(The rest of the sailboat story...)

The transport service only let my brother know two days in advance of when they planned to haul the boat. So my brother had to high-tail it down to NC to get it prep'd and give the underside as good of a cleaning as possible. My brother-in-law (who lives in Monroe NC) met him there to help. They did a 45 minute dive to clean the hull and keel the eve before hauling.

My brother's drive home after that was the most harrowing part. Here's the story (in his own words).


They will put her on stands and unstep the mast and get it ready for transporting to Connecticut. They'll come back a week from tomorrow and move it to Connecticut.

My drive from Washington to Newark NJ was definitely an exhilarating one. I have never been in so many electrical storms with so much intensity. It seemed like I caught a western moving front that ran from MD to CT. The lightning was blinding at times. I was at the apex of the Delaware Memorial Bridge and wind and rain was blowing upward over the bridge and an enormous flash and instant crack of thunder seemed like it was directly above me.

I was holding off on getting gas until NJ since they pump it for you (state law), it's considerably cheaper and it had been raining sideways since I was south of Baltimore. I pulled into the first service area off the NJ turnpike, but they had no power. The car computer read 40 miles until an empty tank and the next service area was 36 miles. One traffic jam and I would've been on the side of the road in monsoon rains so I took the first exit off the turnpike and headed for a town 2 miles west, but only to find the same result. No power. Off to the next town, lights out, trees and limbs down. Asked a cop who who was warning people of deep water on the road where to go and he sent me south on I 295 for 5 miles. Finally found a station that had power restored but the pumps would not reset. The guy said to give him 5 minutes. I did and he got them working though had to pay cash as the credit card machine was not working (keep that in mind Dad the next time you drive home from CT with $5 cash in your wallet).

I was finally headed back in the right direction with a full tank of gas. I arrived home at 12:30 this morning -- 10 hours after leaving NC.

Now to the good part -- see pictures below. It was really interesting to see how they have to haul boats at this lake. The trailer they pulled mine out on can handle up to 50' sailboats. They hauled it and put it on stands, then removed (unstepped) the mast with a boom crane. They then hauled a 35' power boat and took it to Myrtle Beach. They'll come back Wednesday and load mine to transport to CT.

Anyway, all went extremely well -- in fact, it could not have gone better. Looking forward to taking everyone out for a sail.









p.s. - wow, I can't believe I never posted any pix from the family sailing trip last year. Guess that was back when I was still trying to make a go of it at alamedalink.com. God, I was so naive back then!

I know you're [inlink]kara,91[/inlink] probably looking for a local boating buddy, and it's not even my boat per se, but my brother just bought a sailboat! He drove 450 miles in one weekend to preview two of the four contenders, then made three round-trips from Connecticut to Lake Kerr, NC for the final winner. A 28' 1990 Beneteau First 285



Now renamed "Carolina Pearl" (after our [inlink]twisted,56[/inlink] grandmother) and safely moored in Norwalk Harbor.



This has been a long time coming for my brother. I remember when my parents announced we'd be getting a new brother or sister. My brother's response: "we could have bought a sailboat instead!" I think in the end he was happier to have our little brother. And now he has both!

We've certainly come a long way since the days Dad rowed us [inlink]twisted,229[/inlink] around Long Island sound, haha.

I love shopping in Japantown. Although it's so hard to decide what to get for lunch. They're all so damn cute!








Ok, maybe that one's not so cute.


And don't forget the sake!

(Apologies to previous commenters. I accidentally deleted this post. I hope this reenactment lives up to the original.)

Mama mia, what a week! I learned a hard lesson today, and I'm going to share it with you all right now. Do NOT suffer in silence, (or in my case, relative silence), until you blow up at the wrong person. ONLY to find out the cure for the pain was within reach all along. Click the heels of your ruby slippers three times! You do NOT have to bother the wizard!

Turns out Firefox was placing the "open file" dialog box out of sight below my dock. D'oh! I should have figured that out!

Safari did crash (consistently) right on cue, and still does after all my AppleCare maintenance. But once I found out my Firefox bug was a non-issue, I didn't care. Sorry I don't have a solution I can share with you (e:Jenks)! Except, use Firefox for estrip!

I can't even begin to describe this week. I think part of my problem is always trying to describe it online. That's never going to work.

Thanks again, (e:theecarey)! I took my estrip bumper sticker for a ride to clear my mind after my AppleCare appointment. Tried to take an incredible picture, but my digital camera battery finally died once and for all. Hopefully I'll get all my crap (including the battery charger) out of storage after August 15. This whole (tenant) thing started in February. I probably should have taken my realtor's advice and given my tenant 30-days notice the day I bought the place in November '05. But I just couldn't see myself standing on the sidewalk waiting to change the locks after the country sheriff forcibly evicts someone on my account. Then again, I could easily see myself with that $14k back. ;-)

The crazy thing is, the guy hasn't even lived here for the past 10 years. He stores his stuff here, and he made it abundantly clear as part of the settlement he won't be removing all of it before moving out, and he doesn't want whatever is left. But he does want his full security deposit of $200 back. (I hope my cost for the dumpster to haul away his stuff is less than $200. Then again, I can probably post "free stuff!" on craigslist and get plenty of takers. Which makes me happier than putting it into the landfill.)

I'm sure the woman who moved in 10 years ago is very grateful for the rent control rate she pays to my tenant, and doesn't mind living with all his stuff for the trouble. Meanwhile, all I want is to finally get my own stuff in my own place, and let the rent control tenant go to a government agency (subsidized by my property taxes) if he does indeed need to be subsidized rather than to me for support. ANYWAY! I'm not getting into that now. Back to my happy, happy place!

I can't believe my good fortune this week! I've been bracing myself for a karmic backlash to the incredibly bad vibes I sent to an undeserving (understatement of the century) recipient last week.

Instead, well, you read about the most amazing phone call I've ever received. And today! I come home from working late, grab my mail, rifle through the usual recycle bin fodder, then...what's this? Lo and behold! A hand-addressed envelope with an honest-to-god postmark? FROM BUFFALO NY!!!

The minute I saw the return address I knew exactly what it might be and who it was from. Thanks (e:Theecarey) !!!

It's everything I hoped it would be! Seriously! The Golden Gate Bridge has nothing on that orange. In fact, I think Christo's next gig should be covering the GG Bridge with estrip bumper stickers! How cool would that be?

(e:Theecarey) - if estrip ever needs a W. Coast PR division, I'm your man! I mean, woman!

p.s. - thanks to everyone who offered to send me a bumper sticker. I have some kind of stubborn, self-reliant streak that would rather be miserable than accept help from others. Thank god (e:Theecarey) saw through that! And thanks to the rest of you for putting up with me.

Now I just have to put things right with Steve Jobs. Although he is NOT getting my estrip bumper sticker. ;-)

Today was so nuts. I took the day off from work to appear in court to evict my upstairs tenant. I don't even want to go into the reasons, since in most circles, the mere thought of evicting a tenant immediately makes me evil. My crime is I bought the building and want to live in the best unit, and the only way to do that is to evict the tenant. (Even though he's on a month-to-month lease and only needs to give me 30 days notice to leave, but for some reason the only way I can get him out is to evict him. Which would make more sense if he was actually living there, but he's been subletting to someone else for 10 years now. And that's not even half the reasons I'm not getting into.)

Anyway, I don't want to evict him, so I pay him $14,000 instead. He wanted $36,000. But he knew damn well I'm only required by law to pay him and the woman who is subletting from him $1,000 each and give them 30 days notice, so they took my generous offer of $14,000 plus six weeks to move out instead. Meanwhile, I have to pay my lawyer god knows how much, but let's not get into that.

If that's not stressful enough, my iMac has been kind of problematic since I got it. ((e:Paul) has already lived through too much of my drama over this so I won't expose you to any more.) I started writing my 10 reasons to switch back to a PC (you have NO IDEA how sacrilegious - or as close to sacrilegious as I get - that is), and I finally hit 10 (actually it was 11, or more accurately the #1 reason caught me by surprise one more time and I was so pissed I wrote it up as 11) and I actually EMAILED THEM    to STEVE JOBS! Signing it with my AppleCare number.

Well, as these things typically go, the next morning I felt pretty ashamed of the way I phrased #11 (among other things), but I'm thinking, there's no way Steve Jobs actually gets email from the general public, right? I mean, I just guessed at his email address out of frustration, it's not like I can email STEVE JOBS!!!! Right??!!!??? RIGHT????!!!!!!!

Well, wrong.

So Steve's vice president of executive relations just called me and we're setting up an appointment for my iMac with an Apple genius. Oh my god, I am so embarrassed. I will never swear at Steve Jobs again! I swear!

Of course, the down side of that is, I may still swear at (e:Paul) occasionally. It's not easy being my hero.

Hey! I'm famous.



This just proves I need to get a cell phone with a better camera. And what a bad time to stop getting the newspaper because I'm dogsitting in Alameda! Anybody got a spare copy of Thursday's SF Chronicle?

Oh yeah, the pic is of the art installation thingy Mark worked on for Burning Man last year. They put it on display on the embarcadero last week. Not the best shot, since at this angle you can see the pole going up the mother's ass. But I liked the interplay with the bay bridge in the background on this one.

p.s. - Does the kid look like a Klingon or what?

People:
1. How did you find out about/why did you become [a member of] of estrip?
(e:j3sse) . Although (e:Paul) convinced me it was ok for me to join. (author's note: haha paul! no editorializing.)

2. How "out" are you about having a publicly accessible online journal. Do your friends know? Does your family know? Do your co-workers know? Does your boss know? Do you use your real name? Do you use your real photo?
I finally came out of the closet when a:link was born, so now everybody knows. But for most of them it's like "haven't you moved on by now?" They may have a point.

3. How many epeeps have you met [in] real life?
A handful on my one trip to b'lo and (e:Ajay) when he moved out here.

4. How has estrip changed the way that you meet people, on and/or off line?
That is a subject for an entire post.

5. How has estrip affected you[r] love life?
What love live? (Ha!)

6. How many of your friends have joined estrip because of your influence?
Go ahead and rub it in. Hey, I'm the only fucking one out here and I tried my best.

7. Are you from Buffalo/do you live in Buffalo?
No/No. See Q.#1.

Equipment:
1. What type of hardware or software purchases have you made as a result of using estrip?
I can't answer that. The West Coast investors wish to remain anonymous.

2. Have you used the mobile version of estrip? Why or why not?
I LOVE posting from my cell. I can't browse from there though.

Lifestyle:
1. In what way has estrip changed your Internet surfings habits? Describe the amount of time you spend on estrip, when you use it and about how long?
I plead the 5th.

1a. How many journals do you usually read per day?
All. Eventually. Although sometimes I skim.

2. In what ways has estrip changed the way you perceive your local community?
That is another subject for an entire post. I don't know if I would have gotten so hooked on (e:strip) if I had been living in SF instead of Alameda when I first discovered it.

3. How has journaling about your life affected the way you spend your free time?
Pass.

4. Has estrip changed your living situation in any way?
In ways you couldn't possibly imagine, and I couldn't possibly explain.

5. Do you find that you mediate/document more of your experiences now that you share them with others?
Yes.

6. Has publishing on estrip affected the way that [you] write?
Prolly. ;-)

7. Do you have other online journals? If so, with what service and has estrip affected your usage of that journal?
No.

8. Have you ever gotten in trouble for using estrip at work?
I wish!

9. If you have stopped using estrip, why?
Keep trying to. Haven't been sucessful yet.

For reasons I don't want to go into, I find myself reviewing my real estate closing documents. This standard disclaimer in the California Statewide Buyer and Seller Advisory just caught my eye:

Item 22. Errant Golf Balls:

Buyer and Seller are advised that if the Property is located adjacent to or near a golf course there is a possibility that golf balls may damage the Property or injure persons or pets on it, as well as the possibility that persons playing golf may enter the Property to retrieve errant golf balls or for other purposes. Broker recommends that buyer investigates this possbility during Buyer's contingency period. Brokers do not have expertise in this area.

Some day I'll post about the Red Eyed frog habitat contingency.

This dog-sitting gig is funny. Jack and Margaret picked me because they wanted someone willing to snuggle with their dog in bed. And Margaret says Brodie likes to go into town, but sometimes he's too tired to walk back, so it's better to drive him. I'm thinking, are you looking for a pet-sitter? Or an escort service?

Anyways, while I'm in Alameda I get free home-cooked dinners with B&K almost every night, so I can't complain. Tonight is jambalaya, followed by a soak in the hot tub. Why did I leave Alameda again?

Oh, but back to the title of my post. I have to take Brodie out to check his pee-mail on a regular basis. He doesn't seem very discriminating about what offerings he sniffs, but he sure as hell is judicious about where he leaves his own reply. I wish I knew the story behind all of that.