Brackets, Bow Lights, Party Madness

           Where to start? I had to make up a bunch of metal brackets out of aluminum bar stock for a project. These were easily formed by bending the stock around a piece of ½ inch black iron pipe. The flanges were made by holding the “U” shaped metal in a vice and then bending the ends over and pounding down with a hammer. The screw holes were drilled by using my trusty drill press. The next to last operation was to trim down the oversized flanges with the screw holes. I put these brackets into the vice and used my angle grinder to cut the edges down.

When my good friend Ed instructed me on the proper way to use an angle grinder he emphasized how important it is to wear a full face shield. Safety glasses are not enough protection. Sure enough, Saturday morning I was cutting off a piece of a bracket and it went flying out of the vice and I felt a huge “thunk” from the top section of my face shield. I was shaking afterward thinking what damage that sharp edged flying piece of aluminum could have done to my head. You taught me well Ed….THANK YOU!!!

Anytime a product is marketed for the boat/marine market you can expect to pay a premium price. The mornings are dark now when we go out in the early morning. The bow lights we had been using finally bit the dust. These last cheap lights we used were basically flashlights with a red/green lens with a suction cup to mount on the boat. The rubber on the suction cup deteriorates from the UV rays after a season or so to be worthless. This is pretty much a ball park figure for quality bow lights:

I can’t stand spending a fortune on something as basic/simple as a bow light. There must be a cheaper way. Checking Amazon I found Kayak running lights for $16.99 postage paid! I was amazed in how it was less than a week from the time I placed my order and they were in my mailbox. These lights turned out to be perfect for the clubs use.

I made up a bracket for these lights to fit in to. I was scared in how easy it all came together and it all actually worked! Here is a picture of the extra bracket and home made bow lights.

I’ll be ordering another set of the kayak lights so we will have lights for both our boats. Want to check first with the men’s crew to see if they also need lights. The brackets are easily made up out of scrap metal I have around the shop.

I made a quick trip to the boathouse Saturday morning to get measurements for the bracket. From the boathouse I went to Blow’s on 82 for bracket screws. Naturally they were out of the size I needed. Traffic was a mess across the bridge back into town. Thought I’d be smart and took the long way around to River Road, so I can come up behind Publix. See the detour signs River Road is closed! DAMN! Have to take the congested way to Publix. There were people everywhere. Something University related is going on this weekend.

Was in and out of Publix and decided to leave my truck parked in the driveway for the rest of the day. The boys across the street from me had been working and raising Hell since 7:00 a.m. As the morning wore on, more and more people assembled at their house. A huge plastic “wall” blocked out the back yard. I assumed it was some kind of frat-boy function. I did not pay too much attention as I was working in the back workshop all afternoon and the music really was not too bad.

Michelle dropped over about 4:30 and was visibly upset over what was going on. On my front street trucks were parked with tailgate parties going on while the party house across the street was jam packed full of people. I’m sorry now I never got a picture of that back yard with people shoehorned in “nuts to butts” from my upstairs window. Time to make a call… if this party is allowed to go past dark things could get ugly. As it is, these half so

ber students were walking into the street in front of cars nearly getting hit.

It was time to make a call to the non-emergency police number. I explained to the dispatcher how there was a major party house in full operation with probably underage drinking and open containers on the street. In five minutes there were four cruisers plus the University Police on site. I never saw a party break up so quickly. It is not even football season….. It is good to get the message out early this will not be tolerated. After 15 years living among students I have been hardened! I show no mercy!

I coxed a very stressful row this morning. These new people just don’t get it. After ¾’s of the practice of the bow seat “rushing the seat” after me saying calmly in a mantra fashion like a broken record, “bow seat, slow your seat, s-l-o-w your seat, catch with stroke.” Not catching together makes the boat to tip, makes a check in the boat and it can be impossible to keep a point. I warned the crew I was getting frustrated and finally I snapped, “BOW SEAT, YOU HAVE WORKED MY LAST GOOD NERVE, SLOW YOUR FUCKING SEAT!!”  I never use profanity when I cox but I have never been so frustrated.

This has been building up. I won’t even go into the row Friday morning… my anxiety level raises just thinking of it…..I just came back thinking back to the Friday row. I must get this off my chest! Mark coxed and we fixed the boat so Nancy was in Stroke seat, and I was in bow with the two newbie rowers in the middle. The cox box was performing horribly. This new rower in two seat does the entire stroke in one motion at once. The stroke is: first push back with the legs (you are leaning over at this point), then open the back, lastly pull back with the arms. This rower will not use her back, she will pull her arms in while pushing back with her legs which causes her to lose half the stroke. When we rowed pairs I would keep my oar above the water as my stroke would push us off point even with no pressure. The current of the river would take us off course as the two seat stroke was basically non-existent. I don’t know what to do……

I have been keeping Stumpy in the house as there are a number of young birds around. Yesterday afternoon I found one little guy right in the middle of grassy section in my back yard. He hopped on my finger. I raised him up to see if he could fly…he flapped his wings some and was almost able to take off, but not quite. I moved him to the bushes where he would be safer. I like to give those little guys all the help they can get. It is now raining out and Stump is sacked out on the bed so I don’t think he cares too much!