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Jul. 20th, 2023 10:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scrottieGot roped (ha) in to helping re-install a bunch of PVC pipe "booms" (kinda a neurotic invention of the current admin to keep the hyacinth from clogging the whole place up like it does a lot of other places around here) after the armada of e-fucking-normous mini-megayachts came through for a long weekend. It's a PVC pipe with caps on the end, and metal eyelets, which are now rusting off nearly completely, screwed in the to the ends, that get strung across the ends of slips. They do do a fairly good job of keeping the hyacinth out, but every single time I've been around when someone has come in to their new slip they reserved, this was not removed, so I got to run over and remove it for them. People not near me, I'm not sure what happens. Pretty damn sure this place doesn't monitor any radio channels. I found out that it's illegal to remove the hyacinth except by immediately throwing it in to an incinerator, but there's zero program to remove it at all. I am having certain thoughts about the lack of handling of invasive species in CA other than handwringing. And the parallels between people who buy giant trucks just hoping to be taken seriously with the people who buy giant motor boats just to be taken seriously.
So anyway... this made me late trying to get the DMV at a reasonable time for yet another pass, but that was an accidental discovery. I'd been making great pains to show up when things were the least busy. Then I'd wait in a slow intake line that barely moved, finally get to someone who looked over every document with an eagle eye, then after careful examination, found some absurd thing to reject. I've done this like 20 times now. And it never occurred to me that I should stop coming when it's the most slow. My brain just went long wait time = minimize the number of people there, case closed. So I show up two hours before close and it's a mad house. My new birth certificate is completely unacceptable from everything I've repeatedly been told and I'm just going through the motions so that when I show up at the courthouse in $rural_midwest_state_with_a_tiny_population begging for an embossed stamp that I can honestly say the birth certificate was rejected. Person doing intake flops my documents down on the table like a Las Vegas dealer dealing cards and then spends like three minutes with a tablet getting a window queue assignment for me. I have never in my many many attempts seen someone look at the documents so casually. My actual original birthcertificate that has my baby footprints stamped on it was rejected for having an embossed sticker rather than the birthcertificate being embossed and this new birth certificate isn't half that and has a sticker that's embossed stuck to it rather than being embossed and she just slapped it down on the table while thumbing through things and called it good. I do computer security at least part time. I should know this. How did I miss this.
The photo thing counted down to three, then did nothing for a whole second, so I stood there awkwardly going "is it done?" then eventually start to walk back to the counter and then it snaps a whole two seconds after the timer went off and there's a clear scowl on my face but more like I'm in trouble for having done something bad but I'm also not standing where I'm supposed to and they don't care. It turns out that I have to take the written test (this whole process and the cases are published exactly nowhere) but by then it was 4:47 and testing closed at 4:30 so I have to come back. I love how the answer to every question at the DMV is "go have a seat and we'll call you". "My passport, old driver's license, birth certificate, and social security card are all expired... do I need to take a driving test to get a driver's license? Just asking because the car I borrowed is completely full of meth and I should clean it out first if so"... "Go sit over there and we'll call you". I had a hunch I should have just asked for an ID card instead of a driver's license but couldn't solidify why. If I had, I'd have a valid ID card now instead of still chasing this elusive driver's license I really only want for *other* government misery purposes.
Edit: While re-string PVC pipe "booms" to keep omnipresent invasive vegetation out, I took the opportunity to inspect one ratty old sailboat that pulled in here, and that I was told was owned by another sailboat owner. It's an interesting boat. I initially couldn't find any maker's plate on the inside or outside of the transom (I did not board the boat) or on the hatch but then noticed a familiar badge nailed to the hull in the widest part. One side was so faded as to be unreadable but was familiar; the other side was less sun scorched and clearly read Columbia 29. Columbia I remembered having some but not all designs designed by the same designer as BoatyBoat, Sparkman and Stephens, or just S&S (not to be confused with the bicycle frame couplings), with many famous designs and a loyal following: https://www.sparkmanstephens.info/doc/5369600b9119f.pdf . But S&S is overshadowed by Carl Alberg, who Pearson used. Checking now, the Columbia 29 Mk II, which that boat most closely matches, is indeed a fellow S&S design: https://sailboatdata.com/sailboat/columbia-29-mkii/ . Part of my interest in this boat was the interesting designs made. She has a transom hung rudder. But the drawing for the Columbia 29 Mk II do not. All over her decks, interesting decisions were made that are not in the original drawings. Someone or some people had some interesting times aboard that boat. And that encourages me in the transom hung rudder retrofit (one of my first sails, the rudder shaft or stock collapsed, and it's getting harder and harder to find anywhere to do repair work like that, where a transom hung rudder can be pulled off while still in the water and repaired yourself). This boat needs a bath, brightwork done, almost certainly mast and deck fittings pulled and rebedded, and a new sail probably at this point (the sail on her wasn't covered when she was brought in). Even tho she has a different design, the lines look very familiar, as does the construction.
So anyway... this made me late trying to get the DMV at a reasonable time for yet another pass, but that was an accidental discovery. I'd been making great pains to show up when things were the least busy. Then I'd wait in a slow intake line that barely moved, finally get to someone who looked over every document with an eagle eye, then after careful examination, found some absurd thing to reject. I've done this like 20 times now. And it never occurred to me that I should stop coming when it's the most slow. My brain just went long wait time = minimize the number of people there, case closed. So I show up two hours before close and it's a mad house. My new birth certificate is completely unacceptable from everything I've repeatedly been told and I'm just going through the motions so that when I show up at the courthouse in $rural_midwest_state_with_a_tiny_population begging for an embossed stamp that I can honestly say the birth certificate was rejected. Person doing intake flops my documents down on the table like a Las Vegas dealer dealing cards and then spends like three minutes with a tablet getting a window queue assignment for me. I have never in my many many attempts seen someone look at the documents so casually. My actual original birthcertificate that has my baby footprints stamped on it was rejected for having an embossed sticker rather than the birthcertificate being embossed and this new birth certificate isn't half that and has a sticker that's embossed stuck to it rather than being embossed and she just slapped it down on the table while thumbing through things and called it good. I do computer security at least part time. I should know this. How did I miss this.
The photo thing counted down to three, then did nothing for a whole second, so I stood there awkwardly going "is it done?" then eventually start to walk back to the counter and then it snaps a whole two seconds after the timer went off and there's a clear scowl on my face but more like I'm in trouble for having done something bad but I'm also not standing where I'm supposed to and they don't care. It turns out that I have to take the written test (this whole process and the cases are published exactly nowhere) but by then it was 4:47 and testing closed at 4:30 so I have to come back. I love how the answer to every question at the DMV is "go have a seat and we'll call you". "My passport, old driver's license, birth certificate, and social security card are all expired... do I need to take a driving test to get a driver's license? Just asking because the car I borrowed is completely full of meth and I should clean it out first if so"... "Go sit over there and we'll call you". I had a hunch I should have just asked for an ID card instead of a driver's license but couldn't solidify why. If I had, I'd have a valid ID card now instead of still chasing this elusive driver's license I really only want for *other* government misery purposes.
Edit: While re-string PVC pipe "booms" to keep omnipresent invasive vegetation out, I took the opportunity to inspect one ratty old sailboat that pulled in here, and that I was told was owned by another sailboat owner. It's an interesting boat. I initially couldn't find any maker's plate on the inside or outside of the transom (I did not board the boat) or on the hatch but then noticed a familiar badge nailed to the hull in the widest part. One side was so faded as to be unreadable but was familiar; the other side was less sun scorched and clearly read Columbia 29. Columbia I remembered having some but not all designs designed by the same designer as BoatyBoat, Sparkman and Stephens, or just S&S (not to be confused with the bicycle frame couplings), with many famous designs and a loyal following: https://www.sparkmanstephens.info/doc/5369600b9119f.pdf . But S&S is overshadowed by Carl Alberg, who Pearson used. Checking now, the Columbia 29 Mk II, which that boat most closely matches, is indeed a fellow S&S design: https://sailboatdata.com/sailboat/columbia-29-mkii/ . Part of my interest in this boat was the interesting designs made. She has a transom hung rudder. But the drawing for the Columbia 29 Mk II do not. All over her decks, interesting decisions were made that are not in the original drawings. Someone or some people had some interesting times aboard that boat. And that encourages me in the transom hung rudder retrofit (one of my first sails, the rudder shaft or stock collapsed, and it's getting harder and harder to find anywhere to do repair work like that, where a transom hung rudder can be pulled off while still in the water and repaired yourself). This boat needs a bath, brightwork done, almost certainly mast and deck fittings pulled and rebedded, and a new sail probably at this point (the sail on her wasn't covered when she was brought in). Even tho she has a different design, the lines look very familiar, as does the construction.
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Date: 2023-07-21 12:45 pm (UTC)I could definitely see benefits to the transom-hung rudder, if it can be made to work well enough for steering.