Im an uncle!

Well, little Logan entered the world today around 5:20pm at 8lbs 1oz. Im super excited for my little brother!!!! He literally cried for a few hours afterthe delivery. Im pumped!!

Getn down and personal with Dave Rich

Well, my elemenrary friend (in her mind) kelli said i should get more personal like i used to with my bogging. I do agree because day after day it just seems like im blogging the monotony of my days. I mean, working the 8-6 makes it a little hard to get in crazy adventures even for yours truely. So here goes, a basic recap of last week (i think).

It all started with my new obsession of riding my bicycle to the bar. This bar is around 6 miles from my home in each direction. I started riding because my DL is expired and its also a great workout. So one night i was getting thoroughly hammered and things got outa hand. They serve big ass beers (a 24oz) beer at this bar on thursday nights and well, i was just keeping track of glasses. Somewhere around glass 5, i decide its shot time. After a shot of patron, it dawns on me that he girl sitting next to me is cute. In fact, i really just wanted to taste her lips. Being the shy guy that i am, i leave over to kelli after said girl goes to the bathroom and proceed to inform my supposed friend just what i want to do to her lips andhow bad. Kelli decided to announce this to the rest of the table right as the victom came walking up. I got up like fucking flash gordon and headed for the bathroom and hid. I decided to come bak and face the music and thats when the girl, who by now wasfilled with whatever in the world kelli was tellingher, decided to grab me for a makeout session.

Anyways, i got pulled over that night on the way home with my bike but the cop sped off after he couldnt find me (sitting right where he told me to wait) so i guess i got away lol. There is another story of drunken bandit makerouter and bike riding but ill save that for another time.

So what do you think readers, more personal? I hear crickets.....

Another day behind me

Yay! Had a fun weekend. The weather didnt work out for sailing this weekend so we just hung out and drank and looked at boats. Damn pirates! I stumbled across the perfect mexico mobile and the price is beyond perfect. Might trade my sails for wheels!

Sunset transition

I transitioned from rooftop skating and sunset pictures to here... Right down the street to the local bar. Im just drinking my beer and thinking about my life. One of the few times ive sat in a bar by myself and enjoyed it. This is Dave Rich, signing out.

sunset

Here it is, the sunset for today. Another beautiful day in texas. Unfortunately, still in the land and society of greed.

Today is TUESDAY!

Awesome...

So last weekend was pretty damn fun. I had a blast friday night at Damien's house when Rami showed up on his bike. He let me ride it and it was my first time on a street bike and wow did I have a blast! Its a 98ish Suzuki Bandit 600 and its not even a true sport bike but ohh man that thing is fast!

We commenced to drinking after that and playing rockband like we were the real deal haha. We all get together sometimes and do this and its a blast! Me on bass, Rami on guitar, Damien on drums and whoever on the mic. We also played some Wii and I showed them how bowling is done. Actually, Damien smoked me.

Saturday I really didnt do much. I hung out at my dads all day and we fixed the electrical problem in my car. Thank God it was just a fuse I missed when I went over everything. We reqired my trailer harness due to some exposed wire and he thinks the wire could have grounded it out causing the fuse to blow in the first place. I really hope so!

Sunday morning my cousins and aunt showed up. They are moving in with us for a bit until they can get on their feet. Her husband, my uncle, has been living with us for a little over 1 month now and hes working and doing great. Its a little crowded in the house right now but its not bad having family around plus they are cool. Im really glad we could step up and help them like this. I did take my cousin with me on a run to Kemah to drop off the last parts from my Catalina and I got a few more parts for the hobie cat. I got a new cam cleat with a pad eye for the furling line. My old one is stuck and not working all that well. I guess I could have taken it apart but I was feeling lazy and just picked up a new one for $18.

Well thats about it, Ill try and get another sunset shot tonight from the garage.

Thursday has come and gone

Today was a great da at work. Xp worked fine. Everything worked fine, just small work things to do. ahhhh..... How nice.

I had some beers last night with the Dman and Raminator and we had a good time. I think we might meet up again tonight for big ass beer night at mollies in the woodlands, but we shall see. Here is your sunset shot of the day. Ive been thinking of starting a seperate blog for all my sunset shots i will start taking from the roof of the garage.

Another day in the office

Well, today was a hellacious day. I spent a good part of last night tearing into the electrical system of my car trying to find a short. I failed but i havent given up.

We decision was made today to roll our first Vista x64 machine back to xp x86. We are just having too much difficulty with autocad 2009 and its only going to get worse once the entire department adopts Vista. So we are gearing up to demote the machine back down.

I just got overwhelmed today. I questioned what im doing with my life, always running in circles. I feel that im wasting my precious time here on earth. Many people feel our time here is punishment and that the end goal is death and meeting our savious in heaven to live out our lives in eternal bliss. This does have plenty of merit with me but its not a solid foundation for me to adopt that will allow me to swallow what is considered "the hardships of life". I cant drudge on everyday in a pointless manner just to try and ignore it, biding my time until i die, get hit by a bus, or the apocalypse happens. so.... Ill do what i always do. Drink a beer and drudge on. That miraculous liquid, kept legal because it gives us faith and keeps us plugging away. If you drive drunk or act stupid, they fine you, and get what they wanted anyways. Money. The end goal.

We watched parts of a documentary today about monetary systems and how they are designed to enslave human kind. I say that agree and always have. I blame parts of my childhood for making me dependant on money. My family didnt have very much back then and i was born into a semi chaotic world of due payments and late bills. My parents did a fantastic job of hiding it but as children we pick up little things, said or not. So im afraid. Afraid of really letting go and throwing that caution to the wind. You can live without or with very little money. Enough to eat, travel, and sleep. I desire this life but im afraid to charge headlong. I look at my savings account, i now have 10K. I tell myself, wait until you have 20 before you quit. Why? Whats the point?

I took that pic while typing this post on the roof of a parking garage where i work. I often stand out here and watch "life". A little city with people, funtioning and living their lives. More often than not, there are fantastic sunset shots here on the roof. Perhaps i should start documenting them and blogging from here.

Pic of the 800 balloons

Here it is, Rami in a shitload of balloons.

My Weekend

Well, I got a lot accomplished this weekend. I finally had a friday off that I didnt have to work or cover for someone so I enjoyed my 3 days and worked hard on the boat. I dont think I worked half as much on my old and much bigger boat but Im hoping I will be rewarded for my efforts.

Friday it was dreary and pretty much crappy weather for trying to work outside on the boat. I called Rami up and learned he was planning something extravagant for his girlfriend for Valentine's. Basically, he bought a little over 1000 balloons and a small handpump and was going to need some help. So for the next 5 hours we pumped and tied balloons and had to call it quits at a little over 850. One balloon had a necklace he bought her and we hid it amongst all the others for her to find.

Saturday I got up early (around 10) and started working on the trailer for the boat again with a new determination to finish up. I learned that Ace Hardware carries the apparently rare rectangular U-bolts I couldnt find anywhere else short of the internet. So after $30 in bolts, I assembled the trailer with the help of my uncle who is living with us right now. We got the trailer almost finished and then the rain set it. I went to the bar that night to meet up with Joe and I learned of a small electrical issue with my car. My step dad said he'd seen it before and it was due to my dual filiment taillights. Thank God someone knew because Im pretty mechanically inclined but I hate tracing electrical issues.

Sunday I finished the trailer and began finishing up the actual boat. We got the new siderails mounted and got the chainplates riveted into the tramp bars. I retensioned the stay that runs over the dolphin striker and fixed a pin that was missing. All my rigging showed up this weekend and I was hoping to rig her but I couldnt find the damn turnbuckle I needed at the local West Marine so once again, Im delayed another weekend. Thats when I noticed that small electrical problem go from small to huge. Basically, the bulbs were not the answer. My dad, who was a commercial electrician once upon a time, helped me trace a little and basically it looks like somwhere 2 circuits have fused together. I have taillights but no dash lights, ac, or brake lights. When switching the fuses, I loose all lights but regain my AC and power windows. Amazing! So, my dad offered to help me tear into it this Saturday which basically ruins my plans to head to Austin to check out a 30ft Allied sailboat. O well....

Arrrrrgggg

Ive been eyeing a boat in Austin and I will be heading up there next weekend to check her out. I wont say just yet what it is, but its a pretty awesome boat. Only around 50 were ever built and this is number 12, which is kinda cool.

Im also pretty excited about finally having my 3 day weekends back after I lost all of my fridays off in Jan. I work a schedule at work where I get every other friday off and this happens to be my weekend so Im pretty excited. Ill be working on the hobie and the trailer all weekend trying to get everything ready. Ive got all the new rigging on order and it should be in sometime next week. Now.. if I can just get a week of 70F or higher weather the water will warm considerably in the bay and Ill be taking her out for my first sail on a hobie cat. Im veryyyy nervous and excited at the same time. I cant wait to feel that speed!

My Weekend

It was pretty exciting i guess you could say. I took my elementary friend Kelli out sailing on a buddy of mines boat. Last weekend we sailed the gulf so we are kind of addicted now and decided to head out again this weekend despite all the small craft advisories. Well the waves were there (4 to 6ft swell) but no wind! Wehad a blast anyways.

Then sunday i drove to College Station to visit my dad and his gf. We had a good time and played a bunch of xbox360. The introduced me to a game called "Left 4 Dead" and i was very impressed. Not only did it have me on edge the whole time but it also scaredme a few times! Awesome game!

Well thats about it. Surf was up but still too cold. Sprightly is almost here so i can hold out. And yea yea i know im a wuss and all that fun stuff lol.

The Day of Vista (x64)

So, today we got to deal with not only the annoyances of Vista but Vista x64 at that. So we got our first lesson in microsofts ass backwards driver insertion of 64bit systems. Not to mention that we also decided to bring online our first server 2008 machine, also x64.

Anyways, enough geek talk. Im working on the possibility of going sailing again this weekend with Garnet. Ive been sailing with him quite a bit recently and ive been all over the place as he refuses to just baysail. We are headed out for another sail into the gulf this weekend with a forecast of 15 to 20kts of wind and 8ft seas! This should be fun as it will be my biggest seas yet. Ill keep you guys posted and have some pics up soon.

New machine install

Today we installed our very first Vista machine. Its running on a Dell T3400 which is a 2.8ghz Pentium Quad core. Thats right, QUAD. Its running vista x64 with 8 gigs of ram. Thats right .... 8gb of ram!!!! We topped it off with a 26" LG lcd display that kicks ass. This machine basically kills anything in its path. Awesome!

Im Back!

In action!

Just got the posting from my phone working again so Im going to make an attempt this year to post like never before, even though Im pretty sure I say that every year. Im just on the go so much that the phone is the perfect way for me to get back into blogging.

A few updates...

1. Work is still good... but as always if your a fan, Im ready to get outa here
2. the step to "getting outa here" is getting much closer now. Literally saving $1500 every month.
3. The Hobie is starting to look good. I sourced some new rails on the internet from a guy parting out his hobie for $50!!! Major painting is going on along with new rigging installation. Getting her ready for the spring time! Also looking for a good name, shoot me some idea.
4. Hobie trailer is 85% done, just need to order these damn rectangular U-bolts from this site on the internet. Belive it or not, Home Depot and Lowes both do not carry said U-bolts.
5. Ive been sailing like crazy on friends boats.. did a trip last weekend where we sailed 20 miles out into the gulf of mexico!

Now...Im going to try hard to stick with one of my new years resolutions, and that is to blog more! Im back from the dead... Dave Rich signing off.

Long Time, No Update

Well... the Catalina is finally gone. I had her picked up with a wrecker and we took her to the landfill. She's gone and now no longer trying to suck cash from me in the afterlife.

Not much else has been going on. I passed my Microsoft exam for windows xp, so I now have my MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional) certification. I got a raise at work for being there 1 year and my review went well. Im trying to get a promotion, we will see how it goes.

Ive been working on my hobie cat and trying to get her ready for the spring time. I was working on the side rails of the trampoline frame when I noticed a large crack in the rail along a hole that developed from the sea/salt eating through the aluminum. New rails are $145 each (2 total) but right now Im investigating the use of epoxy to bond some aluminum stock over the hole and stress crack to strengthen it. Apparently there are issues with epoxy and aluminum due to oxidation and the bond will fail eventually.

Anyways, I will get back to work on updating this damn blog. Im still here. Just dont have much to report.

The New Project

Well, there she is. I mean... there THEY are. I gave Chris the yellow one, mr blue is mine. I picked them both up for $600, they need some work. Hopefully I will be sailing mine this weekend after a few upgrades. They are both Hobie 14 Turbos, meaning they have a front jib instead of just a main. I cant wait, Im super excited!

Harvest Moon Regatta Part 1

Looking forward in Greg's boat

The Tallship Elissa

Cruise ships back at port

Anchored near the Galveston cruise terminal, waiting for Arty to arrive

Looking aft in Greg's beautiful Morgan 382

Cliff at the helm

Greg and Arty discuss life and politics

Approaching the Flagship Hotel, our start. Late.. very late

Finally we made it past the start (tetrahedron)

The boats in the distance is where we were supposed to be, but we were 17 minutes late for the start.

Vagabond 47, stunning.

Bearing down on ya... better shake that reef out

Our first victom getting passed

This is where I slept

Harvest Moon pictures part2

Greg and Cliff, early morning

Sailing into Port Aransas

s/v Barefoot Babe rounding the marker

Getting swept out of the channel

Greg at the helm, pure concentration

Arty!

Looking aft towards the gulf and the markers

First entering the channel, Arty is our lookout

Sailing Backwards

The current was horrendous!

s/v Barefoot Babe on the left

Yours Truly, Dave Rich in person, steering for the win

Traffic jam in the channel, port aransas

Arty in pre-celebration

Vagabond 47.. a beautiful boat. This is everyone stuck in the channels

The Renegade Burgee

Group picture of crew with the addition of Don (far left) from the forum we frequent for sailing and general rowdyness

Tankers in the houston ship channel

Greg, owner and fearless captain of Catharsis

Damn! Where Have YOU been Dave Rich?

The answer is quite simple... in many many places and forms.

Ive been dealing with boat insurance bastards.
Ive been sailing on other peoples' boats.
Ive been celebrating my birthday.
Ive been sailing in the Harvest Moon Regatta in which our boat took 2nd place in our division.
Ive been reading non stop about preparing boats for ocean passage and other sailing material.
Ive been working... thats all that can be said about that topic.
Ive been looking at boats and trying to decide on what my next one will be.

Ive been doing everything EXCEPT SURFING.

Isnt that how it always goes? With this job, it has turned me into a weekend warrior and it is almost impossible to catch surf. Living 1.5 hours from the beach and working 8am-6pm is just making it impossible to even think about surfing right now. Its ok though, its making me even more motivated that I have ever been.

I have been working hard on the first step of my huge goal of escape, and that is paying off my debt. Its official right now... IM DEBT FREE! The boat is paid, the credit card is empty... its time to kick it into high gear and I already have my first grand in savings. Im dead serious about getting the fuckkkkkk outtaaaaa this place.

Like I mentioned up top, we just got back from competing in the harvest moon regatta. I was crew on a Morgan 382 and we took 2nd place in Cruising non Spinnaker division group d. It was one of the coolest things I have done. Sailing offshore is just amazing and I wish we could have been out there for weeks. That trip greatly increased my interest in taking a sail boat for my trip so I have been doubling up on my reading. Time to get serious.

Well, I shall be posting some pictures of the sailing trip. Until then...