Charles W. Moore

Balloons Aloft

Angola Airport (KANQ) is host to Balloons Aloft event again this year.  We worked this morning for several hours setting up crowd control with the other volunteers.  Friday is the first day of the event and highlights the balloon light display.  This is pretty cool  and the balloons fire their flames and this lights up the individual balloon plus the immediate area: it is awesome.

Night Light & Rain

I woke up early this morning designing the nightlight circuit and mentally compiling the tools list and parts.  I was up by 0700 and checked email.  Over breakfast of Shredded Wheat, I finalized the sequence of events for the nightlight modification and by 0900 I was at it. I was pretty much finished by 1100.  Here is what I did to install the mechanical timer into the night light circuit:

• Remove the existing receptacle/switch and box.
• Install new box and switch/receptacle wired so when switch is off power is cut to light and receptacle.
• Install Menard’s mechanical timer after the switch so switch OFF removes all power down stream.
• Set time on/off for 2100/0500.  The photocell does not work well under the tree canopy.
• Check out operation.

I then spent the rest of the day running around trying to find a cover plate which I finally found at Trustworthy Hardware in Angola. Now at this time I just checked and the light came on at 2100 hrs.  Yes, another perfect project delivered.

Father’s Day – 19 June

Today is Father’s Day so congratulations to all you fathers.  I left the boat to come back to Indiana to be with family and immediate family.  We had a great time this afternoon doing some old fashion talking around the table at my sister’s house.  We thank Jess for coming home to be with us today and to be part of our lives.

I was chastised earlier in the week for not writing in this and our sailing blog.  I guess I was spending too much time with the AHS 60′s reunion website.  It is not a lot of time, but sufficient to make a dent in my other blog’s content.  I will try to do better.

Our boat’s dingy outboard motor is in the repair shop because of an unknown start – die – start and run for a while – die problem.  Hopefully it will not be an expensive repair.  It has not been into the shop for 6 years so perhaps it is due anyway.  I do not like the thought of being a couple of miles away from the boat at anchor and trying to get back by using oars that are bent and barely functional.  Add a contrary wind into the mix and there is potential for nastyness.

We went to church this morning and had a great time and some good laughs as the pastor presented his Father’s Day service.  We liked the Iron Man demonstration.  The winner got a $20 Walmart certificate.

New bicycle on order

With the blessings of SAM, I ordered a Huffy bicycle from Walmart tonight and it should be delivered to the marina next week.  I call it my fathers day present.  It is the 26″ classic style with only one speed.  A 24″ unit would have been OK too.

I saw a bicycle of the same type that had a motor mounted on it.  It reminded me of the Whizzer that I had as a young kid.  Perhaps I will mount a motor on it for tooling around the marina and town.  I wonder if I need to have a license plate in Michigan?  I guess I’ll have to look up the rules.

I am at the boat now and SAM is at home for a few days to take care of a sister that just got out of the hospital and is recovering.  It is cool tonight but the mosquitoes were out if force so I put the screens on the hatchway to keep them out.  It is working so far.  Fingers crossed.

Music – so good!

Mid June already?

We have been on the boat since the end of April but I have yet to update the blog.  Why?  Well, it is software technology called social media:  Facebook.  I have been using FB a lot and for some reason it feels comfortable but I am becoming uncomfortable with the intrusion FB is making into my life and that of my families.  This is the only way we talk anymore!

This has been the coldest, most rainy, longest Spring we have had since we bought the boat.  I have been doing a lot of reading – 4 books about Afghanistan, 1 on China, a few about sailing.  By far, the most time has been spent on websites.  I developed a new one – www.ahs60sgrads.org – for the 1960′s classes of AHS.  Check it out and let me know what you think.  Why are all my efforts pro bono?  I needs some money coming in!

Now we are enmeshed in the graduation season.  Garret is graduating from New Castle and we are on our way there tomorrow early.  It should be a fun time and we spent some cash on a memento that should be of some value throughout his life.  I know I use mine almost every day for something.

In our family, it used to be a watch but now that is passe’ since every cell phone has the exact time, calendar, alarm clock and every other conceivable tool under the sun.  So what to get a grad that he will use, remember and keep?  Guess – I will tell you in a few days.

TB’s & Oval Beach

The afternoon was puncuated by TB’s, blue skies and higher winds.  After the second in-room dinner we went to the beach to watch the sun go down.  However, it went under the cloud insteaqd just after 2000 hrs so we returned to tohe hotel and spent a relaxing 20 minutes in the hot tub.  Then came the even better hot shower.  I am ready for bed now.

No Splash Today

We awoke, lazily, to the sound of wind and rain from our hotel room.  It was a little bit later than we had envisioned – 0930 – because the clock in the room was not “sprung” forward so 0830 was 0930.

Anyway, we really had nothing to do until the boat was to have splashed at 1500.  Well it did not splash and will not until it is the second boat in tomorrow.

Right now we are in a thunderstorm and that should add a little water to the river.  No justice – the whole country is flooding right now and we do not have enough to float our boats.  Boo Hoo.

Tomorrow afternoon we go to Muskegon to look at some slips that are priced right if we cannot float at Tower Marine.  The look real nice and we are one day farther North to our summer cruising grounds.  Moore later…….

New Generator

I found a Honda EU2000i generator on Craigslist so I sent an immediate email and sure enough the guy emailed back and then I called him. He said it was available so I Paypal’d him some money and then we drove up to Grand Rapids yesterday to pick it up. It did start real easy and was quiet just like advertised so it should work on the boat for our purposes while cruising. Now I have to clean it up a little and it should be ready to go. While in GR we ate at the Olive Garden and enjoyed our soup n salad. Afterwards we drove back home to Indiana.

The Boat

The better half and I spent most of the week at the Best Western in Saugatuck while coating the bottom of ye old Inspiration with three coats of VC17M, applying a dab of epoxy and talking with slip manager John at Tower Marine.  On Tuesday evening Brian was so kind as to re-open the storage building so we could get to the boat and the slip ladder.  After retrieving it, we went to slip 42 and installed the ladder.  To our great consternation, we found the water even lower than we left it last year.  Considering we were 8″ into the silt last Fall we were alarmed.  A quick meeting was arranged with Manager John the following morning and it was promised that the slip would either be dredged or we would be moved to a deeper slip on the center dock, west side.  We were relieved.

Wednesday morning and without the usual panic, we casually removed the gear from the truck and carried it into the heated storage building.  The setting up the lights and equipment (lots of protective poly tarp on the nearby boats) was without incident and the application of the VC17M proceeded with a 6″ foam roller using the vertical pattern.  Painting day 1 ended without incident and we had time to go back to the hotel before dinner at SBC.  We used one quart of VC17M.

Day 2 was a repeat of day 1 except horizontal pattern was used.  It looked pretty good by the end of the day.  Yours truly applied a little quick set epoxy to the aft vertical  portion of the rudder to fill in the little nick we caused at the end of the season when we removed the boat.  This area got special attention and about 5 coats were applied.

Day 3 started off OK but ended with testy verbosity as is to be expected with three days of hard work.  All equipment was loaded into the truck after the third coat of “the brew” and final inspection and log book entry. We were finished by 1330 hrs and went down to Oval Beach for lunch which was really good while we watched the empty but calm sea.  I drove to US-131 S rest area near Kalamazoo and then SAM took over and I immediately too a nap.  We got back to home around 1730 and re-introduced ourselves to the comforts of home.