Some people may have noticed that I haven't been blogging much lately.
While many are probably applauding that fact, the reason is I've been doing a lot of this instead:
Work has been very stressful. There have been many 'issues' to deal with. In IT, we never have problems. That would be an admission that something has gone wrong, or, more specifically, that one of us has screwed up. Instead, we have 'issues'.
This is how the corporate world maintains face and denies responsibility for anything - by inventing vague, newspeak terms which kinda sound like explanations of what's happening without explaining anything useful at all. You know, 'truthiness' instead of truth.
At any rate, the 'issues' at work have been driving me bonkers lately. Servers have been crashing (hardware issues) which causes my phone to ring at peculiar times of the day and night (communication issues) which, in turn, deprives me of sleep (coherency issues), which, in turn, makes me cranky (profanity issues).
So what does this have to do with sailing? Ah, I thought you'd never ask.
It has led me to rediscover one of the best features of my boat - its comfortable below deck accommodations, one of the few things that Catalina 30 owners can boast about.
While owners of most other boats will brag about how high their boats can point or what a fantastic turn of speed they have in a breeze, or how they can cut through steep waves and put prodigious miles under their keels in a 24-hour stretch of blue water sailing, Catalina 30 owners have learned to quickly change the subject when such topics come up.
Instead, we talk about our comfortable accommodation.
And this has been a great week for comfortable accommodation. My wife, having suffered many 'issues' at her job lately, too, declared this a 'no-sail' week. It is one of the many compromises we have worked out over the years. There are sailing days or weekends or weeks. And there are 'no sail' days or weekends or weeks - time when we are on the boat but when there are to be no expectations of leaving the slip, feeling the bracing sting of salt spray upon the cheek, or hearing that lovely hiss of bubbles behind us in our wake.
It's just as well, though. This week, I want none of that. Yesterday, there were some regrets, as the weather was warm, sunny, and there was that annoyingly perfect springtime breeze blowing. But today was a day tailor-made for comfortable below deck accommodation. See for yourself:
Leave some comments, if you like. I'd love to hear if there are others who feel no guilt about snoozing below when they might be out sailing. But this week, you'll understand if I take a while to reply.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....
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Ah, yes, very familiar. The end users, bless them, will keep on using the software and discovering its "features".
ReplyDeleteAnd what is weird is that these features are never visible when trying them out at one's own desk, but hide, ready to pounce during those all too important demonstrations.
I have non-sailing guilt a lot of the time, hence the posts about the weather not being quite right. Been busy writing too, or rather procrastinating to avoid writing, and to make it worse Amazon has just delivered a totally moreish book, which I've had to hide.
Anyhow, its your life and going sailing when cranky is bad for relationships and safety of life, so good for you! :)
As a Catalina 30 sailor myself, I certainly can & have appreciated the below decks accommodations.
ReplyDeleteI generally feel a little bit of guilt for missing out on a perfect sailing day unless I'm on the boat and doing some type of work or at least reading a sailing related book. Well hell, even just having a beer aboard gets rid of that guilt.
Sometimes you just need a week or so off.
I noticed you have not been posting much lately. Now I see your wisdom is wordless
ReplyDeleteI didn't not notice that you hadn't been posting much about not sailing much lately. Welcome back to not not posting much about not sailing much.
ReplyDeleteIt's okay not to be sailing. You need to rest yourself. Luckily, you have year-round sailing, unlike many of us. So go ahead, snooze on the settee and let visions of tomato pies and hoagies dance in your head
ReplyDeleteThat's really him, too. I know because I met him and he knew the secret O Dock handshake and password.
ReplyDeleteNow I understand what you meant by 'taking care of some boat projects,' sir.
Man, that looks delightful. I think I could use a settee like that right about now.
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ReplyDeleteI've not met the venerable O, but I know that's him as well. You just can't google an image of "guy with beard sleeping in his Catalina 30". Shhhhhhhhhh...................he looks so peaceful.
ReplyDelete- JP, I've been supporting this system for over ten years, and users still manage to find 'features' never envisioned by the creator - or by the Creator, I think. The inventive power of the confused and misdirected human mind is overwhelming.
ReplyDeleteBut by a wide margin, the most havoc is wrought by the wonderful software we pay handsomely for to protect us from hackers and evil-doers. I think the best hackers and evil-doers get jobs with the anti-virus companies and then are well paid to unleash the worst of their torment upon us.
- Captain Black, welcome to O Dock. I've always found beer the perfect antidote to guilt of any kind.
- Baydog, I sometimes think the year-round sailing makes us less appreciative of the great sailing weather here. I always think, 'there will be next week', but then I think that next week, too.
- Greg and Kris, it was great finally meeting you both. But now it occurs to me that the one who was calling herself Kris could actually be the one blogging as 'Greg and Kris'. The blogging world is a riddle wrapped in an enigma, surrounded by identity thieves.
- Tillerman, I wish I could say how great it feels to not be blogging again about not sailing but the words don't exist to not say that.
Got home from work, decided to take "a little rest" before starting grading the three stacks of papers in front of me. Woke up three and a half hours later.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I have to agree that a whole lot of the problems -- er, pardon me, issues -- are caused by supposedly protective software. Right now my other protective "Total Customer Care" software is angry with me for turning off some features of the primary protective software.
Carol Anne, almost as bad as the anti-virus software is the software that automatically backs up our data in case of a system crash.
ReplyDeleteWhen first installed, every Sunday morning without fail, it would crash the system.
So basically, this post is a lot of "bunk".
ReplyDeleteword verif: miste - a great tune by Erroll Garner but with a spell check issue.
Oh my goodness. Suddenly I want a Catalina 30 just so that I can take naps on it. Especially on rainy days.
ReplyDeleteI think that cost "issues" mean that I will stick with the Evil Futon of Nap as my daytime-dozing chariot of choice. But my, that looks nice.
Good luck with the work issues. I may work some late nights, but I'm grateful that once I walk out the door, I'm done with work until I walk back in.
- Panda, in my first post I called this a 'Pseudoblog'. I made a firm commitment to posting content that appeared to be about sailing while containing no actual sailing content - sort of like Macdonald's 'shakes' that contain no actual milk - just a lot of empty calories.
ReplyDeleteStaying true to this commitment has been difficult. At times, I've faltered and written about actual sailing - even my actual sailing - but we all have our weak moments and our failures. Striving to provide honest pseudocontent has taken hard work, artifice, deceptiveness, but, above all - a lot of bunk.
- Bonnie, I think those of us in IT don't see the cellphone like everyone else does - a huge convenience that gives us access to our friends and to the world wherever we are. Instead, it's a miniaturized instrument of torture we have been sentenced to carry around with us like those electronic ankle monitors minor felons are required to wear.
Odock said "miniaturized instrument of torture we have been sentenced to carry around with us like those electronic ankle monitors minor felons are required to wear"
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more. At the first opportunity, I ditched owning a cellphone (5 years now). I went further and killed my TV and stopped driving a car. Inconvenienced? Missing out? NOT! I feel I've been freed of shackles.
Ah, but is the mattress ergonomic? A gently rocking boat can be a great sleep aid.
ReplyDeleteI traveled to our boat this week but neither slept nor sailed -- had to content myself with some work with a grinding wheel.
Ah yes. Phones and IT support.
ReplyDeleteI was in IT. Around about 1977 I installed a new system and became responsible for its support. The system ran at night and if it failed it had to be fixed that night. That's when the management of the company discovered that I had no phone in my house. (I didn't have a TV either Panda.) There was much discussion between various senior managers on what to do about this. They decided that if the system failed, they would send a taxi to my house to fetch me out of bed. But there was still some argument about which manager's budget would pay for the taxi.
Of course, in the end it was moot. My system never failed. Who needs a phone?
er, where are the viking horns?
ReplyDeleteThey're at the cleaners. They tend to wrinkle if you machine wash.
ReplyDeleteI'm really surprised that no one has pointed out that 'coherency' isn't a word, but I guess that's no reason to eliminate it from the corporate lexicon.
ReplyDelete