Good Faith - Operation Moonshadow

Was told "in good faith" that everything would be on hold at Operation Moonshadow until I return to Marblehead on Wed. I never am fully comfortable with "Good Faith".

Atlanta Golf

Rubbing elbows with the Cingular friends at the “Hit ‘Em for Hemophilia” Golf Tournament in Atlanta, GA tomorrow. Tee time is 10:00 AM sharp and there is a barbeque after so it will be a two night trip. Leaving this afternoon and returning Wed.

~

Sorry if I don't get a blog entry in tomorrow... I know how my Peeps depend on it.
~
One of these times, my golf game is going to come with me. Up to now, I might as well have had gardening tools in the bag.

Tender Status

A lot of mental work was accomplished on the Herreshoff Columbia Yacht Tender.
~
The Piandetosi Sliding Seat rigs were positioned and formed the basis for identifying the correct height of the seats. Then I had to fabricate a way to clamp the seat support stake to the gunwales.
~
Lots of standing around and vacant stareing.
~
After much trial and error, I came up with a way to clamp curved stakes so that they applied the correct clamping pressure.
~
The beauty of the epoxy resin glue is that extensive pressure is not required. The resin fills voids very well and a void is actually desired to produce a stronger final joint.
~
The correct position of the seat support stakes now will drive the final trimming of the centerboard case, and no other mysteries remain as to how the work will proceed.
~
The tender is designed to be adaptable to rowing with one or two sliding seat rigs, or just the normal bench seats when sailing and rowing in a calm.
~
I like the idea of sailing, but I can envision this boat being used as a trolling unit for striped bass along the shore, while in getting a nice rowing workout with the sliding seat units.
~
Also, I haven't decided on whether to build in rod holders, or get detachable clamp on versions.
~
The pressure of these decisions would be a challenge to a lesser man....

Happy Halloween

Lots of scary Halloween stuff at Chris and Sarah Crawford's home last might.

Boat Building Progress

I know that you mean right, but please stop hounding me about the progress of the Herreshoff yacht tender. I'm trying as hard as I can, but I can't guarantee that I'll have a launch by Thanksgiving.
~
It rained like hell today and I couldn't move stuff into the driveway in order to maneuver around the garage. Someday when my trust funds kick in, I'm going to have enough space for a real boatbuilding shop... but for now I will have to contend with moving stationary tools around on casters.
~
I epoxy coated the centerboard case and assembled the okume plywood panels into dadoed oak end caps. Then I laminated the centerboard and rudder from olkume two 3/8" panels. I read that you shouldn't make the centerboard from plywood, but I'm hopeing that the olkume marine ply will do the job. It will be interesting to see how the molten lead interacts with it.
~
Tomorrow, I'll finish cut the centerboard case to match the height of the sliding seat rowing rigs, and epoxy fillet it in place.
~
Hope that's enough information for you. My guess is that I will not be able to launch by Thanksgiving unless I take a few days off from Darwin. Not sure that I will do that while the iron is hot.

Victorious Darwin

In case you haven't heard, Darwin advanced to the finals in the West Coast Sustainment race. Big win for "little" Darwin.
~
Henry Ford said, "If you think you can, or you think you can't.... you're right."
~
I've been witnessing the inherent truth in this quote for my thirty year business career. Hence, I never harbored any doubt that the Scandinavians could be handled. To be a player, you have to act like a player.
~
Doomers and Gloomers, Naysayers...FYYFF's!!!
~
Darwin will open some eyes in the next twelve months, causing much denial and angst with the stupid company that squandered its chance.
~
Living well is the best revenge.

Fire in the Belly

Primitive Tribes in Africa believe that human beings think from their abdomen.
~
Have you ever noticed that when you are really "on", really "in the moment", really concentrating... your mind is almost blank, and you have a churning in your stomach?
~
Any time I have ever been "on a roll" in business, this has been my experience.

Weekend Plans

Hundreds of Nanepashemet Peeps have emailed me today, wondering about my weekend plans.

~

I have to admit that I'm tired, having once again proven myself as the superior wireless prognosticator while constantly maintaining a humble and demure demeanor. This would sap anyone's strength, and I"m no exception.

~

I'm no Superman, no Einstein, no Stephen Hawking...
~
After all... I am just a man..... no better or worse than the lesser beings that surround me.

Skimming the Hurdles in Operation Moonshadow

Permission granted in first pass.

Doubting Thomas

Oh Ye of Little Faith!

Kate and Jill Dominate London and Paris

Who the Hell are these Dinks?

Scoreboard

Nestor 1
______________
DiMatteo 0
______________
Fortier 0

Although I'm not always right, I am seldom wrong.

2nd letter of John to the Darwinians

"Have faith my brothers that the purveyors of Swedish Meatballs hold no sway over the land. Walk freely in the knowledge that you are strong in the eyes of the singular one. Do not fear to bet the finest single malt in a feeble attempt to prove your losing positions."
~
"You have seen that Nestor is wise and clear in his admonitions and forecasts. Now also know that he is humble and just and will not stoop to ridicule your past assertions and inaccurate representations. You continue to be welcome in his presence."

Nice Milestone Today...

... for Operation Moonshadow.
~
The Stramski Affair.
Lots of moving parts.
Could be an interesting chapter.

Tempus Fugit

Time Flies.
~
Dimatteo has been at Darwin for two years today. They gave him an ice cream cake, and he was suitably humiliated. It was great. I have a photo of him with the cake but I lost my bluetooth USB adapter and I can't load it from my Nokia yet. I ordered a USB cable from Amazon and will post the pictures when I get it by the end of the week.
~
In the meantime, visualize Tom with a perplexed and disgusted look on his face with the cake in the background.
~
There is a theory that time passes quicker for adults than for children. I think that this is so.
~
Time is so relative. When I was a runner, the four + minutes that it took to run a competitive mile race seemed like an eternity. But now... sitting, and watching a running event on TV passes in moments.
~
A ride to New Hampshire for two hours seemed like an eternity when I was a little kid. Now, an hour drive doesn't seem like a haul at all.
~
A week's vacation from school seemed like an eternity. Now the week's flash by so quickly.
~
I'm not up to postulating a theory as to why time appears to pass quicker now.... it just does.

Beauty

despair.com

Who does this remind you of ???

Boats Get Old

Someday the Herreshoff Columbia Yacht Tender will look like this bugger.


~

It will be nice to pass some water under it in the meantime.

Motivation

This is pretty funny stuff from http://www.despair.com.

This makes me think of DiMatteo.

Reflections on a Funeral

Stephen Covey says that you should think about what you want people to say at your funeral, then gauge your actions accordingly.
~
New Age Philosophy says that you choose everything that happens on a subconscious level, including your death. The New Agers also say that dying is far less traumatic than being born.
~
I think that dying must be like the first time you had sex - although you didn't know quite what to expect, it all came together very smoothly and naturally.

Operation Moonshadow...

... needs a push. Hope to have progress today.

Travel Photos

Ryan and Courtney took these photos of the trees that blew down last weekend, just missing our condo in North Conway.
~
I'll bet Katelyn will have a hard time topping this with her travel pictures from London and Paris. She's due back home tomorrow.
~
Hopefully we'll see her interpretive photographic montage of London and Paris this weekend.

Adjustments

I was right. The weekend flew by.
~
Looks like I'm going to have to forego the Denver trip tomorrow. Mrs. Jellison's wake, along with some bid meetings take precedence over the meet and greet.

Tender wins the dilemma

Might have missed the last good fishing day, unless I spring for a vacation day before the month is out.
~
The interior gunwales and spacers were a bigger challenge than I anticipated. Had just enough clamps to get the job done.
~
Even though the spacers are a throw back to when these boats were built with steamed oak ribs, they give a nice detail to the look of the boat.
~
Now I have to build and install the centerboard case and the floorboards. Then a couple more coats of epoxy and interior sanding.
~
I'm kind of resigned to the fact that I won't have the sailing components ready for the Thansgiving launch, but it is still an even bet that we can row this thing by then.
~
Also, Buffalo dropped another to the Pats, who are starting to look dominant. Now at 5 and 1 on the season.

Transatlantic Call

Kate called from Paris. She and Jill are having a great time and taking lots of pictures. She said that Paris is so historical and she is reading every plaque to find out why. Also doing a lot of walking and eating.
~
Yesterday, Ryan called from NH to tell us that a couple of trees had blown down at the No. Conway condo.
~
Doesn't matter where they are. It's nice when your kids think of you.

Phoebe Joined the Circle Today

Congratulations to Pat and Sarah as Phoebe Piscatelli made her debut into the world today at the healthy weight of 7 Lbs, 14 Oz. We'll be checking back on Pheobe from time to time and are expecting great things.
~
We also found out this weekend that Courtney's grandmother died from complications after falling on an escalator. She was 89. Condolences to the Jellison's for the loss of a wonderful woman.
~
Circle of Life.

Sunday Dilemma

It's a crisp, still, cloudless Sunday morning in October. Not many more fishing days left. If I don't go gang busters on the tender, I won't make the Thanksgiving launch. I'll let you know how this dilemma plays out.

Halloween is Scary

Thank God it's Halloween. Otherwise I'd really be nervous about these guys.
~
McBurney with a sword worries me more than McMahon in a Supergirl suit. Mike and Vona could be in trouble.
~
I hope this night ends allright.
Ronick and I are concerned.

Short Weekend

It will no time before I have to get up Monday to go to Denver. It would be awesome if I could accomplish the work below on the Herreshoff.

Pick up West System 207 clear epoxy hardener.

Saturday

1. Plane and Sand the Breasthook
2. Rout and Glue spacer blocks to interior Gunwale Stock
3. Spile and cut the floorboard supports - Install
4. Make CenterBoard Case - Install

Sunday

1. Install floorboards
2. Cut and Install interior gunwales

This would set me up to finish the interior epoxy, install the seating and varnish. I'm thinking of making bow and transom compartments to store fishing stuff under the seats. This should also aid bouyancy.

Might make it by Thanksgiving afterall.

Cute Photo of Blonde Chick with Nice Pussy

Homeward Bound

LAX is my favorite people watching airport. Time to get back to Boston.

Herreshoff Tender Poll Results

Interesting that most responses wanted me to make a fool of myself, posing as a Viking in Marblehead harbor. I actually found a plastic viking helmut in SF, and Dave took a photo of me wearing it, but I won't be sharing that on the Blog.
~
Results
__________________________
Put pictures of it on the web and force people to look at it a lot.
1 vote
__________________________
Give it to my kids and build a bigger one.
2 votes
__________________________
Put a Viking Helmut on and row around Marblehead Harbor
7 votes
__________________________
Put a Sprit Sail up and join the Marblehead to Halifax Race
1 vote
__________________________
Leave it in my driveway until my family tried to chop it up for kindling.
4 votes

Phoenix, San Diego and LA

Met more Friends - great round of golf at the Biltmore Arizona with Dick Bollen, who btw kicked Bobby's golfing ass. Even though I parred 4 holes, I still didn't break 100. Too inconsistent. I'm going to have to resort to lying to get my score down. Dave videoed one of my drives. Boy, do I really look that bad??? Must have been the camera angle.
~
Flew to San Diego and got up for a meeting with Jim Sonberg. Darwinians had a black mark in his market, but he was willing to give us another chance. Good insight into the Sustainment effort because it is apparent that both the Phoenix and San Diego markets have significant pieces of the puzzle in place. A menu driven approach makes sense to them.
~
Made the drive north to LA and met some of the deployment team for the TP effort.
~
All in all, a decent road trip. Planting seeds that have a fair likelyhood of sprouting. I'll be happy to get back to Marblehead tomorrow night for a recuperative weekend hopefully.
~
Next Mon. and Tues. - Colorado and PA. Ouch.

Fisherman's Wharf

It's been ten years since I have been coming to San Francisco, and Fisherman's Wharf and the waterfront area has really changed. It hasn't lost it's character, but has really been enhanced and improved with shops and restaurants that have preserved its unique character.

~

I wish I had more time to hang out here, but the advance of the Darwinians does not have the luxury of my dawdleling.

~

You should never come here without having a crab cocktail and visiting Lou's Blues. Unfortunately, I only had time for the crabs.

~

Off to Phoenix to advance the Darwin evolution. I have to golf in the desert today for the good of the company, then we'll be flying to San Diego tonight.

West Coast Road Trip

So Far, So good. Cingular is going to give the Darwinians a shot. That's all we need.
~
Phoenix tomorrow.

San Francisco Morning

Get a call at 4:45 AM from Katelyn who didn't know I was on the West Coast. She and Jill are going to London and Paris for a week and they are psyched. She caught me peeing while I was on the cell phone, which normally I wouldn't do, but I don't have the strength to wake up in the morning and not seek immediate relief.
~
So now I'm wide awake in the Marriot Courtyard watching the Chris Rock show.
~
Chris Rock is also an unbelieveably funny comedian, but for a very different reason than Borat below. His honesty is so real and unvarnished that it qualifies as high comedy. He gets away with telling the truth because of his delivery, tone and facial expressions. I think he is very right of center, yet you never see him characterized as a conservative.

Borat Movie Premiers Nov. 3

Borat on Da Ali G Show is hilarious comic relief. It's not what he says, it's how he says it and who he says it to. He makes outrageous comments about women, minorities, and Jews that are so over the top and the funny stuff comes not from his words but from the reactions of the people around him.
________________________________

"I want to do a romance inside of you."
~
"In Kazhakstan we have many hobbies: disco dancing, archery, rape and table tennis..."
~
"If you come back with me to my country,(....) I will give you television and remote control..."
~
"Englishman must have a hobby. Some like to collect the stamp or make jam. But the most fun is to kill a a little animal with a shotgun or rip him up with a wild dog."
~
"There is land of opportunities in US of A. For man, construction work, taxi driving and accountancy. For woman, as a prostitute."
~
"In America, women can vote but horse cannot! It is the other way around in my country."

Cattle Cars

Learned to utilize my extensive yoga training in my flight from Atlanta to San Francisco. Packed flight. It's hard to believe that the airlines are not making money with the amount of people that they herd onto a plane.

Blog Hog Ben

Ben in no way resembles a Penn State cheerleader, but I put him in the blog anyway.

Breasthook is Fitted

I was real happy at the way the Breasthook fitting went. This is a central focal point of the boat.
~
Now I can plane and sand it flush with the gunwales and the stem, and the interior should start to set up, although this won't happen until next weekend when I return from the West Coast. Work keeps getting in the way of the important stuff.

Rock Climbing

Sunday was another awesome morning. Joanne and I had brunch at the Hale's Location hotel which is situated below Cathedral and White Horse Ledges.

~

You can't see it by this photo, but there are some people climbing half way up Cathedral Ledge. I guess I can understand the adrenalin rush that people get by technical rock climbing, but I definitely prefer fishing.

Politics - the Massachusetts Governor's Race

If you read the bios of Patrick and Healey, they are both engaging individuals. The tendency for each to downgrade the other is debilitating.

There should be a rule in American politics that each candidate could only refer to their own background and ideas for policy and leadership. I don't want to choose a leader based upon his characterization of the other guy.

Cramming It In

Sunday shapes up to be a little busy.
~
Get up in No. Conway - take a walk around the neighborhood with Joanne, then maybe break a sweat with a run through the woods behind the hospital afterward.
~
Joanne is going to stay until Mon. Morn., but I have an 8:00 AM flight to Atlanta so I'll be heading out by 11:00 or noon to Marblehead. That gets me home by 2:30PM - plenty of time to organize the packing for next week. Darwinians will be in Atlanta, then SF, Phoenix and San Diego, returning Fri.
~
The Herreshoff is falling behind. If I can get the breasthook installed tomorrow and glue the spacer blocks onto the interior gunwale rails, then it would be a semblance of progress. Today's sojourn along the Androscoggin and to Umbagog Lake gave me a lot ideas about trailering the finished Herreshoff and trolling around the White Mountain rivers and ponds next year.
~
Problem is that a great day fishing here up north is a great day fishing around Marblehead. It's hard to choose.
~
Probably no moose sightings tomorrow.

Football Fan

Penn State V. Michigan.
~
Mike is fired up at the tailgate with Nathaniel and Ben after a long ride to Pennsylvania.
~
110,007 fans packed Beaver Stadium for the primetime game between the Nittany Lions and Wolverines – the second-largest crowd in stadium history - but Penn State fell short, 17-10
~
What is a Nittany Lion anyway? And why name a football team after one?

Moose and Margaritas

We cut short our trip to Pittsburg and went to Umbagog Lake in Errol, NH on the Maine Border in the Northern Forest.
~
It was a frosty twenty eight degree morning when we left at 8:15 and the mountain views were as crisp as an HDTV plasma flat screen in a Circuit City showroom.
~
Following the Androscoggin River on Route 16 past Berlin, we had to stop for a moose in the middle of the road. It casually lumbered into the woods and immediately seemed to be transparent in the background. It is still hard to imagine that something so big thrives in the woodland up here. Look at the right of the picture and you can see it before it vanished into the forest.
~
Stopped at LL Cote in Errol and I bought a small Okuma spinning rig and some lures to wet a line at the Lake, while Joanne was in another part of the store. When we met up to leave the store, I told her that I bought the rod and reel for her as an early Christmas present, but I couldn't pull the story off.
~
Joanne thought she was being set up, and felt that I had planned this trip solely to go fishing, so I promised her that I would only make three casts.
~
After my tenth, I started to feel guilty, but the rig, set up with a small Kastmaster jig, was so much fun to cast.
~
So I cast a couple more.
~
When I felt I was pressing my luck, I got back into the truck and we went through the Grafton Notch Sate Park in Maine over to Bethel. I obligingly went into a couple of gift shops, then we deadheaded to Margaritaville in Glen for lunch.
~
Two margaritas and one pulled pork chimichanga later, it definitely qualified as a Saturday morning to remember.