Zero Hour Approaches

But first, a quick "how to" thing for Teri. To get your own cool as hell music playlist thing, just go to www.projectplaylist.com and register for an account. Then build a playlist. Then generate the HTML code for Blogger. Cut and paste into the template. I made a slight modification by changing the "width" tags to 225 and the "height" to 270. This way it fits in the sidebar.

To add or remove songs, just edit your playlist on projectplaylist.com. No need to further edit the code on your blog.

Before I save any changes, I always do a blog preview. And I only change one thing at a time.

Anyway - enough of that. Teri, if you need more help with this drop an email or leave a comment. I think I have my email posted somewhere on the blog.

Now for zero hour! Columbus Day is almost here. Now I know - most of you are thinking "what the hell is it with Columbus Day anyway? I do not even get the day off!". I agree - it is not a major holiday. Most people only know it as footnote on a calendar. Like Flag Day.

But here in Miami - to the boating community - Columbus Day is a massive legendary floating party. I plan to be there. I have not made all the plans yet, but I might play "beat the idiots" and head out Friday afternoon. This way Saturday morning I am already anchored up, and I will not have to fight the lines and craziness at the boat ramp. But then again - this could make ME the idiot. Two nights on the boat? That is a lot of nights. I have an open boat after all.

I know someone from out of town that is going to be in Miami Friday with a boat. We can raft up together. The other boat has a cabin with a toilet that flushes. So it would not be so bad. Then Saturday I know more people who will be out there in boats. I can distribute GPS coordinates to them and then maybe I can get a group of 5 boats to raft up.

But what the hell is Columbus Day anyway? He gets all the credit for "discovering" the New World. A virgin, pristine land - undiscovered. EXCEPT for the people that were already here when Columbus arrived. But they do not count. Because the people that actually discovered the New World lacked three important things.

1. Steel / iron.
2. Gun powder.
3. Cannons.

But some of them did have gold, silver, and jewels. This was probably not so good for them. It attracted a lot of attention from the people with iron, gun powder, and cannon. But even the people that did not have gold kind of got the short end of the stick I suppose. But that was long ago.

Yet, Columbus still gets his day. Whatever.

All it really means is a good excuse for a massive floating party.

The boat is ready. The floor lockers are in place. The rod holder insets are back in place. The wash down pump is installed. And I washed all the dirt and fiberglass powder and stuff that got in the boat from the projects. So everything is ready to roll. Or is it ready to float? Both actually. The boat has to be trailered to the water before it can float.

The big question now is when will I splash the boat? Friday afternoon (less action at the ramp) or early Saturday morning (in a feeble attempt to beat most of the people that will be using the ramps). The public ramps close every year - they always reach capacity.

Next Weekend

I really thought someone would like at least one of the game links I provided. They are all free. For free games, they are not bad.

Lets see here - what else? OH YEA! Columbus Day is approaching. Now for most people Columbus Day is a bullshit holiday. Nothing more than writing on your desk calendar. Kind of like "Flag Day". You still have to be at work. I do not think school lets out.

NOTE - the local government here says Columbus Day is in fact a paid holiday. I think that some other branches of the government may also be the same way.

But whatever - in South Florida Columbus Day means one thing - the Columbus Day Regatta.

The regatta itself is boring. Watching a sailboat race is about as exciting as watching a garden snail marathon. The only people that care about the regatta are the ones actually in the race.

For everyone else who does not own a sloop or a restored America's Cup race boat, Columbus Day means this.

HUGE floating party.

Now in this photo you only see SOME of the madness.This is only a sample of what you see if you are there. The National Park where the floating party is expects 2,000 boats and maybe more. It really is chaos on the high seas.

I plan to be somewhere in the mess. Maybe. I am getting the boat ready now. I just need to finish installing the wash down pump. The wash down pump is important because I can use it to squirt people. There will be people out there in need of a serious squirting. Many of them will be nude. Columbus Day on the water features a lot of nude people.

This is good and bad. The good part is that whenever there are chicks and alcohol and boats, there will be nude chicks. The cops really can not do anything about it because:

A) you are not on a beach or public property - so therefore you can not be charged for being indecent on a public beach or other public property.

B) if the cops started to bust nude chicks, everyone would throw bottles at the cops and/or attack the police boats and pull the drain plug out of the transom - which would sink the police boat and then everyone would laugh.

C) there are too many naked people, and not nearly enough cops. Which is good.

The bad part is that for some reason there are ALWAYS old people that like to let it all hang out. And I do not mean "old", I mean OLD. Like sagging to the knees old. Wrinkled as a prune old. Went to High School with Moses old. Once owned a pet saber tooth tiger old. Really old. And they are out here, showing off to the world that not just the hair on your head turns gray. As if we really wanted to know.

And then there are the naked dudes. But you have to wonder about the dingies filled with 3 or 4 or more naked dudes and not one chick in sight. OK - if that is your thing guys! It is a free Country.

There is one rule that the cops DO enforce. You can not touch yourself, or anyone else - unless you are out of sight. There are some other rules as well, but the "no touching yourself" rule is one of them.

If I go I will bring the camera. Hopefully one of the boats I may raft up with will have a tower so I can get an elevated place to get some shots from.