Well, the lawyers will have to survive another year putting other couples asunder. (Boat name seen today: Motion Granted) We made it through. In fact, everything went pretty smoothly, unless you consider that I left my car keys back at the marina and had to hitchhike there from the park. It was such a beautiful day I didn’t even mind, even though I got a blister. Top-Siders are great deck shoes, but not so good for walking.
If you want to understand why Alan and I tend to squabble on days like this, consider this photo:
This is a fitting on the very point of the bow. Not a very big one, maybe five or six inches long. Alan had to remove it to properly treat the wooden rail underneath, and when he replaced it? Note the position of the screws, how each one is perfectly aligned vertically. The last thing we needed to do before launching was tighten these screws, and I was instructed to hold them in that vertical position while he tightened the nuts they attached to belowdecks. Why? Because that’s the way he likes them, damnit — shipshape.
“It simply amazes me that you can be this picky about the position of a screw, and yet, if I weren’t here, you could go the rest of your life without ever making your bed,” I remarked.
Mars and Venus. But still, we keep our heads above water.
ashley said on May 8, 2006 at 6:43 pm
I’m the same way. Although I consider flinging the comforter on top of the bed so as to cover everything an example of “making the bed”.
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Danny said on May 8, 2006 at 6:47 pm
Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but to my eye, those screw slots are not in line. I estimate 2 minutes past 12 o’clock on the top on and about the same in the other direction on the bottom one. You did okay on the middle one though.
But such imprecision still makes us all want to vomit..damnit.
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MarkH said on May 8, 2006 at 8:03 pm
Seems to me all things in the universe are in alignment, Venus and Mars included, Nance. I like all my mechanical stuff (tools, machinery, vehicles, boats, fasteners, etc.) in order. Such things as beds are best left as Ashley says.
I think Danny’s onto it regarding the bow plate screws, though. Perhaps best at this point not to alert Alan.
Have a GREAT time.
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nancy said on May 8, 2006 at 8:09 pm
I took the photo midway through the process. Rest assured, this vile violation of symmetry was corrected.
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mary said on May 8, 2006 at 8:10 pm
Only God can create perfection. The screws are close enough for crying out loud. Give this woman a break.
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brian stouder said on May 8, 2006 at 9:48 pm
This is sorta on the subject – at least having to do with water, and precision.
I was watching a show on one of those learning channels, and it was about big bridges. They showed the big bridge at Galveston Bay, and the long cables extending from the towers to the bridge’s road-bed itself all had a spiraling strake on them.
They pointed out that these strakes were absolutely essential to the bridges stability – and were only added well after the bridge was built and put into service. It was noted that the bridge was completely stable in big windy storms, and driving rain squalls – but that it became dangerously unstable and wobbly in misty rain or gentle showers.
After hundreds of hours of observation/computer simulation/experimentation, the engineers discovered that when rain water was allowed to stream down those cables in straight line, it would actually over-load the cables and upset the bridge – but in a big storm, the wind would blow the water off the cables and prevent the problem! – and so they added the spiral strakes.
By way of saying, I would want ship-shape bow-plate screws, too, because you just never know
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Dorothy said on May 9, 2006 at 6:32 am
I was going to relate that same story, but Brian beat me to it. Word for word. Dammit.
Happy sailing!
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Carmella said on May 9, 2006 at 7:47 am
Speaking of marriages…but off the subject…how do you feel about “Big Love” by now? Each week I tell my daughter…that’s it, I’m done, then the previews come on and I have hope that it might become more interesting. But, even a bad HBO series is better than the fluff you get on the networks!
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Dorothy said on May 9, 2006 at 8:55 am
I like Big Love. It’s not outstanding in the fashion of The Wire or The Sopranos. The actors are really terrific – I get creeped out by Roman on a regular basis. And Bruce Dern is just fun to hate. But you’re right, Connie. It’s much better than any network show this year. And knowing I only need to devote 13 weeks to it instead of 23 or so helps with the viewing.
Did anyone else try watching Thief on the F/X channel? I love Andre Braugher, but the show left a lot to be desired. It only lasted 6 weeks.
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ashley said on May 9, 2006 at 12:43 pm
Thief killed me.
It was scheduled to just be a 6-week show, and then they’d come back next year with another short series. What did you not like about it, Dorothy? It was kind of cursed, as it was supposed to be filmed entirely in New Orleans, and they had to move everything to Shreveport.
I do like the 6-week / 12-week seasons, and from what I see on HBO (and Thief, for that matter), it looks like the writers do, as well.
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ashley said on May 9, 2006 at 12:43 pm
Thief killed me.
It was scheduled to just be a 6-week show, and then they’d come back next year with another short series. What did you not like about it, Dorothy? It was kind of cursed, as it was supposed to be filmed entirely in New Orleans, and they had to move everything to Shreveport.
I do like the 6-week / 12-week seasons, and from what I see on HBO (and Thief, for that matter), it looks like the writers do, as well.
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Dorothy said on May 9, 2006 at 1:04 pm
You know, Ashley, I think maybe I was influenced by reviews (which I rarely am) before I watched it. The ones I read were not enthusiastic. Also, since it’s on at 10 PM here, I was taping it and trying to watch it later. I rushed through a couple of viewings and I probably cheated myself by doing so.
I like to be mesmerized by a story and that one just didn’t sweep me away. But if it came back on I’d still give it another chance. Next up? “Rescue Me” and the one Kyra Sedgwick did last year (name is escaping me, dagnabbit). She’s a detective in Los Angeles, formerly from Atlanta.
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ashley said on May 9, 2006 at 9:59 pm
Sorry, Dorothy, but I can’t do “Rescue Me”. To me, Denis Leary will always be a pale ripoff of Bill Hicks.
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