On Oct 19, 4:04*pm, Tosk wrote:
In article a936614b-dd5f-4841-a4ae-dde9b56ea369
@a6g2000vbp.googlegroups.com, says...





On Oct 19, 3:42*pm, H the K wrote:
On 10/19/09 1:23 PM, Frogwatch wrote:

On Oct 19, 1:03 pm, wrote:
On Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:37:56 -0400, H the K

*wrote:
You certainly seem to have your problems with boats, caves, campertops,
et cetera.

Don't take up golf...you'd be hit by lightning or eaten by a gator.

Maybe it is because I actually do stuff Harry. *I do agree though, I
am convinced that if I ever golfed I'd get hit by lightning.

I "do stuff," too, Froggy. I just don't seem to have all the problems
you do with your "stuff."

You probably have newer stuff and take it back to the dealer when it
breaks.

Harry, I do all that stuff too but I prob push things further than
most people would. Most of boat trips, nothing noteworthy happens
unless you go someplace unexpected and I like to explore. My install
of a 3600 gph pump on my 20' Tolman Skiff may seem odd and result in
some wiring problems but will give me peace of mind. *In sailing, I
dont know of anybody else who I think is capable of climbing my mast
so I will do it. In caving, I am a safety fanatic;cavers are supposed
to carry 3 independent lights, I carry 8. *It is simply the
otherworldly nature of caving that makes most trips so unusual.
Really now, how often do you find yourself in a tight passage where
the wall has thousands of flattened dead bats on it as if they were
all hit by a massive fly swatter and you realize, uh-oh, that was done
by a flash flood....or you find the way out of the cave is blocked by
an angry water moccassin. *How many people build their own campers or
boats. *If you expect zero problems, buy instead. *I like to
understand what I am using so I build.
I also like solving problems. *This is the first time in two years I
have not been able to use the sailboat when I wanted so I cannot
complain too much. *If I had the solar panel hooked up, my batteries
would have been ok but I suspect something odd about the wiring at my
slip or that my panel has gone bad somehow causing corrosion so it has
been taken off. *I gotta get the panel home to measure its resistance
over time.

I've installed bilge pumps on boats, and even with my limited knowledge
of electricity, I didn't encounter "wiring problems." Wiring in a new
pump seems pretty straightforward, no?

I'm sure it is quite enjoyable to be among thousands of dead bats and
live poisonous snakes.

As for your project building, you seem to enjoy making your life as
complicated as you can. I don't.

--
Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are
conservatives. - John Stuart Mill

A few weeks ago when we were dragging the canoes and kayaks thru the
muck to see these cool springs, I saw a guy happily fishing while we
were having a bitch of a time getting our boats through the dense
weeds. *I thought, "Dang, that sure looks relaxing, maybe I should try
it", a few seconds later, my daughter and I are happily up to our
necks in mud draggin the boats and I think, "Yeah, I'll do that when
I'm 80 and can't deal with cool stuff"

Or a 300 pound slob like Harry...

Trips where things go wrong are always good in retrospect because they
are memorable. We've been on too many camping, backpacking, canoeing,
sailing, caving, etc trips to remember. The ones where nothing
happened you barely remember. I can look through my journal and find
we have slept in our Eureka backpacking tent over 375 days total over
the years but cannot remember most of the trips, they were
uneventful. I can remember having to drag a crashing hot air balloon
away from it in CO. I can remember the flood in MO where the tent
became a boat and still did not leak. Can remember the near miss by a
waterspout in FL at night. We are now up to tent #3 and are going
back to the old Eureka tent as the kids no longer go with us. Tent #3
we have probably spent only about 50 nights in and it is worn out
too. Only a couple memorable nights in it.
I met my wife on a crazed canoeing trip where it rained like hell for
48 hours and the river flooded so much we were not sure where it was,
we still joke about it 29 yrs later. We spent our honeymoon camping
up in the CO mountains for 70 days. She got hurt in a rock climbing
accident (broke an arm, fractured hip and broken toe) but we kept
camping till the snow was collapsing the tent during the nights. She
thinks I am a wimp for wanting a camper instead of the tent.
Overcoming minor adversity is what makes life fun, makes you wonder if
HK has any fun. I figure that if everything goes according to plan,
you are not trying hard enough to have fun. Ya gotta have some
adversity, otherwise you're just a crotchedy old man like HK. When
you get to be 95 and think back that "Everything went according to
plan", will it matter if you have alzheimers?