On Sep 24, 11:37 am, Frogwatch wrote:
At some point, you exceed the optimum number of "toys" so that your
ability to maintain them begins to exceed your time to use them. I
believe this has happed to me. With two small homebuilt sailboats and
a 28' S2 sailboat, a homebuilt dinghy, a 20' Tolman Skiff (homeebuilt)
and a canoe, a 100 yr old log cabin in Wyoming that needs rebuilding,
an old Nissan truck with 309,000 miles on it that I love and a need to
maintain camping and caving equipment (did I mention a 20 yr old Dodge
Ram I inherited), I have no time to use any of it.
Yesterday, we wanted to go sailing but after I had de-fouled the prop
by going overboard in the canal, the engine overheated. Dang, I knew
I shoulda had the bottom painted thsi year (its been 4 years, a long
time in N. FL.). Engine intake was clogged with fouling and I couldnt
find a piece of stiff wire long enough to run through the intake from
inside (I wasnt going back in that nasty water again). So, sometime
this week, I gotta take time offa work and go to the coast and do
this, oughta replace the impeller at same time, scrape barnacles too.
My prop is just about shot from corrosion and dings so I'll haveta
sail her about 40 miles sometime in early Oct to have her hauled, prop
replaced, I will paint the bottom, and replace cutless bearing.
Somehow this week, I gotta set up caving gear for 5 people cuz my 20
yr old daughter has decided she wants to take her new BF on a caving
trip (gotta take the younger kids too).
Somehow, I think that I can do all of this if I optimally use each
evening and weekend to do stuff but something has to give. Money has
not been an issue because I do all the work myself cuz I dont like the
work anybody esle does and I have built 4 of my boats and my truck was
paid off 16 yrs ago. What should I give up to make room for doing
stuff?
OH, I have this notion of building a kayak for my 11 yr old daughter
cuz she likes kayaks............

Right now, I believe that I can just maintain all this myself but at
51 yrs of age, I can see a time when I cannot. Even now, I dont like
going under the S2 to de-foul like I used to all the time. In teh
past, lifting the 8 hp kicker for the Tolman woulda been easy but not
now and later...........
I'd like to make my 17 yr old son do some of it but he needs
supervision so much that I might as well do it myself. Besides, I
dont know how to do most of this stuff so how can I tell him how to do
it.
The old Dodge Ram that I use to tow the Tolman has been eating
batteries. For some reason, they wont stay charged so FINALLY, I took
out all the fuses and battery and measured across the battery
terminals. WHAT, 170 ohms? HOW? I put it all back together thinking
I'd look it over more at work. While driving I looked down at the
1000 watt amp my son had put in it and noticed that it has no "OFF"
switch the big ass power wires went right through the firewall and I
thought, I bet that little **** wired it directly to the battery.
Sure enough, it was. AAAAAAAGH, I spend all this time fixing stuff
only to have someone take time to screw it up.