Boat work and work work continue

Work on the O'day is still going on at a slow pace, what with the weather and the Thanksgiving Holiday. I have been able to install a new 360 degree light on the masthead, the old one had quit working and was so badly crazed it crumbled when I touched it. Since working on the mast is so much easier when it is laying down I also replaced the jib halyard. This was a difficult job as I had to remove the entire top of the mast and push a long hard wire through the mast and then pull the new halyard through. I used an electricians fish tape (used for pulling wire through conduit) to do this and now can fly a Spinnaker or use a head sail other than the one on the roller furling. In a moment of brilliance I had pulled the bitter end of the old halyard into the mast and for the last year or so had been without this halyard.Of course being self employed work still goes on, this is a 30 ton Carrier Packaged Heating and cooling unit with a variable frequency drive, the unit is larger than my truck and was not running.

Let me see, what could it be, man there are a lot of wires and controls in here. This is an ever changing business and old school doesn't work any more.

Over Thanksgiving we had about 20 family members over for lunch and took all the kids to the park on a cold windy day. This picture is of my dad Clyde Thomas Starkey and one of his Great Grandsons Colton Thomas Stone. It was nice to have everyone over, it will also be nice to do this at my brothers house on Christmas.

The bicycle rides have been plagued by bad weather making it hard to get in any miles over the last few weeks. This year our cycling club (GDBCLUB.com) is putting on a weekly spin class and has helped keep up the conditioning, these spin classes are as hard as you want to make them and having other people working with you helps the motivation.

This weekend I decided to go ahead and ride outside and got rained on Saturday in the cold and had 30 mile an hour winds on Sunday afternoon, I still got in 70 miles and just acted like the wind was a long hill climb.

Doing better than I deserve

Dennis Starkey

Mountain Bike rides

It's been a while since i have posted anything but Sprockets dog house is almost complete and I put his name over the door, I think its a nice dog house but Sprocket thinks the house he lives in now is much nicer.Michele and I went to Lake Fairfield State Park and camped out for the weekend of the 10th, we had a nice secluded site and had great weather. We met our camp host who lives full time in a large motor home and travels and volunteers at the State Parks in exchange for free camping. Our accommodations were a bit more rustic but we had a good time riding the miles of park roads and the 15+ miles of mountain bike trails.

Some of the trails were easy and some were pretty hard and crossed live creeks. After Michele walked Sprocket through the park the first time he met some kids and after that when we walked the kids would come out yelling here comes Sprocket, they knew not our names.

Our cycling club has started a new spin class on Monday nights and we both went on the 12th, it was a good workout and was 80 minutes of interval work. Interval work is based on timed efforts at prescribed effort levels of hard, harder, and hardest with short recovery's between sets. We were beat after this class and yet we look forward to this Monday where we will do simulated hill climb training.

On the Sailing front I have started working on the O'day 272 again and have removed the top of the mast to replace the light fixture and install a new halyard that some years ago, that I had accidentally pulled out of the mast.

I was Invited this weekend to hunt on a ranch in Brady Texas and was successful at once again replenishing my nearly exhausted supply of venison. I have some great photos but will spare everyone the dead animal shots. I assure you the meat will go to good use feeding Friends and family.

Happy Thanksgiving

Dennis & Michele

Dog house and dream home

We did the usual bike rides over the weekend and it was a little cool Saturday morning, and it was the last ride before the time change. The Saturday ride will now move to a 9 o'clock start, I much prefer the early start so more of the day is left, but with the colder weather I guess more people like the later start.

This picture is of the dog house I have started building for Sprocket our dog, it will be finished in another week or two and will allow us to get away for a few days at a time without the faithfull companion. As long as he is on good behavior he will still be a mostly inside dog.
We were also invited to some of our freinds lake house on Lake Texoma, they purchased this house and did a lot of work and tree trimming and the result is this view from the living room and patio.
We also hiked a nice loop trail down to the lake and back that is about a mile or so, with half of it up steep hills and half of it down hill. I would love to have a place like this but it's not in the plan unless we hit the lotto.

This weekend we plan on a nice camping trip with the dog and bicycles To Fairfield State Park, we like this park a lot but wanted to try a new one near Austin but they were all full.

Doing better than I deserve

Dennis Starkey

Free concert

Not a lot to write about over the last week or so, Michele had several rides but I only rode the Tuesday night ride. That 21 miles is a weekly low since I started keeping a log. I was also busy with work, which was a good thing, as long as it doesn't last to long or happen too often.

Late Friday afternoon I went to the farm to check on the deer herd and I saw a nice buck Friday evening and a small herd of 6 deer on Saturday. The acorns are falling and it was a good year for mast crops and the ground is covered with the acorns. Since Deer love acorns they are well fed and fat this year. I took a few pictures at the farm but Today blogger will not download my pics.

To make up for lost miles last week,after Church Sunday I rode 36 miles on a really nice day, And I rode 26 miles late Wednesday.

We went to the American Airlines Center again Tuesday night, this time to the Jenifer Lopez concert where we were invited to a suite. This would not be my favorite music but is was a nice show and with VIP parking and seats in a full service suite it was really nice and the price of 0 was also good.

Less is really more

Dennis

Small Steps and good rides

The weather has been good for cycling right up till today, Michele and I have started the night rides, we have been riding the neighborhood so she can get used to riding in the dark and using the halogen headlights we have. I have been doing the club rides and we have gone to downtown Dallas and the Historic West End, we have also ridden around the American Airlines Arena and the new W- hotel area, it's been fun and people seem to think its cool when we ride by the Diners on Patios with our headlights and flashing tail lights.

For the week ending the 13Th I logged 156 miles and the week of the 20Th I logged 90 miles, I expect those numbers to drop as the weather has turned rainy and cold for the next few days.

The O'day is still drying out its hull but I removed the two shelves over the settee's and replaced the water damaged wood, I then stained it and sealed it. I got the color as close as I could and while it is a small detail it looks much better without the water damage.

I can't tell you how this picture got in here 2 times, and I can't make it go away.

I also removed the bilge covers and glued the areas that were separating and put several coats of varnish on them, they are still 20 years old but look much better with a nice shine on them

One of my fellow cyclists who is the preacher at the church we have been attending invited us to a Mavericks basketball game. We had lower level seats and VIP parking passes, the Mavs won and we had a great time with perfect seats, these lower level seats even had a cheering coach for the section.

Right now it's 50 degrees and raining so no boat work for a few days and it may be hard to get a bike ride in too. Oh well I guess I may have to actually do a little work.

Trying to live my dream

Dennis

The State Fair of Texas

Michele had Friday off so we went to the State Fair and it was a perfect day, we went to the K-9 shows and watched dogs race, catch Frisbees and do long distance water jumps. We also went to the birds of the world show and it was cool watching the birds free fly and do tricks. It was impressive to have a large hawk fly close over your head at a about 100 mph. This picture shows Michele outside the first aid station where she was treated for a splinter she got from the wood seats.No Texas fair is complete without visiting Big Tex and hearing him say howdy folks, welcome to the State Fair of Texas.

We then went to Lake Murray Oklahoma to meet the bicycle club and had a great time riding to Turner Falls and back with the Ardmore Bicycle club. These guys (and gals) were strong from all the hills in the area. The turn around point was at a radio antenna up a 2 mile 7% grade. We had a nice turnout of GDB riders (greater Dallas Bicyclists) and had options for those who didn't want 70 miles of hills. I of course did the long ride and with the strong headwind all the way back I was beat. Michele rode strong with her group and they rode 42 miles to the town of Gene Autry and visited the so named museum.

I took this pic while enjoying the rural countryside drafting off of the locals, this was a fun trip. We spent Sunday resting and going to Church where the preacher just happens to be a cyclist also.

Mind your manners

Dennis

This week I finally got out the dinghy and cleaned it up. this is a boat I built using the stitch and glue method. I never used it much as a dinghy but have used it numerous times to fish small lakes and did so this past week but once again I forgot the camera. Oh well that's just as good since there was nothing to photograph but one little bass, but it was nice to get the boat out and work on my rowing.We did the usual bike rides over the weekend and had the last weeknight daylight ride on Tuesday, for the rest of the winter we will be taking night rides with lights on the evening rides. I had a pretty good week and logged in 112 miles.

The O'day is still drying out but I did remove two seat backs from the cabin so I can replace some water damaged plywood that forms shelves behind the seats. It looks like it will be the first of the year before the hull is dry enough to do the epoxy work.

I am home with the armadillo's

Dennis