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I'll be posting updates here in a few days. Getting tired of social media but still want to have an outlet to write in. Stay tuned. Campy Out!

Building SCAMP, an 11 foot long, wood sailboat.

Ever since I was a kid, I've been amazed with boats, much in the way my grandson flips out over trains. Learned to sail in the early 70's, at Rhode Island's Camp Yawgoog. I've been a boat nut ever since.

Now I'm a restless boat nut, having sold my last boat almost 4 years ago. I've sailed, rowed, motored, broke, fixed, and delivered wood and fiberglass boats, from 8 to 72 feet, over many thousands of miles. My daughter Allyson also likes to sail, and has been actively seeking a good old boat to beat around in, with little luck so far. Since I've never built a boat from start to finish, I figured I might just be able to knock out building a boat for Allyson.

Since no one I know is getting any younger, this is the year I build at least one boat, maybe two. After a week of web surfing and library searching for a proper boat that could be sourced, built, launched, and sailed locally, I settled on a John Welsford design called SCAMP. This boat is fairly popular in our local area.

(Picture courtesy of Small Craft Advisor)

People have built SCAMP from CNC cut plywood kits and from lofted plans. There's even a local company, Gig Harbor Boat Works, that makes and sells, a fully rigged fiberglass SCAMP, with an aluminum mast.

I opted to purchase the CNC cut kit, with foils kit, from Josh at Small Craft Advisor. Josh also owns and runs Port Townshend's Duckworks Boat Builder's Supply, and helped me with a "few" supplies that I'd need to get the hull nearly complete. Great place to shop!

The CNC kits are cut to order at Turn Point Design. Brandon used a forklift which made loading the truck simple.

Got the kit home a couple of hours later, unloaded the truck, and started reading the blueprints and design plans for Scamp. Spent the remainder of the week finishing up a few projects, cleaning out the shop, and reading plans. I plan to start building on Monday, Feb 4th, with a planned launch date around Memorial day. It's aggressive, but entirely doable. My daughter Allyson is going to help with the build, and I'm sure I'll have a few more people "pop" in to see what's going on.

Hang with me, it's going to be fun!

Campy Out!

Oct 2018, Parkinson's Update

October 2018
Roger’s Parkinson’s Disease update.

SPILLING THE BEANS!
I’ve managed to stay physically active, and feeling pretty healthy, up until this past summer. My day which was usually full of activity, slowed down quite a bit.

Playing with the dog, gardening, keeping up on the house maintenance, building something in the shop, visiting geezers, and learning something new, somehow slowed to trying to stay cool, catching up on sleep, watching the grass brown up, watching videos, and watching my grandson. Everything seemed to suck the energy out of me, my couch was becoming all to comfortable.

Parkinson’s disease is “progressively degenerative”, and while I’ve never liked that phrase, it is quite accurate. The medications that I currently take, to control my muscle movements, are no longer covering me during the day, and as such, the muscles in my stomach, no longer move food, and pills, along like their supposed to. So I end up with either too much, or not enough, medicine that makes it into my body.

I hope the answer is Duopa. It’s the same medicine I’m taking orally now, but in a gel solution that gets pumped into my stomach via a J-Peg tube inserted into my small intestine. The tube is going take some getting used to, as is maintaining and carrying the pump, but I hope to make friends with it quickly. I’m pretty hopeful that this will work, but it's going to take a few weeks of patience during the adjusting phase. November 6th is tube placement day, and November 13th is turn the pump on day.

LIFE’S LESSONS
Looking back at it now, the little “gives”, or losses due to Parkinson’s, added up to something pretty substantial when seen over time. The “gives” were not conscious, but they were steps away from where I would have liked to have stayed... just a little while longer.

There are some “gives” that I don’t miss.
I no longer try to control my day, my feelings, or my Parkinson’s symptoms.
I no longer fight with myself to keep still, not cry, or take a nap.

There are some “gives” that I miss so very dearly.
I miss sleeping with my wife, due to chronic insomnia, or my need to move all night.
I miss going out for a romantic evening dinner with my wife.
I miss being spontaneous, doing something, or going somewhere, right now!
I really miss working, for someone else, or myself for that matter.
I miss staying “ON”, or at least awake, when family comes over for dinner, or when I’m watching my grandson.
I miss reading, writing with a pen, and typing, all are becoming quite the challenge

I do have plans to get back in the shop. I do have loads of ideas and things I want to make, learn, and do. I do have stories I want to read, and stories I want to write. I do have friends I want to see, and friends I have yet to make. I am looking forward to doing, making, and being, for quite some time to go.

I look at things a bit differently now.

When I do something, I know this may be the last time I get to do it, so I’m going to do it big!
When I make something, I know this may be the last time I get to make something, so I’m going to make it nice, strong, and good.
When I hug someone, I may never get to hug them again, so I’m going to hug them like I mean it.
When I say something, it may be the last time I get to say anything, so I won’t be hurtful, mean, or rough.
When I smile, it may be the last smile I give, so I’m going to smile big and long, and just for you.

When I say “Peace”, I mean may the easiest feeling of warmth, comfort, and compassion, bathe and refresh your mind, and spirit.

Peace to you all.
Campy Out!

www.stuckshakey.com updated with projects from 2017!

Well, here's the 2017 project update.


http://www.stuckshakey.com/the-blog/looking-back-at-2017


Campy Out!

Another Thought on The NFL Protests

Protests are as American as apple pie, baseball, and neckin' at the drive-in movies.

Protests are supposed to hit you in the gut and make you think.

Protests are legal, especially at work. Workers protest at work all the time in the form of labor strikes, many of which are contractually forbidden, such as teachers, pilots, and sports personalities.

Don't confuse this latest iteration of Kaepernick's protest, as a continuation of his protesting injustice to people of color in America. This latest iteration is a clear and unmistakeable protesting of President Trump, and his statement during a GOP rally in Alabama a week ago. Its hard to blame the players, when the league, and team owners, even the cowboys owner, also protested the President's statement.

My friend pulled out of the football pool, and refuses to watch NFL football saying that this is tearing the country apart. Who is tearing the country apart? The protesters, or the Protested? Who's still showing up for the games, drinking beer, wearing team jerseys? Who's taking this just a little bit too harshly?

The truth can hurt. Whether a person is hurt because they supported President Trump, or even because they, like me, support the Office of the President, or because they don't agree with the original protest, I think this protest has hit a national nerve.

Either our President doesn't agree with the original protest, or he doesn't realize how his statements can affect the country, or he is impressively ignorant of both. Either way, the country has reacted, and is once again deeply divided, not over what the still unemployed Colin Kaeperlin achieved, but what our President said.

If President Trump had said nothing about football last Friday, we football watching citizens, would have less to be aware of, instead we, as a country, have two things to be aware of.

1. We needed to be aware of President Trumps general ignorance to the power of his office, or maybe it is sheer genius on his part, and his response was a planned, and expected social response, either of which is purely divisive, and worse than ignorance.

2. We needed to be aware of social injustice to people of color.

Peace,

Campy Out!


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2017/09/25/cowboys-players-take-a-knee-with-owner-jerry-jones-before-standing-for-anthem/?utm_term=.a2409835f8ae