sailing the NorSea

x

WEEK 41 2009

Last Week- Sun- Mon- Tue- Wed- Thur- Fri- Sat- Next Week

Picture of the Week

MAIN PAGE

Oxnard  Weather Underground
Click for Oxnard, California Forecast
Lancaster WeatherUnderground
Click for Lancaster, California Forecast 		Martinez WeatherUnderground
Click for Buchanan, California Forecast

First Post, 17 March 2002
 Seven Years Ago, This Week, 2002 Six Years Ago, This Week, 2003 Five Years Ago, this week, 2004 Four Years Ago, This Week, 2005 Three Years Ago, This Week, 2006
 Two Years Ago, This Week, 2007
 One Year Ago, This Week, 2008
 


Saturday 10 October 2009
Saturday - on the road. Probably not a lot of posting...

Friday 9 October 2009

Friday -  another half day, then up to Lancaster. This weekend I am heading up to Dad & Moms' place. Naturally they are predicting rain - the first since this summer, a big storm coming in. Well, so it goes.

My brothers have been working to find a reputable, inexpensive, roofer. We put the old roof on twenty five or thirty years ago, and it is showing it's age with loss of the sand cover, and holes and wearing where the trees have rubbed it thin.


Book #61 was The Wine Dark Sea*, by Patrick O'Brian. Excellent, as always. This is the 16th novel in this series, and recommended

Thursday 8 October 2009

Thursday - only about a half day of work, then I went home sick just after lunch.


After falling asleep in my street clothes, I did manage to wake up in time to catch the end of the Dodgers-Cardinals game. The Dodger's managed to pull out a win in the 9th inning. So now they are up two games in the five game series.


It's about time to update the 'books read' list.

The attentive reader will note that I made another mistake, using #55 for both Mything Persons and The Nutmeg of Consolation, with the subsequent numbering up to #60 also being in error. It's corrected below in the table, but not in the original postings.

#1 Accelerando
#2 The Surgeon's Mate*,
#3 Hanging Woman Creek,
#4 She*,
#5 True North: Peary, Cook, and the Race to the Pole		 #6 50 Acres and a Poodle*
#7 The Lord Protector's Daughter
#8 Simple Courage*
#9 All The Windwracked Stars.
#10 Escape from Hell
#11 Ayesha, The Return of She*
#12 Washington Schlepped Here*
#13 Crusade: Destroyermen, Book II
#14 Shakespeare: The World as a Stage
#15 The Precipice*,		 #16 The Ionian Mission*
#17 Last Call,
#18 Maelstrom: Destroyermen Book III:
#19 Imager
#20 Allan Quatermain
#21 She and Allan
#22 Hammerfall
#23 Treasons' Harbor*
#24 Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats
#25 Nova,		 #26 The Jennifer Morgue
#27 Wisdoms' Daughter,
#28 The Ghost Map*
#29 The Far Side of the World*
#30 Captains Courageous
#31 Irish Lace
#32 The Reverse of the Medal*
#33 The Moonstone
#34 H.M.S. Beagle: The Story of Darwin's Ship*
#35 Alone Around the World,		 #36 was On Stranger Tides
#37 The Long Voyage
#38 The Letter of Marque*
#39 The Biofab War
#40 The Battle for Terra Two
#41, The AI War (Biofab #3)
#42, Final Assault, (Biofab #4)
#43 Runner
#44: Orbit Unlimited
#45: The Enemy Stars		 #46 There Will be Time
#47 Another Fine Myth
#48 Myth Conceptions.
#49 Prime Obsession
#50 The Thirteen Gun Salute*
#51 Zoe's Tale
#52 Brainiac
#53 A Fighting Chance: How We Rowed the Atlantic in 92 Days
#54 Myth Directions
#55 Mything Persons		 #56 The Nutmeg of Consolation*
#57 Hit or Myth
#58 Little Myth Marker
#59 Myth Inc., In Action
#60 Phule's Company

Wednesday 7 October 2009

Wednesday - another long day at work. We are starting up several field jobs, rather late in the year, and I spent a number of hours down talking to inspectors and some contractors installing equipment. The biologist mentioned that the Monarch butterflies would be arriving in force soon - November - and stay around for mating through January. Her notes said tens of thousands. Last year I had seem them in another channel, flocking and covering the Eucalyptus tree's, and am looking forward to seeing them this year.


There was a lead on a pirate ship - an old boat with trailer on Craigslist, but it was sold before I could even get over to see it. In any case I wasn't sure what length was needed - I believe the other is on the order of 18' or so. They come along fairly frequently, so it isn't a huge loss.

Tuesday 6 October 2009

Tuesday -  the nice weather continues. In the low 70's during the day, light breezes, and cooler yet at night.


A few weeks ago, APOD had an amazing night panoramic picture (64MB!) from the top of Mt. Whitney.

Panorama from top of Mt. Whitney, at night
A much reduced thumbnail of the skies from Mt. Whitney at night. Note the complete arc of the Milky Way.

In 2006 my friend Dave and I hiked up to there, and I took a somewhat less impressive picture during the day, but from much the same angle:

Whitney in the daytime

 Monday 5 October 2009

Monday - I came down to Ventura on Sunday night, for a construction kick-off meeting on Monday morning. But, due to certain issues, there was no meeting, just me, the boss, and an inspector. But we did walk the site and get some ideas about the upcoming work.

A friend called Sunday, he was down visiting my boat and said the Santa Ana's were blowing, and that waves were breaking over the breakwater. There was a bad mooring cleat that I need to call the marina about, but the boat was safe. They are planning to tear out the slips and put in larger, so I think their maintenance has been a bit lackadaisical.

In other exciting news: I brought a new fan down but haven't really needed it - the night temperatures have dropped into the 60's, it's wonderful.

Sunday 4 October_2009

Sunday - small chores and cleaning up about the house. The fridge is pretty much bare, but I didn't have time to do any shopping again, fortunately had dinner and lunch with friends.


I couldn't watch 49ers' play (not broadcast in Southern California), but they won, very convincingly. I did watch the Vikings beat Green Bay - a great game. An interesting statistic - Bret Favre is now the only person - quarterback - to beat every team in the NFL. He beat all the others while playing for Green Bay, and now, playing for Minnesota, has beaten his former team. I'm not a statistics kind of guy, but that's cool.


Saturday night there was a performance at the LPAC: Street Beat. This was a small drumming production, with some dancing and skits, and was fun. When they first started with a sort of 'West Side Story' line I was horrified - I have nightmares about being forced to that as a child - but it turned out OK. The drumming and dancing numbers were well done, and the plot was almost non-existent, more just a few sets and set pieces. Recommended.

As I said: the drumming was good, but watching Taiko drummers has spoiled me - a two minute set at a standard drum set doesn't impress nearly as much as 20 minutes of some Taiko guy/girl just whaling away on a drum the size of a Studebaker.

Picture of the Week
top of a cactus

Photo Notes: Top of a potted cactus, September 2009

Last Week- Sun- Mon- Tue- Wed- Thur- Fri- Sat- Next Week