Sunday, February 12, 2012

Idle Hands Are The Devil's Workshop

We were going to leave Beaufort for Hilton Head on Saturday, but the forecast was for very blustery winds.

NW WINDS INCREASING TO 25 TO 30 KT WITH GUSTS TO 40
KT...DIMINISHING TO 20 TO 25 KT WITH GUSTS TO 35 KT LATE.

Seeing as how we are not on any kind of schedule and strong winds really mess up my hair, we decided to stay put for a few days.  I started on our income taxes.  I use Turbo Tax, which I like a lot since it takes information from last year's return and fills in a bunch of stuff on this year's.  I had sold a lot of stock a few years ago but didn't sell a handful of Comcast and AT&T stock because, well, I have so few shares that I forgot about them.  I got these when Ma Bell broke up a couple of decades ago.   I get dividend checks from each for $1.48 every quarter, which I soon misplace and never deposit.  

While filling out the tax forms, Turbo Tax asked for the 1099-DIVs for both.  I went through my pile of tax papers and they were missing, so I couldn't finish our tax returns.  I'd just delete them since the amount is so small but I'm sure the IRS's tax dodger alarm would go off and I'd get hauled into the audit water board room, so I set the taxes aside until I can figure out where the 1099s are.

I then killed some time learning how Microsoft's Windows Live Movie Maker works.  Our friends Pat and Lorrie on Godspeed have done a few movie and photo montauges of their cruises and they're really well done.  I think I might put one together of our first few months of cruising. It will be a serious maritime video, worthy of the likes of Jacques Cousteau.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!   ~SNERK~!!!    Sorry.  Yeah right.

Here is my first attempt, a documentary of how a swing bridge operates, for our landlubber friends.


On another note, I am not sure exactly how it works, but this is amazingly accurate.  Read the full description before looking at the picture.  The picture below has 2 identical dolphins in it.  I took this pic on the ICW between Charleston and Beaufort.

Look at both dolphins jumping out of the water. The dolphins are identical. A closely monitored scientific study revealed that, in spite of the fact that the dolphins are identical, a person under stress would find differences in the two dolphins. The more differences a person finds between the dolphins, the more stress that person is experiencing.  



I showed this to Pam during happy hour yesterday, and neither she nor I could see any differences whatsoever, so I think our cruise on Drift Away must be working.   If you see two or three differences, you need to take the day off from work as a "mental health day".  If you see more than that, you need to buy a trawler and come join us.


6 comments:

  1. I Dave,

    I'm in Montreal freezing and watching your bridge video, lucky guys. On your video, from 2:24 to 2:50 there is a dolphin at the bottom of the screen, very nice. Thank you to share your boater life. My wife and I will get there soon. Please don't stop and continue.

    See you on the ocean.

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    1. You're right, Sylvain! I didn't notice it before. It's right around the word "dizzy".

      We see dolphins here, but not too many. There's also a sign at the marina warning to watch for manatees, although we haven't seen any of those. They probably show up in the summer.

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  2. You can also see the dolphin fin to the left of the piling a few seconds prior to it showing up by dizzy.

    Your comment about manatees got me curious. I knew they were temp sensitive, but didn't know how much. This is what Wikipedia has to say about that:

    The coast of Georgia is usually the northernmost range of the West Indian manatees because their low metabolic rate does not protect them in cold water. Prolonged exposure to water temperatures below 68 °F (20 °C) can bring about "cold stress syndrome" and death.[9]

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  3. Hi Pam & Dave! We can see differences in the dolphins! YIKES - do you think cruising aboard a monohull sailboat is too stressful? :) Cheers - Jan & David, commutercruiser.com

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    1. You guys need to sell that sailboat and buy an old trawler like we did! There's no stress cruising on a trawler, until you pull up to the fuel dock.

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  4. Dave,

    Great video! You need to slow the credits though. And where is the music credit? seems like its almost from the old Dating Game show but not quite.

    Also I have seen many dolphins like the one on the right in the picture, not yet seen any like the left around here...must be looking in the wrong place, huh?

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