Good morning Commander boaters and fans in the USA, boating weather is not going to be too good during the next few days. Check out the jet stream map for this morning;











Not a lot of moisture coming down from Canada, but some cold temps, especially if you are going to a NFL football game in Nashville tonight (thankfully, I'll be watching the Titans versus Indiana game on television). I'll bet there are a lot of tickets being given away this evening!

I love going to a ball game all bundled up. We used to be able to take beer into the dawg pound at Cleveland Stadium, you had to drink fast so it wouldn't freeze!

I have been wondering about the skiff sans windscreen. I love the look, but it could turn into an ice cream headache this fall. I could loan you my leather bomber helmet and goggles since the garage is emptied out of motor bikes for a while.

A picture of you at the helm comes to mind. In the leather and goggles, grinning like a mad man, silk scarf flying over one shoulder in the frigid breeze. All the while JP watches from the dock, shaking her head knowing that only nut jobs like us would call that fun!

As the leaves fall I head into winter still the proud, if somewhat reluctant owner of Feelgood. I believe in HOPE and that the economics will be favorable for an early launch and a full season of boating in the spring. I plan to lay up and mothball the whole deal until April. It has been a trying year for me and the salty crew. With a fresh set of sea legs everything will look different/better next year.

I am looking forward to wintering here on "Thee Commander Forum".

Yours truly, Chris

Dear all:
As Mark Twain once wrote: "news of my demise is greatly exaggerated". I am still in the saddle, with plenty of ammo, and lots of horses, errrr, camels under me. I am so glad to see Chris' message that he will keep his boat that I may go outside and let off a few rounds in celebration!

I have been following all the comings and going of the forum and am beginning to see a trend here! Too many idle hands. With a depressed economy, what better time, than now, the fall, to buy 3 or 4 boats for the price of one!!!! Rememer how it was when you were working on your boats instead of having them? With winter coming on, recall how good it felt to have a wrench freeze to your hand, to walk out in the morning and see a freeze plug laying on the concrete underneath your pet engine. Recall the smell of ether as you tried to get her started! Just one more crank, baby, do it for daddy! Ahhhhh, the slow rate of cure of epoxy, sometimes 2 or 3 weeks. And no need to hurry on the paint job, sand it just once more to make sure. Paint won't set up for another 3 months. Or getting a good ole CO2 headache from painting parts in the garage by the kerosene fire.

Yes, now is the time to jump on the deals and get the next few years worth of work lined out! It does not have to be a big job. I am doing a little dinghy for Summer Palace. At least, I think I have it bought. Yes, sight unseen! You guys are the EMTs of the boat world. Get busy out there!
Jerry, at the point of the spear, and whittling on the shaft.

Real good to hear you are doing well, your note is upbeat, and I hope your mission is going according to plan and expectations.

You missed the $4 per gal at the fuel pump and and now I actually heard someone was selling gas for just below two bucks somewhere. It's been crazy, and the next ten days here in the US will probably be crazy too.

So the question remains, are their any (fiberglass) Commanders in Iraq? Surely there must be one............hidden away somewhere?

Howard

I hope you get back to a commputer and see that I have taken note of your post! I have to get Cindy to read that! I have tried and tried to convince her that this is a GREAT time to buy more boats. She just won't see the light. Maybe with the encouragement of a fine American Hero like yourself, there will be a break through.HA HA Not likely. I am stil trying to figure out how to sneak the 18' lyman I bought into the shop with out starting yet another geopolitcal catastrophy right here in Galena, Ohio.

I hope you are doing well and being all that you can be. We all love to here from you when you get the chance to post. Have you heard about the sequel in the making for another Huron Rendezvous. You MUST try to attend, you will flip out on the quality of boats and the boatniks who care for them.

So, in closing, the news is managing to leak through the "drive by media". Ya'all are making a great deal of head way toward a free and peaceful Iraq, HUH? Way to go to you and your team. Less about the war and more about the economy in the election coverage these days, whatever that means. I say we should do our part to stimulate economic growth and " BUY MORE BOATS". And of course VOTE for what or who ever. That is what we fight for right?

Yours Truly, Chris
sorry for almost getting too political it must be all this election coverage is warping my brain