12-31-07  (it's almost 08, gimme a break)

Hello all and happy New Year

I've sort of got the lost phone situation under control, still have a major hurdle but at least I have a phone again.   It's a long drawn out story that still has not come to a end.  Mostly due to Indian help desk people that "canna understanda da engrish" I spend hours on the phone with numerous of there help people and all had the same "probrem."  I was supposed to get a replacement net10 phone but when it arrived it was a trac phone, they do customer service for both companies but the hardware (sim chip) is incompatible.  They told me it would be shipped three day, never told me I would have to sign for it, so I had to track down the UPS driver the day
before Xmas to sign a piece of paper or wait 4 more days for it to be redelivered.  Then another couple hours to figure out what to do with a trac phone, finally I got them to turn it on with a new number and have another phone sent on it's way, still waiting to see what arrives this time.  Maybe an old rotary dial land line......   Anyway after the new phone arrives, once again it's back to the "no understanda da engrish" and see if I can finally get what I paid for and was promised, my old service, with all my minutes and service time intack and new minutes and service time added to it.  It seems I should be able to choose which number I'd like, but that will probably be even more "engrish" problems.  I'll keep you updated.

Xmas was kind of quiet.  On the way back I visited with brother Skip and then we went to a funeral (niece's father in law) in central Kansas and visited with nieces and nephews and families.

I still have not figured out my travel plans back to Florida, sometime in the next couple weeks I'll get that figured out.

I've added a little humorous commentary and a picture about immigration to one of my web site pages.    http://www.jheld.mysite.com/index_2.html


I've found a few good websites for world cruisers.
http://www.cruiserlog.com
http://cruisingresources.com
http://www.cruisersforum.com
My user name is jheldatksuedu on these, they have good information and discussions about cruising related topics, people and crew finder services.  I've been on and known about them for a while but not really very active till late.

I've discovered a device that all outdoors people should know about called Seapack, it uses forward osmosis to purify dirty and salty water into a drinkable sugar solution.  Could be a life saver and it requires almost no user work, unlike reverse osmosis pump filters.
http://www.sea-pack.com
http://www.landfallnav.com/desalinator.html


I've been learning a lot about concrete in steel bilges, got some info on better concrete mixes to reduce corrosion and other solutions to the problem to think about.  
http://nrmca.org/aboutconcrete/cips/25p.pdf


I have not made plans for New Years celebrating yet, if it were my choice I would get together with some friends and play cards and watch TV.

I played poker at the bar the other night, just for fun, no money involved except a side bet between friends.   I lost but I lost at the right time because when I was walking out the bar I found a $50 bill on the ground outside the door where the next person out was going to find it.  So I actually won big time.

One other thing, If you would like to send a picture and short description of who you are I can put that in my new email address book.  Not a big deal I can do the description from my point of view but this lets you tell me who you think you are and saves me some typing,

the magic of cut and paste, it might even be humorous.  LOL  Pictures, many of you I don't have.

Hope everybody has a safe a profitable next year.  
 

2-8-08

 I'm working on putting a new water pump on the subaru, I was going to try to rebuild the waterpump myself but didn't have any luck. The necessary tools are at home and I had to make do with stuff on the boat. I had nothing to lose, and if I could do it I thought it would be much cheaper. Basically all I would need is a seal, should be a couple bucks and maybe a bearing, but might be able to get by without it being new. The rebuilt ones in town were priced at $40 and a two day wait and not sure if it was the right one, so I had to pull the old one off so they could look at it. Long story short I couldn't rebuild it, I rigged up a makeship hydraulic press, but something slipped and I broke a part.  I learned some stuff though, that's always good.  Also good, I found a new one on ebay for $6.80 and $10 shipping. So I bought that and just got it today. Haven't had a chance to put it on though, that'll be tomorrow.  Then it's wash day, lot's of dirty clothes with auto repair.  Japanese cars are just as bad as all the rest when it comes to things that can't be worked on easily.
 

2-10-08 

Everything is fine, I'm in Florida, been here for a little over a week.  I had a tough time with my cell phone for the last two months.  Like most things in my life it has been an adventure.  When I met Jason in Jacksonville mid December to travel back to Kansas and to deliver my brothers Ebay purchased concrete grinder, I was using my cell phone to get the last minute directions to his place.  It ended with a look left, I see you thing and I set the phone on the passenger seat.  That resulted in it getting left there when all my stuff was packed into Jason's car for the trip to Arkansas and Kansas.  The phone had a month of service left and almost 700 minutes.  I called Net10 and explained the situation with the expectation I could probably upgrade my phone handset and get access to my service while I'm in Kansas.  So I did that and purchased a new phone that also came with time and minutes that would be added to my account.  When it arrived it was a Track Phone, a competitor of Net10, and with a phone call to customer service I found out two things, Track phone had bought out Net10 and it was incompatible, they would have to send another phone, and another week goes by without phone service.  I pleaded that since they made the mistake and I would be another week without a phone that they should at least turn the Track phone on.  The finally did that after going through many levels of supervisors and much arguing on my part.   Four days or so later I receive another phone in the mail, another Track phone.  By that time I was due to leave in a week, I gave up on this problem.  I canceled the visa payment for the new Track phone and they promptly turned it off.
I had decided to take a newer Chevy van to Florida that I had bought cheaply at an auction to resell and make money on, thinking that the Mexican field workers in Florida would like such a vehicle since it had seat for 8 and would easily hold another seat for three in that back. It is is in excellent shape, it was previously owned by the State Police, so maintenance would have been excellent.  I loaded it with a few tools, some stuff that needed to head to Florida, items that might be needed to tow my Subaru from Jacksonville to Labelle, a new battery and some food and drove it first to my brothers in Arkansas.  I had on intended to immediately continue toward Mobile, Al to pick up a sailboat mast I had stored there from a salvage operation a few years back but decided to spend a little over a week there helping with concrete forms for the new house he is building.  Pictures of the latest work is now on my website. 

 The weather was cold, often below freezing, but the work needed to get done.  When the weather called for snow and rain I decided it was time to move on in a southerly direction.  I left his place around noon and ended up driving long into the evening arriving at the marina where I had purchased the 38 foot boat and done the salvage recovery of the 26 footer that was abandoned and left in the swamps from hurricane Katrina.  While leaving Rogers, Arkansas I stopped at the Harbor Freight store, one of my favorite stores and bought all the extra stuff needed to carry the mast and tow my car.  At my brothers we had build a couple 2x4 frames to hold the mast.  In the morning I got ready load the mast there were 3 on the trailer, one was broken, not mine and of the other two I decide which one I needed to load up.  One was much larger than would be expected on a 26 foot boat so I choose the other.  When Cliff arrived, he's the dock manager there, I asked him which one was mine, turns out it was the larger one.  Looks more like a mast from a 34 foot boat or so.  Anyway, loading went quite well with the help of the support of a pickup truck that had a portable engine lift in the bed.  I could lift one end up and set it on that and then lift the other end up and rotate to be over my van.  I tied it down and continued on my trip heading to Jacksonville.  I wanted to arrive before dark because the mast stuck out more than 10 feet behind the van and was only marked with a red flag.  I assume there is probably some kind of law stating a light should be on it and I had no desire to talk to the police about it.  I came into the west side of Jacksonville just as it got completely dark.  Less than hour to go I pushed on, but since I was directed by phone the last few miles to Jason's place last time, it was not committed to memory well and it was not written down.  I did have his address, so I stopped and asked for directions and they let me use the phone to call him.  The car was fine, I was afraid somebody may have needed the tow bar that was strapped to the roof rack so I brought enough to make another tow bar but it's not needed.  I spent the night there and hitched up the car in the morning.  The only problem was putting the ball on the van's new tow hitch we had built at my brother's in Arkansas.  I bought a new ball at Harbor Freight but couldn't find it. I had decided I must have left it at the store on the checkout stand since I had picked up two to see which fit best and then went back to pay for all the items that at that time were already bagged and ready to go.  I did have a ball on a receiver type hitch was in the back of the van but was not having any luck with the tools I had of getting it loose.  I had a pipe wrench, C-clamps, vice grips, water pump pliers, hammers and tires irons, but nothing was working.  Even parking the car on it to hold the receiver hitch and using the pipe wrench and hammer did nothing.  The lock washer on the 1 inch bolt was doing it's job quite well.  Finally after C-clamping and vice gripping it to the vans hitch and beating on the pipe wrench I got it to budge.  I installed it hooked up and wire tied the new safety chain and went on my way.  I decided it was daylight and the vans lights were high enough and easy to see around the small Subaru so didn't worry about lights.  Quite a rig, 38 foot mast on top and car in tow.
I made it to Labelle, no problem.  Surprisingly I got about 18 miles per gallon with the van, a lot of the was due to slower speeds, I was often 5 mph under the limit.  The gas tank is somewhat around 30 gals, I never did put in over $80 a tankful, travel by car for a single person now needs to be evaluated closely.  I had no choice this time since I needed to pick up this mast, but in the future flying might be the choice.
The boats survived no problem except once again somebody decided they needed my Stearn's inflatable Kayak more than I.  It was stolen off the dock where I keep the 38 footer.  My dingy, and inflatable zodiac type boat also there where not touched.  I am sure it was stolen because the paddle was also taken.  We will see if once again it turns up on Ebay and I get it back.  Unfortunately if was not the old one, (previously stolen and recovered) it was a newer replacement.  So If I do get it back, probably the serial numbers will get removed from this one too.  Unfortunately that's life in the modern world.  We could choose to spend all our time keeping everything we own in a safe and never ever use it, or we can choose to take a risk and enjoy life.
Lately I've been working on the 38, I put it on Ebay again since I got an email stating it was only a $1 to list it.  I've got about 5 people interested but nobody is jumping on a airplane to come look at it at this time.  There are not many sailboats selling these days.  People that want them, they just don't have any money.  I might have to wheel and deal some creative financing plan for somebody.  I've fixed up the cabin top hand rails and am now working on varnishing all the exterior woodwork.  Each of these projects adds value to the boat, most people do not want a project boat, so hopefully after I get all this done I can sell it as a ready to go completed turn key thing for more money.  Maybe the sale will involve delivery to someplace exotic and I can get paid for that too.  I can at least hope, can't I?
Today is laundry day, I've been winning at poker lately.  I played in the games at the bar just for fun and in the 3 or 4 times I've played I got enough points to allow me to play in the tournament they have.  Prizes are $300, $200, and $100 but it's probably not worth going back to Manhattan for a chance to win that.  The local games are $5 buy in, with all the local friends and family every Monday and Friday nights.  Basically it's just and excuse to get together and have some laughs.  We play dealers choice and play quite a variety of games, ever hear of crazy pineapple, basically it's Omaha with a discard before and after the flop, so you end up with 2 cards you have to play and 3 out of a standard Texas hold-em type common cards.  There are lots of other similar but unique poker games we play.  I've worked up probability programs on the computer for some of the poker games using basic programming.

I also went round and round with Paypal for most of a week.  I still need to continue that fight.  Paypal is Ebay's credit card payment system to help sellers get paid easily.  They have a policy to protect sellers that items can only be shipped to the address that the bank uses that issues the credit card.  Sellers can choose to ignore this and give up the protection offered and ship to where ever the buyer wants the item.  But it's my argument, that for a buyer in good standing (high Ebay feedback) and a small priced item there should be some way to get around this rule.  I recently bought 6 books totaling $12 and had to have them shipped to Kansas.  They are sailing books that I would want in Florida.  Even though I have purchased $9000 through Paypal, there was no way to have these items shipped to Florida. Even though I called numerous times and argued up and down, left and right, I couldn't speak to anybody that had the power to change a policy or make a reasonable decision.  All I could get is customer service people and there immediate supervisors.  There was no way to talk to anybody higher up.  I was promised three time that I would get a call or an email form such a person, but two weeks later still no call or email has arrived.   When I call they go through a process to make sure I am who I am, like answering my mother maiden name.  If after going through all that and I say I need this in Florida I should be able to get it shipped to Florida.  I have already had numerous Ebay items shipped to this address in Florida.  It should be able to get it shipped to Timbuktu if I call up and say that's where I want it shipped. 

That's all for now, hope everybody else is having a good time.

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2-13-08
Yesterday was a good day, I bought two sets of lathe gears, that's something I've needed, these two set are some of the most complete sets I've seen, they both have over 20 gears, one is the standard mix of gears for cutting threads, everything english and metric, the other is a strange set, one for every number of teeth from 20 to 34 with a couple duplicates and then a couple other larger sizes up to 40.  These were on Ebay, of course.  Both of these people use USPO one rate boxes, so shipping is cheap.   I also did the fiberglass work on the back of Chuck and Grace Anne's motor home where he found a tree not where it was supposed to be.  Still have the finish grinding and sanding to do.  Maybe do that today if the weather holds, yesterday afternoon was rainy, we need that down here, but there was also a tornado warning, one had been spotted, don't need that.  That's supposed to be Kansas stuff.  Today was supposed to be more of the same, but the sun is poking through right now.

This I just sent off to somebody that commented on the boyfriend working on the boat instead of sailing....

Sailboats do take lots of work and it's lots of work to sail them too.  It's much easier to just leave it at the dock and spend time working on it.  Most just use it as a get away from life for a while, and it really doesn't matter to them if they get away from the dock, they do get away from life, that's what they really are looking for in the long run.  It makes them just as happy work on it as it would to sail it. maybe more so  To sail it they need to make decisions, where to go, what to do when you get there, to work on it most of the decisions are already made for them, cut these peices of wood, drill this hole, screw this screw, sand this wood, paint this varnish, etc.  It's the decision process that they are and want to be escaping from, that's the get away, that's what they need.  Working on it gives them that.  It's a much tougher bunch of decisions to leave the dock and it also has much more chance of risk.

Believe me, I do know working on boats, I'm about 2/3 through with refurbishing 3 sailboats in the last 4 years.

I'll sure be glad when I can make the decision to get away, get away from the dock....

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 Message YOU sent on 12/4/2008 6:38:05 AM

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