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Another beautiful Maine day ending!

Onvacation says

Another beautiful Maine day ending!

Blueberry Island

Blue says

This should reduce hardness but keep minerals.
https://www.lifesourcewater.com/hard-water-system.php

OMG at first I thought that was a smallish (1-foot long) replaceable cartridge, it's HUGE! I like to make my own filtration setups for home and my salt water aquariums so I'm good but thanks!

Just lost my best friend of 15 years. Kidney failure. She was a good dog.

Onvacation says

Just lost my best friend of 15 years. Kidney failure. She was a good dog.

Sucks, I know.

You spend a lifetime protecting them and making them happy, and then you have to make that final decision. Just the worst thing I've ever done. I'll never be able to have another dog again. It was way worse than I expected.

On my way to Napa!

@Onvacation How long does that take?

I've made it from Richmond to Napa Valley Marina in 6 hours with good wind and tides. You have to get through Mare Island draw bridge and up the river on a flood tide. Beautiful sailing but the channel is a little skinny at times.

It took me 4 hours to get to Vallejo today. I've got some boat issues to sort out. I was motor sailing along at about 6 knots this morning and I looked down into the cabin to see water on the cabin floor. OH SHIT! AM I SINKING? Long story short A hose clamp came lose and was spraying water. No damage. No real danger.

On the hard.

Still Halloween in Martinez

Pablo Ignacio Martinez Plaza in front of Martinez city hall. We call it "The PIMP"

Early sunset

Onvacation says

Early sunset

Just how stressful is that? Expensive? Need to hire people?

Boat looks great btw!

Weird, I thought I quoted the "On the hard" post but I'm probably mistaken.

just_passing_through says

Onvacation says

Early sunset

Just how stressful is that? Expensive? Need to hire people?

Boat looks great btw!

You know what B.O.A.T stands for? Break Out Another Thousand.

My boat is 50 years old this year. I wanted to do some extra work to celebrate her birthday. I had to get the bottom repainted and some hull valves replaced. I also wanted to get the deck painted and my leaky ports replaced. Had an $8,000 budget to get work done while hauled out. The quote came out to around $13k. I put off replacing the ports and cut back on the extent of the deck painting and the total came out to just under $7,000.

Boats aren't cheap but divorce is more expensive.

Onvacation says

On the hard.

Onvacation says

My boat is 50 years old this year. I wanted to do some extra work to celebrate her birthday. I had to get the bottom repainted and some hull valves replaced. I also wanted to get the deck painted and my leaky ports replaced. Had an $8,000 budget to get work done while hauled out. The quote came out to around $13k. I put off replacing the ports and cut back on the extent of the deck painting and the total came out to just under $7,000.

Boats aren't cheap but divorce is more expensive.

Onvacation says

On the hard.

The yard did all the work but buffing the hull. I gladly would have paid $30 an hour for the 8 hours of polishing I did, but the yard charges $130 an hour for labor.

Zephyr sailing

Back at the dock.

I have a friend in Santa Cruz who has more nuts history than a chocolate bar factory. Amongst his many zanies, he was stationed in the Navy in Guam, where he was a wheel in the island boat races.

One of his buddies had a vintage boat that was the first sail boat (I think that was it) from Australia to circumnavigate the globe.
My friend and him decided they wanted to get up close and personal observing a hurricane that was coming to Guam. He said they cinched his boat with several anchors and ropes near a couple of huge fuel tanks.

They waited until the storm hit, it became fierce enough to uproot all of the ropes and anchors and the boat was severely damaged and run up against things. My friend said they only survived because the large fuel tanks gave them some shelter from the winds and storm surges.

His friend couldn't afford to fix the boat, so I guess it was dry docked for many years until somebody from Australia bought it, reconditioned it and put it into a museum because of its historical value.

Cruising the Richmond Riviera, again

Heading out for a sunset cruise

Last night in New England.

Get 10 hours and 13 minutes of daylight in Panama City Beach today

Miami Beach gets 10 hours and 30 minutes ... its usually about 10 degrees warmer in Miami Beach compared to Panama City Beach from 1 December to 1 March

Montreal gets 8 hours and 45 minutes

ad says

Get 10 hours and 13 minutes of daylight in Panama City Beach today

Wish I was there. Been soooooo dark and gloomy here in IL. No snow though. January should be fun though. Fort Lauderdale and then off to the Bahamas. 3 days home and then out to Montana.

I might not tell my wife, but I'm thinking of sneaking onto her Costa Rica girls trip/flight without her knowing in February. Flight is free besides international fees/taxes. I can't work until May so might see if my mom can manage the kids. Get a lift over to Tamarindo and get the cheapest place to stay and do my own thing for a week. Been wanting to try surfing and that's the place to do it. Never technically traveled solo for fun without friends or family being there.

Probably a bad idea if I get caught, but these trip photos are giving me FOMO. If it's just me I could do Costa for under $1k no problem for a week.

ad says

Get 10 hours and 13 minutes of daylight in Panama City Beach today

Miami Beach gets 10 hours and 30 minutes ... its usually about 10 degrees warmer in Miami Beach compared to Panama City Beach from 1 December to 1 March

Montreal gets 8 hours and 45 minutes

The getting dark before 5PM fucking sucks, and will be a consideration if I move for retirement.

Booger says

The getting dark before 5PM fucking sucks, and will be a consideration if I move for retirement.

I've heard every time we change the clocks for 'savings time', we get a temporary bump in senior deaths due to the added stress.

just_passing_through says

Booger says

The getting dark before 5PM fucking sucks, and will be a consideration if I move for retirement.

I've heard every time we change the clocks for 'savings time', we get a temporary bump in senior deaths due to the added stress.

Makes no sense: why would seniors of all people be "stressed" about time change?

RWSGFY says

Makes no sense: why would seniors of all people be "stressed" about time change?

Physical stress from less sleep or change in sleep pattern in general. Not psychological stress. When you're very old little shit matters.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7084938/

"Disruption of diurnal cycles could compromise the function of various organ functions, leading to increased mortality risks linked to many different causes, rendering all-cause mortality a reasonable endpoint."

"During the week after the spring transition a significant increase in daily total mortality of about 3% per day was observed."

That paper doesn't mention age but I just skimmed it. I'm sure there are plenty of other papers.

just_passing_through says

Booger says

The getting dark before 5PM fucking sucks, and will be a consideration if I move for retirement.

I've heard every time we change the clocks for 'savings time', we get a temporary bump in senior deaths due to the added stress.

Are we not on "regular" time right now? I might be mistaken? We save the hours of the day and sunlight from spring to fall. We eat shit in the winter. I've never cared to research it, but I believe I'm correct. Or I flip flopped the seasons. It's about morning light more than anything.

RWSGFY says

Makes no sense: why would seniors of all people be "stressed" about time change?

Don't most retired people sleep in every day anyway? I can't see the time change affecting them at all.

zzyzzx says

Don't most retired people sleep in every day anyway? I can't see the time change affecting them at all.

Well, if you search for that in a search engine you'll get pages of articles etc., stating that it's in fact a thing.

Apparently not just old people too. Car accidents, machine accidents etc., from tired people.

From what I read this morning there is a slight protective effect when we get an extra hour of sleep. A bigger negative effect when we lose one.

https://www.sfgate.com/renotahoe/article/private-ski-lesson-cost-lake-tahoe-18652272.php
Between storms.

Heading toward Berkeley

Snow on Mt Diablo

Beautiful hike this morning

Onvacation says

Snow on Mt Diablo

Beautiful hike this morning

Concrete....NOOOOOOO! If I'm hiking it needs to be dirt, gravel, grass, etc. No wonder CA is broke. That should have been gravel at most if improved with a designated path. Just what's in that stretch is easily $5k and I'm sure it's more than 1/4 mile. That's probably a $300-500k trail. If longer substantially more.

Not a diss, but if I'm hiking I'm hiking. This is hiking in snow just this past January. That's not even that much snow either for that time of the year. 1-2' short.


Lava Lake just north of Big Sky, MT. End of the hike during the summer. I wouldn't advise it in the winter....

WookieMan says

onder CA is broke. That should have been gravel at most if improved with a designated path. Just what's in that stretch is easily $5k and I'm sure it's more than 1/4 mile. That's probably a $300-500k trail. If longer substantially more.

this is an overlook trail that circles the mountain just below the summit. This .2 mile (less than ,25) section is paved so that wheel chair bound people can take in the view. The paved section was the only place that still had snow after last weeks dump, which is highly unusual to have snow in April. The snow was actually down to street level in VALLEJO a couple of days ago.

Global warming kaput!

Onvacation says

This .2 mile (less than ,25) section is paved so that wheel chair bound people can take in the view.

Well that's not hiking... that's rolling. lol. Sarcasm.

We went to Palm Springs one year and they got 2' of snow on that tram tourist trap mountain, Mount San Jacinto. People were acting like they didn't know what to do. We brought our winter jackets and enjoyed.



From Joshua Tree to the East. Holy fucking wind. Sustained 40-50mph.



Fun trip. Wife is headed out there next week. I'm begging to tag along, but it's work for her. She doesn't want her trophy husband to tag along ;) I'd love to get out there and golf. Grab a car and let her do her thing. $12 flight.... oh well. We had kids.