I've never owned a planner - you know, those pocketbook thingies to help you schedule your life. No, wait. I tried it in high school once and if memory serves, after a week it was never referred to nor used again, except for scratch paper. It's the same story with previous diaries and journals. In fact this blog is the longest running journal I have ever kept. When you loathe writing by hand and suck at it anyway, the keyboard offers sanctuary.
But back to the planner. As it turns out, there are more tasks to schedule now that full-time employment is ending. Photo shoots, maritime classes, brunches, cabin-building, schooner maintenance days/sail days, etc. etc. are coming up and I'm a little worried that I'm going to forget something. For a minute there the calendar project had a "Project Manager" overseeing things and moving things along. Have any of you ever worked with a Project Manager? Let me tell you this, if you are a procrastinator like me, these people are ANGELS. I have a lot of energy to DO stuff, but I'm lacking direction and motivation to start them. Earlier in the year I had felt sure that I needed an interested party to keep me motivated, and now I'm completely confident that this is true. Unless I can recruit Tammy to take on this task, I may have to go take some kind of Project Manager class to get my shit together. For now I will settle for the 100 Ways To Motivate Yourself CD.
Looks like the Diesel Engine Theory class is going to be canceled, due to lack of students. I'm the only person who has paid, even. But then that's $275 back in the bank, and the Able-Bodied Seaman class is looking attractive now.
Carl from NOAA has rustled up four, count-em FOUR traditional sailing crew to help operate LaBoat. If any readers are interested in chartering an 82 year old gaff rig schooner that can take out six paying passengers, or you know of anyone who is, please contact me at jacktarzine(at)gmail(dot)com. I can take the boat out whenever I want, be it Lake Union, Lake WA, locks/sound. And the diesel stove will be operational soon - I guess these stoves provide excellent heat without the diesel smell. I'm pretty sure I'll take her out for some Christmas Ships parades if I can figure out how much power is needed to keep decorative lights on for hours at a time.
One of next month's events is to meet with David Reid; the Puget Sound representative for the
Sail Transport Network. Last month I was supposed to meet with the Founder, Jan Lundberg, on Sept 13th in Arcata, but I missed the meeting so we spoke at length on the phone. Jan is close with Charles Moore, who runs the
Algalita Marine Research Foundation, studying the South Pacific Gyre. If you click on my vbs.tv link to the right you can find the videos about a Toxic Garbage Island in the middle of the Pacific. That's a great connection, but what Nanette and I are more interested in is the whole idea of cargo and transport via SAIL. Jan has a dock in Trinidad, California, and we figure that since Jay has space in Hilo, plus we're finding that there's people in SE AK, BC, and then of course we're building Casa Tia Marie Sailor's Base Camp and Community Center in Mexico... that's a pretty awesome transport/cargo under sail network already. David is presenting STN ideas to Sustainable Ballard on Monday night. Hopefully I can attend this instead of going to work for a grand 2 hours, solely to pump diesel into the boat I work on. STN publishes the Auto Free Times. This cover is by Erika L. Craft.
Last thing... let's just say that if you have nothing else to do on Halloween... maybe you should ride a certain water taxi back and forth across Elliott Bay for a few hours. There will be music. It is the the water taxi's last day and my last day of employment.
