replacing in class time came at a cost, 3 500 to 1500 word essays per week with only two classes. Resources were specified web pages and on your own studies but could not include some websites, like Wikipedia. By the end of the first year she was so burnt out she decided to take classes at our local city college and take advantage of the transferability of her credits she was PROMISED by U of P. Basically after working with the new college and going through the transcripts we spent 10k on Electives, I don't know how History, English, Education, and Computer classes are electives but when you're talking about money each college really just values their own curriculum.

And they don't stop there, her philosophy class takes the cake. She told me today that she won't be able to recoup the $140.00 cost of the book she bought for philosophy by selling it. "Why?" I asked. Well the Professor makes it part of the grade that you use all the white space in the book for personal ideas thoughts and suggestions, "Write everywhere, your grade requires it." The next obvious question asked "What does this guy get a kickback from the publisher?" He's the author it turns out. OF PHILOSOPHY. I have a deep ethical objection to a teacher of philosophy teaching their own book on the subject to begin with, the basis of philosophy to me has always been to question everything, therefore it's not possible to teach a subject on a book you wrote as there's no one to question the text, not to mention the purely greedy requirement of destroying the book to increase his own sales.

Get a degree! It won't make you smarter but it'll make your life easier.

The downside of California's Beautifull Weather

2008-12-31T09:36:00.001-08:00

It might be easier to be a sailor in Maine. Driving into to work today the December 31st weather reporet was reading clear skies, sunny, and 70 degrees at the coast. Right now my boat is bathing in the sun begging for a captain to cast off her lines to show her prowess on the open ocean, and I her captain am reguiled to grind out the paycheck to afford those weekends off.

Sitting at work knowing that the weather outside was bleak cold and miserable might allow me to consentrate on work, knowing that spring will be here soon, extra money and time off for long gunkholing trips will be the goal of the day. That time spent on the boat now will be repairing and preparing for those long sunfilled days cruising to the furthest destination the wind will allow.

Of course, it is California, and today like all the rest the waters will be filled with those lucky souls who have found a way out of the rat race and no longer need to work to fulfill their dreams, maybe it's those I truly envy.

Ping Pong

2008-12-24T12:20:00.001-08:00

My parents got my son the gift of Ping Pong this year. Which is great since most of his activities closer resemble the sport of Pong rather than anything outside. But more importantly I think the gift is one that will be shared by the entire house. A ping pong table has the capability of allowing people from all skill levels play and go OUTSIDE For a while. I'm looking forward to playing but since it's outside I need to get it to stop raining.

Death walk

2008-12-14T09:02:00.000-08:00

Youth gives you the liberty to put aside many critical decisions to a later time, retirment, health, money, and ultimately death. I seem to be creaping up on the idea of retirment and concern of the money to fund it is critical, health also seems to be reaching in as aches and pains take longer to heal and some persist indefinetely. I have thought that my profession helps me realize the death question in a more real capacity than most as I see it on a daily basis. But everything changes when faced with your own death.

I many times wonder, if given the chance, what will be my thoughts laying in bed knowing that death is creaping in from my extremities to take away that last breath. Will I hold true to my "one person, one life, one chance" aetheist perspective, be solemnly but gleefully reflective on the life that I lived? Or will the natural human instinct of self preservation win out and when faced with the reality there's nothing left to be done on this earth will hopes of an eternal existence of second chance win out? Will the childhood teachings of Christianity and a life of continued learning offer a different perspective on death than the one I hold now? That is, if given the chance.

I've envisioned many a times the death walk in my life. I've seen myself leaving to walk aimlessly the country, homeless, and unguided. My current vision alone in a sailboat on the open ocean is not indifferent from the one seen in the back of my mind my entire life. The knowledge that death is imminent that time here must end and taking the time one last chance to take it in, dying earlier than the hospital bed, but on my own terms. Selfish vision as it were, no accounting for family and friends that would like just a nother year, month, day or hour with someone they care for.

I think this is why people ultimately take the drugs, go in for surgery, and put up with chemo. That look in their loved ones eyes, that glare of want, of hope that you'll be around for a little longer, without that I believe most people would allow their death to come on with less of a fight. In this I struggle, of course I as we all would hope to have family and friends that love us enough to want us around, but there's that vision, one I've had all my life, that final adventure, intended not end but continue on forever.

Nightmare Before Christmas

2008-11-29T22:00:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty proud of this creation. In adding to my Nightmare Before Christmas theme for halloween and Christmas I built Ooogie Boogie this weekend.

He's constructed of a PVC skeleton, and real cotton Burlap. I custom shaped a face structure out of florist foam sealed it and put it behind the Burlap. Finally he's filled with 14 cubic feet of packing peanuts and sprayed with a florescent spray paint.

In case you forgot what the others looked like:

See a Knock Down

2008-11-21T08:00:00.000-08:00

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1439819533/bctid2764360001

sailing, knock down, volvo ocean race, open 60 sixty

Sounds Familiar

2008-11-15T15:31:00.001-08:00

I give the guy on craigslist credit but he didn't leave a name and the link won't be good in a couple of days but this is sooo true:

The Envelope

"Dear Captain" the invoice from the marina was
addressed. "Our records show ... ".

"Shit" you screamed. "fxxking sailboat, I hate the thing",

As you toss the bill into the basket, you look around,
your studio apartment is a mess, in the corner, hanging from
a nail on the wall, the photo taken the day you purchased
the "fxxking sailboat" has become faded.

How did this happen, you ask yourself.
You close your eyes, calm down, and think back
to that day, not so long ago, the day you bought her,
the "sailboat". You danced a jig, as you
laughed with all the guys at the Tap. "I'm setting
sail for the Bahama's you bloody land ludders" you
told them.

The following day, how could you forget that day,
as you drove to the marina, you remember
telling your wife "Honey, we can sail her to the islands,
or around the world." "The previous owner told me that a German
sailor took his all the way to Fiji".

"Climb aboard, let's take her for a sail"
you said as your wife threw her carry bag
onto the foredeck.

A few minutes later, as your wife laid out
her beach towel she told you "I feel weird,
maybe a little sick".

"Don't worry, dear, that happens the first time out"
you happily responded as you dropped the mooring lines,
pulled the fenders, and unfurled the sails.

Your new sailboat jumped forward, her rail down, she was
heeled over so far that water was spashing into the
cockpit.

"What the hell is going on" your wife screamed. "The boat is
on its side, we are going to die".

"That is what sailboats do" you calmly told her.

Then; she puked, and started crying.

"Take me back to shore, if you don't take me back right
now I am calling the police" she moaned as she grabbed for
her cell phone.

As you released the halyards, the sails dropped,
the sailboat stopped dead in the water, but the engine
would not start.

"Help me, my husband is trying to kill me" she howled into
the cell phone. "I am on his new sailboat, we are adrift,
the engine won't start, please save me" ..

After $400 dollars was paid to the Seatow
operator, and your sailboat was secured to the dock,
she stormed off. The last you saw of her, that is
until that day in court, the day of your divorce,
was the back of her head as she sped away in the car.

And now every month the marina bill arrives,
a painful reminder that the "sailboat" is still
docked at the "Really Expensive Marina" on
Yachting road.

The For Sale sign hasn't worked, and you are tired of
receiving email from Nigeria, so why not cut the mooring
lines, let her go. So what if you spent thousands on
the new engine, the new standing rigging, all that cruising
gear. If you continue to own her, she will bankrupt you.

If this story is "your" story, I may be able to help.
I am looking for a 26-32 foot sailboat. If
The Envelope with the Dear Captain greetings has
finally convinced you that it is time to cut the
mooring lines, and let her go, just get rid of the
sailboat, stop the bleeding, why not offer up the
boat for FREE.

I'm just a guy looking to go cruising,
willing to take the boat off your
hands. Soon, you will be telling your story
at the Tap, how the boat cost you so much money,
how your wife divorced you, and all the guys will
be doubled over. "Let this be a lesson to you guys"
you will say as another free beer is slid down the bar
in your direction.

Hope he is successfull that poem deserves something.

Electoral College what it means to the little guy

2008-11-08T12:03:00.000-08:00

We've all seen the maps, Blue or Red and sometimes we may feel like we are in the wrong state by the color on a map. Recently a good friend of mine sent me this website http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/2008/ the writer displays the popular votes in Cartograms reflecting how the states are more favorably weighted based on Demographics. He makes a lot of great points about the weighting of states and does his best to show the bias of the polls reflected in his Cartograms.

Obviously the electoral is supposed to provide an equal playing field to the country. It might be simpler to go with the popular vote, of course that was the argument back when Gore lost out to the electoral in 2000, but the electorates are set up by politicians to help ensure incumbenancy IMO (In My Opinion). Here is the county map from this website that shows the voting from Mark Newman's Blog.

Now here is a map of what the population demographic looks like at night.

So I overlayed them so you can get a view of what the world really looks like.

California Has 55 Electoral Votes and a population of 36,457,549.

Idaho for example has 5 Electoral Votes (10% of CA) and a population of 1,293,953. (Only 3.5% of CA's population). This rather gives Idaho a greater impact in the Electoral that California based purely on the % of population in the state.

Now that's a different look on the same information, be carefull what you read, investigate before making decisions.

FW: prop 8 petition

2008-11-06T12:00:00.000-08:00

I promise that this is the last political email you will get from me till next election :). But if you feel as I do that discrimination does not belong in our laws please take a moment to sign the attached petition. Regardless of your personal beliefs about marriage we live in a country that allows a basis for all beliefs.

Subject: prop 8 petition

Sign this petition so we can re-open prop 8... and take back our rights...

http://www. petitiononline. com/seg5130/petition. html

do it if you are 18+ and repost this

----------------------------------
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail may contain privileged or confidential information and is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s). If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution, or use of the contents of this information is prohibited and may be unlawful. If you have received this electronic transmission in error, please reply immediately to the sender that you have received the message in error, and delete it. Thank you.
----------------------------------

Something to think about it

2008-11-06T09:16:00.000-08:00

Here's an excerpt from self-portrait in the present sea.

When CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE struck something and pitch-poled in the South Pacific in 1980, resulting in my being adrift for two weeks and three hundred miles in a 9’ inflatable dinghy before reaching land, I wrote that life can change in the passing of a single wave, which later became the title of one of my books.

I have recently been reminded that this is the way life usually changes: quickly and with little warning.

It took me a long time to recover fully after sinking RESURGAM, more than a year, perhaps two; and for a while I took pleasure in simply being alive; but gradually and naturally I began to take life for granted. Recently I’ve realized anew how difficult it is to do something unusual in life, such as sailing alone around the world, and to cherish happiness, which is fragile and can be lost in an instant.

A fascinating blog about sailing, life and the beauty that comes withit. Here's the feed if you like it http://inthepresentsea.com/blog/feed/

Tim

FW: It's Over The conversation

2008-11-05T21:07:00.001-08:00

From: Tim E

It's Over
Now maybe it's time to reach down and show support for our new president just as you asked to show support for Bush. Whether or not you believe anyone listened to you it's your responsibility to heed your own words.

We had an interesting divide in California. On the one hand we overwhelmingly helped elected our first black president showing that one prejudice has been deeply subsided, while on the other hand it looks like we will write another form of discrimination into our states constitution. When we learn to stop hating people for the way they are born and love them for the way they were created we will have truly advanced as a civilization, the race for that is tightening but this fight is not over and will rear it's head again.

AOL Search: Your one stop for directions, recipes and all other Holiday needs. Search Now.

From: EJS
Tim, you show your own prejudice in your call to show support.

Obama wins in "landslide" winning 52% of the national vote, yet the VERY SAME 52% of the vote in California to overturn a 4-3 vote by liberal judges in May that instituted "rights" never before held in the history of the state is discrimination?

Typical liberal dogma...

From: Tim E

I don't see how a call for support shows prejudice, and I don't see how popularity is ever an excuse for it.

The Yes on 8 folks won, as they won when it was 22. The difference is the margin, the race is tightening at least that's positive.

Furthermore there was a time when you could be hung in this country for being a Quaker, Exhiled for being an Evangelical, and in some place required to pray as a Puritan. How easily it is to loose control of the popular religion. However you translate the Bill of Rights, no one would want their personal beliefs trampled on that, I believe, is the fundamental purpose behind those rights.

From: Alan M
Tim

While the No on Prop 8 people would have you believe the change was over rights, they were dead wrong and they had purposely tried to obfuscate the purpose of the amendment. Gays in California enjoy every right that every other individual in the state enjoys. They can receive in heritance from a partner, share property, share medical benefits, etc. What right did they loose? Marriage is a union established by the church between and man, a woman and god. While government has gotten in and used marriage as a litmus test for a desire to share property, true marriage is defined by the church.

Prop 8 is a move to preserve that union. Any other union is something else and should not be called marriage. Whether Life Partner, significant other, or otherwise, these relationships are not marriage! To have a judge declare they are, is both wrong and not a separation of church and state.

Gays are not being persecuted as the “No on 8” people would have you believe, the Yes on 8 people are trying to preserve the holy relationship of marriage. There are also other implications of this amendments and I believe they relate to what society considers normal moral behavior. While I do not hate gay people, I do not believe that what they do is normal behavior and do not want to see our laws mandate that it is normal. By defining this as normal behavior in our laws it can limit the rights of those who do believe in marriage between a man and woman. So I guess to a large part my vote was to preserve my rights.

From: Tim E

Those are excellent points and I agree with you on all your religious points. That is exactly my point, Yes on 8 was asking the State to interfere with Religion naming one belief as the only belief.

What about the Unitarians, Platonists and other religions that don't believe the same?

Should they be told that their beliefs are wrong by the Constitution, State, or otherwise?

Shouldn't the burden of Holy Matromony be placed on the couple being married and their own faith by their own God?

The issue is a "rights" issue because I believe that all people should have every right this country holds, and one of those fundamental rights is religion. People think because I am an Aetheist I don't have religion, but the same rights that you have, protects my rights to believe as I do. We all have our reasons for believing them even if they only differ by a couple of opinions of a couple of verses in the same book.

I was a Christian for most of my life, I have asked Jesus into my life twice, and it may surprise you that I have read the bible all the way through several times. I don't think even as a Christian I would be on a different side on this point than I am now. Not once did I see Jesus persecute the people who did not agree with him, not once did he wish validation from the state for his own beliefs.

Tim

Al, I love your replies they are concise meaningfull and argue strong points and we know we won't be changing each other's minds it's OK.

From Alan M.

Tim

I am not sure what you agree with me on.

God instituted the first marriage in the Garden of Eden when he gave Eve to Adam as a wife (Genesis 2:18-25). Later marriages were to follow the pattern of the first is indicated by the concluding divine instruction in Matthew 19:4-6. This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh (Genesis 2:24). A unique unity between Adam and Eve was seen in that the two became “one flesh”. The oneness of marriage separated the couple from others as a distinct family unit.

Because God instituted it, marriage is more than just a ceremony. Biblical passages showing that the marriage relationship is based on a covenant or oath sworn before God are Proverbs 2:17, Ezekiel 16:8, 59-62, Hosea2:16-20, Malachi 2:14, Matthew 19:6. Any violation of that covenant invites God’s judgment.

Marriage is God’s unique gift to provide intimate companionship, a means for procreation, and the channel for sexual expression according to biblical standards.

Homosexuality, on the other hand is a sin that results in judgment. The first mention of homosexuality in the Bible depicts God’s judgment upon it as sin. It was the outstanding transgression of Sodom and Gomorrah. The severity of the judgment, which came because of homosexuality, indicates the seriousness of this sin (Genesis 19:1-11). Both cities were destroyed by fire and brimstone (19:24). Depending upon the translation of the Bible you read in 2 Peter 2:6 NT states that these two cities were turned to ashes as a matter of God’s holy wrath, specifically because their inhabitants had given themselves to sexual immorality and practiced perversions. Genesis 19:5 outlines when the male angels came to rescue Lot and his family, the men of Sodom wanted to have Lot send out the Angels so they could have sex with them, Lot offered his daughters, but the angles took care of the situation themselves.

Bottom line is that homosexuality is an act, a sin; it does not qualify for minority status any more that adulterers, rapist, murders, or any other group of people who commit immoral acts.

While I worship a loving God, unrepentant acts of sin are repudiated by God and will find God’s judgment. It is not for me to judge them, only to pray for them. That said, I can not condone their behavior or have them define it as normal or acceptable in the eyes of the law.

Sorry for all the references, but I feel strongly on this topic as you can easily tell.

Al

From: Tim E

You're making my point.

I agree that the Bible does not allow for gay marriage, it doesn't, it's pretty clear....

The constitution however, especially the states did not define it that way.

That is the point, as much as you want to believe that this country was meant to be a Christian nation our forefather's made freedom from any religion very clear so that religions and beliefs may flourish. It was developed by men of many faiths, many who didn't agree with each other, this fundamental discussion gave freedom to all. In my humble opinion.

It's Over

2008-11-05T09:44:00.000-08:00

Now maybe it's time to reach down and show support for our new president just as you asked to show support for Bush. Whether or not you believe anyone listened to you it's your responsibility to heed your own words.

We had an interesting divide in California. On the one hand we overwhelmingly helped elected our first black president showing that one prejudice has been deeply subsided, while on the other hand it looks like we will write another form of discrimination into our states constitution. When we learn to stop hating people for the way they are born and love them for the way they were created we will have truly advanced as a civilization, the race for that is tightening but this fight is not over and will rear it's head again.

Tim

The Handshake

2008-11-01T07:23:00.000-07:00

Recently someone asked me "Whatever happened to the good ol' handshake?" when referring to a business agreement. It began me thinking about why the handshake has lost it's meaning as a pact between two men, and when this diminishing value began to occur.

1st we must go back to the believed origin of the handshake, commonly it's thought that it began in Medieval England between Knights and Kings. Each would display outwardly their open empty hands to show that they present no concealed weapons and mean no harm to one another, they would then grasp each other's hands in a showing of agreement. What's left out of this common story, or so often not told, is that if one of the two later felt harmed then the result may be a duel, war, and death. The handshake was backed up every time by the possibility of death, that's a strong agreement!

At least in America, duel's lost their approval in the 1800's. Laws were enacted so that gentlemen wouldn't kill each other over a business agreement and instead people started to fight their battles in court. Today the courtroom is the battleground where two men duel over a broken agreement, and of course since now there are third parties around the more proof that there even was an agreement becomes evidently important.

Makes sense, I don't think I've ever seen a lawyer shake hands in court. No good lawyer would ever show up to court without a concealed weapon.

Tim

To the Freedom Loving Americans

2008-10-07T09:14:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,

I want to speak to you about an upcoming vote that effects the very fabric of our everyday lives. It's probably more important than the presidential election as this has immediate and long reaching effects. It won't effect your income, but could very well effect your freedom.

I am speaking of course of the upcoming measure to change the state of California's constitution to make Gay Marriage illegal. I've heard both arguments and will attempt to outline them here.

The group for the bill would limit the right to marriage statewide to only a man and a woman. They state that Marriage is a holy union between a man and woman under the geise of God and should not be permitted any other way. They've also stated that if the state does not recognize this their church's are open to loosing their tax exemption or even getting sued for being prejudice if they prevented a gay couple from being married in their church.

The group against the bill would want the State's Constitution to remain in tact which the court has already ruled does not exclude same gender couples from marriage. They argue that 1. the law is already in place. 2. Their beliefs allow them to be married under the geise of God, man and State. 3. Their marriage does not interfere in any way the holy sanctimony of any other beliefs.

If I understand them correctly those are the two arguments. 1st the idea that a church would loose it's tax exemption or get sued for discrimination is false in my opinion. Church's have enjoyed the priveledge of exclusivity and discrimination for millenia. Even today you cannot get married in a Jewish temple without become Jewish (Discrimination), You cannot get remarried in the Catholic Church (Without Pennance and Money). They've stated that the problem is imminent although there has yet to be even on lawsuit filed against any church for failure to marry anyone who doesn't fall within the beliefs of the church.

May I voice another argument that I don't hear and believe we should hear. Can I get a vote for America? Not for your religion, or mine, or someone elses. Can I simply get a vote that won't be the beginning of limiting yours, mine and everyone's FREEDOM. Because it's the right to be free that makes us American's the right to be Budhist, Muslim, Christian, Scientologist, Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, or even Non-Theist. It's the reason our Purist settlers came to this country (Start slinging false history accusations NOW). It's the reason we've fought for democracy throughout the world, so that in places like Afghanastan a Woman can walk the streets without her face covered if she is not Sunni. It's freedom this fundamental freedom that allowed our founding fathers to be from many different religions and not just puritan.

I'm asking that on November 4th when you step into that booth to allow your Religion to guide you remembering that the balance of power of Religions in countries have changed throughout history and vote for your FREEDOM and vote for AMERICA.

Vote no on Proposition 8

Please forward this to all FREEDOM LOVING AMERICANS

Timothy J Ehrlich

Oh yeah and if anyone has more info on the energy bill i'd like to know about it because i think it will create a crapload of needed jobs.

Extremely Lucky

2008-10-05T21:02:00.000-07:00

You know I bitch too much! I complain about having to drive to work 50 miles each way, not having enough time to do stuff, or not having everyone doing what i want to do at the exact moment I want to do it.

Then I'm sitting in the Jacuzzi listening to the ipod looking up at the stars through the palm fronds surrounding my pool. All I can think of is that I could be in Fiji, Hawaii, the Bahamas or some other exocit port in the world, I really wouldn't know the difference. Actually I wouldn't expect that in any of those far away places would my situation be so comfortable. Beers on Ice at a close reach, towel at the ready and only 50 ft from a warm and comfortable tempurpedic, the warmth of my Wife and the smile of my son.

Most people spend there whole lives trying to get to those far away places (present company included), I bet it's not half as good as what I already have. If I loose it all tomorrow on some stupid business venture or the fallout of the economy I won't regret it, because at least for this moment at this second in this spot I realized I had it all.

Tim

I Give

2008-09-22T20:09:00.000-07:00

I was contemplating the other day how great it was when I didn't care. When I didn't understand the importance of the Dow, Mortgage Rates were whatever they were and Presidential decisions seemed not to make any impact to my little world. I started in my company in the early 90's when we were in a significant recession, I remember boarded up homes in Moreno Valley and beyond and Real Estate "AT AN ALL TIME LOW".

I remember saying "It doesn't matter who's in charge, the fundamentals of opportunity in America don't change, work hard, aspire for much, and save your money." I have had many years of prosperity then, my 401k has grown, my home value (and unfortunately mortgage) is 4 times what it was and I am keenly aware of how people around me want me to believe that all we need is "Change." I hope we never change, I hope we continue to live in a country where no particular political leader no matter how unscrupulous, inexperienced, or even philandering can't change those fundamentals.

Fortunately in February whatever New American President takes office the fundamentals won't change, even if the color or sex does.

Tim

Party Welfare Plans

2008-09-22T12:52:00.001-07:00

Democratic Welfare Plan:

Tax the Wealthiest Americans who have Capitalized most on being American to balance the budget and use that money to ensure health and welfare for the poorest Americans, who in turn use that money to buy goods and services stimulating the Economy . That money passes through all levels of income and ultimately ends up back in the pockets of the Rich. This creates jobs as more goods and services are REQUIRED by the Economy forcing companies to hire.

Republican Welfare Plan:

Reduce tax to the wealthiest .5% of Americans so they can keep more of their money and when that's not enough provide 300 Billion Dollars in Corporate Bailouts to the largest financial instutions in the country so the CEO's and Board of directors can keep ther multi-million dollar per year job. In turn those CEO's and World's elite re-invest their windfall in other Companies padding the pocket books of their rich friends. This is supposed to create jobs as companies have more money they may try to offset their tax burden by recapitalizing (putting money in other companies by building offices or buying products) and padding their workforce.

The ridiculous part of the system is we all pay 100% tax. Every dollar that is earned and then spent ultimately gets taxed at 100% and ends up back in the government pockets. All tax can be deemed unfair and all money (despite popular belief) is taxed multiple times not just once. Being on a bonus system myself I see the effects of a Varied income tax, on one check where I get NO Bonus and just earn my base I don't even pay Federal Taxes (SSI still bites). On another check I pay the countries maximum because I get my monthly income on that check and it's calculated as if I make insane money, that check netted only half of what I earned.
the above scenarios simply explain two terms we hear all the time but are never explained. The Dems believe in the Trickle UP philosophy and the more Popular Trickle Down is the Republican version.

You must decide which way you want it to work, 1 puts money in the hands of the poor who spend ALL OF IT passing the money through the hands of the entire country. The other puts more money in the hands of few hoping the y will spend it on the workforce. The problem as I see it is that the wealthiest americans although they spend a lot of money on what seems to be unimportant stuff, they KEEP MOST OF THE MONEY they get. If you don't understand this concept you must read "Richest man in Babylon."

The good news is that it doesn't matter what happens in Nov, right now the economy is in trouble and it will take some time to turn. Neither of the above are quick fixes.

- Undecided, still?

You must be RICH!

Beating Angel's Landing

2008-09-09T19:41:00.000-07:00

This is me standing over 7,000 feet above sea level on top of Angel's Landing. I win the biggest guy on the hill contest, beat my fear of vertical drops over 1500 feet, and I even made it back down in one piece.

We had a great weekend, starting at Fremont street in Vegas. Where among other things I felt like the 1970's cheap vegas was back. I haven't been to this part of town in a long time, and a lot has changed since last time. 1st of all it was clean, 2nd it was cheap (rooms from as little as $25.00), and 3rd and best of all, the hookers made them selves obviously. Nothing much funner than playing Slug Hooker with your wife, kind of like slug bug but without the bugs, well you get it.

It was a great trip and I thoroughly enjoyed having my friends, Edgar, Lea and their sons Edgar Hayden and Justin, Armando, Jessica and their son Jessie and Jessica's Brother William. Thank all good times.

Latest Buffalo INstallment

2008-08-20T11:06:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone, I thought you might enjoy my podcast: SoCalTraffiCast

- - Tim and

Bitchin

2008-08-15T08:56:00.001-07:00

Check out these guys on an all carbon 52 riding it like it was a dinghy!

Found it on www.sailinganarchy.com

Aliens motivate us go "GO HOME"

2008-08-05T09:21:00.000-07:00

Did I say how nice it was to stay with Marcia. I hope so, we absolutely had a great time with her and her hospitality was neverending. Of course that's been the underlying story of this trip, Heidi and Adam went all out for us. Adam let me basically destroy his tool box, it'll probably take him a month to put everything back in the right place, Heidi and my Mom made dinner everynight for all of us. It was awesome and I appreciate all of them so much, so if I haven't said it enough yet. THANK YOU.

From Marcia's after a killer breakfast she made us we head west on the 380. Not the main road, this is the road that was the road before the main road came. So it's filled with small towns, most without even one stop sign, that supply the local farmers. The drive was beautifull and I doubt it took any more time because we couldn't go any faster than about 70 anyway so we were doing about the speed we would have done on the highway but had much more interesting scenery.

The only way to experience the country is through the side roads, corporate america owns the highways, the side roads belong to main street. Take a shot, experience it, it's worth it.

We pulled into Roswell, NM about 7:30 at night and decided to spend a little extra for a Holiday Inn express with the indoor pool and hot breakfast. Well worth it. This time we got the free internet and breakfast even though we paid over $100.00 which is usually the rule, over 100 no

extra's, under 100 lots of free stuff.

I was expecting more from Roswell, being the Alien capital of the world. I thought this religion had believers! Anyway we went to the International UFO Museum and looked at all the parafinalia in around the idea that Alien's have visited our planet. I saw a lot of Aliens, but I think they were of the illegal sort.

Out of Roswell we had a choice, Highway or Biway. We were tired and ready for home and thought that the highway might be faster but ultimately elected to continue on the 380 through backroads of NM on the way to phoenix. Google had the road taking an additional hour but the miles driven was about 50 less.

The road was nice, a little slow at times but we went through Capitan NM which Kari thinks was where Smokey the Bear got it's beginnings. I'd research it to see if she was right but let's just assume she is!

More small towns with neat 'Main Street' style down towns, some with all brick roads which really slowed you down as it was like cobblestone. Most of the towns weren't tooo run down as I kind of expected but none of them catered to the traveler and I was dissapointed that I couldn't find any good dried fruit stands or vegetable stands, kind of weird considering we were in farm country. The other neat thing is that every small town seemed to have one house that looked like Dorothy's house after it was dropped back in Kansas.

We really liked crossing the continental divide at 7750 feet in NM we came across Pie Town we'd been licking our lips for 100 miles expecting to be able to sample some great local pies when we pulled into town and discovered te two Pie places in town which doubled as either a post office or grocery store were closed. One's sign ironically read "Pie town was created when weary travellers crossing the divide needed a break and the local pie's earned a reputation for being fantastic." Turns out that there's only a demand on Fri, Sat, or Sunday.

The trip down from the divide led us through the Valley of Fire and then onto Show Low where all the street names were named after Poker hands, it took me a while to put the too together. Show Low is surrounded by vacation ranches and we really loved the country, matter of fact I always think of NM as Hot Desert, but most of this trip was above 6000 feet and the outside temperature in the first days of August never rose above 85 degrees. It's only about 8 hours from our house so this actually might be a possiblity for us. I think we'll try renting a cabin up there first!

Finally our decent into Phoenix through White Mountains, a beautifull red rock and Pine Forest drive through Eastern Arizona. Upon getting to Phoenix we decided that there's nothing in Phoenix we want to see because our attempt to contact friends that live there failed and we decided to push on the last 4 hours to get home to our own bed. After a stop at Cracker Barrel for dinner, something Kari's been hinting at the whole trip, we hit the road and headed home.

This is familiar territory so just get on the 10 and get home, nothing to see here. Kari drove for the first time a bit after dinner and was a little uncomfortable with the size of the rig, but she settled in behind a truck running at a good speed for her and did just fine. Matter of fact because she kept it slow and drafted I think she got 2 MPG better during her drive than I did at any point. While she drove I tried to sleep, unable to I usedthe Aircard once more to watch some TV on the laptop. Man that thing works great and was able to hand Hulu television most of the time.

We finally arrived home at 2:30 after a freeway closure, detour, and switching drivers several times because we were both hitting sleep walls barely able to keep our eyes open after 15 hours of driving. All in all this was a great trip, no trip is truly grand without it's difficulties and the car problems are classic. I am closer than ever to my wife and son as they make the best travel companions, the car thing will work itself out and I'll update you if it's anything interesting. Toyota Corolla POS $3,250. Trying to fix the car $1,200.00, Renting a Uhaul + gas to get home $1800.00. Seven More shot glasses to add to your collection, PRICELESS!

That Didn't Work

2008-08-03T05:39:00.000-07:00

The next day I went with my Dad to the parts store and picked up the tap I needed to chase the threads. Waste of time really as it turned out I also needed a special too to get the tap deep enough into the holes to do any good. Blowing them out with the Air Compressor would have to do.

On the way back from the store I stopped to get Kari her special drink, a Chai Latte with three extra shots of Vanilla. My Dad, Mom and I were talking on the way back from the coffee place and I didn't realize that I was sipping away at this candy bar like drink. By the time we got home I had finished 2/3's of it, Kari was none too happy.

We got the head bolted on easy enough, working on an Aluminum block engine is interesting though. Here's a little boring tech. Most Steel blocks the heads will be tightened down to 65 to 100 foot pounds everything on this little aluminum engine was 36 pounds or under. It just seems like the whole thing is just barely held together.

After getting the head on Dad and I started putting on the timing chain and a critical part that was going on with some difficulty broke. After trying to figure a way to get around it, we realized it was not possible and I had the shop that did the heads order a new one and overnight it to me. Another day waiting around but in the meantime we were able to complete almost all of the rest of the engine and save that area for last.

That night we all went out to the best restaurant EVER! Monte Ne' sounds french I know but it's not it's Arkanfrench. Mona Ne' is an area of Arkansas that used to be a town and a resort but when the state wanted to create Beaver lake it was one of the areas that was flooded to create it. The whole thing is now under water but occasionally when the lake is real low you can walk down in the ruins of the resort and amphitheatre. This guy did a nice job explaining it and putting pics up so go here http://jamesmskipper.tripod.com/jamesmskipper/MonteNe1.html.

But where we went they served food. Monte Ne' is a restaurant just outside of where the town used to be, they serve fried chicken, mashed potatoes with country gravy, green beans, corn and desert. All Family Style. I've heard 'family style' before but usually that means simply the portions are bigger or the atmosphere of the restaurant is a little country. Here it means there are no menus, no waiting to place your order. Sit down shut your mouth and eat what we serve you, that's family style! Oh yeah it was GOOOOOOOOOD. Of course the restaurant had the old rusted farmware hanging on the walls, you couldn't call it country without it.

Here's a pic at dinner from left to right around My Mom, Sis, Her Daughter, Her Husband, Kari, Jacob, Me and Dad.

We also celebrated Jacob's Birthday that night as my parents will be on the road on his actual birthday. Chocolate fudge cake, Blackberry and Peach Cobbler, and Ice Cream in a bucket came out. We were already stuffed but it was soo good. Price was reasonable, $100.00 for all of us and that price went perfect with the plastic table cloths.

So the next day was a big waiting game for the most part. I helped Adam pick up some brick and sand for some guys putting in steps at his house. We just sat around and watched them labor in the 99 degree heat with 85% humidity. I kinda felt bad for them, but I've been working in the same for the last 5 days so not too bad. About 4:00 the part arrived and I got back to thrashing.

Just after dinner at about 7:00 I was done, got it all together and it was the moment of truth. Cranked the engine, it fired and immediately the engine ran out of control as if the gas pedal was pushed through the floor. Shutting it off quickly we went through a bunch of things that night, I called friends for advice and other things but ultimately gave up. It got to the point where it was time to figure out how we were going to get home and what we were going to do with our POS.

Kari made some calls, and she has been such a trouper through all of this. Never complained, never got mad, and always stayed positive she simply got on the computer and phone and came up with the best option. That was to rent a Uhaul and car dolly and just go home. It would be less money than renting a car, we would get a full 7 days to get home and the only draw back was that the gas mileage wouldn't be good at all. It was about $300.00 less than renting a car.

So Saturday morning came and I still was uncertain but that morning as usual I was up before the rest of the house and was going over the pictures that were taken as we disassembled the engine. There I saw a bolt that didn't look right. Once I checked it out, I realized there was a support bracket attached to it and it was jammed under part of the intake manifold creating pressure so the intake although feeling like it was tightened down properly wasn't and left an air gap. That's our problem right there! HOPE, I love hope.

I release the bolts for the intake and bolt everything back on, another try and crossed fingers and wha la she starts and idles fine, except for the pile of blue smoke billowing out of the exhaust, engine bay and the ticking I can still here in the valve train. WTF I just fixed this I just paid $1,000 to someone to go through this head and order parts to fix this problem. Now it's Saturday and I can't even call him to ask him WTF. That's it throw in the towel somebody I'm out of time, just out of time. I know I can figure it out given some time but I've got no more. We got 1800 miles and Kari has got to be back home by Wed so I can't wait any longer.

So here I sit at a kitchen table just outside of Dallas TX. 350 miles down and a bunch to go looking at an empty 17 foot Uhaul with a car dolly that is getting us 8.5 mpg and trying not to think about what the last 1800 miles will cost in gas. We came down here to see Kari's cousin Marcia and she promised us some good Texas BBQ, and we had it. Shadey Oak BBQ. Not quite as good as BBKings but good all the same. Here I really liked the fried Okra.

With that lets do a quick food recap before I close this. Buffalo NY, forgot to get wings until we were in Ohio.... Duh. Memphis, BB Kings ribs, Beer and Hush Puppies, absolutely the best. Adam made smoked pulled pork the day we arrived in Arkansas, we ate that with different sides for 3 days it was AWESOME. Monte Ne' fried chicken family style, totally cool and good, CA should have some of these. Texas BBQ, Fried Okra rocked the house, I had the meat sampler but the ribs, beef and sausage were really just average. I could have eaten a whole plate of that okra.

Today we head for Roswell, NM on back roads through the middle of TX. Should be the longest 9 hours in a car I spend in my entire life. I'm going to try to get Kari to do another show or two during it, we also have the kid riding with us so who knows maybe he will do some podcasting too.

2008-08-01T08:44:00.000-07:00

When working on anything tools and knowledge are generally the only obstacles standing in your way, in this case, due to the fact that this car comes from the north there were a few more rusted bolts that also stood in the way of progress. Some took hours of creative thinking, and some cutting, and some just simply broke off. In the end they all came apart and I was lucky that Adam has a good stock of tools which made running to the store for some special thing I needed less than it would at many peoples homes. I got most of the motor cleared off that first night and finally went to bed when two bolts that were completely rusted and out of the way provided me such a problem that sleeping on it would be the only solution.

The next morning my Dad came over and helped me work on the car. I enjoy working on this stuff with my father because we seem to have some sort of telepathic communication. There's little need for words and both of us are thinking about the problem in front of us so generally there's a solution right around the corner. The rusted shroud bolts were a perfect example, I had already decided to disconnect the exhaust below the header and started working on that, but the bolts were frozen and the O2 sensor that you had to pull out before taking off the other bolt was not coming out. We literally fumbled around with this thing for HOURS, I was expecting to drop off the head by 12 on Monday but by the time we finally got the exhaust off (only 3 bolts) it was 4.

The next challenge was the realization after the head was unbolted and the timing chain loosened that the timing chain cover was going to have to come off in spite of what the book said. There was a bolt down in the timing chain that we could get off to remove the heads but would not be able to get back on with the cover in place. The problem was now we had to break the crank pulley bolt which is put on with over 100 ft lbs and is rusted with the motor freely spinning. We finally got it by removing the heads and configuring a stop plate with a 2 X 4 and some smaller wood pieces, what a pain.

The places I had spoken to so far had given me a two day turn around if they didn't have to order parts, luckily enough someone had referred me to Paul's Machine Shop in Springdale, AR and he told me the next day he would have it done and could have any parts I needed over nighted. All the prices were similar but with the extra parts I needed to do the job right this head job was going to run near $1,200.00 with me doing the labor. That's some serious cash, in CA I think I could have gotten an exchange motor for around 700 but it's too late now.

For the rest of Tuesday Adam took us out to the local shooting range. Adam has two bitchen' AR223 Semi Automatics, one is converted to shoot 9mm and the other has a very cool 22 conversion on it. The 22's are the same size as a 223 but

1/4 of the grain and the nicest thing about the 22 conversion is that 22's cost 1/10 or less than 223's so you can just blow off shots with the only consideration of having to reload the clip all the time. We shot off at least 200 rounds and it didn't cost much.

The best part was when Kari shot the 9mm Springfield XD9 handgun. As soon as she shot it she jumped back and shot off a big F bomb right in front of Jacob, you should have seen his face it was the funniest thing I've ever seen. She went ton to shoot a few more and Jacob did real good on his shooting. He had a good cluster around his target at around 25 yards with the BB Gun. We also let him shoot the AR with the 22's, the first time he was nice and steady shooting off one at a time the looking to see where it went. The next time after seeing me pull off a couple fast volleys as soon as I gave him control of the gun the spout off about 20 rounds in succession. He did good though, held the gun steady and was pretty much on target consider he had to stand on his toes to hold the gun up on the rail and it was too heavy to hold by himself.

on Wednesday we went out on Heidi and Adam's pontoon boat, did a little fishing, swimming in 85 degree lake water and Jacob did a little tubing. It was nice to get away from the car problems for a bit and just hang out. At about 3:00 I talked to Paul and he said the parts and the motor would be ready after 4:00 so we headed over to pick them up. The only thing he didn't have was 2 replacement bolts for the exhaust and he referred me over to a bolt place to get them, after that stop we headed back for dinner.

After dinner and drinks I started working on the car myself for a little bit, got all the gasket areas cleaned up and ready to put on the heads. I got stopped by not having a tap to chase the threads on the block and finished early for the evening so I could get one in the morning.

Leaving Buffalo Smoking

2008-08-01T08:08:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone, I thought you might enjoy my podcast: SoCalTraffiCast

- - Tim and

Forget the Car have some fun

2008-07-29T16:15:00.000-07:00

We fueled up, oil up and ice up the drinks in Podunk town KY rested after a good nights sleep and great breakfast we're looking forward to a bunch of destinations and getting to Memphis another 340 Miles away. Our 1st and closest stop is the Louisville slugger factory and primarily the gift shop. The car is now running on 3 cylinders for sure but it's driving so it's no worry for now, hopefully it makes it to AR and I can review my options.

On the way to Louisville we see a sign for Thomas Edison's home and couldn't help but go buy for a little history, after a couple of wrong turns and fear the car was going to die at a light we got to this little 500 square foot home in a bad neighborhood just outside the city limits. We skipped the guided tour at $5.00 a person of the little home but got a picture taken of us by a nice lady riding by on a bike. As we jumped in the car again the GPS said we were right around the corner from the Louisville slugger factory where we only planned on getting some gifts for people back home. I didn't feel like coughing up another 10 spot to park for 5 minutes to get a picture so we just got a cheesy shot of the front of the factory and I rounded the block as Kari ran in and got gifts.

Back on the freeway the car feels great between 62 and 77 and 75 and 80 so depending on traffic I pick those points and head down toward the Jim Beam factory just 30 or so miles out of Louisville. The factory is set back in the green hills of Kentucky. The valley is perfectly undisturbed accept for the spotted casking buildings of the factory which store the brown liquor for up to 8 years as it takes on the flavor of the barrel and enriches the alcohol. We found out about the family and the different generations of heirs that have run the factory and added to the brand, the sampling of course was the best. The whole thing left me a little angry at my ancestors for not building a staple business for me to take over. We skipped Abe Lincolns birthplace just down the road because the Jim Beam factory and going by the Corvette Plant in Bowling Green was more important:

After leaving Bowling Green which didn't have much to see, just the factory (tours available but not on Saturday), and a museum and gift shop on the other side of the street, We headed down towards Memphis by way of Nashville and this is the longest straight stretch of the day. I find something similar about all the country east of Oklahoma City, it all looks the same, dense trees on either side of the road with a few farms and roads cut in between. Beautifully for a while but somewhat annoying to me as I feel a little closed in and unable to really see what the area looks like. I always feel like everything cool is just beyond those trees.

I was surprised at how fun Memphis was. We bit the bullet and got a room at the Westin just one street off of Beal street. I was supposed to eat at Corky's BBQ but it turned out that was on the other side of town and the car doesn't like in town driving so I decided we'd just stay put. Besided Beal street was closed off, you could drink walking down the street and several people told us that for good BBQ and generally great Memphis experience BB King's place is the only place to go. It must have been it was the only place with a line to get in all night long.

Once we got in and paid the cover which annoyed me because I love to hope around and sample different appetizers and paying a $10.00 cover at each place hinders that, but I guess that's the point. We got in and, luckily, got a table. Actually I don't think it was luck. They were standing room only but Kari and I kind of stuck out as out of towners and I think they profiled us as big spenders. They took us to a table near the stage and pulled the reserved sign off the top.

We ended up staying because the band was GREAT and the food was better. We split a sample plat that had fried dill pickles, pork ribs, potato skins, and BBQ Wings, this tasty little plate got us to get a half rack of ribs and I got their sweet onion hush puppies. The hush puppies were the best part of the whole meal for me, they went with the ribs, backed beans and slaw perfectly and the sweet onion gave them this great sweet salt flavor. Additionally I had a couple of BB Kings home brew, a nice rich Blondie that was very cloudy and went down smooth but rich. Upon leaving BB Kings Beal strip was hopping, bands inside clubs, bands on the street, it was a better street/club scene than I've been too anywhere in my life and I hope I have an opportunity to return.

The Westin was nice but it fit the rule, the more you pay the more you'll pay for everything else. The room was $200 plus tip for the bellman (required) and Valet $25.00. No free breakfast and if we had ordered the same meal as we ordered at the Niagara Grand Hotel for 6.95 each. It would have cost us $30.00 each plus service fees. Oh well, we're on vacation right? Next stop the Graceland Gift shop.

We had no intention on doing the tours at Graceland, it's time to get on to see my sister and we have a 5 to 6 hour drive to Arkansas and I was getting antsy about finding out what was wrong with the car and if it could be fixed. The reports from my Dad who had been calling and looking for prices on motors and heads weren't good. There's no engines exchange in the area and long blocks were $3,500.00 and would take up to 3 weeks to get. That's not going to work.

Another show

2008-07-28T19:38:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone, I thought you might enjoy my podcast: SoCalTraffiCast

- - Tim and

You've only driven how far?

2008-07-27T06:57:00.000-07:00

Shortly after hanging up the computer and almost ready for sleep the phone rings and Sayed the person I was supposed to pick up the car from first thing this morning calls to ask if I've found a car yet... "Nope I replied", he said, "the car is ready and I have all the paperwork ready to go." I thought about it for a while and called him back and agreed to the same terms we had before, we scheduled to pick up the car the next morning. 'Well that's the original plan I thought' a little uncertain as I had already accepted the cost of the rental car and was living comfortably in the security of a new car that I knew would run great and would be very comfortable.

We woke up early and had a great breakfast, finding more and more that cheaper hotels offer better service than expensive ones. At Grand Niagra, $100 a night including tax and misc fees, we had a beautifull room overlooking the falls and for breakfast we opted for the $6.95 per person room service which included Eggs, Bacon or Sausage, Toast, Pancakes, and Juice, milk or coffee. It was delivered on time and they threw in the table so we didn't have to find room on the in room table which was covered with stuff. Also the hotel provided free wifi internet service. They last Hyatt I stayed in wanted 12.95 per 24 hour period and the cheapest meal you could get taken to your room was $15.00 plus a service fee.

I digress. Getting out of the Grand Niagra hotel we rushed over to pick up the car from Sayed, it only took a few minutes cause he had the paperwork ready and we were on our way, Kari leading in the rental with the GPS. As soon as she jumped on the freeway I noticed a plume of black and blue smoke pooring out of my tailpipe when I gave the car gas. I watched it for a while and realised that this car was a POS, the deal was done and now I've got 3300 miles to go in a busted car.

After a few minutes of following Kari and going around in circles it was apparent that she was having problems with the GPS and pulled over to let me take over. She handed me the GPS and we took off, after a minute I understood the problem the GPS was set to due north which makes understanding which direction you should turn nearly impossible. After a few minutes on the freeway Kari calls me and says "You know the muffler is smoking a lot" To which I replied, "it's not the muffler it's the engine I got screwed." There was nothing to do but push on, the temperature was OK and it was obviously oil and gas that was blowing smoke out the pipe so as long as the temperature was holding and the A/C was blowing cold it would be comfortable trip, so PUSH ON.

On the way to Cleveland we stopped off at a grocery store and Advanced Auto Parts for some supplies. I checked the oil, there was none on the dipstick so I poured in an entire large bottle of Lucas Oil Additive and 2 quarts of oil to bring it up and hopefully slow down the oil consumption. This greatly reduced the amount of smoke as we left.

A little further down the road it's time for my 2nd fill up and my dad always taught me to keep a record so I knew how many miles we came, the gas mileage was around 21 MPG in a small 4cylinder, not good. At this rate with only a 10 gallon tank we would have to stop every 150 miles or so for gas, which is probably fine cause I had to pour in another quart of oil.

Arriving at Cleveland we headed directly to the Hall of Fame, I had figured out how to fake the GPS a while ago and I basically had to turn it off let it charge and then use the battery for short burst with it unplugged to get directions in critical points. The GPS makes navigating easy but this little probelm is an annoyance.

The rock and roll hall of fame was awesome, I've attached some pictures here: http://cemseller.shutterfly.com/action/?a=8AZuGLRo1atmK8&notag=1

As we left Cleveland our plan was to go down some smaller roads through Ohio's Amish country and check out the farms. We got about 100 miles down that route to a small town called Wooster, OH and determined after stopping for gas and now getting a little less than 20 MPG and 2 more quarts of oil that we don't want to be driving down little country roads in the middle of the night, we got back on the highway and headed for Columbus.

Nearing Columbus I think to myself how all this half of the country looks the same, it's just all forest with pathways cut out for farms and roads, the more I see of everything East of Oklahoma the more I realise this. What I also realised is that we were coming on Columbus OH, had been travelling all day and had only made about 300 miles of the 1286 miles you got left to go. So I told her we really need to push on past Cincinnati, besides the car was actually doing ok, driving pretty well with traffic in this state between 65 and 75 miles per hour, slower than I normally drive but I like to keep to the locals indication of what law enforcement will put up with.

We stop again for gas and 2 quarts of oil and I notice that our mileage is diminishing a little bit each time. It's going to be expensive to get all the way to AR but as long as we keep moving forward it will work out. The night is beautifull, it's so dark out here, no light to interfere with the night sky and headlights cut through the night like a knife. I am at a heightened sense of awareness through the lack of sleep, concern about the car, or just the idea that a deer could run out of the woods at any minute and the engine would be the least of our concerns. I could drive all night.

We realise that we are going through Whiskey country and wonder where the Jack Daniels and Jim Beam plants are, Sprint WIFI at your service, this thing is awesome. We look up Jack, that's too far out of the way but Jim Beam is right our of Louisville, and in Louisville is the Louisville slugger museum and just after that is Bowling Green. That's where they make Corvettes. Man we got some stops to make tomorrow on the way so we push right up to the border of Louisville and pull over to a Comfort in. $70.00 a night, Free Breakfast (With waffles and hard boiled eggs mind you), clean sheets, in room coffee and a fridge. That's what I'm talking about.

Back from Buffalo or bust

2008-07-24T16:38:00.000-07:00

Going through the security at the airport I realized we brought more electronic devices than clothes. The night before I spent 2 hours going through all the wires and making sure we have all the cables to supply the miriad of devices we felt were necessar. Power cables for the two laptops, USB cables for both Ipods, and seperate usb cables for the GPS, the Sprint Aircard (cable and instruction CD), Camera, batteries, and Power cables for the phones, not to mention a IPOD to RCA cord in case we have a tv with auxillary inputs. We looked like we were getting ready to plan a strike on Iraq at the security desk, so of course they just waived us through.

That's a lot of shit, and the last two weeks prior to this I spent a lot of grey matter trying to figure out if there was some device that would remove a couple of these. Almost bought an Ipod for the simple fact it came with GPS and a good enough web browser to maybe let me leave my laptop at home. No deal, those service plans are stupid ridiculous. I could justify it if you could use all that data you're paying for to tether a regular laptop to and get broadband, but no, so I found an aircard rental place and rented Broadband for the 13 days we are going to be gone, $157.00, OUCH.

So we sit there with two packed to the gils computer bags waiting for our flight, taking laptops and ipods out, syncing up songs and movies we didn't have a chance to yet. All the while looking utterly ridiculous as we find one of the only electrical outlets in the terminal, our week+ adventure kicking off strong and easy with the flight being on time and we even took advantage of some more leg room on our long flight from San Francisco to Washington DC. I should know that nothing is easy.

All we really wanted was to be able to get a little sleep on the redeye, we proved that even under ideal circumstances sleeping on the plane is not something that's going to work for me, at least this time. I had the middle seat and a veteran flyer came in and sat on the outside seat right next to me, within 5 minutes he was dozed off and without me even noticing I realized the had snagged control of the armrest, leaving me to try and prop up my soulder or do something else to relax that part of my body. NOthing workded and I couldnt seem to get control of the armrest again. Fortunately Kari saw how uncomfortable I was and offered to switch for th window and I was able to get aobut 3 hours sleep all told, of course Kari wasn't able to get any.

Finally we arrive in Buffalo and get ahold of Sayed, a gentleman I had talked to earlier about buying his 1999 Toyota Tercel for the drive back home. First we had to drop by the bank, I had previously checked for Wells Fargo's but after getting the rental and trying to use the GPS I was unable to because the GPS was stuck in download ing from the computer mode. Matter of fact, ultimately the best electronic device we had was the Sprint Aircard as expensive as it was, Kari was able to navigate through google maps, find banks and make transactions right over the internet. A few searches later and we were walking out of B of A with the money for the car, unfortunately Sayed wasn't as ready as he lead on to selling the car. His father the title owner wouldn't be back until the next night, so we had to start all over againlooking for a car.

Things are different here though, the economy here is incredibly depressed, 1/3 of the homes we drove by in the poorer area of Buffalo were boarded up, the rest except for a spotty few were completely run down. But it all has this very down home atmosphere. When I went to get cash from the bank the armored truck pulled up to deliver the cash for the day, not only was he by himself but he also just brought the cash and change in in clear plastic where you could totally see all the money, that's just insane. I really don't like this place, even Niagra Falls is unatractive except for the actual falls.

More next time sooooo tired, hopefully i'll have a car.

Let's buy an RV

2008-07-22T22:16:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone, I posted an episode to my podcast, SoCalTraffiCast.

Click this link to check it out:
SoCalTraffiCast - 07-15-08 - Episode 078

- Tim and

You'll get a kick out of this.

2008-07-15T22:22:00.001-07:00

My wife and I are off on an adventure. We've already booked the tickets so there's no talking us out of it.

We are going to Niagra Falls and taking a journey of this country by car. But I don't want to drive there and back 1 way should do the trick, so we bought plane tickets to Buffalo NY and I am buying a car over the internet for us to pick up there. It won't be anything special, just some POS that runs good and has air that isn't rusted to the ground and will get us back here to Cali.

Today, I got the idea that maybe we should buy a motorhome, and my friend wanted one too so we thought we'd split the cost of it. Hell there's a lot of motorhomes down there for as little as 6k. Some look pretty nice, so that's pennies. Then I did the math:

The trip I got planned is 3,200 miles over 10 to 12 days. I checked and the cheap motorhomes are 454's or 350 for small ones and they seem to all get between 6 to 8 mpg and that's if you keep you're foot out of it. Let's say they aver 7. So

3,200 miles divided by 7mpg equal 457 miles. At 4.35 a gallon

Fucking 1,988.00 in Gas....

Compared to the cars I'm looking at most +30mpg but let's say 25 I'd only spend 500 or less in gas. That's an additional 1500.00 to drive my apartment around with me. Sure I got a fridge, shower, bed and shitter. But for 1,500.00 I can sleep in a big room with a tub to relax in, splash in a pool in the evening and have someone else cook for me

A new fourth of July Episode

2008-07-07T16:00:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone, I thought you might enjoy my podcast: SoCalTraffiCast

- - Tim and

I thought I had it.

2008-07-04T13:58:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid my Dad always told me that "everything worth inventing was already invented and there's no way that I was going to think up anything new or original." Not the most encouraging words, but as many things are in father in son relationships, this was just something that provided me the motivation to prove him wrong.

My whole life has been one of inventing and thinking of new ways of doing things. I don't know if it's genetic or it has everything to do with that deafening voice of my father's echoing in my head, I got to prove him wrong. I've had some successes, although of no consequence for the rest of the world, small inventions, such as advertising flyer's, and engineering contraptions for things around the house have given me pleasure and dismayed or sometimes horified my wife.

So I had a new thought, a new invention. Actually it has been bouncing around my brain since the day I learned how a torque converter on a car works. I'll spare you the technical details but I always wondered why you couldn't adapt a torque converter to be used like a clutch, and I was pretty sure I knew at least a couple of ways to try it. It was of no real motivation to me, I figured someone had already thought of it, it's sooo easy that the only reason it wasn't being used somewhere is that it really doesn't work.

Recently I found a real good use for such a thing. A torque converter that could totally be disengaged from the engine would allow the engine to free spin while the car was driving. By disengaging the transmission cars could coast for a much longer period of time under their own momentum or when on a downslope. This could save a significant amount of gas mileage especially when coupled with other ideas I have.

Thustly I decided to do the check, and this one my father wins, partly. Here is the patent from 1974 for the "Torque Converter Clutch" http://www.google.com/patents?id=0x0-AAAAEBAJ&dq=Controlled+capacity+torque+converter+clutch. There are several variations accompanying most if not all of my ideas of how it could be done. From Hydraulic valving to a simple throw out bearing design not unlike a regular clutch. So my Dad wins part of it, but how this is used in a car to increase fuel efficiency with my other ideas is still out there. Really, the hard part is done, the invention is there, now it's all about application.

Catalina trip

2008-06-29T22:57:00.000-07:00

This weekend I took my first trip to Catalina in our 30' Newport "Knotabus" with Dave Galey (the other 50% owner of the boat) and his friend who helped a lot with the build Bill. Dave as I've mentioned before is the youngest 79 year old I've ever met. He seems intent of living every second of his life and puts me to shame on the risks he's willing to take. This weekend was no different.

I know that I tend to be overly anxious about situations that I have not done yet, maybe even to the point of paranoid, sailing to Catalina for the first time was no exception. MOstly I was worried about where and how we would gt a mooring or anchor than anything else, would there be one available? what would be do if there wasn't one? Silly I guess but I wonder about such things.

We had wonderfull seas and winds all the way, our time from San Pedro to Avalon was around 4 hours on the way there. We would have made much better time if we hadnt aimed way too high and been on track for Twin Harbors, we didn't bear down until we were on the edge of the lee of the Island and that slowed us way down.

When we got there we pulled into position outside of the inner harbor and when harbor patrol came by the informed us they were out of moorings inside and we had to moor in the outer harbor in front of a huge Condominium complex that was just barely under construction last time I was there over 10 years ago. We went to shore hoping that the seas would settle down a lot by the time we went to bed as we were ricking quite a bit.

Catalina down town hasn't changed we were tired and my foot still hurt from breaking my toe last week so we just got some food a momento or two and started to head back to the boat. The sea taxi's are very cool and I thought to myself that they must have an also large prop, as the driver was able to stop or back up on a dime by thanging gears. When we got back to the boat the rocking hadn't subsided. I tried moving the aft mooring line from the adjacent side as the bow line to the opposite side, this helped tremendously but I think may have been the cause of another problem later that night.

NO SLEEP FOR THE WEARY

After a couple more drinks and upgrading Dave from Early Times to a few sips of Fighting Cock 103 proof whisky, he played the guitar and sung some Irish Chanties, badly and we hit the sack. That's where the fun ended, trying to sleep on that rocking, banging, groaning ship proved absolutely impossible. First it was the normal stuff, the banging of the head door, easily repaired with some napkins, the rocking which I thought might make me sick, but really just kept me from relaxing. And then came the groaning, as the swells came strong the whole boat would twist and the wood in the boat would shift and groan, and grind. The next day I decided to blame this on my mooring configuration which helped with the rocking but put a load on the boat to try and hold it flat.

I still have to get the boat tuned so all of the shrouds aren't quite right. A couple of them where a little loos and that echoed through that fiberglass hull like a concert speaker in an empty auditorium. Bill finally got this fixed by tieing the shrouds together putting tention on all of them. Then a small slide that I had on the sailtrack holding up the gooseneck to a more desired point fell off and started sliding back and forth across the deck like nails on a chalkboard Bill broke first and dragged himself out of bed to get it.

Out of all of us Dave is the only one that got much sleep, I think the little extra whiskey he had helped but the quarterberth in retrospect looks more insulated from all the noises that were driving Bill on the couch and me in the Vberth so crazy. I tried drowning them out iwth the Ipod, listening to classical music all to no avail, finally about 3:30 or so I just decided to watch The Dukes of Hazzard on my Ipod and gave up on the idea of sleeping, next time I'm getting a room.

We all got out of bed about 6:00 and were anxious to find our own bed. By 7:00 we were underway motoring out in the calm lee of Catalina Island. Exiting the lee of the island we found 10 knots of wind, put of sail and close reached all the way back to San Pedro. Bill learned how to work the tiller for the first time, and Dave got sick (the downside of the extra whiskey).

We passed the San Pedro lighthouse at 10:40, took down sail and motored the rest of the way since Hurrican Gulch was living up to it's name and blowing 20 knots or so right out of our harbor, admittedly I lost my hat while taking down the main and none of us felt like practicing our MOB skills and getting it. We were docked, washed down, cleaned out, put away and in our cars driving away by 12:00.

Pics to click here

Another Armando Show

2008-06-24T22:13:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone, I thought you might enjoy my podcast: socaltrafficasts Podcast

- - Tim and

Bankrupt big oil, plant Tomatoes

2008-06-20T22:15:00.000-07:00

OK, so it's not solving world hunger for oil or a full on boycot of the gas companies. It's my little way to cut down dependency on things that require a lot of shipping to get to market. Since I don't have the equipment to build my own Television, computer or 99.99% of all the things that I purchase I thought I'd start small.

So I planted some tomatoes, and green beans.

I've never grown a garden before so this should be interesting, here's some pics of my son and I GETTING IT DONE.

Father's Day Podcast

2008-06-18T09:26:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone, I thought you might enjoy my podcast: socaltrafficasts Podcast

- - Tim and

A new Podcast

2008-06-13T09:20:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone, I thought you might enjoy my podcast: socaltrafficasts Podcast

- - Tim

Another Show

2008-06-11T21:41:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone, I thought you might enjoy my podcast: socaltrafficasts Podcast

- - Tim

5.6% improvement

2008-06-10T09:47:00.000-07:00

First I wanted to share with you all a picture of the FIRST peanut butter hydrogen generator that melted down on the first trip.

Next I want you to know that we got through our first full tank through the Mercedes Diesel with the Hydrogen Generator and experience an appartent 5.6% increase in fuel economy over our average. Not a bunch but it's something and considering it cost less than $20.00 to build it. That's a result.

If you try this at home DON'T USE A PEANUT BUTTER CONTAINER. More to come.

New Show Check it

2008-06-09T21:13:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone, I posted an episode to my podcast, socaltrafficasts Podcast.

Click this link to check it out:
SoCalTraffiCast - 06/08/08 - Episode 069

- Tim

What A boom

2008-06-05T21:54:00.001-07:00

I wanted to test the Hydrogen Generator to make sure I was making something flamable. I tied a nitrile glove onto the tube of the generator and let it run for about 5 minutes until the glove expanded. I hung it from a string and hit it with a blowtorch. I wasn't expecting that big of a boom. It echoed through our subdivision like a shotgun blast, I thought for sure the cops were coming.

Anyway, I'm making HHO, Yeehaaaaa

She Climbed my Mast and my wife didn't mind

2008-06-05T20:48:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone, I thought you might enjoy my podcast: socaltrafficasts Podcast

- - Tim

Peanut Butter Hydrogen Failed, Maybe Applesauce....

2008-06-03T13:50:00.000-07:00

So the Hydrogen Generator overheated and melted the peanut butter containter. So here's the change. I got an applesauce containter (Basically and Mason Jar) used some old rubber shock dampeners to create protection for the Anode to go through the metal lid and put the whole thing back together. It's in the car as of today and we'll see how we do this week.

Peanut Butter Hydrogen Failed, Maybe Applesauce....

2008-06-03T13:45:00.000-07:00

My Hydrogen Hybrid

2008-05-25T19:49:00.001-07:00

With 5.00 diesel currently and regular catching up I finally decided to test the claims that you can supplement your gas with Hydrogen created by the estra electricity generated in your car.

Some claims are simple, and some claims are definetely ridiculous, but some of the concept makes sense. One guy claimed you could run the entire car for hundreds of miles on water and a lawnmower carburetor. Others have incredibly complex designs using electrical circuit boards, complex wiring, and instructions an engineer friend of mine couldn't understand (yeah i got suckered into the $30.00 for the bullshit designs).

So the other day I took the simplest of the concepts, one I had around or a long time and made it. It's simple and involves this extensive list of supplies:

One Plastic Peanut Butter Container

12 ga Electrical Wiring

2' of 5/16" rubber vacuum hose

2 Brass 5/16 fittings

(following all stainless steel)

1 3' length of 1/4" threaded bar

12 3/4" washers

12 1/4" nuts

that's it, I'm out $20.00 mostly because I had to buy a 3' length of sst threaded bar $12.00 bucks and I only needed 1'. Anyway it's real simple to build, just an anode and a cathode run the tubing out and into the intake. Here's an example of how the anode and cathode go together:

I'll keep you updated with gas mileage results for now we've been getting almost exactly 24 miles per gallon on average.

I'm Bleeding... Not as much as I should

2008-05-24T10:57:00.000-07:00

Feel like gas prices are bleeding you out of house and home, well not as much as they should be. Here's a chart showing the rise of gas prices over the past 6 years in relation to the cost of crude oil. Something that we know goes into it but is never closely looked at by the media.

It's not just the chart, it's true, the cost of crude has risen dramatically faster than the cost of gasoline in the last 6 months, only slightly faster since 2004, and tracked fairly closely prior to that. It could be said that the cost of gas is way underpriced based on the cost of the raw product.

Matter of fact in June 2002 the average cost per gallon of gas in San Bernardino County was $1.33 and Crude $22.00 a barrell. One gallon of gas was 6.05% the cost of a barrell of oil. Today with the a gallon running $4.00 and a Barrell running $133.00 the cost of a gallon of gasoline is a bargain price of only 3.00% of the cost of a barrell of oil. That's half the cost since 2002, so in pure economic devices we are getting a bargain.

Diesel has tracked it a little better and is more in line with the graph of the oil (I Think) I can't seem to get a chart for diesel. It makes sense however because diesel is basically just oil, there's little processing, no additives (such as ethanol) to skew it. Also because it does not get as much media attention it is not held down for the sake of public interest as regular gas may be. I've never heard a congressman questioning the oil industry over the cost of Diesel.

So what does it mean to have such a sudden and hard gap between crude and Gas. In my opinion it means that the government has been asking the gas companies to keep the price low anticipating lower oil prices in the short term. Or they may be doing it simply because of the public pressure. Either way if oil maintaines it's current price or close to expect substantially higher prices in the near future.

As it is you are already paying for the higher diesel in your groceries, and other commodities so soon inflation will have no choice to run rampant over all consumer goods. Gas will catch up, it has no choice, I'm left scared.

New Shows Up at the Podcast

2008-05-14T09:25:00.000-07:00

Hey we're back strong. For those of you that have missed out you got to go and check out the new episodes:

www.socaltrafficast.com

liz murray
The indians are fighting back
Soboba Casino
Bouncy
Cell pHone law
texting is more dangerous

travis childers
diane warren
truffle
mississippi special election
dare you to move
gina carano
first time ever i saw your face
obstetric fistula
west virginia primary results
model behavior

20% STD at high schools

2008-05-11T21:04:00.000-07:00

I was recently schocked to hear that a blood drive in the Redlands School District, the 2nd highest ranked schoold district in California, had a 20% Sexually Transmitted Disease rate. How was this discovered? A blood drive showed that 20% of the schools blood had to be thrown out for various STD's.

Now I am all far teen sex, 100%, no doubt. I have come to believe in my life that we get WAY to out of wack over sex, who has it, with whom, how often, and what gender. I'm almost envious of porn stars who have discovered how to have guilt free sex with various partners in various ways without the burden of moral stigma.

Let's be truthfull, concensual sex has no moral issues. NO way no how. How can you have a thoughtfull meaningful fun experience with another person who is as willing and open to it as you and cal it immoral. It harms no one, it does not break the cardinal rule. The negative stigma of sex has beeen propigated by churches and mostly foul priests who's goal was only to control the people within their influence.

Matter of fact, the old testament had few restrictions on sex. The greeks were very open to sex and the satisfaction of body and mind. Spartan women had the option of choosing a mate for sex and another for propigation, allowing them to pick someone who would breed a stronger better child over their chosen sexual partner.

Now, we have children with a 20% STD rate.... How does that fit within my belief. You could say that my philosophy has it's faults, however, it's not my philosophy that has run amuck in our local schools. Matter of fact it's quite the opposite. The Conservative Christian Movement is strong in our local city, and has struck down most seperation of church and state laws, including leaving the ten commandments posted in the local court.

The continued removal of proper sex education from the schools and the ignorant belief of religious parents that a promis and a ring will be enough to keep their children from taking part in the natural and overwhelming influence of their hormones to have sex. We are fighting nature at a time when nature is pressuring us into the very thing we are trying to prevent. Sex education, preventative measures, honesty, and easily accessible STD testing is the way to help our children.

I can't believe that a parent that was once a teen would believe that Teens will simply "do what we say!" Teens will experiment, push the limits and challenge authority. Many times, unfortunately, this comes through lies and misdirection simply to make our parents stay out of our lives.

EAT THAT!

Will High Priced Gas Kill Costco

2008-05-06T20:14:00.000-07:00

There may be a ray of hope on the distant shores of High gas prices and outrageous transportation costs for local grown grocery stores, farmers markets, and even local manufacturers. The high price of gas my destroy Costco's advantage.

According to a recent study study published by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, in Ames, Iowa transportation of food products has shot up 22% since 1981 (1). The study did not outline the source of this, but a regional look at the nation will show that since 1981 the increase of mega stores, exotic foods, and cost cutting warehouses have increased. The major factor for the mega low prices of such national chains is the ability for one location to purchase a HUGE amount of food at such a reasonable price that the additional transportation to get it to all it's local stores is more than recouped in the profit.

50 years ago if you had a small shopping list like this:

1. Milk
2. Bread
3. Clothes
4. Bank
5. Fruit and Vegetables
6. Dog food
7. Cough Syrup

You may make 7 stops in your local downtown district at separate specialty stores that either made the item locally or right in their shop. Today you'd make one stop at your local WalMart or Vons and take care of the whole group with no thought as to where it came from. WalMart has all it's manufacturer's basically 'drop off' their goods to them in North Western Arkansas at the best possible price and then, due to historically record low transportation costs in the US, deliver them all over the country in their own fleet of trucks. This is all intended to keep the price down and is LOW COST of Transportation driven.

A return to local values. As $5.00+ gallon gas is likely within the next few years and double that within 10 you may find value again at your local fruit stand, clothing store, and bakery. They keep their transportation costs down by making sure that their raw product or end product only makes one trip; to their store and into your hands. Sure if you live in Arizona this means that a Kiwi is going to be harder to find, and if you live in the North, Oranges are going to be expensive. AND if you live in the middle of nowhere, where there's no sustainable land, YOU might just have to move.

(1) http://www.blogger.com/www.leopold.iastate.edu/pubs/staff/ppp/food_mil.pdf

Knotabus, Shakedown Run

2008-05-02T09:52:00.000-07:00

May 1st, 2008
Knotabus took her first shakedown run today. We left San Pedro Harbor at about 11:30 am and ran down wind down to Long Beach Harbor and around Chaffee Island in light breeze until nearing the islands.
After rounding we saw another similar size sloop about 1/4 mile ahead and decided to see what Knotabus had in her, she favors a port tack close hauled and we made up to 6 knots drawing the fleeing boat closer to us with every gust. When we got up to about 10 boat lengths from her she bore away onto a reach and headed for harbor around White island and we continued on a close reach towards the Spruce Gooses Dome Shelter.
After tacking and headed for the breakwater the wind continued to pick up and white caps were forming in the harbor. We tried the reefing system I just got rigged this morning, Bob Lohrs and I made quick work of the two line system and reset the sail, now the sail set even better as the tack line in the sail seems to have shrunk over the years leaving a loose pocket in the main when full up.
Keith our helmsman kept Knotabus pointed straight as an arrow in spite of the strong winds and harsh heal created by the oversized Genoa, we were well past her sweet spot most of the time and you could feel Knotabus pushing hard, relieving the knotmeter from it's wet environment most of the time. Knotabus favors this starboard tack for some reason and we made up to 6 knots at times.
Pushing hard and loading the sails I noticed on Port tacks mast bend to the leeward side and on opposite tacks brought in the turnbuckle which helped our speed and balance from earlier but there's a lot of tuning left to go. Having Bob and Keith was wonderful, Bob's Lifetime of sailing experience helped me to push hard to find out what would break, and stuff BROKE.
We couldn't bring in the Genoa more than 10 % because the furling line got gnarled up in the furler because I forgot to feed it. Stupid mistake but pointed out the need for me to replace the gromets on the gunwale that guided the line and provided a little tension to it.
The new line I replaced the Mainsheet witch is shrinking a little too much under tension and slipped so we had to use the Winch on the Deck to hold the line, and then the winch started to slip up off it's post, the C clip is gone, melted away with time.
The boom shape is controlled all by the mainsheet as it is centrally mounted, meaning the traveller is more important than on most boats. While beating hard and at the winds peak Bob and I both had to yank on the traveler and when we put it back in the cleat, the clam cleat spewed out tiny white ball bearings rendering it useless, but it held that set so we left if there.
On the Port side, the primary Winch works fine in light winds but under a lot of load the locking mechanism stopped engaging so we had to run all tacks on the starboard side, something I don't mind doing, and will do many times when I'm short handed. I hate leaning over the lee side rail to crank a winch.
Oh yeah, and then there's my laptop. I thought secured well enough on the map table, slid off on a hard tack hitting the floor with an all mighty thud. I never buy add on insurance but on this laptop the lady at Dell was giving me such a good deal I did, guess it's going to pay off cause that laptop is BUST.
We got back in with not too much difficulty, just had to pull the Genoa down on deck instead of furl it, and I got some work to do on it, one thing it desperately needs is some tell tales. It's like I'm flying blind up there. All in all a Great day, thank you to Bob and Keith for helping me I owe an insurmountable amount of thank yous.

Charlie Wilson's War

2008-04-30T23:21:00.001-07:00

I watched Charie Wilson's war tonight. I am a big Tom Hanks fan and he did a great job a usual, all beit a very dry and boring film that occassionally caught my attention with the opportune to see some naked chick, the movie just didnt' go anywhere.

I understand that it was a story that must be told, in that people other than the president are typically the influence behind great things. I also enjoyed that a very unreligious persona could have such a very strong influence in religous matters.

It amazes me that even today religious wars keep going on throughout the world, when are we going to get over the fact that our un meritied un tested beliefs are bullshit.

Donate Life California

2008-04-29T11:06:00.001-07:00

Did you know that the pink sticker on your license WILL NOT ensure that you
become a donor.

Did you know that in Europe there is a 0 wait for organ donors, because
Europeans are automatically enrolled as a donor and you have to opt out if
you don't want it.

Did you know that 90% of Americans want some or all of their organs donated
but less than 10% have signed up properly to do it.

I, Timothy Ehrlich, have signed up with the Donate Life California Organ &
Tissue Donor Registry. Please join me in saving and enhancing the lives of
thousands of people in need of your help. It took me only a few minutes to
sign up -- minutes that could mean years of life for someone else.

To sign up or for more information, please visit
http://www.donateLIFEcalifornia.org.

A letter to Jerry Dale Ehrlich

2008-04-29T06:03:00.000-07:00

This letter was written to my Uncle Jerry Dale Ehrlich who authored the book The Platonic Bible.

You can look up available copies on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Jerry%20Ehrlich&page=1

April 29th, 2008

I just finished your book last night. I want to thank you for giving it to me...

About 9 years ago when I decided that the world was not flat, and that the stars were not painted each night by god's hand but a vast endless cosmos where anything is possible, my views changed forever. No longer was I willing to accept on pure faith that the answer to all unknowns, or the dispute for known scientific facts was god. I could not at that time believe in a god that would create so many different religions, religions that fought and killed over fundamental belief systems that had no proof or validity to them.

It was then that I decided that there could be no god, the vastness of space itself answered the 'where we came from myth,' the unknowingness of infinity, the possibility that one planet in 10 to 100 could foster life. We are here out of shear chance and chance governs our life, it governs our fortune, our health, and our very date of death. Our only control is the very reaction to those circumstances, how one will excel at the knowledge of one's death and another will shrivel up and die.

Subconscious becomes our god, our opportunist, our governess. Our willingness to believe that anything is possible and belief that we could succeed in that. That belief comes not in some deity that has an unaltering plan for us but in ourselves to go beyond our limitations. If I could believe in a god, plato's would make the most sense to me, but even in Plato's belief of god and the beginning of time he gave god the limitation of physical law.

I am going to start reading Charles Eucken's the Problem of Human Life (translated version) and was wondering if it made it into your collection of stored knowledge, if so I'd love to continue our discussion through that book. I'll apologize in advance for the agonizingly slow pace of my reading.

What do you mean too much heal!

2008-04-28T08:45:00.000-07:00

SA posted this www.sailinganarchy.com and stated this is too much heal. Looks just about right to me:

However dragging that lazy line overboard like that is just poor form.

Gas Prices

2008-04-20T08:07:00.001-07:00

As we are all looking at the possiblity of $4.00/gal gasoline I found this chart showing the annual rise in gas prices over the last 6 years. It's hard to believe we were only paying a little over one dollar just six years ago.

Meanwhile we seem to be slow to the gate in replacing gas with alternative fuels, energies, and light weight cars.

Edgar and I did the math the other day to see if it would justify us to trade in the Mercedes for a SMART car which gets about 43 miles per gallon. Here's a basic of how the math stacked up.

1983 Mercedes Diesel

Annual Driven Mileage Estimate: 26,000
Current MPG: 23
Average Cost per Gallon 4.20
Annual Payments 0
Cost of Operation 4,747.82

SMART CAR

Annual Driven Mileage Estimate: 26,000
Stated MPG 43
Estimated cost per gallon 3.90
Cost of Operation 5958.14

Of course this is simple math, I didn't take into account repairs on the 1983 Mercedes, or Increase in Insurance on the SMART Car. The reason for this is because although you can say that the new car would costless to maintain that is not always true. At 26,000 miles a year all cars are expensive to maintain and factory warranties would be burned up awfull quick. I think that since we only pay $200 a year liabilit on the Mercedes and would have to pay full coverage on the SMART car it would probably wash over a 5 year period, not to mention the new taxes and registration.

So either way, I guess gas isn't too expensive. It doesn't justify even the most drastic move of changing a paid in full vehicle.

What THE

2008-04-18T12:15:00.000-07:00

This is Speedboat, look at the size of that rig. Guy's got to be making up for something