Fine Revision

"It's time to start living the life you've imagined."
- Henry James

I pulled out of the tender rowing plan because of thunder, but tomorrow it will be break of Dawn... just me, the Tender and Stripers owning the Harbor.

POTW 25

I was wondering when Tuna Lips was going to make an appearance again and he came in a little close to over the top as usual. He seems to like it when I get a little agitated.
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It's after 4 o'clock on Fri. and I'm going to wind it down at Nanepashemet Telecom after a very promising week. Things are looking up. We're closing out the first six months of the year in excellent shape, but it's not time to let up.

ANNOUNCING
Nanepashemet Peeps of the Week for the 15th week of 2008

Abby Bruett
Joanne Nestor (Automatic Lagavulin Rule)
Courtney Lynch
Dwight Jennings
Mike Rockett
Carol Andrade

Hope that your half year went well too. Now I think that I'll take the Tender out for a spin in Marblehead Harbor since the tide is right.

Nantucket Nitwit

Peeps....
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I don't take vacations often, so you would think that they would be restful, stress free affairs. But that wasn't the case last year when I encountered Captain Dipshit administering XC ski permits in North Conway, and it wasn't the case in Nantucket either.
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It started out as a nice day with Joanne and I doing some tourist trap shopping. I bought some great XXL T-shirts that said "NANTUCKET" on them. What a lucky find!!
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By noon, all of the browsing had worn us down a bit, and we went into the Schooner on Easy St. for a light lunch.
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We sat on a bench at the wall, and two tables down was a precocious 4 year old, with his loud and overly enunciating mother. Our tyke was wielding a pirate pistol and sword and in no time had disassembled the curtain behind us.
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Naturally, Joanne and I were dispassionate and cool in our response to this annoyance.
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Then the little guy lost his sword under the bench, which required waitstaff help to retrieve.
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We were slightly peeved, but his obnoxious Mom didn't seem to mind.
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Then, "Little Asshole", as I now started to mentally refer to him, walks down the bench to me pointing his toy pistol.
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With restraint and reserve, I notioned that this was not cool to "LA". No response from Stupid Shit Mom, who was too busy doing anything but pay attention to Little Asshole...
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Now this little Annoying Little Future Loser of America walks on the bench right up to me and points the pistol an inch from my head. It seemed to have one of those suction cup darts on it or something.
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Naturally I kept my composure..... but I was hoping for a miracle that his father would appear, so I could pummel Dad's face to bloody mush until the police and ambulance arrived and carted him to the hospital and me away to a Nantucket lock up.
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No luck with this fantasy coming true though.
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So, turning to Little Asshole, I calming addressed Stupid Shit Mom saying, "Excuse me... Is this your SON???", figuring that she would take some responsive action.
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LA retreated to the comforting arms of Stupid Shit, who said nothing... neither to Joanne and I nor to Little Asshole. Idiots beget idiots.
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We continued eating our Buffalo Wings and Nachos as the Obnoxious Duo wisely decided to exit the Schooner.
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Peeps...
I know that a lot of you are new parents or will be shortly.

A few words of caution/advise.

• Nobody wants to hear you talking loudly to Little Precious so that you can demonstrate what a superior caregiver you are.
• Keep the inappropriate stupid toys out of public places, and teach your cute little tyke to stay in his own seat.
• Your kids are bound to act out of line from time to time, but that doesn't mean that you have to add to the problem by ignoring their behavior, or even acting like a role model for Idiots yourself.
  
• Bring your husband next time so that I won't look like a bully reprimanding you for the utter lack of control that you have, and I can take out my frustration on somebody my own size.

Joanne and I brought up our three kids, and I can safely say that they never acted like the Little Asshole.

Tuna Lips said...

I find whippin' out my weiner an effecacious rejoinder in such situations. It frightens off most people around. Its a gila monster, my most excellent friend. You take that dog out the pound and folks are rightly lockin' thems gates shut. That's how I roll.

Nantucket

Heading down to Nantucket today for a bid walk on a Coast Guard site. I've never been there, so I'm taking Joanne and we're going to stay for a day or so.
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I'll undoubtably post to the Blog while I'm there, so ease up on the anxiety and panic.
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Don't I deserve a little R&R once in a whle????

Now What???

If our primary purpose is to perpetuate the species, then I think my time is up.
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Joanne and I have raised three great kids... they make good choices and we have one incredible grandchild to undoubtably be followed by numerous others.
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A nice friend of mine just sent me pictures of her best friend's four beautiful girls, who have entered the workforce, are getting married, and are contributing to society. While I'm really happy and impressed by these beautiful people, it definitely causes a bit of insecurity.
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We've done our job. My generation has passed the torch. Now what the heck are we supposed to do???? My fervent hope is that some of the grandkids will want to learn how to build cedar strip boats.
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That will give me a good enough purpose I guess.

Saturday Challenge

High Tide in Marblehead Harbor is not until 2:00PM this afternoon.
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I definitely want to get the Tender out for some serious rowing and fishing by that time, but before then, there are some errands that can't go amiss.
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Pick up the lawn mower at Salem Rent All and cut the grass at Beverly Ave. and Sundance, make a bank deposit, pay some Nanepashemet bills, and pick up the stock for Joanne's corner cabinet at Moynihan Lumber in Beverly.
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It's 8:45 AM. We'll see if I can get these done before High Tide.

POSTSCRIPT
Everything got done with the exception of some Nanepashemet vendor payments which I will get to tomorrow morning.
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Got the usual oohs and ahhs about the Tender during my row in the Harbor. That's getting tiresome. Paul Lynch yelled across the water that he wanted me to build him one, but he'd have to handle a hell of a lot of zoning cases to pay for it.
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I have to admit that I do enjoy the banter that the Tender elicits from people. Somebody even took a picture of me today, and I'm not sure of the proper technique for sucking in my gut while rowing, without potentially hurting myself.
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The truth is that the Tender cuts a nice figure in the harbor and I don't want to respond falsely modest when I am genuinely proud of the way that the Tender looks. When they ask if I built it, I just say yes, but if they ask if it was a kit, that tends to piss me off a little.

Pregnancy Pact

So the City of Gloucester has really hit the big time with this cult of pregnant girls. It's too bad because Gloucester deserves better. It's a hard working, blue collar town with a character that befits it's windswept, wave pounded location on Cape Ann.
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Somehow, there was a cultural breakdown that allowed having babies to be a teen fad. Bringing up kids was the toughest thing that I have had to encounter in my 50 odd years of existence. For somebody to reduce it to a high school "go with the crowd" thing is a serious breach of judgement, and these kids will be paying for this lapse for a long time.
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Ultimately, it is their own fault, but I wonder what type of influences they had to enable this type of behavior. I'm not blaming the parents or the schools, but it's obvious that someone was asleep on their watch.

Automatic

Joanne bought me a bottle of Lagavulin to celebrate our recent business success.
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That makes her an automatic.

Spinners

I never was too good at the blame game. Had a nasty tendency to take responsibility for my own actions.
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But there are some real pros out there who are masters at the art of blame, and have furthered their careers by skillful manipulation.
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Knowing that they could never survive outside of their protective corporate walls, they frenetically point their fingers and spin the facts.... all to protect their disgusting jobs in a phoney hierarchy.
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It's a purgatory that I have very successfully left behind.
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So keep spinning and pointing. I'm happy to watch you fade from sight in my rear view mirror. You know who you are.

Week 24 Peep of the Week

This was an important week.
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Nanepashemet Telecom kicked it into high gear and showed some real potential to reaching the levels that were predicted in our original business plans. As promised though, success hasn't spoiled me. I wouldn't change this loud, obnoxious personality for all the tea in China.
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Speaking of obnoxious, it's time to pick the Peeps of the Week. There's lots of inspiring/annoying stuff going around, and precious little bottles of Lagavulin coming my way.
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BTW... I said "precious"... and it felt FABULOUS.

ANNOUNCING
Nanepashemet Peeps of the Week for the 24th week of 2008

Peter Crawford
Paul Lynch
Abby Bruett
Sam Khairi
Peter Caruso
Rajon Rondo

Anyone for tea????

Celtics Reinstatement

Looking for the Celtics to clinch the championship tonight. I'm not sure that I can stay up for the whole game, because I'm still wiped out from our tuna sojourn, and I have to get up early for a commute to Maynard tomorrow morning.
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When I was younger, this would be no sweat, but it truly gets harder to answer the call now that I'm a middle aged guy.
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Seeing the Celts in contention brings back a lot of memories. I saw Russell play with Sam Jones, and Satch Sanders in the Garden in my early teens. Back then, we were like floor rats, running all over the Boston Garden and in the corridors during half time. I remember standing on the floor during warm-ups and marveling at the size of Bill Russell.
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When I was at UMass in the early Seventes, Havlicek and Cowens had their run. Havlicek was such a winner... it's weird seeing him all grey with a few extra pounds now. The Knicks were great rivals then with Walt Frazier, Willis Reed, and Earl Monroe. In my dorm, there were a lot of kids from New York and the New York and Black kids all rooted for the Knicks against the Celtics. There definitely was a Black/White thing going on in those days. It was uncomfortable, but we sucked it up, especially since the Celts won most of the time.
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There was a down era for a while with some guys from UCLA and Cedric Maxwell, before Red Auerbach assembled Bird, McHale and Parish in the Eighties. The bad guys then were the Pistons and the Lakers. Philadelphia and Dr. J were huge too. I loved Julius Erving and had seen him in person many times at UMass before he turned pro.
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It's been a long drought since then, but now Paul Pierce has been joined by Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen with a talented supporting cast, and they lead by 23 points over the Lakers at the end of the first half of the sixth and deciding game of the playoffs.
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The Celts are back where they belong. There's justice and hope for the world.

Toy Chest Critique

Yesterday we delivered the Toy Chest for grandson, Will's, first birthday.
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Most everyone was complimentary, but Katelyn's dog, Jack Dog, gave it a critical eye.
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What the hell do you know about woodworking Jackie??? You're just a dog.

Skunked at Stellwagen

Zippo, Zilch, Zero, Nada, Nothing.
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That's how many tuna we caught after getting up at 3:15AM and banging through 3 ft seas at 15kts to get to the Northwest corner of Stellwagen Bank by 6:00 AM.
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And it wasn't a glorious sunrise either, with overcast skies and a cool breeze with 60 degree temps.
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The ride out was an uncomfortable, wave crashing affair, but when we got to the corner, we saw whales immediately, and thought that the tuna would be close behind..... but they didn't respond to our elaborate squid sets.
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After 3 1/2 hours crisscrossing the corner, we stopped and jigged, hooking three sand sharks and one striped bass. If we were inshore, the bass would have been a keeper, but we obeyed the federal regs that prohibit taking bass on the Stellwagen National Sanctuary.
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Tyler Gill's father, Greg, hooked the fish and was happy with his catch, but it wasn't a tuna.

Up for the Bite

We're preparing to get to Stellwagen tomorrow by 6:00 AM when the tuna bite is on. That means that we'll be on the WhaleEye around 4:00 AM.
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I'm concerned that it is dead low tide at that time and I'll have six people on board... all anxious to hit the gas and deadhead to the Northwest corner of Stellwagen Bank.
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Plus six is going to get crowded if we hook into a decent size fish.
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Both Mark Vona and Doug Maxfield have been into tuna this year, and the inconvenience could really be worth it if we lay into some Bluefin.

Peeps of the Week - 23

So Joanne and I went to dinner tonight at the Boston Yacht Club with Katelyn, Mike and his girlfriend, Kelley Clark, and Mike and I order the Dark and Stormies.
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I fully expected a weak imitation of the masterful national drink of Bermuda..... certainly nothing approaching the versions that I regularly concoct over at Beverly Avenue.
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But I was pleasantly surprised! Those BYC bluebloods have pretty much got it right. A tall glass, not too much ice, with the Gosling's Black Seal Rum resonating within the Ginger Beer!
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Not as good as mine, mind you.... but a damn good rendition.
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That reminds me.... I'm a day late on the POTW selections.

ANNOUNCING.....
Nanepashemet Peeps of the Week for the 23rd week of 2008

Kobe Bryant
Kelley Clark
Bobby Brown (standing in for Big Brown, because an animal can't be a POTW)
Dustin Pedroia
Brian Butler
Tyler Gill

BTW, the WhaleEye is on the mooring now and many many fish are taking their last, watery gill breaths.

Called It

With the Celts down by 24 at the half of the fourth game of the Championship Finals with the Los Angeles Laker, I coolly predicted that Boston would pull if off. And naturally, they did, winning 97-91 and capping the greatest comeback in NBA Finals history.
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I continue to amaze myself. A Proficient Prophet of Prognostication!
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It shouldn't have come as a surprise.... Today was a day when everything turned to gold, including watching the Celtics game.
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The only problem is that tomorrow I have to get in gear early for a morning meeting with NSTAR in Sherborn, so my ass will be dragging come 3:00 in the afternoon.

McMahon said....

J.

What is going on with this blog? I think you are averaging like 1 blog every two days. Are you slowly weeding yourself out of the blogging world?

It's summer J there should be tons of blogging to do.
_______________________________________

Because Tommy McMahon is a former Peep of the Year, I'll have to cut him some slack here.
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But Tom, all you have to do is look at the archives to see that this Blog is as active and vibrant as it always has been.... to the overall detriment of all of us.
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Don't be such a freaking, short sighted, moron for a change!

Yacht Town

It was a busy evening with the Sundance Pre-School Picnic at Devereux Beach from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM then a meeting with the Marblehead Selectmen to discuss the neighborhood impacts at Ryan Marine.
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Mark Ryan and Atty Paul Lynch did a great job placating the concerns of the Selectmen, but a couple of the neighbors had obviously decided that they didn't want the business in their neighborhood, and were unhappy with any measures .
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Ryan Marine is the best boatyard in Marblehead, and if you don't like living around boatyards, then you picked the wrong town to live in.
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Politics brings out the worst in some people.

Tuna Lips said...

I sensitizes a conflagration in you, Boomerdog. You live in Yacht Town, which is a high falootin' boat, with lots of loafer wearin' "pinkie in the air drinkin' from a clean glass" types, but you does some equatin' to the ole boat yard, striking imagerie of steel riveted bath tubs, stinkin' of petrol, crawfish and the crabs from Trudie McCann panties. Don't quite match up, yer white short wearing yacht set and the scurvy curs that slinks around the boat yard. I measure this as a conflagration insides, street savvy operator, laysing in wait to rob some rube down by the boatyard, and sophistication mastery feller from a town with yachts in it.

Completion Declaration

I had to trek into Cambridge early this morning for a real estate update put on by Colliers Meredith and Grew - which is one fine, high powered firm - but I digress.
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Before I left, I put on the sixth and final coat of varnish on Will's Toy Chest. The flaws still jump out at me, but I'm sure that Da Vinci had the same feeling when he finally laid down his brush painting the Mona Lisa. When you are striving for perfection, and realize that it is ultimately unattainable, you eventually have to make a declaration that the work is complete and walk away.
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It's not easy being a Master.
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Having to put up with all of the "oohs" and "ahhs" and all.

Project Completion

By now, you surely know that Big Brown failed miserably. His jockey said that he just couldn't find the right gear. That happens.
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BTW, I made the mistake of Googling "Big Brown" and came up with a number of Brazilian porn sites specializing in fat asses. So Big Brown wasn't a total bust... so to speak.
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Man... it was freaking hot today. All I wanted to accomplish was a fifth coat of varnish on Will's Toy Chest, but the warm temps were starting to cause the lid to warp and it had to be stabilized. So I concentrated on installing permanent cleats, and putting on the piano hinge and safety closing hardware. The piano hinge had to be inset, and I spent a lot of time to get this detail done right with the router and some cleanup with the chisel.
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The safety hinge installation was easy and they work to perfection.... gliding the lid to a soft close. I think I lost a gallon of sweat installing them though.
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I'll probably spray one more coat of varnish, but all in all, the chest could be declared to be finished any time now. So piss on you bastards who thought I'd never get it done in time. Plus the Tender is shipshape and ready for some serious rowing between now and November.

Tuna Lips said...

I sees the heat has rolled up to yer neck of the nape. Plenty hot here in God's countree.

I was in Atlanta, or as they call it, Hotlanta, this past weekend. One thing the mercury risin' brings on is some perspratin'. Now that ain't all bad. I seen more boobies, glistening like snow in the lane. All shapes and sizes, flavors, all suitable for lickin' like a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Or whatever choice you might find in yer side of the town.

Big Brown

Can Big Brown do it???
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No.... I'm not talking about that mountain of a man, Bobby Brown.... of course he can do it.
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I'm talking about that magnificent racehorse, Big Brown, who is striving for the first Triple Crown in thirty years. I'll be pulling for him.