Category: family

EGGS

Am I that current that Lady Gaga would copy my ideas? This crib was conceived and designed by my wife and built by me for our first grandchild. Work on the plug started more that a year and a half ago. The egg was then shipped to our son in the crate shown.

Lady Gaga it is reported was less than original this year. People are saying her new song sounds exactly like Madonna. The costumes were certainly not as cool as in the past; and now even the set is taken from our idea? really.

CALL ME GRANDPA

Luc arrived last night at 8:07 pm February 3, 2011 in Santa Rosa, CA. 7 pounds and 13 oz. with an appetite. I had never considered the title of grandparent, but here I am and could not be more pleased, particularly for the parents.

The crib, which we made for Luc, can now be unveiled, waiting for him once he leaves the hospital.

Petaluma to Los Angeles

pigeon point
big sur
pacific coast highway near malibu

I have written about Los Angeles and other events, but not reported on how I got from one place to the other.  We decided to drive route one, along the coast. I had never done it and of course since I was a teenager I have seen images of Big Sur that captured my imagination. We planned two days, which was barely enough as I wanted to stop to photograph every few minutes.
  We also stopped at a number of towns and cities along the way. As with people, first impressions can be misleading and puzzling. I did not like Carmel particularly, I did like Santa Barbara. Both place are indeed very pretty, but somehow a little too clean. I am not sure how one can criticize a town for being clean. My hometown of Newport I find not clean enough. Perhaps I am just difficult to please. I could find myself living in Santa Barbara, which is full of architectural gems.
    Our older son, Stefan, lives in Los Angeles and has a sound studio. Besides visiting him, the purpose of my visit was to lend a hand helping in any way I could during our short trip there. He is in the process of expanding the studio. He and his wife have also just to a new apartment. Bernadette, my wife painted and I sanded, upholstered and whatever else needed to be done.

May 6th was quite a day

http://www.livestream.com/34thac 


http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2010/05/how_liebermans_citizen-strippi.html



High-Speed Trading Glitch Costs Investors Billions

Thursday started out like many other days; here in the northeast, passing showers gave way to bright sun and scudding clouds. A month ago we had flooding that dramatically changed many peoples lives, but the sun did come out again and spring came early this year.
    Then a burning oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, spewing oil uncontrollably. Then a failed bombing attempt in Times Square.
    A much awaited announcement concerning the future of the America’s Cup, somehow seemed much less important and in the end was a good beginning but much ado about nothing.
   While we were all going about our daily lives, suddenly without warning the Stock Market had a catastrophic failure. This would not have happened in a gambling casino.
  As if should have been enough excitement for one day, Joe Lieberman and Scott Brown propose means to strip people of their citizenship; ignoring the Constitution. As if this would be a solution to the problem. A statement that might better be an offhand remark in a bar ; having resulted because of anger and frustration, spoken without having given it any reflection. In fact really giving the failed attempt, success. The bomb did not explode, but instead reacting with a statement like this is a victory, showing how easily we can abandon our values.
What a day in the sun.

BOOKPLATE


I have been working on this for years. My bookplate. As with so many things I worked around it until I realized what I wanted, I already
had. The finished product has the lettering on it.

I am sure everyone has now realized that Speedboat dropped out of their trans-atlantic record attempt. Conceptually the coolest boat on earth.

35th wedding anniversary

Tomorrow is my thirty-fifth wedding anniversary, this is a sailing blog, but life is made up of everyday, not just a series of unconnected events. Naturally they are easier to write about, they are anecdotal.

My wife does not like sailing or boats. Consequently it has developed parts of me that could or would never have seen the light of day.  I am a more complete person as a result.
Make no mistake, I love sailing, but the love of my life is my wife.

Trevor Ravenscroft "The Spear of Destiny"

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Lance – 71k

The link is for those of you who might like to know more. This is a story of threads that crisscross our lives. While we were living in City Island where I was working at Minneford’s Yacht Yard. Bernadette, my wife would see a particular woman in the street, but never approached her. A year later, we were living in Cowes, on the Isle of Wight, my wife saw the same woman in the street again. This time the coincidence was too much to pass up. It was Shirley, Trevor’s wife.
Trevor’s Book “The Spear of Destiny” had been well received and Shirley had always wanted a boat. They bought a trimaran and sailed to America, spending the winter in City Island, returning to England the following spring.
We became fast friends and spent many evenings listening and discussing Trevor’s opinions and almost everything else. Tevor’s life leading up to his career as an author was one worthy of a book.

Lirakis safety Harness




The 1972 Bermuda race convinced me there was a better design for a safety harness, I am an inveterate tinkerer, always trying to improve on something. Simplicity is the key. Over the next few years I worked in my spare time on developing and refining my ideas. The first harness was sold in 1978. Shortly thereafter I left my job and started producing them full time, I continued to sail until finally the company grew to the point where I was forced to choose.

The harness was simplicity itself; which made it practical and user friendly in today’s words. It was followed shortly by the bosun’s chair, which brought the position of the bowman on a boat into the modern world. It redefined the responsibilities and activities of the man on the bow. Again it just made sense.
The Business continue to expand into many other areas, and responsibilities followed, sailing became a distant memory, but never gone.

tucou

Tucou our dog, is 20 years old, I think he is actually 22, but there is disagreement about that fact. The first photo is the day he was chosen, taken from his siblings. The next is tucou today having been immortalized by my wife of 35 years in metal. Whichever age is correct, he has been such a part of our family.