Note: I did not write my usual number of diaries in the last half of 2008 due to a number of problems, so I combined the last two quarters into this one.
O7-23-08-Diary
I bought a new iMAC last month with all the bells and whistles on it; wide screen console, 2.66 GHz intel core 2 duo, 2GB memory, 320 GB hard drive, etc. The problem is that it isn’t compatible with either my old iMAC or my Microsoft Windows lap top. I like the speed and capacity of the new machine, but I hate the Incompatibility with the rest of my universe! I guess that I will need to install a windows Operating system on my iMAC to be able to use the compatible word processor. I hate having to set up my Lap top to be able to write this Diary.
I also got a new digital camera that isn’t recognized by my Cannon browser Software, and my 10 year old Adobe Photo Shop doesn’t work with anything anymore, so I will have to do everything on this Diary starting from scratch. Please bear with me.
Scott and Leslie spent a long Fourth of July weekend on the boat. They went to the boat on the Thursday before the fourth, and I came down on the fourth. I left on Sunday due to medical issues, and they left on Monday.
We had a blast on the fourth. We watched the fireworks from the upper deck of Rich and Leena’s boat. We all got slightly drunk, but there were no casualties.
My birthday was the weekend before the forth, and Scott and Leslie took me to Sir Winston’s to celebrate my birthday on Saturday night. The meal and service was outstanding as usual.
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I had to stay home the weekend of July 12-13 for two Birthday Parties, but I got down to the boat on the weekend of the 19 th and had fun with my friends, Rich and Leena.
We took the shuttle bus to the Queen Mary on Sunday and had a blast.
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I haven’t been out at all for the past few weeks because there hasn’t been any of my friends available, and I can’t have much fun by myself, so I have been just watching movies when I am on the boat alone on a Saturday night. Last Saturday night was special though because my good friend Michelle was available and suggested we go out. It was a very good outing.
We decided to stay local, and have dinner at the Reef, then go to the Queen Mary Observation bar. I had called the OB and asked who was performing that evening, and the girl answering the phone said that it was going to be James King, the Elvis impersonator. I thought that this was peculiar because James had told me a few days ago that he wasn’t going to be at the OB until September. I assumed that there was a change in schedules and that he would be there.
Michelle picked me up at the boat at seven o’clock, and we went to the Reef. I had made a reservation for seven thirty, and they seated us in a nice booth with a view of the water.
Michelle looked great in a knee length black dress. I was dressed somewhat casual in my long green dress with a white linen jacket.
We had a long conversation over cocktails about our current life situations. She is extremely happy with her girlfriend, who accepts her feminine leanings. I brought her up to date on my multiple health problems that are still being worked on.
The Waitress was getting a bit tired of us not ordering after about an hour, so Michelle ordered a light appetizer and I had a fish dish.
We drove to the Queen Mary after dinner. The parking lot was full. We finally found an empty spot quite a way from the entrance, and went to the Observation Bar.
I knew it wasn’t Elvis singing as we walked the hall to the OB, and it certainly wasn’t. It was a KARIOKI, and not a good one. We took a seat at the bar for a drink, and a conversation with Evon. There weren’t many people in the room so Evon had the time to talk. We decided to move on after the one drink.
Our next stop was a very nice place in Belmont Shore in the back of the big swimming pool building near the Belmont Shore Pier. I have forgotten the name of the place, but it has a good band, dancing, and good drinks. Michelle has been there much time, and I need to ask her the name of the place again. We had a drink and stayed until the band quit.
It was about midnight so we had time to go to our next stop, Busters!
The Flyers had them packed in as usual, and were playing our favorite music. There was a longboard table with a single guy sitting there, and I asked if we could join him, and he nodded OK. He turned out to be the sweetest guy I have met in a long time!
I had my limit of booze for the day, so I ordered coffee, and Michelle didn’t have any booze either since she was driving. We had a ball dancing and talking to our table partner.
He had come there in his boat that was parked on the dock behind the restaurants. He invited us to see his boat when the Flyers quit and the bar closed, and we did!
His home dock is on the other side of the marina. It’s a very nice WW11 era wooden boat. It seems to be well maintained, He invited us to go aboard, but there was no way that either Michelle or I could have climbed up the five feet in out dresses. I wanted to!
I could have just hiked up my skirt and gone aboard as it turned out. The dock is an old wood one with holes, cracks, etc, and I managed to get my heels hooked in one and fell down. I couldn’t get up, so our host made some suggestion about what I could do for him while I was down there. I was laughing so hard that I had to wait until I could get myself together.
It was fun and I really liked the guy, but we decided that we better leave since it was about two am. Later, Michelle and I thought that we could have stayed with him. Oh Well, maybe some other time.
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I didn’t get to bed until three am Sunday morning, so I didn’t get up until nine am. Surprisingly I wasn’t badly hung over from the night before. But I only had three martinis and one glass of wine over seven hours. I did have my usual noon, 3 pm and 6 pm gin salutes to the Queen Mary on Saturday though ;-)
I cleaned the boat and got ready to leave, when I remembered that I needed to check the Starboard carburetor. I had stopped at Harpurs on Saturday morning on my way down and talked to Tom Harper about the Gas slick that is coming out of the outside Starboard engine. He told me to check the Carburetor choke. I did, and I found a loose wire connection to the choke. I fixed it and tried the engine. The slick is still there, so I called Tom this morning and asked him to check it out for me.
O9-08-08 Diary
We had a real ball on Labor Day weekend; A blues Cruise, a Sea Food Feast, and Sgt. Peppers!
Friday night was the Blues Cruise with the Mama's Boys. The Mama's boys play on the last Friday night of the month from April to October. The boat leave the Alimitos dock at eight sails to the Quean Mary and returns to the dock at eleven.
The boat was full, and the "Boys" were hot. Dancing was risky with all those people on the small floor, but I managed to swing my boody.
Scott and Leslie had been up since nine am, so we decided to go home to the boat instead of a stop at busters.
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Leslie and Scott worked on Rich and Leena's DC light system Saturday, and got everything working for the first time in many years. Rich invited all of us to a Sea food dinner.
We took the shuttle from the Marina to the Pike just down the street a few blocks to Gladstones.
We had huge trays of Sea Food including; Lobster, crab legs, clams, oysters, Potatoes, and lots booze of course.
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Scott and Leslie went to the Observation Bar Sunday afternoon.
I decided to stay on the boat and make myself useful by changing the plugs 0n the starboard engine. I hadn't done any work all weekend. I changed the plugs, and also managed to mangle my arms working in those tight areas.
We went to go to a new place called Sergeant Peppers Dueling Pianos Club Sunday night. It's across the street from the Long Beach convention Center just a few blocks from the Marina, but we took the shuttle for safety.
It was a ball!. The place was packed, and everyone was having fun. It appeared that most of the younger crowd were regulars.
There are three performers who take turns playing the two pianos, and singing. A lot of the songs and jokes are Gay oriented.
We stayed until we had to catch the last shuttle back to the Marina. It is definitely the place to go for a fun evening without a long drive.
I had my camera, but we were sitting in the front row and I didn't want to take flash pictures so close, so no pictures.
we all went home Monday afternoon.
09-05-08 Diary
The main attraction for this weekend was the only performance by James King at the Observation Bar in September was going to be Friday night, the 5th
Leslie went to work Friday morning and Scott drove to the boat. I got there just before the noon salute to the Queen. We had lunch and then went to the store for our booze rations. Scott had taken my shower door to a place that put a new window on it, and brought it back to install, but there was one fastening that needed to be fixed and we needed Leslie to do it.
Leslie got to the boat after work. She had some scotch then she went to work on the door fastening, and got it installed. Then we had dinner and got ready to go to the OB.
We were a little late getting to the Queen, but we found a table and had a lot of fun dancing and enjoying the music.
We all drank a bunch too, but we were able to get to the bus to take us home and stumble to the boat.
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I planed to change the Ignition wires and the distributor on the port engine Saturday, but Leslie told me to stay off that engine, because I was bound to screw up my arms some more. I agreed and she did the job perfectly as usual.
After lunch she and Scott went to Rich and Leena's boat and fixed their Radio/CD system. They could earn living fixing boats.
I had to leave Saturday afternoon, because I had to drive to my Daughters house early Sunday morning.
Scott and Leslie stayed and ended up at the OB Saturday night where they said there was a hot Jazz band playing.
They went home Sunday.
10-01-08 Diary
Scott, Leslie, and I had planned a fun weekend starting with a Blues Cruise Friday night, a quick resolution of a starboard engine problem Saturday, then go to the Hollywood Bar and Grill for dinner and to enjoy our friend Jennifer’s Jazz Trio’s performance Saturday night.
Friday night was great. We had a ball dancing, and enjoying the Blues Cruise. Johnny and the Mama’s Boys were great, and the crowd was just right.
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We started working on the engine problem Saturday morning. The Starboard Engine would not start. It had something to do with the starter motor, so first we checked if the starter was getting power, and we measured 12 volts on the starter side of the starter solenoid, so the consensus was that the starter motor needed to be removed and repaired. Removing the starter required lifting the aft deck to enable us (i.e.; Leslie) to get down in the bilge to remove the heat exchanger, and then remove the starter motor. When the starter was removed we discovered that the power cord was corroded and not making contact at the Motor.
Leslie made another power cord, reinstalled the starter Motor, and the heat exchanger. She is the hardest worker I know!
While she was working, we had a nice surprise visit from our friends Sherryl and Michael while we were working. They came aboard by maneuvering across the open engine pit. It was nice to see them again even for a short time.
We tested the starter after everything was done. The engine turned over but would not start. We were all exhausted by this time (about six) and decided to quit for the day.
We had decided that we were too tired to go to Hollywood that night and canceled our dinner reservation on the front row for Jennifer’s gig.
We had some booze and a chicken dinner, then watched the movie "Foul Play" with Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase.
We checked the starboard engine Sunday morning and discovered that it wasn''t getting any gas. We switched to another gas tank, and primed the carburetor. That got it started.
We also needed to tighten the belt to the water pump on the Port engine to get the boat moving.
Once all this was done we were able to drive the boat to the pump out station to empty the bladder. Then we took her out for a short run at cruising speed, and she ran fine. I was relieved to see that because I need to take her to the boat yard for a bottom paint job and replacing a through hull fitting that is loose. That is scheduled for the 13 th.
We had lunch, and then visited Leena and Rich for a short time. They have sold their boat and will be leaving for Florida soon. We will miss them.
I left for home, and Leslie went wading on the beach. They left for the Castle about another hour later.
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10-28-08 Diary
Last weekend was the best we have enjoyed in a long time. We started with the Blues Cruise annual Halloween Costume Party on Friday night, and then a Dock Party Saturday honoring our good friends Rich and Leena Alan who are moving to Florida.
The Costume Party was a blast. I think that when people dress up for Halloween they loose any inhibitions they may have.
Leslie was a space girl, Scott was in drag as Sarah, and I was a ghoul. Almost everyone went all out with their costume. There was a Sarah Palan, Frankenstein’s Bride, several pirates, and a guy riding a Chicken, just to name a few. The boat was full, everyone started in a good mood, and everyone ended the night in a better mood. I didn't see anyone making trouble.
We had such a good time that I didn't need to drink more than two small gins.
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We got up Late Saturday morning and took care of some boat things that needed fixing after Breakfast.
The going away party for Rich and Leena was scheduled to start at four o'clock, so I started making my World Famous Chili about one o'clock. I made two batches, and we had some of that for lunch.
We were running low on some supplies, so Scott and Leslie went into town to get some stuff, and I started putting together the things we wanted to take to the party. The party was to be Pot Luck, and I wasn't sure how much Beer and wine to take, but I figured I would take too much rather than not enough.
There was more stuff to eat and drink than I have ever seen at any of our previous Dock Parties. Alan and Janet, our hosts, were serving endless tropical drinks. There were guests that were former Gangway Z boaters from as far away as Redland.
Our Hosts piped Hawaiian music from their boat to the dock. Rich and Leena were leading everyone in dancing the hula. They had met in Hawaii and were married on Catalina with a Hawaiian theme, and their boat is called the Waikiki Broiler.
The party lasted until after eight o'clock, and could have gone on for longer, but we had to let the guests of honor finish their packing, so they could get to LAX for their 12:30 flight to Florida.
Scott Leslie and I watched a movie on my boat after the Party. It is a funny movie called "Captain Ron", about a family who inherited an old sail boat, and hired a crazy captain to help get the boat operational and sail it to Miami.
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We took the boat for a short cruise and a pump out Sunday morning, then had lunch, packed, saluted the queen at the three o'clock horn and left for home
11-05-08 Diary
It’s been a full week with escorting grand kids on their Trick or Treat Halloween rounds, a nice weekend visiting Scott and Leslie at their Cactus Castle, and the excitement of the election on Tuesday.
I would have preferred to have spent Halloween eve with Scott and Leslie at the West Side 15.. They said that it really rocked.
I drove up to the Cactus Castle Saturday morning. Scott showed me his latest toy, a Railroad simulator that includes a simulated Surf Liner between L.A. and San Diego. It looks like fun.
We drove to Barstow Saturday afternoon to go to the Train and Highway 66 Museums. I drove Highway 66 from Chicago to L.A. in 1962 when I joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The museum brought back memories.
Barstow was and still is a major train hub with a large switching yard. The Train Museum includes a number of locomotives, cabooses, and passenger cars outside, and some interesting displays inside. I spent a summer working on a bridge and building crew for the Northern Pacific Railroad in North Dakota when I was eighteen years old, and I recognized some of the equipment on display.
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We drove the Highway 66 back to Victorville, and saw some old motels and service stations that were boarded up and rotting away.
It started raining pretty bad by the time we got to Victorville. We decided that we wouldn’t be going out that night, and Scott bought a DVD of the movie “Cars”.
Leslie made a good Steak dinner and we watched the Movie that night. It was a real thunder storm that night but no damage to the Castle.
Sunday morning was a little overcast but no rain. We watched a Movie called “Defending Your Life” that I thought was very interesting. It was suppose to be a comedy, and there was some funny parts, but the movie was about this guy that dies and ends up in a city that is where newly dead people are evaluated as to if they should be recycled back to earth for another life there, or are graduated to another place. It’s an interesting idea.
I drove home after lunch.
I was very happy to see Obama win the election. I was very unhappy to see the Anti Gay marriage Measure pass. Can a few thousand bigots change the meaning of equality?
12-15-08 Diary
I'm very late in my Diary update again, I blame the lack of compatibility between my camera, my computer, and the document software. The operator is less than half to blame. She thinks that she knows how everything SHOULD operate without reading the manuals, and it is not her fault that the camera, computer, and software are poorly designed.
The three events that I can report on now to the best of my memory (I don't have a manual for that), are an outing with Heather and Sherryl at the Cafe D' Entolie on November 28th, The L.A. Gender Center's Party on December 7th, and the L.B. Boat Parade Party on December 13th.
It had been several years since Heather, Sherryl and I have been together, so it was a real treat for us to meet at the Cafe D' to get caught up on what is happening in our lives.
We spent three hours at the Cafe talking about the old days when we terrorized the natives where ever we went, and sometimes ourselves. In those days we planned our adventures to keep pushing our limits. Sherryl has moved far ahead of Heather and I in that regard.
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The yearly LA Gender Center Holiday Party at the Abby is always nice to reconnect with our counselors, old friends, and to meet some new girls and boys.
My old Counselor, Marie Keller, is still the director of the LAGC. She looked good. I haven't needed to see her for a few years, and she got caught up on my current situation, and I on hers. Our monthly counseling sessions used to be like two friends meeting for lunch, but I always left with a new solution to a problem, or a challenge to change some bad habit.
Scott and Leslie, and Naomi were there, and I recognized a few others at the party, but most of the group were strangers. Many of the friends that were there last year were missing.
The Abby pours a wicked Martini so I paced myself and kept reasonably sober. I had a Motel room in WeHo where I left my car, and Scott and Leslie was going to take me back there later so I could enjoy my self
Scott, Leslie, Naomi, and I went to the Cafe D' entolie for dinner after the LAGC party was over at six o'clock. I had my full ration of Gin and a nice dinner.
Scott and Leslie took me to my room and left for Scotts Mothers House in Simi Valley after dinner.
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The Long Beach Shoreline Yacht Club at my Marina has a holiday Boat Parade every year. The boats get all fixed up with lights, music, and dancers, then parade past the Marinas, the Village, the shoreline restaurants, and the Queen Mary. That is, they Parade when the Harbor isn't socked in by fog, there isn't a gale force wind blowing, or heavy rain. This year there was two red flags flying at the harbor entrance which indicates a Gale warning, so the Parade was canceled.
The people that had their boats all decked out had a party anyway. There were two boats right behind my boat that partied all night.
I always have a little Party on my boat during the Parade also, and take her out to watch the Parade from the vicinity of the Queen mary, when it isn't too wet, cold, or dangerous, like it was that night. I can't drink when I an going to Captain the ship, so was relieved that the Parade was canceled.
Last year it was windy and cold too, but the parade was still done. The Captain thought it would be canceled so he had a few drinks. We watched the parade from Parkers Light House.
I had expected ten or eleven guests for my boat party. Scott, Leslie, Karen, Claude, and Sherryl showed up. Naomi had car trouble, and Val, her Daughter, and some of Val's friends couldn't make it either.
We had a good party though. Karen and Claude left about eight because they needed to drive back to Studio City. Scott, Leslie, and Sherryl were planning to stay on the boat over night, so we decided to go to Busters for music, dancing and a few drinks.
Busters was packed! There were some private parties that used up half the room, so there was no place to sit. We managed to find some seats at the bar, and get some drinks. We also managed to elbow our way onto the Dance floor for some of our favorites.
We went back to the boat when the Flier Band took their first break. Sherryl decided to drive home, and Scott, Leslie and I watched the movie "Men In Black' and got drunk.
We did a few chores Sunday Morning and then left after lunch.
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January 11 2009 Diary
Happy New Year. I hope it is starting well for you.
I enjoyed some nice parties in December. And a fun New Years Eve with Scott and Leslie at a KARIOKI Bar in the Marina Village. They had a week off from Christmas to after NYE, and the plan was that they were going to spend their vacation on the boat.
I was the first to arrive at the boat on Sunday, the 28th. The first thing I saw when I arrived was that the refrigerator was not running, and every thing in it was warm. I did my usual checking; was the thermostat set to on (yes), was there power on (yes), was the compressor working (no). I tried with various work arounds that usually worked in the past, but they didn’t, and I gave up. I went into town to get some ice and filled my coolers with perishables and booze.
Scott and Leslie arrived and Leslie tried to breath life in to the old beast and we finally came to the conclusion that we had a dead refrigerator.
I went into town to get a roasted chicken for dinner.
We discussed what we were going to do about the Refrigerator. A new replacement would cost $1200, and I would rather just close the boat up and we all go home. I can’t afford to replace everything that breaks on that boat with new stuff. I would prefer just giving the boat away for a buck.
The holding tank bladder was full Monday morning so we took the boat to the pump out station, and then took it out to the inner harbor for a speed run. We were at cruising speed when we smelled some rubber burning. The out board Port exhaust hose was so hot that it was melted and almost on fire. Scott shut the Port engine down, and I had him and Leslie put on their life jackets, and I put mine on also. I asked them to stay on the aft deck with fire extinguishers and I took the boat back to the slip on the Stbd engine.
Now I was defiantly ready to give the old girl away. In fact I would pay someone to that her away.
Now back to the refrigerator; you can’t have a boat without something to keep the booze cold, Right?
Leslie said that they had an old apartment size refrigerator in their garage that is being used for storing beer, and she wanted to get a larger one. We decided to take some measurements to see if it would fit in the existing refrigerator space.
We drove to the Castle Monday afternoon and determined that it could fit if the space on the boat was enlarged. We loaded the refrigerator on their Van. We went to a nice little hotel restaurant called Benny’s for dinner, then drove back to Long Beach.
We took the old refrigerator out Tuesday morning. Leslie inspected the space and determined that their old refrigerator would fit if the space height was increased. She modified the space that had a drawer under the old refrigerator to accommodate the new one, and we installed it. Eventually; it was pluged in and operational.
We celebrated that night by going to the Yard House for drinks and snacks.
So much for Scott and Leslies vacation so far! I am deeply indebted to them for what that did for me. They could have spent those two days relaxing in San Diego.
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Wednesday: New Years Eve day.
You would think that we should be relaxing and enjoying the weather by this time, Right? No; one of the things that we still needed to install new risers on the port engine. I had the new risers on board, so it shouldn’t be a big deal, except we needed a new exhaust hose, so I drove to San Pedro and got one.
We got the out board riser on, and finally quit for the day and got ready to go out and boogie.
A new Bar/Restaurant in the Marina Village called the Springbok has a KARIOKI on Thursdays, so that’s where we went.
We didn’t need to drive and worry about cops, and Scott has performed there before, so everything worked out well. We got there early enough to get a table next to the mikes.
It was a blast! We stayed until Midnight and toasted 2009 with free Champaign, then went outside to watch the fireworks from the Queen Mary. Unfortunately, a thick fog had rolled in so we could hear the fireworks, but couldn’t see them.
We stumbled back to the boat.
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The weather on New Years Day was nice, and we could have relaxed, but we needed to install the in board riser on the Port engine. We did that and then took the boat to empty the bladder.
On the way back we noticed that the Port engine exhaust wasn’t as good as the Stbd engine, so we still had a heating problem.
I left the boat at that point and came home.
Scott and Leslie stayed that night, and went to the Queen Mary to listen to Chris and Lisa.
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