Snake and lizard

First picture is a snake just off the walking path. I think I have seen this one before because there was a similar sized snake near the same place last year. It was 4-6 feet long and about 4" diameter. The second is a salamander I think we saw at the state park at the archery range.

1st bow shoot

So we went to our first Archery Shoot Saturday May 25th. In the first picture you can see an arrow I "Robinhood'ed" I shot a group with Chanda's pink camo bow which is way too short a draw for me, anyway I heard a chunk after I shot it and sure enough it was in front of the target. I didn't realize what had happened until I saw the nock was split and the shaft was damaged. These bows are no joke. Chanda's first shot shocked her to the point she didn't realize what had happened. My bow shot well I had it set at 52# draw which was easy so I reset it that evening to 58#. Ultimately I want to get it to the full 70#. Below you can see Chanda's form and the results of the day's shoot.

Observation

Conversation with a 60+ yo man (white). So your from bmore city. Do you know my coworkers x y and z? You know because you're black...

Also I ordered and installed a class 4 hitch on the gx.  I got all but 1 bolt in and that needed added tools ie a thread resoring kit craftsman.  This was due to the inserts not being filled with a bolt and getting corroded.  After a bit of surgery it went up great.  the wiring harness was another story.  See this exchange from etrailer.com (where I got the hitch from). So i had to send the first incorrect one back and ordered type that has to be spliced in.  I may go with the correct one from below but I will have to try and locate the relays at another $160.

11143374 Hopkins Multi-Tow 7-Way Blade and 4-Way Flat Trailer Connector - Toyota

. To save others the trouble, I'm listing the part numbers here, which are available from lexuspartsnow.com 81985-0021 - Green Towing Converter Relay (need 1) 90987-02025 - Grey Relay for Towing and Battery Charge (need 2) The green relay goes into a pre-wired socket behind the driver side trim piece in the rear (above the jack). The 2 Grey relays are t be plugged into the Relay Box in the engine compartment (driver side). Remove the black cover and then pop the cover off the relay box that has two empty slots for Towing and Battery Charging. It costs about $162 with ground shipping for the 3 relays. I ordered mine today and should have everything working in a couple of days. I must say I was impressed with the quality of the Hopkins unit. 7

http://lexus.sewellparts.com/accessories-catalog/Towing/GX470-2005/4229.html

Bluff called

So the red line looks to have been crossed.  Reports have been coming in for weeks if not months.  Our president established a limit and now we get hesitation.  There has to be follow up on a threat or our word will not be heard.  If you don't intend to follow through don't make claims.

Chemical weapon use is scary and has to be unacceptable and the only way to deter or stop it from being employed is to punish those that use it.  We step in when the enemy is weak most recently Libya (Iraq and Afghanistan). Syria is a bit higher up the military sophistication ladder and now we hesitate.  As we wage war with overwhelming advantage we look like bullies and cause resentment in the communities that would see themselves as oppressed by ourselves and our allies.  We either stop the bravado, stop playing the role of international cop or we commit to it and follow through. 

 I say we assume the role and not hesitate.  That indecisiveness will give those opposed to us confidence to act against us.  Again you either act or stop playing the role.  In Syria action will cost us lives as it always does, but in this case the war has to stop to spare the civilians.  Secondarily the use of the WMDs has to be shown as unacceptable.  Lastly the thought that these weapons could get into the hands of terrorists is great, if the war plays out with elements of the extremists capture chemical weapons, which seems likely in the fluid nature of this conflict.  

Update:
Looks like Israel has bombed Syria more than once over the last few days.  I wonder if it was with a wink and a nod from us?  They claim to stop terrorists (Hezbollah) getting rockets to use against them.  I wouldn't think Syria would provoke Israel right now given the current situation; however, expanding the conflict could be a strategy.  Looks to me like it will only speed the regime's defeat. Expansion of a middle east conflict troubles me given the predictions about the rapture being brought about by WWIII beginning there or some such nonsense the fundamentalists preach.  Maybe Israel's involvement will preclude ours which will save us lives, but on the other hand it could make things worse.  

Boston Bombing

My thoughts about the Boston marathon bombing are mixed.  I am encouraged by the response of the regular everyday people. Those at the bombing reacted quickly and helped the victims.  Seeing pictures of people carrying those hurt and applying first aid was inspiring.  The outpouring of donations of money and blood was impressive.  This some of the good that I saw over the last few weeks.  Also the quick resolution of the situation by the apprehension of the perpetrators so quickly; kept the fear of having another indecent from growing (at least from that set of criminals).  The bad: once again the media.  The over-blown, uninformed, around the clock coverage was again ridiculous.  The bad information that was reported and the speculation did nothing to help.  I think having to fill 24 hours of coverage causes this.  How about report what happened just the facts?  Then shut up until you have more facts.  Don't fill the void with rumor and conjecture.  The media contributes to these incidents with the coverage.  Having caught these guys quickly has cut off the flood and may contribute to minimizing the over exposure and encouragement of copy cats.
Was this terrorism?  I say yes if you define it as violent acts meant to influence others behavior with the fear created.  More succinctly from the dictionary: the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion.  Terror is defined as an intense state of fear.  Now reports state the reason for the attack was they were displeased that America was waging war in Afghanistan and had been at war in Iraq.  I would assume the idea was to influence or coerce us to leave Afghanistan or were they just mad and wanted to let our their anger?  The other problem is with the definition is that was it systemic?  A single act is not systemic.  In fact I liken the bombing to a mass shooting by a disgruntled person.  They acted out against America instead of a elementary school. Is carrying out a violent attack against a state terrorism, is it war, is it just a crime?  When it comes down to does it matter?  The survivor will be tried and punished.  Should be tried with murder and no need to blow it into something other than that.  In fact trumping up the charges to terrorism could make him a martyr in other potential violent prone individuals eyes and could spur another act.  I say minimize the act, minimize the individual (don't make them a celebrity), but punish severely. If the media does their usual this wont happen.  He will be made out to be public enemy #1 and get more than the 15 minutes of fame he already has gotten.  The more time spent in the spotlight is more chances of spawning copycats after the lime light.  It also gives the acts a stage to increase the potential terror effectivity of another attack.  I wouldn't do it.         

Spring boat work

Ah Spring....Boat work season.  I alluded to the project I did last week and the one I started the side panel. Well that has led to some additional places which I will get to.  Also on the agenda was the normal boat work for the spring plus some:

Change fuel filters

check all electrics

charge and clean batteries

bleed steering system

paint the nose of the outboard bullets (getting corroded due to the fact they settle in the the water)

replace zincs (Marina to do this and paint the bottom)

clean everything (getting outside detailed by marina)

 What didn't go as planned?  I noticed a steering fluid leak (one side was replaced a few years ago but the other is old) now I have to rebuild to replace the seals

A light is out (and has been) in the helm area so I have to replace that

The fuel is weeping around one of the priming bulbs just like last year which I fixed using a special clamp and tool, but it is now doing it again.  I cut the fuel line because that side was too long and maybe contributing to the leaks (had to buy a special cutter so the cut was straight).   

Oh and still working on the side panel shown below.  

chartplotter fishfinder install

So I started working on my boat a few weeks ago and realized that I had noticed my fish finder was failing.  Given that if I wanted to replace it I had to do it before the boat went into the water, I decided to do it. I picked a Raymarine E7D mainly because my current units worked for over 15 years and I was familiar with them.  I decided to install the unit in the old electronics enclosure cover.  This isn't ideal because they are exposed to the world, but I noticed that all the other boats in my marina had electronics even more exposed. I decided to keep my charplotter even though the E7D is a multi-function display (MFD). I will use it until it goes up and dedicate the MFD to fish finder mode.  I had my marina install the new transducer mainly because it required under the waterline holes be drilled and they had it at a reasonable price.  Next was the mods to the mounting panel I did at home.  The first picture shows the templates and the second shows the old chartplotter (RC420) set where it is to go.  I plan on putting a new plate on or a cover plate when that one is done.  At the same time I did this I decided to do two things that were out of scope for the install.  One was pretty straight forward and I figured I had the dash apart I should replace the side panel that wasn't replaced when I got the new engines.  It was cracked and wrapped.  The new side panel is shown below with the trim tab controls installed.  The second out of scope item was driven by having a VHF radio that supported DSC or digital signal calling, which means it can send and or send and receive position data via NMEA 0183.  The radio is in the radio box above the helm.   The new MFD (and the old one for that matter) has NMEA connections and I thought I would set up the system to support that again while I was wiring up the E7D.  Well that was a mistake. The day of the install I got the display wired and mounted and the side panel on.  Then I started to look at what it would take to get the NMEA up to the radio.  This was going to require running 8 wires up to the box through the hardtop tubing.  I found an unused 10 gauge wire running up there but the first problem was were did it come out under the dash. The second problem was what wire could I find that was 8 conductor stranded in a small enough size to be run up there.  To solve the wire location  problem I had to take apart the area under the seat where the wires came in from the hardtop and then traced it back under the dash.  I then attached a weed whacker line to the 10 gauge wire and pulled it through.  Once done I decided that I needed 2 pull wires in case I lost the new signal wire or it broke.  Both happened by the way multiple times.  The second problem had me go to West Marine (the wire they had was too big) then to Home depot (only had solid core telephone or CAT5 cable, would break under vibration) and finally a electrical supply house (didn't have anything like what I needed). In the end I went back to West Marine and bought wire that was 1.5 to 2 times the diameter of the 10 gauge wire.  As I said I spent 4-5 hours trying to pull this wire though. As I was doing this I realized that the radio I had only needed 2 of the 8 wires and only sent location data and wouldn't receive it and display on my MFD.  In the end unless I upgrade my radio this isnt half as neat as I thought it was going to be. After a long hard day I buttoned everything up and caulked the panels, but then I said I should do the other side panel which doesn't require getting under the dash but has 10 switches and lettering on it which is going to require some real work. Also I can now route the engines data to the MFD (and vice versa) via the NMEA 2000 or deviceNet network that they can share. That looks like it is straight forward but will require a cable or two and opening the dash again (nice summer project).     

Below are some more pictures.  Under the side panel, the MFD and old chartplotter as installed, under the seat (you can see the orange weed whacker line used to pull), The radio box, the display's wiring (re-purposed the old engine terminal strips that were left after getting the new engines).