Wednesday, 8 April 2015 - I couldn't help myself. I opened the database that I worked on so much recently and started entering some of the information that I have accumulated on the boats that I have looked at. That led to my creating about a dozen or so new data fields to the data base and that made me rearrange much of the layout again, so I spent most of the day working on that. I'm sure that as I continue to use it, I'll think of even more that need to be added, but I think it's close enough to completion that I can certainly start using it. About 4:00pm, I went back over to the Clear Lake Sailing Club, like I did last Wednesday, hoping to windsurf with them, but the winds were to low for me. About 4 of their members sailed on huge sails again, then we went out to dinner. Had burgers, onion rings and "Pelican Eggs". The "Pelican Eggs" are really jalapeño peppers stuffed with cheese and bacon bits. Soooo Gooood! Tomorrow I need to find a laundromat that I can park near and wash clothes.

Thursday, 9 April - Today is the anniversary of my dad's passing and I really miss him. He was a great father to me and a wonderful friend. As usual, you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone. As most people do, I took him for granted, but now realize how much he did for me. I wish I had asked him a few thousand more questions.
                  Okay, I need to wash clothes today, but it's a beautiful day and it's supposed to be rainy the rest of the week. I'd better take this opportunity to go windsurfing instead.
                  ...a great day on the water. I had heard quite a bit about the Texas City Levee and Jetty, so I headed south to find them. I had found the jetty on maps, but was afraid it would be like the road that led to my having to dig out of the sand it South Padre Island, so I was cautious as I headed out onto it. It's a totally manmade breakwater than sticks out into the bay for more than five miles, but is made of solid dirt, not sand, and has lots of turn-outs, several boat launches, some beaches, and A TURN-AROUND LOOP AT THE END. Thank God and the city planning commission! I wasn't sure of that so when I saw a sign that said, "Road Ends 1500 feet" I stopped immediately and decided to check it out on my bicycle first this time. The bike had a flat, so I was delayed a bit. I can't believe how easy it is to fix a flat on a bicycle compared to a motorcycle. You don't even need tools! Wonderful!
                  I still didn't sail there. The wind blows straight across the jetty, so it is straight onshore on one side and straight offshore on the other. Sailing into chop one one side and not safe on the other side if you have problems. If there had been other sailors on the downwind side I might have tried sailing on the lee side, but there were none. Too risky by myself.
                  The Levee, however, runs perpendicular to the jetty along the shoreline for a couple of miles, is a well-kept grassy shoreline and had the wind blowing down the shore. This is great because I could sail straight away from shore, then jibe and come back to where I started on each pass. There were about 4 sailboarders there when I arrived and about 7 or 8 kiteboarders. Winds were about 15 mph, so I sailed my largest sail. A great afternoon. One thing's different here. In Utah, as I de-rig, taking about 30 minutes to do so, all my equipment, wet suit, bathing suit, etc. dries out. Not here. I took my time, about an hour, and nothing was even close to being dry and would have stayed that way, so I had to put it all away wet.
                  I'm really glad to find this sailing site. It's only about a 30 minute drive away. About half way to Galveston. Well, I haven't used that many muscles that much in months, so I bet I sleep well tonight. Maybe I'll wash clothes tomorrow. Night, night.

Friday, 10 April - A terribly exciting day. I washed clothes! Evening was better. I went out to dinner with Gary and Lorrie Powers and some of their friends to an Italian restaurant in La Port, just north of here. Good dinner and good friends.

Saturday, 11 April - I had breakfast, then decided to get out early to look at boats because rain was expected. I decided I'd go back over to Seabrook Marina where I had talked to the lady in the office that had promised to pass my contact information on to the two CSY owners that have boats in their marina. I hadn't heard from either of them. I had seen one of the boats in a subsequent visit and it is in pretty poor shape, so I was expecting that the owner might be hoping to sell it and contact me, not that I'd want to buy a boat that needs that much work done on it. Not hearing from that owner, however, led me to question whether my contact information had been passed on. I found out today that it had not. I went around the marina and discovered a total of four CSY's, and one of them is Old Dog II, now renamed Morning Star and registered with the home port of "Indian Nation, Oklahoma". She's owned by two nice Cherokee Indians; Thunder and Cara Morning Star, a man, his wife and a cute little girl about 4 - 5 years old. They have recently purchased the boat and are now living on her while they fix her up. They happened to be onboard when I discovered the boat at the dock and were nice enough to give me a tour. Beautiful woodwork below decks, but she's been leaking when it rains and needs much repair work. Another boat in the marina has only been around for a month or two, fresh from an extended trip and provisioning for another run. That owner wasn't aboard. The third boat that I didn't know about hasn't been sailed in quite some time. People in nearby boats say they have never seen the owners. Not a good sign. The exterior is in pretty poor shape, but the people on the docks said they'd try to find out who owns her for me.
                  It's raining outside as I get ready to hit the sack.
Sweet Dreams!

Sunday, 12 April - Good Morning! I slept like a log last night here under the bridge that connects Kemah and Seabrook. The bridge is probably about 80 ft. high at its apex, maybe 1/3 mile long and is the only thing around that has any altitude gain, so they've set up a bike race here today that will cross it twice in a race that is probably about 50 miles long. The rest is virtually flat. All you SLC bikers should come down for this race next year. I'm sure you'd do well. Just imagine, no mountains to climb and, at sea level, you'd never even breathe hard.
                  It's still raining here this morning, so I'm not sure how many racers showed up, but, since it's 73°F outside, it probably didn't stop many from showing. I'm not sure how big this race is, but it was pretty well advertised.
                  Since it is raining and predicted to do so for most of the day, I'll probably spend quite a bit of the day researching boats online...Well, it cleared off a bit, so I got out and saw some boats. I think I've seen most of the sailboats in this general area, but may go back to see a few again.

Monday, 13 April - I awoke, had breakfast, did some searching/research for boats on the computer, straightened out a problem with the payments for the electric bill for the house in SLC, then headed over to Waterford Yacht Harbor to borrow a boat about specifications on boats from HSH Yacht Brokers. After picking the book up, I went to quickly revisit a couple of boats on the docks and to try to determine the makers of a couple of boats. I would have thought that the makers of all these beautiful sailboats would have been proud enough of their product to have put their names on them, but I would be wrong. Very few of the boats over about 10 years old have their names or logos on them. Most newer ones are finally starting to. I guess they have finally realized that if people admire their boats, but can't identify them, it does them no good. Cars, and most other products have been labeled since the beginning of time. Why not boats? Makes no sense to me, but then, lots of things make no sense to me.
                  Came back to the motor home, started the generator, and had dinner as I watched "Dancing With The Stars" and "Castle' on TV. I think the male celebrities on "Dancing" have a distinct advantage. I watch the females perform; some good, some poor, but I never see the men perform. I can only see their drop dead gorgeous professional partners, so I'd give them all 10s!

Tuesday, 14 April - An interesting day here. Nothing exciting, but interesting. I woke up and had a cottontail rabbit and nine ducks in my front yard; one mother and eight ducklings. At 9:30, the skies opened up, lightning danced about, and in a couple of hours we probably had about 3-4" of rain. At the first lightning strike, all the animals disappeared, but the ducks soon reappeared, playing in the puddles. I've never seen a duck like the female. I'm pretty sure she's a foreign breed. She's red, white and black, not red, white and blue; plus I talked to her for a bit and I don't think she understood a word I said. Well, maybe she was just ignoring me. My good high school buddy and rifle team co-member, Ray Cramblit, had responded to my last episode with some questions, so I called him back today. It was great talking to him. I mentioned the ducks and he said they are probably from down south and have come north to take advantage of the free health care available here.
                  I spent much of the day reading the book on boats that I had borrowed, then, when the skies cleared, I went to return the book. I got there at 5:10pm. Too late. Everyone was gone. Went to Walmart for some groceries. Just as I started typing this message, all the lights at Walmart went out, including the parking lot. It took about 10 minutes for them all to come back on.
                  I heard from our real estate agent today. The buyer's banker's appraiser was supposed to inspect the house today and the closing is next Wednesday if that went well. I was thinking of going down to Galveston soon. Perhaps I'll have to stick around here to receive and sign some papers and return them via FedEx. I'm not sure where to have the papers sent. I'm not sure the postal delivery person can find me since I keep changing locations to avoid the gendarmes!

            Until next time,
                        I hope you're having a great week. Keep in touch.