Merry Christmas!

Due to popular demand, I am going to update the blog on a regular basis again.

Well, one person asked, I guess that counts as 'popular demand'.

Because the blog posts the latest entries last, I am going to do a set of monthly recaps for everyone's enjoyment.  So if you see an entry dated December 6 but the topic is the June Report from last summer, you can safely assume there are more recent blog entries soon to be posted.

I have re-read the blog and have decided to start my recap from June of 2013 as that is the beginning of a quiet period in my life (yeah, right). I do have a bit of back-tracking to do! Patience dear reader, I will get to my current events soon.

If you would like to follow me on FaceBook, please feel free to do so.  My FaceBook address is: https://www.facebook.com/patlamey

Ciao!

Pat

It is better than I hoped!

What is he talking about now? 

The America's Cup races from my place in San Francisco.  It was a pretty good bet that I'd have a good look at the race as it progressed. Well, what I have learned this week is that it is more than just pretty good. From my little studio I can see the start line, the leeward gate, the windward gate and the finish line all without obstruction.  It is unbelievably good! Absolutely Amazing!  

One of my guests called this the 'Candy Corn' as in, "I see they are towing the candy corn out to set the gates for the race."  Yup, candy corn it is!  The boats had to race up and down the course and there were two pairs of candy corn (i.e., the gate) setting the turning points windward and leeward

Each race day I hosted friends who wanted to view the race. The price of admission is quite reasonable with parking being the big issue.  Fisherman's Wharf isn't the best place to park a car for free and my building only has five guest spots so it can be a challenge. Once here, however, the view is out of this world. 

The beginning of the fourth race and Sweden's Artemis takes an early lead. You can see both boats are up on their (hydro)foils. But, Artemis was penalized and then penalized again for ignoring (missing?) the first penalty.  A penalty means a time delay and they never recovered.  

The start of a yacht race is a true puzzle. Both boats must be in an imaginary box behind the start line at least 1 minute before the race starts. Well, its a relatively small box and the objective is to put your competitor in a bad position as the race begins with the sound of a starting gun.  For the 3rd race, Luna Rossa was so effective, it has the Swedish team sailing away from the start line as the gun sounded.  The Swedes apparently took the lead in the 4th race but the judges ruled they had faulted the Italian boat during the starting maneuvering and were given a penalty.  They ignored the penalty and were given a second penalty for ignoring the first.  It wasn't a surprise about ignoring the penalty, the TV announcers, experienced yachting competitors themselves, were claiming the Italian boat had fouled the Swedes!  So I guess the Swedish team was not looking for the penalty signal as appeared they would be the beneficiary. 

Unfortunately, in this competition, a penalty means you have to slow down for a fixed number of seconds while your competitor gets to sail away at full speed.  And, at this point in the race (2nd leg), the Italians were sailing downwind meaning a speed in excess of 30 mph while the Swedish team waited for the penalty to time out.  

The race has seven segments and this is the Artemis boat near the end of its 2nd leg (sailing downwind) at the turn marker while Luna Rossa is on its 3rd leg (sailing upwind) after completing the turn. The lead by Luna Rossa is the result of the penalties incurred by Artemis at the start of the 2nd segment. 

The difference between sailing downwind and upwind is the advantage of being able to hydrofoil in the downwind direction.  In the bay, when the boats are sailing from west to east (left to right), there is enough speed that they can 'foil' to go even faster.  In these pictures of each boat you can see the boat is up on the foils in the downwind direction. Think about this--the boats weigh in excess of 7 tons and they are riding on a carbon fiber hydrofoil.  It looks like they have three foils in this pictures but in reality there is one main foil and two rudders. The rudders do provide some lift and weight bearing but not much.  

In last month's preliminaries, Luna Rossa had not yet mastered sailing and maneuvering on their foils. It appears they learned a lot in the past several weeks.  

Both boats are up out of the water riding on their 'foils'.  The speed while downwind on the foils often exceeded 30 knots (about 35 mph) although they were being driven by winds that were half that speed. Amazing technology!  

Now compare the two pictures of the boat in the upwind direction. Their speed is cut to about 20 knots (about 24 mph) because one of the two pontoons are down on the water.  Having a pontoon in the water creates more 'drag' than being on a hydrofoil so the boats are slower. 

Upwind results in one pontoon being in the water and reducing the speed. 

Also upwind and also going slower. The rigging you see is the Barcalutha, docked in the Maritime museum on Hyde pier.
Click here to see the USS Barcalutha. 

The lead created by the penalties was insurmountable.  Artemis was the team who suffered the horrible accident in the spring where one of their sailors was killed.  The boat was destroyed and they did not get a competitive boat until two weeks ago. So they were competing against an Italian team that had more than 100 days experience on these big, fast boats while they had only a couple of weeks.  I and my guests cheered for the Swedish team, but it didn't help very much!  

My last views are of the race as it ends.  Luna Rossa crossed the finish line a full two minutes ahead of Artemis. 

Luna Rossa finishes the fourth and final race of the semifinals. In the background is the new bay bridge and Yerba Buena island 

You can see the candy corn of the far mark at the finish line. The other candy corn that forms the finish line is hidden by the buildings on the wharf.

The next series is the finals for the Louis Vuitton Cup starting Saturday August 17.  By beating the Swedish team, the Italians have earned the position to compete in the best of thirteen finals against New Zealand's Emirates team. The winner of the Louis Vuitton Cup then competes starting September 7th against the Golden Gate Yacht Club's Oracle Team USA for the America's Cup in a best of 17 series. This is the 34th competition for the cup which began in 1851 with the winning boat, America, beating the English competitor. 

Besides these pictures, I have more posted at:  http://patlamey.smugmug.com

You'll find me here watching the races!  Let me know if you'd like to come over and watch too!  

Objective #2 is Done!

Objectives for my retirement are: 

1. Improve and re-establish relationships with family and friends. 
2. Simplify my life:  By this I meant selling the big single family home and downsizing.  
3. My health:  Getting in shape and losing weight. 

And, as of this week, I am the proud owner of a townhouse in Los Gatos--a true lock and leave situation for me.  While the closing and recording were August 1, the current owner needs a few weeks to move out. So I'll be taking possession during the 3rd week of August. I already have my contractor lined up to work on removing the popcorn ceilings and doing some preliminary design work on upgrading the kitchen.  A lot of this needs to be done before Stephanie arrives in late October-early November.  

And, my life isn't exactly getting simpler. I still have the studio apartment in San Francisco overlooking Aquatic Park. It is just about perfect but I'd like to find two pieces of furniture to replace a couple items that just aren't quite right.  

And in June I bought a two bedroom condo in St. Paul as a co-owner with Stephanie.  We've gutted it and are redoing it to our liking.  Its in a secure building so we can leave it for long periods of time but then we can hang out in the Twin Cities as we see fit to visit friends and relatives. Plus the real estate market in the Cities hasn't recovered yet so we are hoping it will be prove to be a good investment as well. 

Overall, I am making good progress on objectives #1 and #2.  Lots of time with family and friends.  And I feel a huge relief knowing that I have found and bought a very desirable townhouse in Los Gatos.  Things are good! 

The health part is holding steady with no weight gain but I need still need to get into shape and lose some pounds.  My first step is that I now have bikes at all three locations so there is no excuse!  As an aside, the first bike was purchased new from a bike shop in Los Gatos--lots of gears and stuff with an overblown pedigree.  The second was purchased used from a neighbor in my apartment building in San Francisco--something called a Bianchi. The third was from a pawn shop in Minneapolis--that was an experience--and I did snag a bike called Treks or Trex or some such.  Some people tell me I did good with the two used bikes. What do I know? 

And I want to post a blog entry about my June-July experiences.  Because I am home (SF) for the next 8 weeks (but for 1 week), I plan on posting entries a little more frequently.  

The America's Cup races start on Aug 6.  I will be here!  

Ciao

Another Hawaiian Vacation!

Back on Mary's beaches, Keawakapu, Mokapu and Ulua Beach.

Here are the pictures from a morning snorkel on the 4th of July.

This vacation was with my son Chris, his wife, Casey, and their two offspring, Danny and Sarah.  We spent 10 days on Maui staying in a condo in Wailea.  It was an absolute blast!

Moved Out!

As I left Golf Links with the last of my possession on Saturday evening, I clipped these two roses from Mary's garden.  A very bittersweet moment...

After having five days of two men packing and moving my stuff into storage two weeks ago, followed by a frantic weekend where Stephanie and I packed up the rest of the stuff, the movers returned on Tuesday morning (June 11) and packed and put into storage the last of my household goods.  

There was a small pile of odds and ends left in the garage and the new owners graciously let it linger there for a few days.  Stephanie and I made daily trips to Los Gatos from San Francisco to get the last of it out, finishing on Saturday.   After sweeping the garage, Golf Links was no longer mine. 

Sue and I bought that house in the summer of 1984 when we returned to California.  I was recruited by a company then known as KLA Instruments and is now KLA-Tencor.  Chris was in middle school and Erika was just starting school.  The family loved the pool and spent hours and hours in it in the summertime.  Erika went to Daves and then Hillbrook.  Chris went to Fisher Middle School, Los Gatos High School and then moved to Univeristy of California at Santa Cruz.  In the early years at Golf Links, we had lots of fun with kid's parties and activities.  

The family pet that was most appreciated was Zippy, the cockatiel.  We used to let him fly between the family room and the kitchen--he had a perch in each room.  Chris learned how to rub the back of his neck.  The bird would walk from his perch to Chris sitting on the couch and demand a head rub!  It was hilarious.  The bird also imitated sounds and he was best at imitating the sound of a squeaky cabinet door in the kitchen.  

This isn't a picture of our Zippy but it is a classic cockatiel and looks like Zippy. 

In the early 90s, Sue and I were divorced and she sold her interest in the house to me.  Three years later, Mary moved into the house, we were married in 1996 and with dot com money in 2000-01, we did a major remodel.  Before the remodel we redecorated the house to make it ours.  These were some of the most pleasant memories with Mary.  Just coming to an agreement on the wall hanging or the color and pattern of a chair, wall paper or whatever.  Its mundane activity, but very close to my heart.  

Besides Mary and myself, Mary's son Daniel lived with us for a couple of years. And, of course, Mary's dogs: Sweep, Beau, Rocky, Shawna, Wolfie and Leyla (aka Wiggles).  Sweep, Beau and Rocky were rescue dogs and died within a year or two of our adopting them.  Shawna and Wolfie were from Sandy LaFlammes' Dawnglow kennels and lived until the ages of 17.5 and 15.5 years!  Leyla was adopted by the family next door and she moved with them to Tennesee a few months ago.  

Mary's last year (March 2009-April 2010) was the most intense living in the house. I became the chief cook and bottle washer.  When Mary was feeling good, she'd come out and sit at "the round" as we called it.  During that year, I called it the Master and Commander chair as she instructed me on how to prepare food for dinner.  I will never forget her quote as she sharply barked a corrective action to me.  

"Patrick, I am going to die of cancer, dammit, not from food poisoning because of something you do wrong in the kitchen!"  

After Mary died, I kept the house because of her dogs, Shawna and Leyla (aka Wiggles).  When Shawna died in March of 2012, I knew it was time to sell.  Mary and I had prepared for the day when I would die and leave her behind--we always figured I'd die first. We never planned for her to die first.  In our planning for her, the first step was to sell the house and buy something smaller and with less yardwork.  It has taken me three years to get to that point and that is what I will be doing now.  

If you are a regular reader, you know I purchased a studio apartment in San Francisco last year.  Well, I now have three storage rooms of stuff in Los Gatos at Extra Space Storage. And I will be living out of my studio apartment until I find the condo or townhouse that will become my new south bay home.  

My travel takes me away for the rest of June and most of July.  So I don't really have to face living in a one room apartment on a daily basis until August. And by then, I might have found my new place in the south bay.  

If you need my snail mail address, please feel free to ask for it.  
Email to: 
Pat @ Lamey . us . com (without the spaces, obviously) and I'll send the new address.  

Ciao...

Under Contract!

"Well, it ain't over til it's over," according to Casey Stengel. 

But the contract is signed as of today. If everything goes according to plan, I'll be out of the house for good by mid-June. 

Everything will move into storage and then I'll be house hunting for a downsized place.  It's gonna be an interesting summer!  

It Is Time!

Well, we've tried about everything and my Golf Links house remains unsold. We've had over 400 realtors through the property these last months and we've had over 6,000 hits on the realtor's website. It's time, I want to get out of living in a museum. 

Sooo...price drop! 

Let your friends and family know if they are interested in a killer location with a totally remodeled in 2001 home. 

Click here for the listing.