Swampscott Dories in Swampscott

Thanks to Wayne Webster for sending us this cool photo of Swampscott dories and other rowing boats on the Lynn Swampscott line ostensibly in the early fifties.

Change in Priorities

I have to install some baseboards around the deck door trim today.  Will try to fit that around all of the Nanepashemet General Contracting activity and also finish some drywall in the hallway before the Labor Day weekend..   But the most important activity... even more important than posting in this Blog.... is getting a workout in.
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My dieting efforts have failed miserably.   Just have no ability to shy away from bread, pizza and pasta.   So an upgraded regimen of exercise on the Cybex, the treadmill and the addition of pushups and pullups has to be added into a daily lifestyle change.
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In the past, exercise has taken second position to the demands of job and career.  But I have to switch this priority and convince myself that losing weight and getting into shape is more important than meeting every job obligation on a timely basis.
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Of course, what you eat is important too.  But I already know that I can't win that battle.  Maybe will be victorious in a skirmish every once in awhile.   Workouts have to lead the charge.

Hot Air from Irene

Hurricane Irene has come and gone bringing an incredible amount of "hot air".
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The wind blew, rain fell, idiot boat owners with a southern exposed mooring who refused to pull their boats had their boats wash on shore. The incredible fact here is not the "power" of the storm. It is the stupidity of the boat owners.
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Streams overflowed their banks and there was a lot of moving video of property owners cleaning up mud. Lots of quotes like "Imagine what it could have been."
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Such a rush to dramatize a wind storm with some flooding and power outages.

Hurricane Hype

The rain stopped and there is a patch of blue sky over West Shore Drive.  We have obeyed Governor Patrick's plea to "stay indoors" and have survived President Obama's "historic hurricane".   And the panic ridden newscasters in their parkas and rain gear did their best to inform us of the terror outside.
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The important thing is that we are alive and safe.   Actually I'm really tired of this bullshit consisting solely of  Politicians hype and newscasters shameful misrepresentation of a little wind and rain.
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One day, the big one will hit.   And this "Boy Who Cried Wolf" routine will backfire on cynics like me who get so irritated by media phonies treating us like assholes.  But I have to believe that we will make our own assessment when that day comes... rather than listening to these buffoons.

Hurricane Irene Report

The wind is blowing. I saw some leaves and branches moving on the trees. This is a disaster! I'm writing my name and ss# on my arm with a magic marker so that my corpse can be identified when this bitch Irene is through.
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It is so freaking crazy out there that George Stepanopoulos had to come in and take the helm from the ABC GoodMorning America weekend crew.  Thanks George for that heroic act.  Maybe there is a little hope after all.
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But.... I just don't know what to do because I haven't had any instructions this morning from President Obama and Governor Patrick.
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The breeze just came in the window and the curtains moved.   OMG!!!!  This is it!

Watch the Storm

Weather Wimps

All Hurricane... All the Time.   Hurricane Irene can kiss my ass.   It's already downgraded to a category 1 storm as it hits land in the Carolinas.
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Technology has turned us into wimps.  Just because you see a bunch of clouds in radar, it becomes freak out time.  Already our Governor Deval Patrick has declared a state of emergency and is telling us to make sure we have food and flashlights.  And the President has added his tips on how to survive this Holocaust.
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"Remember to exhale shortly after you inhale, and don't forget to wipe your ass whenever you defecate with a good quality toilet paper". 
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No... neither Barack nor Michelle has said this... yet.  But I won't be freaking surprized when they do.

Tuna lips said...

Plain speakin' especially that part about poopin'.

Weather WhaleEye

For the record, I'm not going to pull the WhaleEye out of the water as Hurricane Irene threatens to hit us square on Sunday.
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From where my mooring is... a mile from the entrance to Salem Harbor on the north side of the Marblehead Peninsula..... it's hard to conceive that the storm coming up from the South could strain the hold of the mooring with its embedded mushroom anchor.
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And I hope to get some serious fishing in on the WhaleEye as the Blues and Stripers migrate south from the Gulf of Maine in September.
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So I'm going to take the risk and weather the storm.  Plus I have insurance.

A Haven in New Haven.

An Earthquake on the East Coast.... the threat of a Hurricane this weekend.... Great White Sharks lurking in shallow waters on Cape Cod..... this place is starting to feel a tad dangerous.  In the middle of it all, my trip to New Haven hit paydirt with the chance to tie into a nice piece of recurring business.
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I could say something like..."Being a Mountain of a Man means that you can't let earthquakes, hurricanes and sharks affect your day"....  but maybe I'll just leave it alone.
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Back to New Haven tomorrow.

Pisc said...

Go to Frank Pepe's on Wooster Street for a great pie. Typically lands in the top 2 for NY Neapolitan pizza in the good ole USA.

Amazon to the Rescue

Just when you think that the day is not going to get any more boring, you find out that you can now search inside my Nanepashemet Book on Amazon... and the day totally redeems itself!!!!!
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I know that the damn thing is expensive, but now you can search on Amazon to see if I happened to have pathetically mentioned you even once!
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That's got to be worth something.
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Click HERE to get to the Amazon site, order the book, and completely rev up the rest of your summer!

Blahs

Late summer blahs.  Even for this pathetic Blog.
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I don't want to bitch about the President having another vacation.
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Could care less that Kim Kardashian got married.
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Not interested in Gaddafi losing his coveted dictatorship of Libya.
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Even the phoney, self absorbed Good Morning American ABC talking heads are not stirring me up.
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Like I said.... Definitely the Blahs.

Social Calendar

Big Sunday shaping up.  Heading over to see Mike and his girlfriend, Pam, at the Salem Waterfront Hotel for brunch as they cool down from the 7 mile roadrace in Gloucester.  Then the Johnson's with Amanda and her man from California are due to drop by for a visit.   Finally, we have to head over to the Salem Country Club for dinner with Harvey and Lisa, where Lou Panakio is going to highlight the improvements to the Club for us.
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On top of all of this, we are recuperating this morning from an evening of revelry with  Jim and Kathy Peabody.
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Being a Mountain of a Man means that you have to shuffle a lot of stuff on your social calendar from time to time.  

Hope and Change... but mostly Hope.

I'm tired of everyone who would deny the President and his family a 10 day vacation in Martha's Vineyard.   The plunging stock market can wait.  The 10% joblessness rate can wait.  The useless loss of American lives in Afganistan can wait.   Time for a little much deserved R and R.
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Do you think I'm saying this because I just haven't felt confident enough to leave Nanepashemet Telecom for my own vacation this summer?
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Maybe that's so.

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But I have some really important stuff to take care of at my company.

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It's just not as stable as the way our President has guided the country.  So he goes, and I slug away.
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It's not that I'm  jealous of the President.  But I am truly sick and tired of this lightweight who seems so inadequate as he draws the salary of the Chief Executive of the United States. 
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Hope and Change... but mostly Hope.

Web Site Feedback

Peeps -
I did a quick rewrite of the Nanepashemet Telecom web site today to reflect the fact that we have widened our focus beyond the wireless industry and have started to take on more traditional project management in the site acquisition and construction management segments.
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Appreciate if you would hit the site and give me a little feedback.
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http://www.nanepashemet.com/

9:35 AM Pisc said...

The black background should be a lighter color.

Some stock pictures would improve it.

Some fast statistics (permitted X number of sites, including tough to zone municipalities like _____); reduced time cycle accomplishments;

Throw the PMP training and certification, that is good for a Google hit or three.

A statement about Elsier's RF knowledge and how integration with the RF design team is essential to proper siting. You are not task masters, you are project managers... . except having worked around you, a core competency is horse whipping people to get the job done. So you could go with that, too.

Unbroken

Just finished reading "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand, which is the story of Louis Zamperini's extraordinary life as an American Olympic Athlete who was imprisoned by the Japanese in WWII.
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In the Berlin Olumpics 5000 meter men's track and field event, he received the praise of Adolph Hitler for his furious finish.
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He survived over 40 days on a raft in the Pacific during which time he was strafed by Japanese aircraft then utimately picked up by a Japanese naval vessel after drifing over 2000 miles.
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During the next two years in Japanese prison camps, he endured unimaginable torture at the hands of sadistic prison guards. 

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Zamperini has since forgiven his Japanese captorshaving embraced Christianity, but it is hard to read this book without feeling disgust at the brutality of the Japanese with their atrocities of human enslavement with massive rape, genocide, and torture.  Their policy of "kill all POW's" in the event of their possible liberation and their mass murder of Chinese, Polynesian, Korean and other civilians puts them shoulder to shoulder with the Nazis.
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Like the Nazi's, they viewed themselves as a superior race, when in fact their actions made them sub-human. Isn't it ironic that within the framework of our own lives, the cultures that proclaimed themselves as superior were morally and humanly the opposite?
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Zamperini is still alive and lives in California.
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I came to this book by way of Ryan who received it from Pat Piscatelli in a class move of sending it to FreshAyer.
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A riveting read.

Banjo Fretboard Practice

Janet Davis, author of the Janet Davis Ultimate Banjo Songbook, says that if  you practice the major chords up and down the fretboard .... taking a chord a month, following the Circle of Fifths, and pick out the root notes.......at the end of a year, you will have memorized all of the note positions on the entire fretboard.
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A month a chord seems like a long time... why couldn't you shorten it to a week a chord???  And practice the chromatic and pentatonic scales for these keys at the same time?   That would see the whole thing done in three months.
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This week is C Major week and next week is G Major week.

Nothing to It but to Do It.

A big push this weekend to trim out the deck door and staircase.  Homan Electric installed the lighting yesterday and this project actually sees a possibly complete status if I can catch a wave of energy and motivation this morning.
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I have all of the exterior and interior trim pre-primed stock purchased from Peabody Building Supply and there is nothing to it but to do it.
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The Grandkids, Will and Ethan are due as well, and we will be heading out for some FreshAyer tomorrow.   Lots to look forward to.

Focus Guitar

Thanks to some kind advice from Construction Industry Recruiter Brendan Ahern, I have changed my guitar purchase focus from the Yamaha to a Breedlove Atlas Stage D25/SR Acoustic Electric Guitar.

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Even though it's a lot more expensive, I believe it will be worth the wait to save up for it.

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In the meantime, I'm happy to concentrate my musical stylings to my Gold Star FE100 Banjo, which is a hell of a quality instrument itself.

Tuna Lips said...

Under 6 months on yonder countdown clock, I spies. Sounds like a proper time-herizin to take on some project entertainin' for the rest of us. Perhaps a chow regimen rich in walnuts, or maybe learnin' on pickin' that there banjo, Scruggs style. It will make time pass with ease, like a turd outta that Senator Barney feller's buttocks, on account of the afermenshuned walnut stew.

Newsweek Magazine - Fair and Balanced

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All of that chatter about print media like the New York Times, Boston Globe and Newsweek magazine being liberally biased is just plain bunk.

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These fine publications are professionally dedicated to the highest standards of objective, unbiased journalism.

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Anyone can see that Newsweek equally protrayed Michele Bachmann  and Michelle Obama.  Except for the crazy eyes pose and "Queen of Rage" caption, it is a virtually identical portrayal.

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Fair and Balanced.

Sawhorses for the Pram Repairs

After a reasonable search to find some free sawhorse plans on line, I settled for this knock down version and hope to make two or more of these to work on the pram and store it off of the ground in the winter.  In the summer, they can be knocked down and stored under the deck.
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I probably have enough waste stock from the deck project to whip these together by the weekend.
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My version will be from 2x stock rather than the 1x4's specified here.

Maine Respite

We came mighty close to attending the Maine Lobster Festival this weekend.
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 Instead we went to the Owl's Head Transportation Museum in Rockland which is a world class collection of primarily automobiles... incredibly clean and high end.... a first rate take and truly a must see in the Maine Down East region.

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The highlight of the museum visit was an air show featuring a WWII American Corsair fighter plane flying in manuveres with one of only two remaining  a Japanese Zero's in existence.   The power and speed of these fighters were impressive, and you couldn't help but wonder what those Zero's attacking Pearl Harbor must have looked like.
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Our hosts for the weekend were the gracious Frary's of Marblehead, MA and St. George, Maine.   Kevin and Susan Frary have their beautiful vacation home on the Watts Cove inlet of the St. George Penninsula and they incredibly watch the sun set in the west over the ocean inlet every evening.

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We were accompanied by Dale and Gail Johnson , some of our favorite Peeps. and not just because they laugh at most of my lame jokes.

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There are other reasons.

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On the ride home, we stopped in downtown Portland, Maine, which has become completely revitalized and is a destination in itself.  I was inpressed with the amount of foreign tourists who were enjoying the shops and restaurants of the seaport district.

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A nice weekend respite.

Anonymous Million Bucks

So I'm trying to imagine that I'm a political candidate for President and somebody sends  a contribution to my campaign from a PAC for one Million dollars.
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But I know absolutely nothing about it when asked.  Not who sent it, who the political action committee was, or how much it was.  Yet it was arranged by an attorney that my company had done extensive business with.
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Turns out that the PAC and the business behind it went out of business as soon as the check cleared.
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But I know nothing.
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That's Mitt Romney's story this morning.
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I've been thinking of throwing the prestigious Nanepashemet endorsement to Mitt.  He's got good hair and I generally like his decision making... but this one really bothers me.
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If somebody sent a check to my organization for a million bucks, I would know their names, their kids names, their birthdays and whether they wore tighty whities or boxers.
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But Mitt knows nothing.... I Don't buy it Mitt.  You've got to come up with a better answer than that.  Nobody throws an anonymous million to a candidate, and everybody know that.

Jim L. said...

The hair really ain't that good.


Tuna lips said...
I am beset by one of them boners that last fer more than 8 hours that yer 'sposed to see the doctor about. Brings to mind my days sweeping floors at that Morman compound just over the line in Ole Mexico. Had a boner fer 8 hours back then, sho nuff, what with all them longjohn wearin' sissy boys bringin' more than one date to the dance! Thems called me the rock of ages, before they set the federales on me. That's another story, thank the almighty fer kin like Shoo Fly!

Not a Nazi

Those who are closest to the Mountain of a Man know that I'm not always correct, but rarely wrong.  If that bothers you, then think of it as some kind of a zen haiku, and move your ass down the road a bit.
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So it bothered me a little when I was observing some Facebook diatribe between some of my liberal and conservative friends, when one decides to label others  as a "Nazi" because of a disagreement in the debt ceiling compromise.
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Seems to me that calling someone, or a group of people, Nazi's is indicative of a case of paranoid schizophenia that probably doesn't belong within a friendly Facebook discussion.
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Before you call someone a Nazi, maybe you should consider whether they slaughtered six million Jews as well as an additional five million Gypsies, Homosexuals, and Mentally Retarded  people in death camps while simultaneously proclaiming the racial superiority of a select group of Caucasian Europeans.  Also, to be a Nazi, they would have trampled peoples rights, stolen their possessions and enslaved whole populations to work as slaves in forced labor camps.
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Hundreds of thousands of Americans died to rid our planet of these Nazis.
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So, before you glibly use your freedom of speech to lable someone who you disagree with as a Nazi.... think about how shortsighted, insensitive, and freaking stupid you sound.
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There are no Nazis in Washington debating the debt ceiling.  There are civilized people with differences of opinion who are seeking to find compromise.   It's called Democracy.

JimL. said...

Isn't it ironic, though, to realize that even democracy can lead a nation to ruin.

Professional and Responsible

I'm supposed to go to New Haven tomorrow, but six hours to and fro in the F150 just lacks the appeal that it used to.
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I'm seriously thinking of using that time getting gritty with Google Maps in the subject area  sitting in front of my office computer.  With the street view feature, combined with all of the assessor's ownership information availble on line, this is actually a tough choice. 
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The problem is that I've visited this particular part of New Haven County three times, and each time came up with a candidate that wasn't optimal from a network engineering viewpoint.   Usually it doesn't take this much effort to hit paydirt.  Plus, the area is not a garden spot.
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And if I just go to Google, I'm just postponing the inevitable.
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In the end, I will do the professional, responsible thing... because that is what a Mountain of a Man does at Nanepashemet Telecom.

More Spartacus.

More Spartacus in Jaunuary.  Another reason to wish these months away.

TommyO said...

Oh My...
I can't wait, we have to have viewing parties, this is too cool.
TommyO