News of the Week:CapitalNews.org

C-Span ended a program with a invite to go to CapitalNews.org and vote on the most newsworthy piece of news this week. Of 5 questions 4 dealt with Iraq and one was Other! 50% said that Iraq will last longer than Bush’s tenure. Is that a surprise? This virtualmoore site had a poll that was initiated at the beginning of the Bush’s war. 60%+ said longer than 6 years. So where is the news?

I contend the most newsworthy piece of news was that GM wanted to “buy out” 125,000 staff for sums ranging between $35K – $140K. People eligible for retirement would get $35K and younger hourly workers would get $140K. That seems like a lot but it really is not too much. It is a good deal for GM too. If I was 60 and had two years to retirement would I take $35K? Not on your life. If I could last only a few months I could earn that much (If I worked for GM but I do not). So I would call it forced retirement. Who is going to support all the people who will be out on the streets? Probably not me since I will probably be on the streets too. Michigan will implode pretty soon with all the people leaving the state. I think the same applies to the whole 7 state area. The South has risen again.

Indiana Gov. Daniels has essentially sold the birthrite of Indiana by leasing the toll road for 75 years using the reason that the $3Billion to build roads for Southern Indiana. This is would be very meritorious but all the manufacturing jobs are leaving the Midwest to Mexico and Far East. Who needs a road in Southern Indiana if there is nothing to ship?

I think we should spend the money on developing a “Silicon Plain” modeled after Silicon Valley out west and Silicon Glen in Scotland. The Silicon Plain would be located from West Layfayette (Purdue) to Bloomington (Indiana University), passing through Indianapolis. This would take about 25 – 30 years and the infrastructure of roads would follow as prosperity returned to Indiana.

How about this plan folks? Well, I diverged but it was necessary (:-)……….

Motown

I ate at Macaroni Grille tonight after I arrived in Detroit and had the “simple salmon” with a garden salad. The fish was excellent and had sort of a charred, seared character that tasted real good. I think I will have to change my grilling technique to encompass a minute or two of searing at the end of the cooking cycle.

This week has been typical and I have spent lots of time at Barnes & Noble reading the book “Flirting with Mermaids”. It was sufficiently interesting to draw me to it three days in a row to read it cover to cover. If you are not interested in sailing then don’t bother.

The sailboat broker called and I ask him a few questions and agreed to talk with him again on Friday. Monday after work I drove to the west coast to see a boat slip. The marina has good facilities but the slip was out on the end and a little shakey in the wind and light chop of the water. It is probably good for me since manuvering a 10 ton monster 40′ long is a bit more than I am used to.

Last Sunday VM2 & I went West to geocache and did three. It was a nice winter day with sun and wind. One cache was in an ACRES preserve and the other two were quickies. We decided on these since we had not been westward for months. We have to go out 30+ miles to find caches now so it takes a little planning. We are not fanatical about it like a lot of the newer cachers and only do them in groups of 3 or 4 but it is fun to get out on winter days and caching is just the incentive to roust the butt out of the chair.

The Saturday Past

This weekend past we went to South Haven, MI to look at a Watkins 36 sailboat that I am interested in. The day dawned with brilliant, clear skies and a temperature of 35F. We made the long trek to SH and to the property that the boat is resting on. It looks huge and has a brown canopy that covers the entire boat. Surprisingly, she is in the water and appears to have been all winter – there is a bubble machine that keeps the ice away.

Down inside there is plenty of room and it has one of those double hulls that makes it difficult to look around in the nooks & cranny’s. SAM managed to find most of the openings and we took our liesure and checked out most of the areas. The boat needs a little TLC on the wood parts and a good clean but seems to be in pretty good shape.

The layout inside is unique but we liked it. There are two staterooms and both can be isolated from the salon. The aft SR connects thru a door to the head and thru another to the kitchen. Both the head and kitchen exit into the salon but the head has a door for privacy. The salon has a big hatch that slides open so the front stateroom users can exit to the deck & not bother the aft people. Cool huh. The forward SR is the standard V-berth and the salon can be set up to accomodate another 3 persons but I would not want to sale with a complement of 7 people for very long.

The systems are somewhat more complicated but it has hot/cold pressure water, 4 burner propane stove & oven, head with shower, tv, stereo, radar, depth guages, speed/log, etc. Strangely, it has no heater or aircon. I guess that will have to change. Unfortunately, there are no pictures yet. Moore later……….

In addition, we did three geocaches – two were in the town and one was on a trail about 1/2 mile into a nice wooded area (and out of the wind).

Windy & Cold Today

Here in the upper North it is cold and yet another day of wind. I awoke this AM at 0600 somewhat reluctantly and in a fog got ready for work. I was there about 20 minutes later than my usual 0700. Things have been going slow as there is no work to do and that is bad for a house that sells labor hours to the highest bidder. I did a lot of website updates today and researched new products that we may want to apply to the ITS business.

After work I came back to the “pad” and set up the computer to get on the internet. It was working tonight so I can update the blog. Dinner was at Russ’s tonight – a healthy dinner of baked chicken, coldslaw and California mixed veggies steamed. I drove around a short while looking for the lowest price for gasoline and it was at SAM’s club so I filled up for the journey tomorrow afternoon.

The persistant car dealer called again and wondered when we would like to drive the Outback again. I told him the price was too high and the warranty was too low. He stressed the good consumers report ratings and the fact that they pick up and deliver in the event of a repair issue. I do not know but it is possible that a deal might be able to be struck if he would throw in one of those GPS units that keep track of your travels and guide you to the doorstep of unfamiliar turf.

It was then on to B&N’s to read the book “Flirting With Mermaids”. It is pretty good to read about someone elses sailing adventures. So goes another day in the Life of Charlie. Tomorrow I go look at another sailboat that is a solid “cruiser” – that is heavy, long keel, undersailed and generally a dog in light winds. It should be safe enough for the inexperienced to cross oceans if the forces do not go above 9.

Back at home

Friday 3-3-06 We awoke early to get on the road to find a geocache. This was to be the last one before departure tomorrow afternoon. The cache is located on Dorthy’s Bay near the Condos at the bottom of a very long and steep decent – if it starts to rain and you are at the bottom without 4×4 your chance of getting back to the top are nill. Anyway we got to the condos and located the road that leads to a trail into the hills. There is nothing an no one on the trail. There were quite a few forks in the trail and I dutifully marked an arrow in the earth showing the direction. About half way a rustling and thrashing of brush and debris took place and SAM screamed to high heaven – it was a mongoose or a very large rat. Anyway we got to the fire ring and then stepped off the 33 paces in the right direction. After a 5 minute search we found the blue container. It was real wet inside so we stayed around for 30 minutes or so and had a photo shoot. We left some goodies and took a corporal patch and triple bagged it so the contents would stay dry. teh rest was noneventful return to the car.

SAM wanted to shop so we parked in town at a 1 hour parking spot so the time to shop would be limited to my patience level. We bought myself a very nice T-Shirt. Thanks SAM. After that it was near lunch so we stopped at McDonalds in Frenchtown and ate near the Marina.

From there it was on to the beach so SAM could get cooked. The snorkeling is pretty good there and SAM swam the reefs for about a mile. Yours truly then got a turn and I did about the same distance, maybe a little farther, and returned only because of the fear of a sunburned backside – and this I did get.

Dinner was a $31 “Special” Caribbean Buffet. It was good, probably the best we have had this week, but it was reasonably bland and suited for the mainland customers. Me I like a little more spice.
We arrived back at the pad last night about 2230 hrs. It was a fun trip and enjoyed by all. I got out twice snorkeling for about 2 hrs total. SAM was out once for about an hour totally alone and saw a big fish that required a hasty exit from the area. The VM’s did 5 caches and one required a trek through a jungle. On that one there was no person or thing for a long ways but the trail was pretty well defined so it was not too bad.

Sunday 3-5-06 Food on the island is about twice what it is at home territory resturants. Gasoline was $2.93/ gallon. With respect to the rest of the USA it is pretty third world but very similar to urban areas in Latin America. Locals were not overly friendly but were courteous except when driving and then the “island time” became “NY City time”. I’ll add some more to this blog tomorrow.

More from STT

The today in the previous blog line was 3/1/06. As I could not get online last night.

Live from St. Thomas

Today we took an all day trip on the sailboat Night Wind. Departure was at 0900 and everyone was early so we started a little ahead of schedule. A hour and a half sail took us to the first dive spot but due to the wind and swells we had to tie off to a bouy and it was a real long swim. SAM did not want to brave the open sea for so far so I took off alone. I was positive bouyant so I did not worry too much and if I got swept around the point to the open sea I was decked out in my lycra skin which was flourscent green. Anyway, the water temperature was about 76 degrees and I was pretty well chilled when I got back to the boat. The sky was somewhat overcast and it rained while I swam to the site but did not even notice. After a reasonable lunch we sailed to a new and more sheltered location. This site was a lot closer to the dive area but again SAM did not want to go and I was still too cold so we just sat around and talked about St. Thomas in general and rich people in particular. On the way back it really rained and the seas were up to 6′ so we motored back to the slip.

On the way back from the boat trip on Saphire Beach we took the long cut and got lost. Unfortunately, it was still raining and the hills were really, really steep. I thought we were hosed a few times because the front wheel drive vehile just started to spin trying to climb the grade. Eventually we made it back to Charlote Emily and the hotel by the airport.

As we ate dinner tonight it was still raining and I hope this does not turn into a three day gale ( the rest of our time here). Earlier in the week we secured five geocaches and this is all but two on the island. Maybe we will get the other two if it quits raining. BFN.

PS: One thing that is not working too well down here is the internet – like 1 day out of three – so here is what I have for now.