Hey, man, can you spare a tire?

I really want to get this boat ready to sail by the next regatta. So I had to change the trailer tires all by myself. I’ve watched people do it before, but this is the first time I had to do it alone. And I can say this much, you need a good jack and a good lug wrench.



I don’t remember who it was who told me to buy this, maybe my godsister or some guy in our sailing club, but THIS CROSSBAR LUG WRENCH is the greatest invention to poor tire-changers everywhere. I mean, you can get some of these fancy geared lug wrenches for a whopping $60 bucks. But this crossbar lug wrench only cost me like $10. And it works great!!!!!!!! I couldn’t have changed those flipping tires without it.

The other thing you definitely need is a good jack and SOMETHING HARD to put it on. I pulverized a concrete gutter (oops!) trying to use it as a base for this 700+ lb. boat-and-trailer. I ended up using an old tire rim for a base, and it worked well. But don’t use your spare tire rim, or… well, you’ll have to jack it back down. A good wood board should suffice.

So, for my cousins who are all learning to drive about now, please don’t forget to check what’s in the trunk of every car you take on a road trip. It may have a jack (mine had one with the car) but it might not have anything to put the jack on……. (like my car didn’t).

It might also come with a lug wrench (mine did), but it might be one of the really sucky ones that you can’t get any leverage with. And for a woman who’s only 5 feet tall and not that many pounds, you really need a lug wrench you can JUMP ON!!!! That was the only way I got those nuts off the hub.

I put up a diagram of how you can balance the end of your lug wrench on a pile of wood, so that you make a kind of see-saw with your lug wrench. And you just stand on the edge of the lug wrench and jump and jump and jump until the *bleeping* nut comes off.

Voila! Don’t need no man to change my tires, dammit!

Oh, I’m so offended!

I found this cartoon on a site recommended by dingus5. I thought it was pretty funny myself, and then I read some of the artist’s hatemail. It’s funny how people take offense at stupid things. I always hate it when someone tells me I should be offended when someone calls me “Oriental”. Usually those people are white. If I’m not bothered by it, why should they be? Don’t you just hate it when people are being self-righteous for you? Kind of like lawyers. Besides, if you had a choice between being called “Oriental” or “Mongoloid”, which would *you* choose? Huh?

Someone in my sailing club once told me I should be offended by being called “Oriental”. I said, “I’m not.” He said, “You should be.” How funny that someone is encouraging me to be angry about something needlessly. He said, “Oriental is supposed to refer to things that are from the Middle East, not eastern Asia.” Yeah, and “gay” used to mean “happy”.

I really am bothered by that whole “politically correct” thing. The whole thing rings of “Harrison Bergeron” (the original short story from Welcome to the Monkey House written by Kurt Vonnegut, not the movie, which I’m told wasn’t true to the original).

For example, I wonder why newspapers say “African-American” when they really mean “black”. I had a friend in Berkeley who was from Austria, but he was born in Kenya. He was an Austrian citizen, and to call him “African American” based on how he looked is, well, wrong. He is actually (if you want to use stupid American lingo) African-Austrian. But that’s so stupid. He’s an Austrian citizen, so I honestly don’t think it matters where he was born. He’s black. And he’s Austrian. What’s so hard about that?

At our University, there are constant debates about our mascot, which is a chief of a “Native American” group that actually didn’t even live around here. Every year, people hotly debate about whether to remove the Chief as our mascot. One of the professors in the Biochemistry department is Native American. He grew up on a reservation, actually. I asked him once what he thought about it all, and he told me he doesn’t really get into it. I guess some people would wonder why, since, hey, he’s “Native American”. Well, frankly, I would hazard to guess he’s got better things to do as a tenured professor at a University. He doesn’t need to depose a mascot to prove that “Native Americans” don’t all prance around football fields threatening to scalp opponents.

The funny thing is, the major supporter of removing the Chief as mascot is actually a University professor in the same department who isn’t even Native American. And he’s actually not a very reputable professor in the department, which is ironic. I guess he spends too much time at protests instead of doing research. And people wonder why cancer hasn’t been cured yet.

Put me in Thailand, and they make fun of my accent. Put me in Philippines, and I can’t speak a word of the language except to say, “Let’s eat now!” (the main thing they taught me). I’m mostly Chinese, but the relationships to China (on both my mother and my father’s side) is so far distant that no one in China would claim me unless it was because they wanted my inheritance or a visa to come to the States.

I’m Oriental. And I was born in America. And I like dogs, and sometimes I’ve wondered what they taste like. Maybe it’s in my genes. But let anyone touch Buddy with their fork (or chopsticks) and I’ll ram a sailboat mast up their ass. Oh, wait, the American thing to do would be to sue.

Twenty Small Sailboats to Take You Anywhere by John Vigor Lin and Larry Pardey, who have circumnavigated twice in sailboats less than 30 feet in length, argue that small and simple boats are better for voyaging couples. They have noted that large vessels are often the cause of abandoned cruising dreams. They’re too expensive and thus steal too much from the cruising couple without the assistance of additional crewmembers or power devices that can fail at the most critical moment. Larger, more complicated, sailboats have more systems that break, testing the skills of even the handiest. Their advice in sum is to go small, go simple, and go with the confidence that comes of handling it yourself. Editorial Reviews by Karen Larson and Jerry Powlas,Publishers of Good Old Boat magazine

Again, this reiterates my conviction that big-boat sailors (who like to call themselves yachtsmen, although they don’t really know how to sail their boat and instead hire people to sail it for them) are kind of a clueless lot with plenty of money to burn. Kind of like the Kennedy’s, although the original Kennedy’s were good sailors. They had to be! They were bootleggers during Prohibition. Someone had to make those rum runs to Jamaica. (“Don’t forget the ice!”)

My sailing buddy says he met John Kennedy, Jr. once at his glider club in Massachusetts. He was a nice guy, and so was his wife.

If you thought the ship in my previous post was ugly, here’s another interesting ship design from a guy who has developed fold-away sails, and hopes to promote them for use on oil tankers. I think it’s a pretty nifty idea to save on gas, but it’ll never take off because people like their gas. There are more motorcruisers these days than there are sailors on the lake.

Quay-dreaming

I like sailing, but this boat shown below just seems like a bit too much sail to have to worry about.

A tourist boat.

On the otherhand, *THIS* looks good. Yep….

The Spike Africa (otherwise known as “Tweedledee”)

I am so in love with this boat. I am sorry for all the people who subscribe to my Xanga site, because all I ever seem to do is post lots of pictures by other people. But, well, this site is mostly a placemarker for all the wonderful sites I find about sailing/windsurfing/etc.

And the collage I made below is from pictures of the Spike Africa in San Diego. This all-wooden, gaff-rigged schooner was the sailboat in the movie “Joe Versus the Volcano”. Isn’t it gorgeous? Oh, it just makes me drool!!!

 

(The small picture of Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks is taken from Richard Saylor’s site.)

Leukemia Cup Regatta this Weekend I got invited to join sailors at a regatta this weekend. Unfortunately, the boat I planned to register is totally untrailerable right now. I have a major exam on Friday, so there’s no way I’m working on it until after the exam. That leaves me less than 24 hours to 1. change trailer tires 2. create a makeshift plug for the two broken self-bailers 3. find all the sails (main, jib and spinnaker) 4. find the rudder (I’M SURE AS HELL NOT GOING TO FORGET THAT *THIS TIME*!) 5. find the plugs, and if I can’t find them BUY them 6. register the trailer with the Dept. of Natural Resources 7. fill gas, check transmission fluid and oil 8. pack camping gear (oh why bother, i’ll be so whopping tired I’ll just sleep in the car anyway) Or I could just pack a windsurf board. But that would entail digging through the storage space to find just the right sail for the wind conditions down there, because I can’t drive 2.5 hours back to fetch a new one from the quiver we have. Or I could just bring my Banshee which is virtually ready to go. Or I could just stay at home and play computer games like Matt. NOT. ‘Sounds like the Banshee is going to get wet this weekend.

The Banshee is an una rig, by the way….

For All My Girlfriends Who Are Over 30 and Asking Me Why They Don’t Have a Boyfriend

Oh, I stole this off of Grophs’ Xanga site. But I think it’s well worth repeating…. I wish someone had told me this when I was in college. Then again, I don’t think I would have believed them.

Girls are like apples on trees. The best ones are at the top of the tree. The boys don’t want to reach for the good ones because they’re afraid of falling and getting hurt. Instead they just get the rotten apples that are on the ground, that aren’t as good, but easy. So the apples at the top think that there is something wrong with them, when in reality, they are amazing. That is why we just have to be a little patient and the right boy, the one who takes a chance to find the good, right apple, will come someday…

Windsurfing Links

Because my life is void of windsurfing or sailing right now, I felt like posting these beeauuutiful pictures and links to their sources, which provide more information than I can put on this site.

The above site has a women’s windsurfing forum.

The above site has information on Rigging and Sailing your sailboard/windsurfboard.

Lastly, the Fashion Queen tells the story of her first windsurfing lesson. (Part 1, Part 2)

(August 7, 2011: Updates made to links, linking to Wayback Machine archives, as old URLs no longer exist.)

Take It Away! Please!

My cousin complained not too long ago about people at her school stealing stuff that she was supposed to sell for a fundraiser. That sucks royally, since the stuff that was stolen wasn’t actually hers, but something meant for a good cause.

I’ve had stuff stolen from me too. Most recently, it is the last day of school. All these college students are moving out, and one smart-alec decided to steal my brand new welcome mat. The funny thing is, if they knew the truth about it, they wouldn’t have even wanted to touch it.

Matt and I went to visit his best friend at their new pet treat store. My mutt loves the stuff they sell there, so when we can afford it, we go up there and buy him treats. Dogs are allowed in the store, so we brought our dog in, and while we’re busy chatting with Dana, Buddy pees on this welcome mat that is for sale.

Now, Buddy knows not to pee indoors. So, the only reason I can explain why he pees every time we’re in Dana’s store is that lots of dogs have already peed on things, and he’s just re-marking whatever it is he’s peed on. Still, it’s mortifying.

So, Dana cleans it up with some of her special cleaner, and I take a look at the price tag. Eh. Not too bad. I say, “I’ll take it.”

Now, we bring it home, and it sits in the trunk for 4 days because I’m really just not sure what to do with it. Our old welcome mat is kind of old, but still serviceable. So after a couple of days of it taking up space in the trunk, I get sick of looking at in there and plop it down on the steps. It looks pretty good, actually. But, well, dogs have peed on it. Ew.

So, I didn’t throw away my old welcome mat, because I’m just so attached to it. Plus, I know Buddy has never peed on it. No dogs have ever peed on it.

This morning, I’m out cleaning the yard and I notice, the mat is gone. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I gave Matt a call at work and asked him, “Did you move the new welcome mat?” “Nope.” “Are you sure?” “99% sure.” So the offensive peed-upon mat is gone.

Yay!!!! Problem solved! And in retribution, some weirdo has dog pee on their hands.

(Another time I had a shop vac stolen from my porch. Too bad the thief didn’t know it had asbestos in it. Our state law states that asbestos disposal from self-home repair does not require mandatory special dumping, and since no one would handle the little pile of asbestos tiles I had, I left it on my porch to deal with after my exams. Problem solved again! Yay! Unfortunately the thief was in such a hurry, they didn’t ask for the extensions. Anyone want free shop vac extensions? These don’t have asbestos on them. So if you ever see a used yellow Genie brand shop vac for sale really cheap, you might want to wash it out really well.)

Summertime SAILING, That’s S-A-I-L-I-N-G

Yesterday, my favorite sailing partner left for home. For him, home is really where his parents live in Boston. Such is life in a college town. As a graduate/professional student, my home is here. Always here.

It wouldn’t be so bad, but in the summertime there is a dearth of sailing people in my vicinity. So, as I did last year, I put up little fliers in the gym that Matt and I have started going to, hoping I will get a nibble.

This year, I’m restricting it to the women’s dressing room, because last year when I posted a flier in the general area was when I met one of the guys who got mad cuz I already had a guy of my own. (The ad said SAILING. Not sex. Dunno what he was so mad about. How you can confuse sailing with SEX, I don’t know. Heh.) Maybe this year, I’ll meet some lesbians who’ll get mad at me. Oh well.

If I get some free time in between my exams, I may also take a trip to Houston to not only look at their residency programs but also… heh… take another ASA course. (Slowly moving up to bareboat certification.)

Has anyone had any experience with both the ASA and the US Coast Guard course? Which would you recommend?

That’s a yawl in the back. I thought it was a ketch rig, but it’s not, because I think that back mast is too close to the stern to be a ketch (in which the tiller lies behind the last mast). What do yawl think?