Go Figure

For a number of years (ok, maybe decades) I've hade a veague desire to try sailing, you know, the boat with the bedsheets and the broom stick thing that lets you skim the surface of the briny deep powered only by the breeze. Lately I've been thinking mora about it. A couple of semesters ago I had a professor who is an avid sailor. In a conversation about my least, and his absolute favorite novel, Moby Dick, he said that he thought that I would be the kind to really enjoy sailing. My wife did a bit of sailing in her youth and said she liked it. Hmmmmm.

Well, the other day I said that when we have some money that can be spent on a leasure activity, that I would like to get a small day boat and give this sailing thing a try. My wife agreed that that could be fun and so I started to search the web for small boats. I found some. I found a lot of them.

I found out that a "small" sailboat can be anything from 7 to 25 feet. Keep in mind that I'm thinking of learning to sail in Colorado. We only have maybe three lakes in the state that would be big enough to handle a boat of more than about 12 feet that had a keel more than 8 inches long.

I also found out that new boats in the size that I'm after run about a thousand dollars on the low end. That's a bit steep for me. So I started looking at used boats. WTF?! The little things I'm after are still over a grand but I'm finding LOTS of boats over 20 feet for less!

Maybe I'll go back to looking at a crate with the broomstick and bed sheet.

Is it working?

Here is a song if I have this right.

Add Some Music by Me for You to your page

It's Over for Now

I submitted my final paper for the semester yesterday afternoon. I'm
done with school for the holidays. It's a bit odd not having to be
thinking about what I have to read or what I'm going to write about for
some class. I get to do some pleasure reading now.

I also get to go back to construction work. I have a project that has been waiting for me. Lucky for me the clients are not in a huge hurry. Monday I think I'll take some equipment out to the job and try to get a plan together for how to make the most of the break. I would like to get as much of this thing done as I can so that it isn't hanging over me during next semester.

Speaking of next semester, I'm going to have to be on campus EVERY *(*&^%$ DAY!! It wouldn't be so bad if my commute to school wasn't an hour and a half one way.

All this so that I can get a teaching job that will pay almost enough to bring us up to the poverty level. It's a good thing I'll have summers off. Then I can work to pay off the student loans.

Why is it that in nearly every election campaign "education" comes up and instead of doing something like increasing teacher salaries, the gov. spends money instituting standardized testing that doesn't do any good. The good teachers go become corporate trainers because they can get paid, the teachers that do stay in the school systems are hamstrung by the tests that essentially require that the students are only taught how to take that test, not the information, and we are left with "our future," our children educated in a half-assed way.

Bloody politics!

Mostly 'cause I Ought too

I'm posting this mostly because I feel like I should, not because I
really have anything to say. I want to have something to say. I want to have a few pearls of wisdom to drop or rays of sunshine to distribute. I don't actually have those, at least not ready to hand. I don't feel bad or anything, just, well, mostly just needing more coffee.

I'm in the school crunch. I'm spending this weekend working on the rough draft for my Senior Seminar paper so that I can submit it on Monday to be work-shopped on Wednesday, the last day of class. Final draft due on the 10th. I think I'll make it.

We had a hell of a snow last night. It started as rain that lasted for about 2 days, then last night it got cold enough and snowed. Pretty! It's sunny now and very bright.