BYYB Forums

Anybody heard from Barnacle Jim? Or that James Sanders guy he hangs around with? Seems like it's perfect building weather, whether he's building or not...

Brit is is probably only 115 degrees in that field he builds in now. Plus, he has to mount those beautiful doors he made for the house.

He's probably figuring a way to get the piano into his cabin. I'm sure he'll be reporting soon. :lol:

Dr. Jim Sanders is a professor (with some tenure, I would suspect) and though his specialty (barnacle mating and breeding habits) requires considerable education and expertise, he's managed to find some room in his schedule to build a one off Vacationer. This time of year, I can imagine, is very busy with final exams and fending away the wiles of coed's in need of a passing grade.

I'm often in contact with him on boat matters, when he has the time to work on it, but haven't heard from him in a few months.

He did manage to install the piano, but the parlor grand wouldn't fit, so he had to settle for a pretty little spinet upright, which he's lagged to the forward bulkhead, using his usually fine efforts.

Lies, Lies, all Lies; While it is true that Dr. Sanders is an instructor of English here in Glendale at the community college, his tenure is somewhat dubious since they have made HIM the assistant chair of the department; they obviously do not know his alias or alter-ego at all. While I have not spoken with the Barnacle since just prior to the SW mess about when I was going to "borrow" his cute little red truck as a tow vehicle I know that he is also involved on several other committees and boards doing other activities to try and take over the world no doubt, I am certain that his lovely wife Mrs. Pat and that flea ridden rat of his Sheba are keeping him very busy.

As to the piano, he did put in the upright, but it just didn't look quite right; so he took it out, removed the cabin top and had a crane lower the parlor grand onto the dance floor, which looks very grand.

Well,

I don't feel so bad now if someone has a piano on board.

I was thinking I was going to have to make my vacationer into an ironclad so that when I play my bagpipes, she could withstand the broadsides during messabouts.

Dave G. :twisted:

You know, teaching all those young arthropods and other crustacea, to speak proper English, has to be a most difficult task. Just overcoming the social differences, has to be a substantial barrier for him, plus the difficulty in getting one to hold a pen, while attempting its written form.

I would venture a guess, that a full size parlor grand is too large to fit the confines, of even his over sized Vacationer. It must be a baby grand, likely similar to the one I have in my Optimist.

Ahoy!

Did someone mention me? Glad I was missed. Indeed, I feel much like the man who saw his face on a wanted poster in the post office. "Sure is nice to be wanted," he said.

Bill Olney even called this morning, but I was already on my way to hard labor. Here, then is an update of what has been happening and not happening.

My boat and I both have been in dry-dock, much of it having to do with long hours at work, but some of it due to minor illness. Yes, I also serve on two or three committees for our city here at Glendale.



Slummin' Around
Probably, though, most of the time has been focused on trying to keep a community from turning into a slum. I was able to get the community solvent, secure multiple grants, and oversee a number of community improvement projects. Last Thursday, though, I was out-manuvered with the slum-lords winning the first round. A couple of folks I had trusted took me by surprise. I don't understand greed or arrogance, or the need to betray a friend.

"What is it about people who want to turn good homes into slum rentals?" I suppose such people make a few dollars, but why do you have to destroy a community just because you want an extra dollar or two? Many of the folks in this community are aged people, and easy prey, I suppose. Others are young mothers, struggling to raise a family. There are also a number of young couples trying to get started in life.

Well, enough of that for now. If you're the praying sort of person, remember us in your prayers, won't you? I could use your prayers. I really could.

The Piano Man
I am happy to tell you that the piano looks promising. Miss Pat is trying to decide whether the piano should be on port or starboard. Neither of us, you understand, can play a piano, so we may need to remove the piano from our cabin. The piano sure made the galley a little hard to use. We could always just use the piano as an anchor, I suppose.


April Showers and April Birthdays
My birthday was in April, and so was Miss Pat's. She bought me a new Grizzly bandsaw, heavy duty. I bought her some flowers, just as a down payment, you understand. I suspect she has a couple of more items in mind. I have a good life, and a good wife. Yes, I'll post a photo of the bandsaw when the camera batteries have been re-charged.

In the meantime, however, here is a photo or two of a workbench I made for the back patio. Some of the BYYB folks have garages or basement workshops. I have neither, but I do have a few square feet of a back patio I can use. I do my best to keep everything clean and tidy. In fact, Miss Pat kind of insists on that.

The workbench has a lower and upper section. I will be able to put tool cabinets under the upper section. On the lower section, I plan to mount a lathe. One good turn deserves another you know.



Here is another photo, illustrating what we are trying to do. The wood is knotty alder. I laminated the legs myself, and then made some decorative feet out of teak. That way we could spray water under the benches to clean everything out. It is not too likely that teak will rot.



This last photo offers a good view of the upper bench, complete with vise. The holes on the bench are for the bench dogs, and offer a way of holding or securing a large object for carving or planing.



The vise is a heavy duty Jorgensen, but I embedded the back jaws into the wood, and then, attached heavy stock to the front jaws. Doing this gave me an 18 inch jaw for the vise.

Well, that's the news for today, much more than I wanted or needed to say. I do like the bantering. I should be able to do some serious boat building this weekend and the following week as well. Our semester ends this week with final exams on the following week.

Several in my classes finished the semester early. By that I do not mean that they passed. I just mean that they finished early.