Tag Archives: Gulf of Mexico

Heat of Apalachicola and St George Island :: Friday Feet

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Today we had a very last minute invite to St George Island, right across the bay from Apalachicola. This had to be our fastest trip ever down to the coast, no wait, second fastest… we once drove down to our Orange Beach marina for Thanksgiving in 2007 only to find out their wifi was not working and then made the 4-5 hour drive right back. We were there for about 60 minutes. This time we were down there for about 20 hours. It was plenty long enough to bake in the blasting heat, read another chapter in the Bonhoeffer biography (which is incredible), take a few pics for today’s Friday Feet, and make it back home.

Hard to believe how long it has been since Deb and I have been down to the gulf. We use to go down there about once a month but it’s been almost two years since we made the drive down there. I was instantly reminded why we use to go down there in December through February. The 100% humidity and 100*F weather going on right now was enough to make you run for cover.

Labor Day for Those Still Looking for Full Time Work

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I love Labor Day, mainly because it marks the end of the summer with cooler weather on the way, all the kids are back in school, and football season is about to go into full swing. What I don’t like, and I am sure all those who continue to look for full-time work day after day don’t like either, is the reminder that Labor Day is technically for those who labor (that is labor in that stereotypical means created years ago by that industrial revelation we had), not those who labor looking for labor.

A Labor of Love

For all practical purposes, I have been looking for a full-time labor of love match since we sold our book business about three years ago (see How I Can Save Your Business Money from back in April, or the other articles at the bottom of this post). Although I have a great part time job, work more than full time at graduate school, and my days are busier now than they ever have been, looking for and finding a full-time position that matches both person and company has been one of the most difficult endeavors of my now 20+ year working life.

I have found more jobs and “careers” than I knew existed and made more connections with my resume than I can count. [On a side note, if you are a single college student in or around the Auburn area, there is a company looking for OSHA "inspectors" to work on barges in the Gulf of Mexico, no experience needed, pay is great, 21 days on 21 days off, and you get to fly to work.]

It is the Economy Stupid

After a while you just scratch your head in amazement at this current marketplace. Resumes and 3-piece suits are not what they use to be 20 years ago (thank goodness), but the lack of practical sense in some HR departments is almost comical, and expectations some business owners have is borderline ridiculous. Just for means of example, I give you one from this past week:

I had a company contact me from my blog asking if I would be interesting in writing articles for their website? Why sure, sounds great. I only have about 10-15 years experience writing well researched, SEO packed, properly formatted content, including about 1,000 articles on this blog alone, sounds great. His email to me then gave me a list of things he wanted me to do, including writing two articles for him so he could get an idea of my writing style, then after that, if they were interested, they would be happy to pay me $.007/word for 200-400 word articles? Yeah, that was a whopping $1.40-$2.80 per article. Probably cost me more to power my computer for that length of time than they would pay me. I get those all the time, and never reply to them, but someone out there does I’m sure.

Labor Day for All Labor

So today, at least in my mind, we can take some rest from those things which we do to sustain life. Enjoy what is probably a beautiful day outside since the calendar reads September, and be thankful for the work we are given to do.

Storms Arriving in Auburn as We Leave for Gulf Shores

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Cumulonimbus Clouds

Cumulonimbus Clouds

Columbia Tent

Last weekend we tried to go camping but the rain never really let up.  Not only did it not let up, but the severe weather down in the gulf kept getting worse so we decided to give it a go this weekend.  We are or were pretty avid campers in the day and we have camped in just about every state in the country but haven’t been in quite a while.

I am looking forward to a bit of relaxing on the beach with some time to read and write, hopefully we will see a bit of sun while we are down on the gulf this weekend.  Below are some of the cloud formations we saw in the storms coming through this week.  I love clouds, they are almost like snowflakes, day is different and they are constantly moving.

Looking at the Gulf Beaches and Playing the Guitar

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Scott Practicing the Guitar

Today was another day of work here at the home office without having to go in the car anywhere. We are leaving for the gulf coast tomorrow morning so we had to get all the orders processed and packaged, and pack, so we can leave first thing in the morning.

Blogs and Twitter

I did my normal daily blog posts for the morning. I have been trying to get the hang of Twitter and finally did a blog post about it on my freelance blog. It has kind of thrown me for a loop the last few days as I have been trying to figure it usefulness out, but the more you use it the more you get the hang of it. For information on that, just see the other blog post called Is Twitter Really a Useful Tool?.

Elance Will Continue

I didn’t win the bid on the project that closed today, but, I wasn’t even the slightest bit close either, so hey, I guess I will try it again. The winning bid was some ridiculous fee of $50 and I was way way way over his bid for sure. I looked at a few more postings today on Elance, saved a few, bid on one. There are so many projects, and they range so much in what needs to be done it is hardest for me at this point to find something and go with it. As with everything else on the Internet (or anywhere I guess) it just takes time to figure it out.

Bags are Packed, We’re Ready to Go

Well, not really, still having to get everything together to leave tomorrow for the beach. We usually pack a few minutes before we leave so I still have a few hours to finish packing. I hope to have some time to update the s/v Island Zephyr blog once I get down there, since that is where the s/v Island Zephyr is located.

Practice Makes… Well… Noise

Any guitar players out there? I did manage to get in some practice to day and I now can say I know my first scale my memory, the open E blues scale, as my instructor has named it for me. The tips of my fingers now burn like I stuck them flat on an open fire but I can play the scale.

There is so much information about the guitar on the Internet it is hard to absorb it all, but I did find a good post on a variation of the E blues scale, E Blues Scale Variations that looked pretty good but far beyond my learning right now. We are really looking forward to getting back down to the gulf, should be a nice weekend, even if it rains all day.

Bought a Morgan Out Island 33 Sailboat Called LAUGHALOT

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Laughalot

There is a lot in a name. We found this boat about three weeks ago and it was exactly the make, model and condition we were looking for. The only problem was we had to wait two weeks to get free to go down to Florida to see her. Luckily, we put a contract on her right away, subject to inspection, so we would be the first in line to buy her, if we liked her.

I am so glad we acted when we did. There were at least three other VERY serious buyers that we were able to beat to the deal. One of those buyers showed up at the boat last Saturday night to try and get a look at her and we had to inform him that she had been sold *TO US*! I couldn’t believe how sad he looked. This will be our third sailboat together and hopefully we will have a little bit more luck with this one than the last two.

Anyway, Laughalot is ours now and we have already started the process of bringing her into the 21st century. There is so much to do to her. She is in great condition to sail right now, but we want to update the electronics, work on the engine, electrical systems, rigging, and plumbing. Updates on her restoration progress will be posted here.

She did come with loads of extras that we weren’t even expecting. She has a gimbaled stove/oven, hot water heater, refrigerator, brand new stereo system, wind generator, water maker, dinghy, life raft, epirb, bimini with dodger, and even an air conditioning/heating unit that works perfectly. Unbelievable!!! We were truly “laughing a lot” at our good fortune when we made the deal and she was all ours. Enjoy the photos.
Our Second Home

Beautiful!

Galley

Salon

The marina where she is located is at the end of a long channel that leads out to the Gulf of Mexico. There used to be a restaurant in the big building you see in the photos, but it burned on the inside and never reopened. As you can see from the photos we are in the last slip on the dock and it is so private and peaceful there. When you are looking at the building from the channel Laughalot is to the right, tucked back in the corner.

Laughalot's Current Marina

The channel to the Gulf of Mexico

Our first weekend we spent on Laughalot was last weekend and we were surprised and excited to see all kinds of birds. We saw white herons, gray storks (or herons, not sure about that one), pelicans, seagulls, and one bird of prey who apparently is a local.

White Heron

Pelicans