Weekend Recap

Well I hit rock bottom. I am reduced to drinking a Bacardi Silver. Yea, things must be bad. But it is my fault. I allowed myself to run out of Sam Adams Boston Lager. I have no idea how long the Bacardi Silver has been in the fridge but the bottle cap had some rust on it. I think someone I took out on the boat last summer (at least, maybe longer) took a 6 pack on board and did not consume them all. There are some rust stains on the bottle, and the twist off cap would not twist off. But hey, it still has fizz! So it must be good. And if I get violently ill, Bacardi has money. Ill wrangle a few grand from them. Assuming I survive.

Mother's Day went over well. I gave ma the card and stuff. I did not have to go see The Lion King. After the play was over the parents went to Outback so I showed up. I screwed up by having a Coopers Sparkling Ale. Then another. But when I get home I want one more and all I have are the ancient emergency Bacardi Silvers.

I pulled almost everything out of the old boat! I got something done today. Amazing. I pulled out the wires and shit for the GPS chartplotter. I pulled out the satellite radio antenna and all related equioment. I pulled out the VHF radio mount and microphone hanger thing. I pulled out the marine stereo. I pulled the two good speakers. I swapped the Quik-Fill battery caps out of the old boat for the regular battery caps in the new boat. The Quik-Fill caps are nice. With them installed you can add water to the battery cells without having to pull them out. And I removed the on board automatic battery charger. Oh yea and the boat hook. I need the boat hook. Kind of. I have never used the boat hook, but I still need one. I do not know for what. Maybe to club someone with or something.

After removing all the stuff I added, suddenly the boat wiring does not look so scary. I need to do a better job with the new boat and not be such a slack ass. Bare wires wrapped around the battery terminal with an in line fuse attached is not the right way to do things. It works, but it is not right. I need to be more careful to use proper crimp connectors, and run everything to the main fuse block.

And there was some serious heavy duty boat bonding going on. I dropped a floor locker hatch on the new boat onto my foot. Skinned the top of my right foot a little. So now my sock will stick to my foot. No beer was involved. A boat is not yours till you bleed on the deck. But I did not bleed on the deck. The foot skinning was not bad enough. So that means I will do something else even more stupid at some point. I can not just cut myself on purpose - the blood letting has to be an accident to make the Boat Gods happy. So you never know when it is going to happen. That is part of the fun.

But all was not fun and games. There is no place to mount the on board automatic battery charger. So I will have to put the thing in the center console space and then run wires to the batteries under the deck. It is going to be a pain in the ass, but it has to be done. Keeping the batteries topped off makes them last longer. They are 100% charged and topped off with distilled water. Life is good.

I still need to remove two of the speakers from the new boat and transplant them to the old boat. Then put the speakers from the old boat into the new boat. And then figure out where to mount all the other crap I pulled out of the old boat. I also need to transplant the GPS antenna, and remove the official galvanized steel John Deere beer bottle opener. The beer bottle opener was a gift and MUST be transplanted. All the other crap was optional.

What Was I Supposed To Remember Today?!?!

OH yea, Mother's Day! I remember now.

I hope everyone got all their Mother's Day supplies. If not, you could be in deep dog doo doo. Ma wiped your ass and cleaned up your barf when you were a baby. The least you can do is get a friggin card!

Anyway, this year I get off easy. Last year my dad had to work. I did too for that matter. But I told the people at work "no way am I staying here for any overtime! Forget it! I have more important things to do! Fire me if you want, I do not give a crap!".

NOTE - none of that actually happened. I did not have to stay for any overtime. I forgot when I left the office but it was still daylight. I am thinking 6 PM? Something like that. I made dinner reservations at the historic Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables. At the Courtyard Grill. It was pretty nice. The hotel is was built in 1925 and opened in 1926 for a cost of $10 million. A shit load back then. And it is grand! The Roaring 20s were going full blast. It is something right out of The Great Gatsby.

Anyhow, that was last year. This year my dad does not have to work. So mom is going to see "The Lion King" at the Miami Performing Arts Center. I am going to weasel my way out of going. It is not the movie, it is some kind of musical Broadway style deal.

Not to be confused with "The Lyin' King". That is a totally different show.

Both these links are a little dated, but they go back to the Disney Movie. That was a long time ago. They are still kind of funny I suppose.

So I get to not go see the musical. This is not so bad. I probably did not want to see it anyway. Musical theater is not my thing. But mom likes that crap. So she gets to go see the show. Because it is her day.

I get to stay at home. Pulling stuff out of the old boat and transplanting it to the new boat. Here is a partial list of things that need to be transplanted!

1. The marine AM/FM/Cassette radio. Yes cassette. I got the thing for $25 brand new. And it was made for boats. The radio is built into a waterproof enclosure. It was so cheap because it was being closed out. Everyone wants a CD player now.

2. The satellite radio antenna and antenna mount thing, along with the power cable and stuff for the satellite radio tuner

3. The on board marine dual bank 10 amp battery charger.

4. The cool battery caps that allow me to fill the cells with distilled water without having to pull the batteries out. I just stick a tube in the distilled water jug, and pump this hand thing till the ball is hard and the cells are full. See how easy that was?

5. The good speakers I bought. The not as good speakers in the new boat will go back to the old boat. Otherwise, there will be big ugly holes in the old boat.

6. The mount and wires for the chart plotter.

7. The mount for the VHF radio.

8. Maybe some other things. Like the fish finder. It depends on how hard it is going to be to pull the cables for that thing. But then there are holes in the transom to plug up and stuff - so I might just get a newer fish finder. A little better one. I am leaning towards the Humminbird 737.

Thus the cycle is complete. While I will sell the old boat, and it will go away to live with someone else, part of it will live on in the new boat.