Weekend Update WITHOUT Dennis Miller

Time for a weekend update! I had a lot of stuff to do. I was going to get the boat ready for the Winterfest boat parade control boat thing. I was going to wax the hull (I expect to get a ring of two cycle oil on the boat, the wax makes it easier to clean), weld together an orange flashing light holder thing, affix the banners, install a second (temporary) radio, find my extra anchor (I need a stern anchor), make up some more lines, and check my navigation lights to see if they still work.

I got none of that stuff done. But I did make a spy mission to Broward! I am going to launch from the 15th Street Boat Basin. There are only two ramps there, but they are good deep water ramps. Not a lot of parking spaces there either.

Broward County has the shittiest boat ramps I have ever seen. Truly shitty ramps. I am glad I made the spy mission, the park I had picked has TERRIBLE ramps. The ramps are not steep enough and do not get into deep enough water for me to float the boat off without getting the truck wet. I want to avoid dunking the truck into the water. Trucks hate salt water. The 15th Street Boat Basin has steeper ramps, in better condition, that drop off into deeper water than the other place I was going to use.

I also....got a new digital camera! Yes Christmas came early. I now have an Olympus Stylus 790 SW. The SW stands for "shockproof" and "waterproof". This little 7.1 megapixel camera is waterproof to 10 feet for 1 hour. Perfect for boat use. My other Sony camera has a better lens and takes better photos (even if it is only 5 megapixels - megapixels really do not mean very much to be honest - it is all about the optics) - but the Sony is about as waterproof as a towel. One drop in the right place and it is done. I can jump in the water with this Olympus. And it is small (unlike the Sony) so I can carry it around easier. I plan to get the waterproof housing for the thing later. The housing is waterproof to 160 feet. Right now I can use the camera snorkeling but with the housing I can take it diving.

This is a photo of Skipper taken with the new camera. Skipper is on top of Max The Lizard's temporary winter house (a 55 gallon Aquarium). You can see the lizard "heat lamps" in the background, along with some paper towels. Max is not in his inside cage, it is currently warm enough for him to chill in the backyard cage. He likes the backyard cage better than the indoor cage.

The full size photo of Skipper is a little over 3 megs. This is the full resolution of the camera. The photo seems slightly out of focus, but I have not really read the instructions yet. There may be a setting the thing has that takes sharper photos.