Dave

As Sadie and I walked down the gangway this evening, I noticed that there were six slips in a row that all were vacant. This meant that our dock neighbor Dave has left for the Marquesses on his 38 foot cutter. Now Dave and I were never all that close. Hell I don't even know what his last name is but as they say, there goes the neighborhood. First Kenny Schmidt moved back to the Golf of Mexico in Mississippi. Then Barb and Hugh moved to gangway 13. Rich and Nancy came back from their Baja cruise and then bought a house and moved on the hard in Temecula. George and Melinda then took off to Baja and upon their return, gave up their slip and moved to live full-time on a mooring in Avalon. Mark is buying a condo and moving on the hard with his girlfriend. Hell, it's getting downright quiet down here. Who knows, maybe soon, I'll be heading south and the two Andys will be bitching about my leaving.

Don't lend your hand to raise no flag atop no ship of fools

In the blog, http://wcvarones.blogspot.com/2010/03/think-youll-get-revenge-in-november.html

Varones who bills themself as a radical libertarian Jeffersonian vegan militant bicyclist populist capitalist pig in San Diego, says

Think You'll Get Revenge in November? Think Again.

"Think again. I think we're watching "Checkmate" in action. Why? Word is that Immigration "Reform" is the Obama Administration's next goal,and that they intend on granting Amnesty to the illegals living here now. Estimates put that number at about 15-30 million people. Assuming 90% of them would instantly become life-long loyal Democrat voters (And why wouldn't they? They've just been given US citizenship and US Health Care by a Democrat), any massive "backlash" against the Democrats that appears to be developing right now will really only end up likely being more than countered by the massive increase in the total number of loyal Democrat voters that Amnesty will provide."

Checkmate indeed. Me thinks that Obama is sitting in the catbird seat. Did he blunder into it? Or is he that crafty?

What if he does champion immigration reform? And what if his handlers advise him to not back the illegals? If they tell him that he is veering way too far to the left and if he wants to get re-elected, ya think?, he needs to get back closer to the middle of the road.

If he flip/flops, he still wins. In one fell swoop, he gets the undying gratitude of all of those good loyal middle of the road Americans who, quite rationally, are opposed to millions of illegals pouring across our borders.

This could get real interesting. And as the old Chinese curse says, "may you live in interesting times".

It's my party.

Well, today is my birthday and I've decided to play hooky and take the day off. Every year I say that I'm going to goof off and every year something happens to screw up that noble plan. So far, it looks like all birthday plans are still Go. I have the TV on and am desperately trying to ignore the John & Elizabeth soap opera. Also the Sandra Bullock/Jessy James tragedy, oh dear. What is this world coming to? Some earthquake maven is predicting another large temblor in So Cal. Really? That's newsworthy.

Being bored with the so-called news this morning, I tried looking up my horoscope on the web. I found several. One said that I was going to hit the Super Lotto today. Another said I would get lucky this evening. A third said that I might get a sex change operation.

I suppose that it could happen.

Get a pizza stone.

If you want to be a sage, a highly respected person who imparts the wisdom of the ages, remember this. When anyone asks you about the meaning of life, just give a warm smile and tell the asker, get a pizza stone. That's right, that is the best advice that you can ever give anyone.

I got home a bit early today and being that I hadn't had a thing to eat today, I was ready to eat the south end off of a north bound skunk. I had a tube of Pillsbury pizza dough so I sprinkled some cornmeal on my pizza peel.

A pizza peel is the wooden shovel-like paddle that has a handle shaped on it. It's that thing that you insert and retract your pizza in and out of the oven. It doesn't hurt to get one of those either if you want to make good pizza. I unrolled the dough and let it rise for a bit. You stingily spread some sauce on the dough and then I made a pizza version of the Italian flag. The green was a little pesto in the middle, the white was some Alfredo sauce and the right hand side was plain sauce with some motz naturally. The trick here is the stone. Mine in my little sailboat gally oven is 13" X 15" rectangular. I guess the round ones are OK, but I'll bet once you get into this you will be getting a square/rectangular one. I leave it my oven and never take it out. While the dough is rising a bit, turn the oven up to full tilt and let everything get very hot. Sprinkle a bit more cornmeal on the stone, pop it in and break into a chorus, or two, of Oh Solo Mio. The stone is so great that you can, if your feeling particularly lazy, come on I know I'm not the only person who gets a bit lazy now and then, pop a cheap-ass supermarket frozen pizza in and, guess what? It's not too bad. All because of the stone. Alton Brown, don't ask who the hell is Alton Brown, if you don't know who Alton Brown is, go open a box of Kraft mac & cheese. Alton Brown says to just go to the local Home Cheepo and get a large 16" unglazed terra cotta garden tile. It could work.

Tsunami

What if they threw a Tsunami and it didn't show up?

Last week there was an earthquake in Chile. Maybe you heard about it? It was on the news.

There were warnings that we were under a Tsunami watch. Everyone was to stay away from the beaches and marinas. Being I live in a marina, it was a bit hard to stay away. About five years ago, there was another warning. It was the first time that I could remember such a warning. I got a text message from my older son Ed saying that a Tsunami warning was in effect. It was twilight and we, my then wife and neighbors, stood around the dock wondering what to do. Should we literally head for the hills, or just stick around and take our chances. Nosy bastard that I am, I elected to stick it out and see what happens. Nothing happened.

Fast forward to last week. The news mavens were predicting the big one to hit Newport Beach at 11:47. Long Beach at 11:54 and LA Harbor at 12:10.

At high noon, beer in hand, I causally strolled down to the end of the gangway to watch. There was another boat owner standing there looking around. We both were waiting to see the big event. After the last warning, I did a little homework. I read that being there was a realitivally shallow (300-500 foot) shelf extending out 10 miles from Long Beach before the bottom falls off, any very large wave energy will dissipate before pounding the crap out of LB. Very good news if you live in Long Beach. No so good news if you want to take a tsunami right on the chin. But hey, who doesn't?

Anyway, I thought maybe we would see a one or two foot wave, as predicted, roll past the LB Yacht Club.

Once again, nothing. Nada. Zilch. Null.

Probably if we ever get another warning and I say that I've been there, I'll end up going from LB to West Covina in six seconds.

Epilog.

I talked to an old friend Steve Murphy this afternoon. Steve had flown to Maui for his birthday last Saturday and the island was under a Tsunami alert when they landed. Everyone was to seek higher ground. Not only did nothing happen, but horror of horrors, when did finally get to his hotel, he couldn't occupy his room for another day and a half because all of the housekeepers were sitting the Tsunami out up on the Pali.

Zen and the Art of Mercedes Maintenance

The other day my younger son Dave called me to ask how much a charge on his car's air conditioner should cost. I thought that the widow should be $30 to $50 tops. He said that the dealer wanted $135 just to "diagnose" the system. I told him that if he were to come over on Saturday, I would put my freon gauge on his system and see how it looks.

Yesterday he came over and we had a look. Neither of my sons is particularly mechanically inclined and I suppose that maybe I am to blame. When I was a grade school boy, my dad had me under his old Studebaker that he drove to work. He told me it had a "knocking rod". He told me how to drain the oil and then remove the crankcase pan. I then had to figure out how to pull he end cap off of the rod and change the bearing's insert and put it all back together. It wasn't that my dad was a dedicated teacher. I it was that he just figured that kids were around to do the light lifting and he wasn't crazy about crawling under a dirty car. I, of course, was more than happy to do it. I loved all things mechanical. I still do. Being that the times have changed, I didn't make my kids crawl under my Porsche or Mustang. Besides, unlike my Dad's old Studebaker, they didn't need crawling under.

I showed Dave where the AC compressor was located and how it wasn't turning because the magnetic clutch wasn't pulled in. We first checked the fuse(s) and found a blown one. But it wasn't the one for the AC. I then put a gauge on the AC and explained that there was no pressure at all and that there was a low freon pressure switch to disable and therefore protect the airconditioner compressor when the freon leaks out. Off we went to Auto Zone and bought a $9.95 can of R134 freon. We hooked up the freon can to the filler and gave it a shot. We soon had pressure and the compressor started to turn. There was a charge but it was a bit low.

It was a good father & son day for me and Dave probably saved himself about $250 by doing it yourself.

I'll have Dave check the freon pressure in a few weeks to see if it is holding. If it is holding, I'll see if he wants to do the charge himself. Much cleaner for him than crawling under under a '41 Studebaker.

When it comes to tools, it's like WallMart. If dad doesn't have it, you probably don't need it.