Joisey

I’m off to Joisey for two days of training. This time I’m getting trained, not giving it. It will be nice change of pace.

Look for more blogging as I while away the hour(s) in the airports.

Sailing At Lake Gaston

You know how you feel when you cross the finish line after running a marathon? You don’t? Yeah, me neither. But I imagine it isn’t too far from how I felt Saturday evening after a day sailing with the family on Lake Gaston. I’m still sore from it but there’s a definite smile on my face. It’s a good soreness.

We started planning right after breakfast. Kelly packed the food and dressed the kids while I retrieved the boat from our storage place and got it ready to sail. We were headed north around 11 AM and got to the lake a little after noon. This was our first time launching at this lake (though not the first time sailing) so we had a little time to figure out what to do. Fortunately, rigging the boat came relatively easy and I did it all with a little help from Kelly. About an hour later we had the boat in the water. I motored the boat over to the Naylor’s dock while Kelly parked the car there. She came aboard there and we were off.

The wind was picking up the whole time we were rigging the boat, so I had a feeling we were in for a good sail. After we motored out to the wide part of the lake, I popped up the motor and began raising the sails. After that, it was smooth sailing in every sense of the word. The wind was steady and strong, with some gusts strong enough to scare me into releasing the mainsheet at least three times. We set a course to the eastern end of the lake, where we turned around in front of Eaton Ferry Marina. As luck would have it, the wind back wasn’t as strong as going out – and we were sailing upwind – so we had a more leisurely trip home. I was glad it picked up near the Naylors as I took pride in not putting the motor back in until we were done.

After dropping Kelly and the kids off at the dock, I went back to the ramp to unrig the boat. Kelly did an outstanding job backing the trailer down the ramp, so well that I think she picked up a new responsibility! Another hour or so and the boat was ready for storage.

The family fared very well on the boat. The kids were happier when below as they were freed of their lifevests. Both of them shrieked with delight every time I hit a wake or a good gust heeled the boat over. Both seemed to be unbothered by the rocking and got the hang of balancing fairly quickly. Neither one of them slept any, which would have been nice as Travis for one was getting very clingy towards the end.

I did most of the steering though I did turn it over to Kelly for a bit. Other times she opted to stay below with the kids, sometimes as a result of the strong gusts affecting the boat. When the kids get more comfortable in the cabin, we can relax a bit more and focus instead on the sailing.

This time of year should be good for breezes so the odds are we’ll be out again soon. The boat’s big enough that getting wet isn’t an issue. That should extend our sailing well into the cooler weather.

Our boat’s also big enough that I shouldn’t have to work as hard at sailing it, but I certainly did. The previous two times we’ve sailed, the wind was light enough that I didn’t have to adjust the main sheet at all: just point it into the wind. With the kind of gusts we got Saturday, though, if I didn’t mind the mainsail we would have gotten a taste for just how far our boat will heel! Had I thought about it ahead of time, being on an unfamiliar boat with big gusts of wind and the kids on board might have terrified me. Instead we all did just fine. It shows that as a sailor, I’m more capable than I gave myself credit for. Kelly and the kids are, too.

Oh, and we think we’ve got a name for the boat: Whimsy. It just seems to fit.

Being on the water Saturday made me forget about all the hours I’ve spent this month crammed into a too-small airline seat or locked inside an airport terminal. Now, how many days until the weekend?

Video Over Cat-5

I’ve got this MythTV box I’m building, only it sits in another room of the house. Since I need all the coax going to that room for inputs to my tuner card, I am left with CAT-5 wiring for my video output.

After some poking around the Internets, I found some stores selling video baluns just for this purpose. Only problem is I didn’t want to spend $300 to do this.

More digging and I found some specs for building jacks for sending S-Video and stereo audio over CAT-5. I bought pair of S-video connectors and two pairs of male RCA jacks to add to my existing CAT-5 cabling and connectors. A half-hour of soldering the RCA jacks onto the CAT-5 and I had my jacks. Cost was $20.

I was quite surprised at the quality of the video. I’m pushing composite video over 25 feet of UTP CAT-5 cable and it looks great (I had to drop the S-video since my output card didn’t support it). Problem solved. Next time, though, I’ll skip the male RCA jacks in favor of female ones, since I can buy jacks which don’t require soldering.

I’ve heard of people putting all kinds of things on their CAT-5 cable. Looks to me that its true.

Seas Of Cheese

Primus. God bless ’em.

Seas of Cheese
Primus

When the going gets tough
And the stomach acids flow
The cold wind of conformity
Is nipping at your nose
When some trendy new atrocity
Has brought you to your knees
Come with us we’ll sail the
Seas of Cheese

Back From New York

I’m done with travel until mid next week. Whee. The Boston trip was successful but rather unfulfilling. The New York trip was successful and fulfilling. The only issue I have is that I left the house at 7 for a 90 minute appointment at midday and then spent six hours cooling my heels at the Newark airport just waiting for a ride home. Why didn’t I get my pilot’s license again?

The kids were obviously glad their dad was back. I grinned ear to ear when I returned to find the front door plastered with “welcome home” drawings! As if that wasn’t enough, I got to say goodnight to our not-sleeping girl, too.

Now I’m working from home since Fridays are Non-Stop Conference Call days. Between the trips and having all I need here at home, I’m beginning to wonder why I need a cubicle at the office. Now if I could only get the boat set up for wireless internet . . .

Boston

I’m on my way to Boston early in the AM to do an install and training for an important reseller. Expect little or no blogging, unless I get stuck in the airport terminal somewhere.

Thursday, I’m off to Manhattan for another day trip. This all starts a stretch of more intense travel. Whee.

Electron Statistics

During my checking up on insulation progress, I came across an excellent tool to help judge where our electricity is going. Progress Energy has a wonderful tool to show how you spend your electrons. Create an account, log in, and you’re presented with the last 12 months of bills, including kilowatt usage, monthly average usage, and the high and low temperatures for the day.

I once worked for a local commercial weather forecasting company that among other things sells temperature forecasts to power companies. The power companies use those forecasts to know how much electricity demand to expect, which determines if they have surplus to sell or if they have a need to buy. Even so, I never really appreciated how closely temperatures are tied to electric usage until I saw my own electricity use mapped to temperature on Progress’s website. It shows that my recognizing the need for a better air conditoner is right on target. When you’re looking at your own power bill there’s little doubt about where your electrons are being spent: air conditioning. It’s mind boggling to think how much power could be saved if air conditioners didn’t need compressors.

If you haven’t created an account on the Progress Energy site yet, you can find the log-in details on your latest power bill. Check it out!

Insulation Elation

The results of my recent trip into the attic to improve the insulation have shown it to be an unqualified success! It was three hours of dirty, hot, sweaty work and $150 in materials but it was well worth it. The air conditioner can now keep pace with the thermostat setting, whereas previously there might be up to a 5 degree difference. I was considering all sorts of remedies for the upstairs heat: installing a roof ridge vent ($1.5k to $3k), adding a heat shield ($300), adding (another) attic fan ($300), or even installing a new, separate air conditoner ($3k+). The cheapest solution has turned out to be the best.

The attic fan I installed (with much peril, if you’ll recall) is still not functioning. When it works it can probably cool the attic down by ten degrees. I’d still like to get it fixed but now that the insulation is doing its job there’s no rush. I’ll wait until it cools off outside a bit more.

One thing that still needs addressing is our master bedroom closet. It sits on the end of the house (on the southern side no less), has no air duct supplying air conditioning to it, and has our attic accessway in it. During the summer, this closet heats to 95 degrees! There’s not much reason to add AC to it, but one thing I would like to do is build a way to better insulate over the attic stairs. I’m thinking of building a hinged cover for them.

Ah. So many projects, so little time!