Posted By RichC on February 22, 2018
Previously I’ve detailed a bit about the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 and some of what I have learned … here is a National Geographic channel video that summarizes what we know in 44 minutes.
Posted By RichC on February 21, 2018
There are a few things in life that can really make someone feel good … one of them is in receiving a respectful complement. Really it started as a question, but a younger father of teenagers asked me how Brenda and 
I "balanced our lives" when our kids were growing up. I’m not sure if that "balance" was the word, but I knew he was struggling with relationships, work, responsibility, etc. He mentioned that he and his wife have been struggling to agree on a lot of issues lately and the dealing with rebellious (normal) teens has pushed emotions to the brink. I’m sad for them as it sounds as if family counseling may be in their future.
Life is indeed complicated as we are all pulled in many directions. We all have to compromise and usually that means more "giving" than we may want as each pull stretches the amount of time, energy and number of dollars. As I thought about the "how we handled it" answer, I realized just how fortunate I was to be part of a team.
Young couples may go into a relationship with the best of intentions, but selfishness and idealism can easily take over as the years go by and life gets more complicated. So the easy answer to my younger friend was that he and his wife needed to focus on working as a team and come up with a few common goals – be it time devoted to parenting, balancing household finances and the amount of time they have for each other verses their own personal activities and friends.
For Brenda and I, there have been a lot of zigs and zags … mostly unanticipated or planned for. From the simplest things like who controls the TV remote, to the much bigger things like career decisions and finances. 
Being a team player means that the best decision isn’t always going to go your way. It is my opinion that in the best marriages, the "teamwork" part goes unsaid, but is the priority. Each partner recognizes when it is his or her turn to give a little more – although that is probably overly optimistic (we can all work on it!)
In the less than perfect marriage moments, commitment to the end goal needs to rule the day. We can only control our side of the behavior and often need to be the "over-giver" and appreciate it when and if our partner does the same. In my friends situation (I’m only seeing his side at the moment), it seemed to me as if both were frustrated and sacrificing their individual freedom … as their teenagers needs and wants demand more and more of their time and money. I shared with him that both Brenda and I decided to put our kids lives ahead of our own and shelve our own aspirations during those years . Our kids recognized it and especially now realized our effort was to give them so they would have the security of caring parents and the educational opportunity for a good start at being adults; it will hopefully be something they will emulate as parents? Often times its the small things that are noticed, like mom and dad giving up a night out or not buying something new so that the kids can have something better; in other words, they often silently noticed the sacrifice and "giving" gesture. Who knows, this may make for a more successful relationship when they are parents?
To be truthful, Brenda and I really never went without, but we both always did our best to make sure our kids never felt like we placed our wants and desires above what was best for them. I doubt my sharing solved his frustration, but "if" at least he recognizes a few areas where his focus has been on self and not on his wife and children … maybe there is a place to start (hopefully his wife and children will respond in kind).
We all have room for improvement and can usually find places we can give a little more or do without. I hope whatever I said was helpful as he is definitely at a stressful and demanding phase of life.
Posted By RichC on February 20, 2018
We really haven’t paid much attention to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, but we did watch a bit of the figure skating the other night (amazing quads) and do enjoy some of the great photos showing up online.
Check out this one of Akwasi Frimpong’s Skeleton Debut!
Posted By RichC on February 20, 2018
Remind me what season we are in again? Winter in #Cincinnati right? pic.twitter.com/Q0cbVpvLhD
Posted By RichC on February 19, 2018
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Posted By RichC on February 18, 2018
Sunday was the perfect day to finish up “covering” the lifts for the rear row of our new home theater seats. Now all 8 seats have a great view … even in recline mode. After building the “boxes” a week or so ago, I picked up some closeout brown polyester outdoor furniture upholstery material at Sailrite (shipping was as much as the material!) After cutting with a hot knife and using a combination of hot glue and staples, the covering looks pretty good, although one of the samples I ordered just in case, would have been a perfect match.
Brenda has not given it her seal of approval yet, but since she is calling this primarily sports and movie watching room a “man cave,” I suspect she’ll be ok with it.
Posted By RichC on February 18, 2018
Too many times in life I find myself fiddling to repairs something that really just needs to be thrown away.
Case in point (see interesting idiom explanation below) … I brought home an LED fixture that replaced a higher wattage halogen bulb that works well in Encore‘s cabin, but for some reason the pin/plugs must have heated the plastic mount enough to get pushed into the lamp base.
I decided rather than scrap the small specialized bulb that a little epoxy might be just the trick? We’ll see how it holds up after I replace and it heats up again?
So I replace the bulb in the fitting with the one I temporarily hung in the galley and brought the broken one home.
You may be asking, where are the dome lights that belong in the galley (and elsewhere)? Well they are on Brenda’s "to do" list as she has been slowly giving the tarnished brass a verdigris treatment which looks great.
Posted By RichC on February 17, 2018
The irritation of “the week that was” has given way to the positive memories like waking up to this kind of sunrise view … even if it was in a marina. I’m thankful to have the out of water maintenance headaches behind me and can now look forward to “escaping” to our little corner of paradise once again.
There is part of me that envies those retirees who live on their boats and socialize each day about mundane things … while the other part is so satisfied with having business to attend to, children maturing into adults who still ask me for advice and squeezing my nearly one year old granddaughter who know little more than unconditional love for those who cherish her (and feed and diaper and entertain and comfort and “well you get the picture.”)
Life is so very good at this moment. Thank you Lord!
Posted By RichC on February 17, 2018
To the non-boat owner, having a sailboat sitting out of the water "on the hard" might seem like an inexpensive way to "park" a boat for a while? Well let me tell you that is not even close to being true, at least at a working yard.
Several months ago I had such grand plans for my brief scheduled maintenance during hurricane season. A quick haul at a "do-it-yourself" type yard for new bottom paint and a couple underwater minor items. Unfortunately once the bottom was blasted, I ended up having to deal with blisters again (unfortunately an all too common problem with older fiberglass boats). The process lead to hiring out the excessive labor and replacement of stuck seacocks and mushroom fitting. Finally, after adding the last splash of bottom paint to her keel once in the travel-lift and a new zinc to the prop shaft, we were able to launch. I was able to coerce a friend 
with breakfast to give me a hand so as I could putter Encore into a "new-to-us" dock … I do miss my friends Mark and Dar now that they have moved to Savannah. 
It is good to be back in the water although a leaking thru-hull (never good) did make me a bit nervous. I spent a full day cleaning the dust and dirt off the boat and gave my new neighbors, Sven and Nancy, a hand with their engineless boat; they were hauling out this week to replace their flooded old diesel with a new Beta engine. I’ll be anxious to see it and am looking forward to connecting with them again once they get back in the water.
My other new neighbor was trying some new Rustoleum Rust Dissolver Gel (Walmart Quart?) on his stainless steel rails. It worked well since the "gel" seems to stay where you rub it, and he was applying it with his bare hands! Yikes … I’m going to have to give it a try since there is no way the Snobol toilet bowl cleaner can be used like that!
