Troy Donaldson, my Father

 Dad passed away on the 15th of September.  He was born on 6 Feb 1936.  We were called last May to come visit because he was ill and in the hospital.  JoAnne and I drove to Michigan on an emergency basis, taking emergency leave from both our jobs to get there.  We visited with him over a few days and he was improving slightly.  My brothers and sister all showed up along with many other family members to pay their respects and well wishes to him.

On my last day before we had to head back to Colorado I had a 15 or 20 minute private conversation with him, just him and me.  It was his wish that he be left to his own body... in other words, he knew he was ill and wasn't going to live much longer.  He told me a few things; told me he was proud of me for my own life's work (such as it is) and told me that retiring early was the BEST thing in the world and he should have done it as well. 

He cared very deeply for his family and knew they cared for him, especially his wife, Gail.  He wanted me to make sure before I left that Sherry and myself worked with her to ensure she was going to be "all right" when his time came.  That was around the end of May this year, 2012. 

I told Dad he was my childhood hero and I wished that he could have been Superman in disguise and live forever.  He laughed and said, "No one lives forever.  None of us.  We can only live as long as God lets us stay here" and wished me a long and healthy life myself. Told me to get back to Colorado and make sure I completed my plans to head out cruising.  Said it would probably add 10 or 20 years to a person's life.

He wanted his kids to be happy, healthy and grow up to be intelligent and wise.  He said that for the most part we'd accomplished what he hoped for us.

When I discussed coming back for his funeral, he laughed and said, "I'm probably going to be cremated - you remember me how I was, not how I am now.  I hate being weak and unable to get up and move around on my own any more.  This kind of life is NOT for me any more.  Don't waste money trying to get back up here and just remember me."

When Bobbi Jo called (my Sister-in-Law, who was chosen to do the notifications) on Saturday morning Dad had passed about 10 minutes before her call. We were on our "Second Honeymoon" in South Padre Island, scheduled to depart on Monday.   I wasn't shocked, I expected it. But I was saddened because my father was there for me as a child as he should have been.  He never came to Colorado to visit us, or to DC, or Virginia or even Oklahoma I suppose because that's the way he was.  He didn't like trying too many new things and didn't really like traveling all that much.

That's ok, I got back to see him as often as money and time would permit.  Most of the family was there when he passed, though I don't think they were by his side.  I understand only Gail was with him which is as it should have been.  I'm glad we made it back to Michigan last May to visit with him and sorry we couldn't get there in time for the Memorial service, but I understand it was good for family to get together to remember him.

Death is as much a part of life as children being born to a family.  I'm confident now that me, my brothers and sisters have accomplished the most important thing, passing on our name, something that some families can't do as the last of them die off. 

Since my wife and I have raised five children and they've given us around thirteen grand children now, we have accomplished the most important thing to the family, passing on that name.  It's time for us to move on to the next and probably final stage of our own lives before death comes knocking at our doors.

I expect my Dad is in Heaven now, guarding the Pearly Gates for St. Peter, in his Marine's Uniform.  I hope my family can remember him, not as he was sick and weak in the hospital.  The only thing left now is our pictures, and our memories and even they are fleeting things.

I posted this on Facebook the day he passed away.  Thought I'd share it here:


My Father, Troy Donaldson passed from this world today. He was 76 years old. He lost two wives, my mother and his second wife Betty. He was married to Gail when he passed. He raised five children, one of those he survived, my dear sister Robin. Dad worked in a factory, as a trucker, wine delivery man, and drove a bus back in the mountains of Kentucky for doctors and nurses giving shots and examining the needy. 

Dad's most important job was as a United States Marine. But he went AWOL for a couple of days to marry my mother Jean. When he came back in he was slated to reenlist and stay in another few years. But they had to punish him for going AWOL. But, he chose to get married on the Marine Corps birthday, so they decided to let him finish out his term and get out. Busted him to the "Permanent Rank of PFC" (from Corporal and he was to be promoted to Sergent when he reenlisted).

Dad sometimes didn't make great decisions, but at least marrying Mom was a good one... The number of grandkids proves that.

I know Gail is going through a lot right now, but our family loves her too. She's not my mother, but she was dad's third wife and Dad cared very much for her. I want her to know how much we will all miss him, right along with her and we support her and she can call on any of us if she needs us.

Dad taught me a lot of things - from how to lay concrete, to wood working, metal working and how to do a good job. He also taught me how to mess things up sometimes, but also taught me how to fix things. Until a few years ago I didn't even realize how much he taught me.

He never said "Come here, let me show you this or that". He just did things and made sure I was paying attention. If he yelled at me I deserved it. If I got a spanking as a child, I certainly had done something to probably have my ass kicked for. I learned either not to get caught being stupid, or more likely NOT to do something stupid.

Dad taught me how to fight. Mom didn't want him to teach me that stuff. Dad said "I don't want a son that can't throw a punch, or not be able to defend himself."

Dad had a black belt in karate but stopped practicing when I was a little kid. Dad was a SCUBA diver when I was a child. He lifted weights. He did a lot of other things I suppose my brothers and sisters won't remember, being pretty young.

In short, my Dad was my main childhood hero. Oh I liked Superman, Neil Armstrong and the typical kid heroes, but Dad was my hero and he still is.

He taught me all I needed to get through life. He taught me to stand up and fight like a man, to love like a man, and to be an American.

Without Dad my life would have been... mundane, and I'd likely have ended up like so many other kids out on the street, hanging with gangs or whatever.

But because of my Father I've been blessed with fantastic sisters and brothers, I married my awesome wife, raised five children with her and now we're blessed again with --- so many grand children, thirteen now.

My friends - life is short. Dad was 76. I knew him for 55 years. My time on this world, if genetics holds up will only be another twenty or so years. With luck.... maybe 30. Who knows? Only God knows.

All of you, call your mom, your dad and your close relatives and wish them well, tell them you love them. Tell them you miss them when you do and go see them when you can. And for the love of God, enjoy life while you can.

Good bye dad. I love you.

Winds of Change

The Winds of Change are blowing... nope this isn't a political rant for or against Obama... it's about the Sailing Vessel "Winds of Change".

We bought her in October 2008 after making a "Five Year Plan" to learn to sail, put away a lot of money, prep our house for sale and get ready to retire early to a life of cruising aboard a sailboat. The name of the boat is from a Jimmy Buffett song, "Growing older but not up" where he the winds of time and the winds of change blowing over his head.

At our point in life we've decided that a lot of time has blown over our heads and we've been in Colorado 23 years and raised our children, most of whom are now raising their own kids or doing their own thing.  It time for my wife and I to move on. This is the longest either of us have ever lived in one place.

We both LOVE Colorado and the Mountains and the beautiful views.  But the cold is starting to get to us.  For the past five or six years it's been getting worse and worse for my old bones.  It's time to move on and we have the Caribbean in our sights.  The world is a strange and wonderful place, and dangerous so we're undertaking this with full understanding how dangerous things can be, and just how much more of the world there is to see.

After visiting 49 countries myself, and JoAnne has something like a dozen under her belt now it's time to see as much more as we can before we pass from this planet.

We're in the last year of our five year plan and everything, so far has gone well.
It's not only satisfying, but amazing when a "Plan comes together".

Our sailboat, Winds of Change is for sale.

I have two or three internet Ads up for the boat.  But I'll post some data here in case anyone reading is interested or others link here to get the data.

Macgregor Venture 25

Year: 1979
Length: 24' 11"
Beam: 7' 11"
Draft: 5' 8" with keel down, 18" keel up (Swing keel)
Keel weight: 625 lb
Weight: 2300 lb
Engine: Evinrude 9.9 HP
Sail area: Approx 230 sq feet
2 anchors (Danforth, Hall)
100' nylon rode per anchor, plus 30' chain on each rode
Two burner propane stove (2010)
Porta-potty (2009)
IdaSailor kick-up rudder and tiller (2009)
Depth finder

$4000 or best offer. Please no texts to my cell, I won't respond. If you want a good boat for the next sailing season, you're learning or new to sailing then this is the boat you want. It served my wife and I very well for our learning phase. She's ready for a new owner. There's still sailing time left in Colorado this year. All pertinent information below.

 Selling so we can purchase our long term cruising boat.

The interior wood has all been replaced. Blue bottom paint, red boot stripe. Standing rigging in excellent shape. Halyards and Jib sheets replaced in 2011 along with main sheet blocks. Bow mounted anchor bracket (for Danforth). Sails are older but work fine; Mainsail and working jib. Sail bag. Whisker pole. Boat hook. There is a gin pole and block and tackle to step the mast and I will teach new owner how to step mast and set up rigging. (It's very easy to do.)

Interior white/red lights, new bow-mounted navigation lighting. AM/FM Stereo. Depth finder. Sleeps five in drop down table berth, Vee-berth and pilot berth. Two fire extinguishers, new life jackets, two 6 gal fuel tanks, life rings (2). Trailer tie down straps and other hardware. Cockpit cushions. Heel indicator (angle of heel). Wind direction indicator on mast. Interior flotation material in place in boat. Docklines and fenders.

Galley has sink, ice box, hand pump water faucet, and 2 gallon fresh water tank and gray water tank below sink. (We normally carry a 5 gallon tank for refilling on weekend trips) Two burner propane stove, mounted in galley. I have the manual for the Macgreor 25.

Boat on trailer ready to go sailing!

Vessel registered in Colorado.

This is fair warning... if you are interested in this boat the price just went to $4000 US dollars and  I won't lower the price again.  If you think you might want her, better get here and look.  I will donate the boat to a good cause before I will lower the price again.  The vessel is worth more than I have been asking.  But if we don't sell the boat by the beginning of May I will DONATE it and you will lose your chance to get it.

Contact: Rick's cell @ 719-310-7576 (3PM-7PM M-F, Anytime after 8AM Weekends until 8 PM) leave message if I don't answer and I will return your call.

The Alamo:

Here's some pictures from the ceremony:

Back Row, Left to Right:  Nick, Becky, Rick, Patrick, Mike Sause, Carlos

Front Row and Sitting - Left to Right: JoAnne, Lucas, Kristy, Gabriel and Cassie

Not sure what Carlos said to Kristy, but.... it's gonna be a long car ride to Texas now. lol

On Saturday 8 September 2012 JoAnne and I, our daughter Kristy and her husband Carlos renewed our marriage vows.  Family and friends from Colorado, Missouri and as away far as South North Carolina.  We had a wonderful ceremony written by my JoAnne, Kristy and Mike Sause a very good family friend who acted as our officiant.

Mike dressed in some of his old SCA robes as a Monk from about the 16th century to provide a very nice oration.  The rest of us... were in a "beach theme", white shirts, khaki pants, sandals.   The "cake" was pretty awesome... it was a stack of cup cakes, each frosted and sprinkled with sand (graham crackers) and each topped with either a chocolate (white and dark) star fish or shell.  The kiddies loved it.  The aisle was lined with seashells and we had cookies that looked like little flip-flops.  The table was decorated with a bunch of statues made and obtained on our several trips to Jamaica.

On Sunday morning we headed for Texas.  Stopping on Sunday night at "Boerne" (pronounced "Bernie" by the locals).  Monday morning it was San Antonio, the Alamo and the River Walk.  We made it to the Condo about 1830 Monday evening.  We've already been to the beach and it's Tuesday.  The vacation is going really, really quick.  Bah.  This morning the Beach.... on the Gulf side of the Island.  Tomorrow we go aboard the "Black Dragon" for an evening pirate attack along the coast... More to follow....

As a young boy I had a handful of heroes.  My Father who was a Marine and served in the Korean War.  My other heroes in general, were astronauts.  Any and all of them.  In fact I was pretty geeky as a kid before that word came into normal usage and didn't mean something creepy.

I was soooo into the space program that I recall creating my own "Astronaut Baseball Cards".  They didn't sell them in the dime store, so I used to cut out pictures of the various astronauts and make up "stats" about them, like how many space walks they'd done, how many times they went into space, and crap like "How long they can hold their breath".  I think I made some of it up.

A few days ago, one of my childhood heroes died.  Neil Armstrong was born on August 5th, 1930 - exactly 27 years to the day that I was born.  Yup, I shared a birthday with him.  Armstrong was the first man to walk on the Moon on 21 July 1969.  He and "Buzz" Aldrin landed there on the 20th of July and I watched for days while they flew, landed, walked and lifted off to meet up with Michael Collins in Apollo 11.

Last night there was a "Blue Moon".... a Blue moon I am sure any sailor reading will know, is the second full moon of the month and happens rather rarely.  Yesterday was the day they buried Neil Armstrong.  When they announced his death, it hit me pretty hard.  I've never met the man, but I consider him a National Hero.  He was one of those people who did great things and never bragged about it, never let it go to his head.  He stood out from the crowd and avoided contact with the public and the media for most of the rest of his life.  I don't know enough about him to understand his thinking but he was humble, unafraid of the world I am sure. Anyone who can jump in a tiny speck of dust and fly to, and land on the moon, walk on it and come home in one piece is a person who is courageous, heroic and deserving of any praise applied to him, regardless of his own beliefs about himself.

Neil Armstrong, while not "quite" the hero I consider my father to be, or even my father-in-law (who served in World War II in the US Army) is still one of those men who come rarely to this Earth and even more rarely distinguish themselves as a pioneer, a hero and a person every child might aspire to be like.

The original Seven Astronauts were the first guys I made "Baseball cards" for.... and when Grissom died in Apollo Eight, I remember crying about him.  I didn't cry for Neil... But I pulled my car over for a moment.  Below are the the original Seven Mercury Astronauts.

• Scott Carpenter
• L. Gordon Cooper
• John H. Glenn Jr.
• Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom
• Walter H. "Wally" Schirra Jr.
• Alan B. Shepard Jr.
• Donald K. "Deke" Slayton

As a sailor I read a lot about the sailors of old, Cook, Columbus, Degama, Polo and so on.  As an American born in the early 20th Century and having lived into the 21st century I sincerely expected our Astronauts would pioneer the way to Mars, a Lunar Colony and perhaps even land on an asteroid.  But our political structure has thus far prevented such things.

To me, I guess I will leave it to the grandchildren and perhaps the great-grandchildren to get there.... and get the politics right (or remove politics from the equation) but for me, I'll head to the Caribbean, do an Atlantic circumnavigation and be happy with tracing the steps of the Vikings, Pirates, Privateers and great Explorers of 15th, 16th and 17th centuries.....

Bon Voyage Astronaut Armstrong - may you fly to many planets and stars and explore them ahead of us all.

Internet Connectivity for our Sailboat
Rick Donaldson, N0NJY

My wife and I are about to retire to a boat.  We have spent four years of our “Five Year Plan” preparing ourselves and our house to sell, and in general learning all we can learn.  There’s no way we’re “ready” but we’re “ready to go”. 

You might ask, “If you don’t have a boat yet, why are you worried about things?” – I’ll try to explain in this entry in the blog.

    One of our biggest concerns is staying in touch.  My wife is an avid Facebook user and uses her iPad everywhere.  That means we need a wireless internet connection.  Our other issue is getting email while doing crossings.  I have decided to solve that using Winlink.  Now I know that some ham radio operators HATE Winlink.  I also know why they hate it.  Most of them are crotchety old men who still want all Amateurs to have to learn Morse Code at 20 words per minute to be able to get their Extra Class License.  I’m a crotchety old man too, with my Amateur Extra Class License and I think they are full of donkey poop. 

    With that said I’m also a computer, electronics geek and have been all my life.  I’ve been working with electronics since I was ten years old and I try to stay up on the latest technology.  So – when it comes to Winlink, I’ll use whatever I have to get my signal out to get messages back to my family and those other crotchety old men can just keep on using Morse code and RTTY as long as they like.  (Fortunately, the FCC said it was ok for us to continue using Winlink methods and the plaintiffs lost that one… but that’s another story for another time).

    Back to Wifi.  I’m not a Pirate (yet) and I never propose or condone piracy of books, music or even wifi signals.  However, there are certainly a lot of free wifi-hot spots around the country (USA) and in other countries I’ve visited, and I’ve been to (at least count) 49 countries around the world.  My visits to BVI, the Bahamas, Puerto Rico and other islands have shown there are still free wifi hot spots.  And if there aren’t then there are Pay-as-You-Go hotspots.

    In either case connecting to a wifi connection should be as easy as getting the signal and being able to get back to the wifi antenna.  But what if you’re at anchor a mile away from the hot spot, marina or coffee shop offering the services and you can’t anchor closer, or can’t afford the slip on this month’s budget?  What do you do?

    I spent several weeks researching what most other cruisers do and came to the conclusion that most everyone “throws money” at a solution.  I’m glad there are folks who did well in this world and have money to spend that those of us who spent most of our lives in the military scrimping and saving do not have to spend.  Since JoAnne and I will be on a pretty strict budget for our world cruising (because if not, we wouldn’t get very far from the first dock…) I have to over-think everything.  And I think I can’t throw a lot of money at a solution.

    I also realized that while sailors are in my opinion some of the most independent minded, well-educated (even if only by experience), and resourceful to the extreme only a tiny portion of sailors are actually trained or understand electronics to a great degree.  Many say “If you can’t fix it, don’t have it on the boat”… thus they don’t have radios unless they are cheap, keep computers running by asking others to fix them, and so forth.  I have nothing against these folks.  And more power to anyone who can spend that money on things they need.

    Me, I build things, I hack, I manufacture and I do a lot of my own electronic work if I have the schematics and tools.  Thus for the wifi situation-to-come, I’ve decided to put together a system of parts, antennas and so forth to make a wifi station for the boat.

    Now for those that want to spend the money, there are several companies that offer pretty much what I am building for a nominal fee.  So far, the same system has cost me right at $125.00 USD.  You can contact those companies and get the same thing all in one package for between $300-$500.  At least one place will help you out for $1000.  That 1000 bucks is another month of cruising for me though.

    I’ll do a quick write up for the devices, and system, building the antenna, wiring everything up and making it work.  For me, I have to do this BEFORE I have even bought the boat… I still have my job, I have the extra money NOW, rather than wait until I’m already aboard ship and headed for the Islands and the time and a work bench or three to work on.

    Once I’m on the boat I’ll be busy enough just outfitting and making sure the boat is safe to worry about electronics, and rewiring computer systems.  So, that’s why I am doing things now, while I can, rather than wait until I HAVE to do something!

    To that end, we purchased a new laptop.  Not expensive but fully capable of running our navigation software (OpenCPN) and communications software (Winmor, Airmail, RMS Express and some other things for amateur radio).  I’ve tested and verified everything works on Windows 7 so I’m happy with the machine.

    Last night I finished the antenna elements for the wifi antenna (and I will detail that later).  The Postman brought my new toys – the Ubiquity M2HP module (more details later) and the POE (power-over-Ethernet) adapter.  That’s most of the equipment.  I already have a wireless router in use at the house which I will “borrow” from my network.  Once I have assembled and tested all this, I’ll do a write up in a step-by-step manner that others should be able to follow.

    So – I believe that if you’re going to do something, do it right and practice to get better.  I’ve been “practicing” to be a “skipper” all my life – I just didn’t realize it until a few years ago.  I’ve spent my life learning everything I can, from electronics and radios, to how to lay cement, do wood work, metal work.  Hell, I even learned how to use old printing presses (those things they used for Newspapers before there were computers… don’t ask me to explain what a “newspaper” is. I’m too old and crotchety for those kinds of questions!  /grin

   

Hi all.  Well, we're getting ready for our vow renewal ceremony in September, then a vacation - we'll call it a honeymoon we never got. 

The roof is replaced after a massive hail storm back in May, as well as new gutters.  The house has been painted outside.  When we're back from vacation the carpets get ripped out, the walls painted and some internal repairs that I've been putting off, then new carpet goes in.

At that point, the house goes up for sale.  Probably October or mid November we hope.  Today is the 21st of August so we are officially at 4 years of our five year plan! 

Winds of Change is for sale - as is "Small Change" (the dinghy).  I'll probably get my old 2000 Jeep Cherokee up for sale soon as well.  We have a lot of junk in the house to go through, pack and get rid of as well.

JoAnne has been in and out of the doctor and dentist getting examines, physicals and her teeth fixed.  I've been into the dentist a couple of times as well and had one of my wisdom teeth pulled.  Two more to go.

I'm writing this blog post on our new "Navigation" and Boat computer.  We picked up a new laptop yesterday.  I have been adding OpenCPN, charts and some gps drivers.  I've also tested it with my amateur radio communications software and that works as well.

Right now, I'm decompressing the charts for the US.

We will use this program some for navigation, but likely not a lot.  We will tend to rely on paper charts most of the time.  I prefer the feel and look of paper, plus, you can't get those darned plotted lines off the screen when I forget and use ink :)

Looks like we have several folks who are somewhat interested in the boat.  Nothing firm.  One offer was well below what we were asking (in fact it was low enough I didn't counter offer, and their second offer wasn't enough either.  I countered that one and they didn't want the boat after that I guess... too bad, because it would have been a good boat for them as they were new sailors).

At this point we've had two interested parties contact JoAnne personally and one saw our sign and came by on Sunday.  I've not heard back from that person yet.  He seemed pretty interested though.  Well, so far most people who I have spoken to said I don't have the boat priced too high for the area or for the boat.  Some have told me different, but they don't know anything about boats, and know even less about the stuff on the coast. /shrug

I've not really had a lot of time to put anything here - so this is going to be the last for awhile until we get through with our ceremony and get on vacation.

I'll post more if we sell the boat, the dinghy, or anything significant happens.

Oh, I wanted to say one more thing.  Over the past couple of years, I've lost several friends, my sister and nearly my dad, either through cancer or other things.  Nine days ago a friend of ours and his wife were involved in a pretty terrible accident.  Ted and Mary Ann Allison - Ted was a ham radio (N0NKG) operator I've known since coming to Colorado.  He was active in ARES, and he was a mountain climber and a fast-walker.  He died a couple of days after the accident and his wife passed a few days later.

The man who hit them still has not been charged.  He was apparently speeding (he flipped their car), going the wrong way on a one-way street and went through a light or traffic sign without stopping.

Life moves too fast for some, and not fast enough for others.

Ted will be terribly missed. 

I will leave you with this thought....

Slow down and get where you're trying to get without killing yourself and others.  Nothing is so terribly urgent as to run traffic signs, speed way over the limit or go the wrong way.

And you should NEVER KISS GORILLAS!

Good Bye Ted.

We've had several calls about our small sailboat.  She is called "Winds of Change" from a line in a Jimmy Buffett song (just as this blog is titled from the same song).

So far no one has offered to buy her.

She was the perfect training boat for us.  Not too big, trailerable, with an actual keel (swing keep) as opposed to say, a Macgregor with a water ballast.

So far everyone who has visited has have nothing but nice things to say about the boat.  Hopefully someone will buy her soon so we can go forward with the next plans! :)

When the fires hit Colorado Springs, ash and soot fell all over the city.  People with any sort of respiratory problems were suffering.    Smoke covered the city on several days and there were 2 lives and 346 homes lost.  Thousands of animals fled the mountains, including bears and deer moving into the city to escape.

Thousands of people were evacuated.

The FBI and Homeland security, along with the local police and county authorities are investigating this fire but are being very closed-mouthed about it so far.  We have suspicions this might have been something even worse than simple arson but for now I'll keep that to myself as well.  I hope they catch the person that did this.  I find it strange and scary though that there wasn't just ONE fire, but three near major urban areas of the state, not to mention the other smaller fires that were apparently set in various places of the state.

This weekend I'll be trying to finish cleaning out the over-stuffed garage (It's about 1/2 done).  Next week - it's the basement.  It's time to start looking at a truck to start filling to take junk to the dump and stuff to donate elsewhere though.

That's it for now.

The fire is 45% contained and has burned a lot of trees. The fire has burned 17,659 acres and killed two people.

The two were apparently an elderly couple from what I can gather from the small bits of data I can find.  She was confined to the home I believe. 

We are sorry for the folks who lost their lives.  It was unnecessary.

The FBI and DHS are investigating this fire and I can only suggest there is more here than meets the eye.  This blog isn't for my political musings though so I will leave it at that for now.  I hope they find whomever is responsible though before the people of Colorado Springs find him.

Yesterday someone came to look over our current boat,  "Winds of Change" and it appears promising. I gave them a full tour and let them look her over, ask questions and with luck perhaps she is the right boat for them.  Their current sail boat is a 19' boat and too small, and they are looking for something bigger but not too big. 

If we sell the boat, we can work on getting our travel trailer for the next part of this journey.

JoAnne came up with the brilliant idea of saving money at hotels by purchasing a small camper/travel trailer to go across country when the time comes.  This will kill two birds with one stone, allows us to save cash by staying in our trailer instead of hotels and we can move temporarily into the trailer  while we strip the inside of the house of everything, remove the old carpet and replace and paint, do the minor repairs and so on.  That will allow us to be able to show the house as well without actually living inside haha.

The week of the 9th of July I have contractors coming to start on the roof (hail damage a few weeks back) and gutters.  Sometime after we will have the house painters.  Getting that all accomplished soon.  With luck we can sell the boat and use that to fund our trailer.

As to the disposition of the trailer, once we arrive where we're going to find our boat, find the right boat and make that purchase, the trailer gets sold.  The truck will be sold once we have outfitted the boat to the point we can make our way to the Caribbean.

The plan is working.  Four years into the Five Year Plan and everything has worked correctly to this point.

JoAnne and I were on a trip to Cripple Creek Colorado on Saturday, 23 June, 2012 with her work folks.  Because she belongs to a group that pays money over the year for a Christmas Party, a Cripple Creek trip and a picnic in the summer, we went.

Around 1230 local time in Colorado we started hearing rumors of a "fire" near Colorado Springs. At about 1315 my daughter sent a telephone text message saying something about a fire in "Waldo Canyon" and the possibility of  highway 24 being closed.  As a ham radio operator connected with the Amateur Radio service (ARES) I contacted the local police and fire to find out what was up.

To make a very LONG story short a fire was found to be burning and by the time we heard about it, the fire was close to 100 acres.  The road wasn't yet closed.  By the time we passed the location where the fire was supposed to be located, it was raging on the mountain top, we saw flames that were pretty damned high and a helicopter doing an airdrop.

On Sunday the fire got bigger.  On Tuesday evening the fire had been 5% contained.  At 1600 local we had a press conference and about the end of the conference the fire exploded with 65 mile an hour winds running up the canyons.  It hit Mountain Shadows along the front range and wiped out a lot of houses.  Estimates at this time are from 100 to 300 homes.  Somewhere around 64,000 people over Saturday through Wednesday (today) have been displaced.

Amateur Radio has been called up and they can't get enough people to operate radios.  This fire has become the highest priority for Colorado and we have now well over 1000 fire fighters, thirteen aircraft hitting the fire, and we have no idea the number of trucks and other fire suppression units. 

At this point, NO LIVES have been lost.  Lots of homes are gone though.

And lo and behold, Obama will visit on Friday.  As far as I am concerned he can keep his ass home at the White House and deal with all the other crap he ought to be dealing with and just sign off on sending us money to this state.  (I think the state ought to stop sending money to the Feds, myself, but that's another story).

Colorado has been declared a disaster area.  There are somewhere between 10-13 fires burning right now. There were over 20 set in Teller County over a week (last week) and they were ARSON.  A few weeks back the Al Qaeda published a magazine telling their followers to "Set the US West on Fire".  Looks to me like they succeeded, and if not them, it was the bloody Earth Liberation Front.  Either way, they are terrorists and they better hope they never meet me and admit it.

Hundreds of people have lost their homes on the mountain side.  This has affected 1.5 million people in Colorado Springs and El Paso county, the Air Force Academy, and it is promising to be problematic for the people up the front range.  The fire is moving NORTHWARD and people in Monument have been requested to standby on evacuation.  Woodland Park on the West side of the county has had a mandatory evacuation.

The last few days have been hell for a lot of people in Colorado Springs.  Many of us believe this was a terrorist attack and the government is keeping that information quiet, because frankly they don't want the public to know the truth any more.  Think me a Conspiracy Theorist? You'd be way off.  There are news articles and evidence to support this.  Then again, I think it was either AQ or ELF.  Neither of them are beyond the pale.

Welcome to the page.

Our website is located at http://www.windsoftime.us

We're setting this blog up on Google + so we can connect with friends and they can find us later when we retire.  I'm a lot torqued off at Facebook which we'd originally hoped to use (and still might continue using on a  limited basis) because of one major change after another.  The most recent change was an addition of a "username@facebook.com" email address which is to me, nothing short of a Man-in-the-Middle attack using email addresses.  Facebook and Zuckerdufus, get your act together or you're going to lose that "market share" you've been trying to get and your FB stock is going to go from bad to worse!

A little about us.

Four years ago this August we decided to make plans to retire early.  The short story is (more at the other site) we decided to become cruisers, in a sailboat and go away to distant lands and islands.

Over the past four years the plan has advanced, we've eliminated our debt (save the home), we bought a small training sailboat (25' Macgregor Venture, which is up for sale if anyone is interested!) and took courses on sailing and other related things.  I've been going to "Cruiser College" - a self study course I created for myself to learn as much as I could about everything I'll need to know.... this includes sailing, navigation, rigging a sailboat, diesel engine repair, sailmaking and repair, anchoring, weather, heavy weather, fishing, and many other subjects.

I can say we're closer to going, but I'm far from an expert on any of the above mentioned items.  I can do them all to some degree and it's going to take experience to get more proficient.

On the other site we have a countdown timer for 5 August 2012 as our retirement date.  However, the house isn't on the market and we don't expect to hit that date for sure.  We still have a year left on the Five Year Plan though.  Three weeks ago we had a major hail storm and we're getting a new roof, gutters, and paint job.  Then we're moving out of the house to finish the inside and then get the house on the market.

Colorado Springs is having fires just west of the city right now and things are somewhat on hold for the moment... however, with luck in a few days we can start again and get things back on track.

I'll update this more later.