Well It's official.............

[smoolie671]

The last nail is in the coffin. My shop was broken into and robbed while we were on vacation a couple of weeks ago. I'm getting the heck out of Boise forever!

Idaho does not deserve to have such a fine boat caress it's waters.

They stole my generator, several small power tools and my brand new Hern Ironworks cannon!!! MY CANNON!!!!!!  You take a mans cannon, and you are calling on God himself to strike you dead.

Thats it. My wife and I are moving to Florida. Now I know Florida has it's issues too, but at least I can sail close to year round.

And in Florida I can build the larger boat that I have been designing.

I can also find a good ole boys network to get into so if some crackhead decides to steal from me we can go gator feeding.

I still intend to post every now and then. By the way, any of you guys in the general Orlando area?

[Ken_Potts]

  I hate to hear that.

  I can't believe there's no good old boy network in Boise, though.

  The crackheads may still get justice if they play with that cannon, though ("Hey guys - Watch this!!")...

[JeffM]

A great shame.  I hope your beautiful boat is safe!

[Greg Luckett]

This is certainly tragic news....but it gives me an idea.  Maybe if I remove tools and stuff from my shop, store them somewhere, and tell my wife we have been robbed, she might let me move back to Texas on the coast...?? :

Naw, she is too smart for that.

Seriously, I am sorry for your loss.  I was robbed in a similar manner when living in Fort Worth. :'( >

[PAR]

I'm just above Orlando (30 miles) and we'd welcome another pirate to join the fun in the sun crowd.

Central Florida is nice, you can build outside, all year long. You'll need to use super slow epoxy most of the year as we never really get particularly cold. We haven't had a hard freeze in a decade and when it does get cold, it's usually not the follow day.

Today was in the high 70's and low humidity. It will remain in the low to mid 70's until spring, with very little change for rain throughout the period. A cold front will move in around Tuesday when it will drop the daily highs to the high 60's, low 70's but I'll struggle through some how.

The toughest part about living in this part of the country, is trying to decide if you need a sweat shirt or if you can rough it, when getting steaks off the BBQ, in the middle of February. Also you'll need to get use to all your friends and family wanting to go to Disney or Sea World every time they visit. It's a burden, but we have to do things for our families.

Point of note. In Florida, if someone is in your yard, you can shoot them. They don't have to be in your house before it's legal, which means if you catch someone stealing from you and put a couple of deer slugs in their butt, you'll not be charged.

[Greg Luckett]

Par,

I have family living in the Walaka area.  Are you close to there?

Greg

[Garry]

Sorry to hear about the burglary. Interesting coincidence ... We live in FL about 75 miles northwest of Orlando nar the Gulf coast in a very quiet neighborhood in a quiet little town, Inverness. We had a Freaky day yesterday:

We were getting ready to take the dinghy down to one of the rivers for a float. While retrieving the trailer from the backyard, I noticed a couple of the lawn timbers were missing!? Coming back around the house, I saw them stacked under my wife's 98 Volvo station wagon... and the right rear wheel was gone!!! No one, including the deputies, could understand why a thief would take one wheel. We were lucky to find at the nearest dealer a replacement wheel with some minor surface blemishes at 1/3 the normal cost.

Come on down. And tell us about your boat design! I'm working on a 28 foot design with Graham and B and B Yachts.

[Frank Hagan]

Today was in the high 70's and low humidity. It will remain in the low to mid 70's until spring, with very little change for rain throughout the period. A cold front will move in around Tuesday when it will drop the daily highs to the high 60's, low 70's but I'll struggle through some how.

Its unseasonably cold here in Southern California now ... 15 below!  (like Florida, we use 70 as the starting point for our thermometers). 

[Greg Luckett]

Yep, except for the ice/snow that hit here last evening, it has missed us this time.  Maybe you will get lucky too, Ray.  It might blow out to sea?

15 to 18 inches we get from Lake effect and it is a crap shoot sometimes.  There is maybe an inch on the ground right now.

[smoolie671]

We are coming down in mid January to scout the area. If all goes well, we will be moving a couple weeks later. We are thinking about Kissimmee, Clermont, or davenport area. Poinciana in the Kissimmee area looks good so far. We just don't want to get in an area that is less than desireable. As far as the inlaws and friends wanting to go to Disney, well I guess I just have to deal with it. I suppose those season passes that I'll be getting will get a serious workout. Oh poor me! ;D

I already instituted a ban on all further winter clothes shopping, and gone so far as to buy 6 pairs of rugged shorts(you know, the ones that have all the pockets for all of your boat building tools). I'll NOT miss the cold and snow, that's for sure. I want the sun to cook my gray matter long enough to forget all about that wretched white stuff so when the word "snow" comes up in conversation, I can have this wonderfully ignorant expression on my face and say "whats that?" I apologize to those of you who like snow, but for me, I have had enough throughout my life. I don't snow ski so it ain't no skin off my hide.

I'm hoping to get settled and start cranking out boats and plans for them. At least I should be taken more seriously in Florida than in Idaho. If I hear one more person say "oh, thats the potato capitol of the world", I'm gonna come unglued!

[smoolie671]

Oh, and PAR, you got a deal!

[Charlie Jones]

Happens I have a good friend in Kissimmee who has his house on the market so HE can move to Houston. Nice place with room to park at least five boats ( that's how many HE has) Want his phone number? ;D

[Greg Luckett]

smoolie671,

Where are you moving from?

[Ken_Potts]

  Greg,

  Smoolie's in Boise.

  Ray,

  Not so fast.  It's been really warm here - I've been sailing 4 times in the last week and a half...  I think our weather has cancelled yours.  We're looking at a really warm and dry winter (and we REALLY need some rain, ice or snow).

  Smoolie - Sorry if I hijacked

[Guest ib1boatnut]

I never thought I would get so depressed on a boat forum. :'( Tonight -25c/-13f but by wednesday "warm front" -5c/23f. so by Franks method 83 below tonight How about a can/us exchange program you send 1 speeder and take 1 canuck and his family.  ;D ;D 

[PAR]

Walaka is in the Jacksonville area and about an hour and a half north of me, Greg.

Yep, you'll have to adjust to the heat. It takes about two years for your body to accommodate the warmth, but once it happens, you'll never be able to tolerate the cold again. I'm not kidding, 60 degrees will force you to start pulling out down parkas and stoking the fireplace.

They way I figure it, humans can take heat a lot better then cold. Picture this, you've been outside, shoveling the snow off the drive (again) and 20 minutes later you come inside, frozen to the bone. You stand in front of a roaring fire and warm up, then you notice that your butt is still cold, so you turn around. Now, you're outside on a 95 degree day, with 95% humidity, you're sweating your butt off and walk into an air conditioned house. It's instant relief, you don't have to turn around so you butt is facing the fire, you just feel better. This tells me that you body can handle heat better then cold.

Snow is nice on Christmas morning, with the kids outside making snow angels and stuff. The only other time snow is nice is when it's pictured on a post card. I don't want to have to shovel it, work in it, drive in it, drive behind someone who doesn't know how to drive it. I'm over snow, I can always get a Slushy down at the local 7-11 if I need to remind myself what I'm missing.

[Charlie Jones]

AMEN to that. I have a friend from South Dakota. He now lives in the "tropical tip of Texas" as he calls it. Port Isabel. His take on snow is exactly like yours ( and mine)

SNOW SUX!!!!

we DID have snow here several years ago- on Christmas eve. Had afoot of the stuff. First time in over 100 years for a measurable snowfall. Wasn't TOO bad cause it was gone in 3 days and I didn't have to work or drive in it.

Did kinda damage the banana crop though ;D

That was taken on Christmas day.

Here's another one-

THIS was shot on New Years day. This is much more better ;D Same spot, same lady, 7 days later

[Greg Luckett]

Now that is what I would consider a resonable winter....1 week max. ;D

[PAR]

Many years ago, when I lived in Indian Rocks Beach (just south of Clearwater) I was crossing the Clearwater pass draw bridge at 5 in the morning. It was unusually cold, the morning hadn't broken the stillness of the dark yet and I noticed flurries in the glow of the street lamps on the bridge. Seeing this confirmed it was cold enough to freeze the draw bridge grating and I slowed way down, knowing I have to go down the other side on cold steel.

When I crested the top of the bridge, a sight that could only be described as full size pin ball machine, was occurring in front of me. The other locals, most of which had never seen snow, nor temperatures this cold in their life, probably on their way to work like I was, were bouncing from guard rail to guard rail, car to car, car to rail or mixtures of spinning then bouncing off something. About 6 cars were involved, all of which came to a wrinkled mess at the foot of the bridge, none facing the way they preferred as driven over the bridge.

No one was hurt, but most of the cars were towed away, because the drivers were too rattled to continue or the cars were too battered. It was one of the funniest sights I'd ever witnessed (after the fact), in the dim yellow glow of those street lamps.

If memory serves me, this was the last hard freeze the area had (about 20 years ago). Yep, I don't miss the great white northern weather a lick.

We'll have a cold snap move in today. The highs will only get to the low 60's. Of course this will require I have thermal underwear on when I play golf with my pastor.

[Greg Luckett]

We had one of those Saturday evening.  Heck, I even fish tailed myself.  The new folks in the area were towed out of the ditches, and everybody went back to creeping.