Loving postseason baseball – Indians sweep 3 games
Posted By RichC on October 10, 2016
Great to be a Cleveland Indians fan this postseason. They swept all 3 games (3-0) over Boston winning tonight’s game 4 -3. Go Tribe!
Sailing around the world for 8 years with 3 kids taught us to live without structure
Posted By RichC on October 10, 2016
The Giffords are part of a growing, but little-known community of people called cruisers. (A 2011 survey placed the global total number of cruising boats at 10,000.) “Cruising requires that you learn to live without structure. And some people are really afraid of that.”
While many cruisers are couples or individuals who have given up the rat race to live a life-long dream, some are families who spend months, even years at sea or living on a boat in distant lands. “It’s about the absolute sense of freedom. You get to explore the world and bring your home along with you,” says Lin Pardey, an author and 45-year veteran of the cruising lifestyle who, with her husband Larry, literally wrote the book on it. “But cruising requires that you learn to live without structure. And some people are really afraid of that.”
Full story: Sailing around the world for eight years with three kids taught us to live without structure
Renewable low cost hot water idea for a sailboat
Posted By RichC on October 9, 2016
Archiving another project idea for living on the hook (someday) yet still having hot water for dishes, cleaning and SHOWERS (a freshwater shower is a luxury for most sailboats).
What was Hurricame Matthew coming ashore like?
Posted By RichC on October 8, 2016
How does government best assist in job creation?
Posted By RichC on October 7, 2016
What is the goal?
More and better paying jobs, profits for companies and growing tax revenues to fund government services, entitlements and improved ability to pay down our nation’s debt.
How do we accomplish this?
There are two ways government helps to create jobs in the US. The current Democrats remain focused on #1, while the Republicans propose #2 — only one is sustainable enough to improve pay and benefits over time, so think before you vote.
- Democrats #1 — Government hires d
irectly or offers incentives to companies that hire employees … often adding employees they often don’t yet need in return for the tax benefit. This spending requires more from taxpayers and increased borrowing which elevates the debt. The result is what we have been seeing … a tepid recovery and a sluggish economy. The country seeing the slow rise in part-time and a minimum wage jobs, all with declining benefits. (visualize this as a single pie cut into increasingly smaller slices)
Republicans #2 — Government lowers corporate and individual taxes putting more money back in the hands of consumers and useful capital (often parked overseas) back in the coffers of business here in the U.S. As consumers spent, prices rise (supply and demand) and businesses uses their capital to expand production and hire additional workers. Competition for the best employees increases wages/benefits and as the economy grows, employees have more bargaining power. (visualized as the more pies and therefore larger slices for all willing to work)
Bonus:
If the economy grows, so do tax revenues and ability to pay for government services, save long term entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security AND if voters can keep our Federal Government from ballooning, we can even begin paying down our national debt.
So before you vote this November, weigh carefully, not just the personality of the candidates we see, but for the philosophy and ideas of each political party that gives us the best chance to grow our economy while keeping us safe.
Watching Hurricane Matthew and Cleveland Indians
Posted By RichC on October 7, 2016
Hurricane Matthew is blasting up Florida’s Atlantic coast at this early morning moment. I’ve been back and forth between baseball and the Weather Channel which spent much of the night broadcasting from all places, Fort Pierce, FL. I exchanged text messages at midnight with our friends riding out the storm there and will stay up a few more hours until the worst of the winds pass. Mark and Dar plan on checking on Encore tomorrow if the roads are clear … so I’ll know more if the marina and our sailboat survived.
Matthew’s track seems to be ever so slightly east of what was projected, but I also realize the surge and wind is still substantial … still hurricane force. We’ll find out tomorrow how our marina and Encore made out.
On a happier note, “my” Cleveland Indians won game one of the ALDS against Boston in an excellent 5 – 4 game … I’ll credit the win to the home crowd! Goodnight all.
Curtains for Encore — Just call me Sailor Homemaker
Posted By RichC on October 6, 2016
Let’s hope this “curtain call” (cough, cough) isn’t a precursor for Hurricane Matthew bearing down on Encore in Fort Pierce Florida?
The subject line was more of a slip of the tongue regarding “curtains” when I really intended a twisted “Suzy Homemaker” innuendo — Sailor Homemaker (my attempts at sewing curtains).
Failed joke aside, I did bring home one of the old nasty looking curtains or port coverings from our sailboat in order to replace. The thought was that I would get Brenda to sew up 7 of these for the boat, but “if you want it done, you just have to do it yourself.”
Actually I could only muster one of these (for now) as I need to take apart the old ones in order to reuse the fabric and plastic hooks. After being taught to use a seam ripper it wasn’t all that bad. I made a straight edge “fence” for the Sailrite Walking Foot Sewing Machine and dialed in the tension and threading setup for the lightweight fabric and threads. After some trial and error, I was able to stitch up the first of 7 … although I’ll have to check to see how it fits next trip down.
Hurricane Matthew projections are not good for Encore
Posted By RichC on October 5, 2016
Perhaps I’m being a bit to self-focused in worrying about “just a sailboat” when millions of lives are going to be impacted by Hurricane Matthew? I think it is time for the final preparation … pray for safety for those in the path of this storm (and Encore).
EDIT: A buddy of mine was asking where the most dangerous winds were in the hurricane eye. Answer: When going north like Matthew, that would be the NE quarter — but the other big concern is over the storm surge which happens to be the NW quarter. This is projected to impact much of Florida and I’m not sure I’ve got enough long spring lines spidered to Encore? We could always do more.
Pop up reminder on my calendar that today was a birthday
Posted By RichC on October 5, 2016
Google calendar has automatically added a few important annual events to my calendar (my settings), but unfortunately it is not artificially intelligent enough to remove or delete.
Today I was sent a reminder that we normally celebrate our late dog Tootie’s birthday on October 5th. She is missed and I often catch what I thought was a glimpse of her nosing the back door (as she always did). Strange how our eyes and mind can play tricks with things.
After 17 years with a great companion, I’m not sure I want to go through the last year of life with another dog again … I think we’ll remain dogless.
Hurricanes Matthew prep a priority for Florida and Encore
Posted By RichC on October 4, 2016
The Category 4 Hurricane Matthew is wreaking havoc on Haiti with 145 mph wind and up to 40 inches of rain, I’m keeping a close eye on new projections that put this powerful storm way too close to Encore.
Thankfully my good friend Mark called me last night and offered to add a couple of extra lines and take down the Sunbrella covering that I left up this year. It would definitely get damaged even in tropical storm force winds, let along something of hurricane strength! This storm is sure to impact everyone along the Florida east coast and from what I’m hearing, the entire eastern seaboard of the U.S.
Desultory - des-uhl-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee
- lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful: desultory conversation.
- digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random: a desultory remark.