If It Weren't For Birds And Flowers.......................Beam Troughs, Sun Beams, Jim Beam....................................

I read another ramble about livin' the dream on the interweb somewhere.. Gosh and golly, the things we lie to ourselves about. I hope I don't come across as someone who feels superior because I'm doing something different than you. All lives matter. If you do not like what you're doing now, what makes you think that you'll like doing something else? There's a world under your nose so pick it (the world, not your nose) and live in the here and now with relish (like a hot dog) lest you miss this part of your life while pining away for what could be. Try not to be one of those people that believe that behind every silver lining, there's a cloud. Wrest yourself from your self created mire and delve into your personal universe. Ben said we would be desolate without the birds or flowers.

And Rainbows........ Huzzah to Ken, ATW's football team. He's enjoying the world around him and keeping the faith. I hope he got to see a game or two. Thanks to Michael for his comment on the music. I am glad that he is not going to build a boat himself. Be careful, though. If you buy one already built, it will have been built by idiots like us! One who builds these boats has to be stupid or naïve, of which, I am both. Michael also asked why the lugs were bad. I guess the most important thing you can do is to fit each part to the actual boat and not rely totally on measurements. This is a complex beast that grumbles about confinement. It wants to be loose and free, not measured, so it's best to fit each item exactly to the hulls, properly spaced and leveled. Also thanks to Neil, who's out there drinking wine with people and having his picture taken by monuments, for his comment. He had trouble with the interweb and ended up posting the comment a few times. I cleaned it up the redundancy and all is well. Its unusual that both of my followers post the same time. How can a guy in Portugal predict the weather in Texas???

So, the pod's done.........mostly.........almost. We have to fit stuff like electricity and steering and such. Summer hit. Temperature in the 90's. We separated into several projects. Budge worked on the ports, Ben the beams. Much to do before our semiannual break. Budge needs help with the pod top. The beams need spacer blocks, leveling blocks, lashing blocks, holes, and pins:  trudgerey and drudgery. The week was not a productive one, ergo. smelling the flowers.

Ben, wired for sound, applied some coats of primer to the pod floor. Much to do, so we're not putting the final coats on the pod until all the stuff is done.

Oak donut!

Goes here. To move the motor wells over so we don't have to cut out another friggin' lug! Friggin' lugs!

Remember what I said about measurements? We hauled the mast case out and fitted it. It didn't! Minor tweaks. I feel that the order of these things on this boat should be: build the hulls, put them in situ with correct fitting and leveling and spacing, then fit everything else in place.

Those two ears are supposed to sit on the beams. So......................................

Cut a hole for the positioning block. Maybe it will fit.

And coat it with epoxy. Why is it that you spend several hundred dollars on eyeglasses that you have to look over to see? Paint later.

The weather was crap this week. I blame Neil. In betwixt the intricacies of the climate, we managed a port. Here's the hole.

Here's Ben putting bolts through from the inside.

Here's Budge putting nuts on from the outside....

Best I could do: micro prisms in raindrops..........

Shoving procrastination aside, on to the purple elephant in the room. The beams in the troughs only touch in a tiny area on the interior blocks of the hulls...

The exterior blocks do not touch at all! Remember what I said about fitting everything to the hulls? Prime example. Animated discussions, much consternations, deliberations about what to do. Budge is of the school of shim it and make it work. My thoughts are that it should rest on more that a slim surface on the inner pads and rigged on the exterior. I shooed everyone away and am deciding on what to do. It's my boat, after all......

I painted Budge's old smoker and contemplated my navel.

Complex three dimensional wedges?????/ I.......don't......friggin'...........know! So a rainy week is over and I have to do something about the beams. Next week maybe...............................

The Music♪: Dick Gaughan "Sail On"

I listen to him alone........................................ this week was like that...............................