Back It Up!

 

Oh, man … my computer just crashed. Have you ever lost any data or photos because your computer crashed or failed? Or perhaps there was some operator error involved? Makes no difference the reason, if you lose data, it's lost. Unless, of course, you've been diligent about backing everything up.

Diligent … that's a tough word. I wouldn't say we're exactly diligent. It's more like whenever we think of it (which is rarely), we mention to each other that we should back up our computers soon. Then one of the computers starts acting funky and we actually do a backup … post haste. I'm always very pleased with myself right after I complete a backup, but I have a short term memory and it just doesn't occur to me to do it again until something happens. This time, I was lucky. I recovered most everything. In times past, however, I haven't been as lucky and lost lots of data. When the data is photos, it's a heartbreaker.

I used to back up everything on CDs and then later DVDs. When trying to access some of the old media, however, I've found several corrupted disks and photos that were irrecoverable. We have several USB-driven hard drives aboard now and we've purchased a couple of new ones since we've been back in the States. Data storage is pretty cheap nowadays. I remember thinking 250GB would be overkill for what I needed. We tend to download movies which are data hogs, so now we have several 1TB hard drives (TB = terabyte, for those who are living in the last century). That's 1000GB or a trillion bytes … a trillion! What comes next? Actually, petabytes, then exabytes, then zettabytes, then ... Sorry, I digress.

I've copied all of our old CDs and DVDs to external hard drives and now I tend to save all my photos and important documents on two separate drives … just in case one craps out. Yes, we've heard of on-line memory and the cloud, but internet access is often a problem. When we're at sea, we have no internet access at all, and in many places, internet access is slow and is charged by the byte, so online backup options just don't work for us. It seems there's no totally safe media when you're on a boat. Beyond the backups, anything that's important gets sent back home on memory sticks or discs for safekeeping. Remembering that the salt environment is corrosive and hostile to most things … crew excepted ... keeps us more aware of our data vulnerability. (Right!)

Lighthouse for Sale

“Fixer Upper For Sale. Access Tricky. Nice Views. Cash Only.”

That was the headline in the morning Globe the other day. Graves Island Lighthouse near the entrance to Boston Harbor is for sale. According to the terms of the National Lighthouse Preservation Act which went into effect in 2000, lighthouses no longer wanted or needed by the federal government are first offered to historic societies, towns and states for free. The onus of stewardship then rests with them. When there's no interest on those fronts, the lighthouses are then offered at auction to the highest bidder. The bid when I last checked was standing at $111,000, but the auction will be closing soon.

In actuality, Graves Island Lighthouse isn't one of those romantic-looking lighthouses that you fantasize about. It was built in 1903 of granite and placed on Graves Ledges as a navigational aid to large ships entering Boston Harbor. It has a moderately interesting, albeit short history. A British ship containing zoo animals shipwrecked nearby once. They saved three bears and lost a bunch of snakes. That must have been interesting. The ordeals of the lighthouse keepers during severe storms are annotated in lighthouse history books. It was a hard life at Graves Island Light. The kitchen and library described sound comfy, but the foghorn sounding might be a deterrent to peace on occasion.

Ever thought about living in a lighthouse? Closer to shore or on shore, I think it would be awesome. This lighthouse is nine miles offshore and sits on a rocky ledge. There's a 30-foot vertical ladder climb to get to the front door. There's no indoor plumbing or electricity. The Coast Guard maintains the actual light and fog horn as a navigational aid, but the rest is up to the new owner. I think this might be an expensive do-over.

As romantic as it sounds, owning and maintaining a lighthouse has its own unique set of issues beyond the usual “house maintenance” kind of stuff. There's the question of the paint used on old lighthouses (lead or asbestos?) and who owns the land the lighthouse has been placed on. Then, since many lighthouses are registered historical sites, a whole new set of rules applies as to what you can and cannot do. How do you get a repairman out there for estimates? It sounds like a nightmare instead of a fairytale-come-true.

Selling off lighthouses isn't just a USA activity. I've read articles about lighthouse sales in the UK and France. It seems with the advent and advances in radio, radar, GPS and satellite navigation, many lighthouses have become obsolete. They're expensive to maintain, but because they're such an important part of maritime history, governments are trying to sell them to caretakers rather than demolish them.

Despite all this, the idea still has appeal. The solace and peace of the ocean. A 360º ocean view would be wonderful. Wait … we live on a boat. We do have a 360º view and it's doesn't even have to be the same view or the same ocean all the time. Never mind, we'll stick to sailing.

Scratch, Smell and Stink

 

My mum and I amused ourselves this morning by sniffing samples of men's colognes that were tucked into today's newspaper. One “scratch and sniff” featured a head shot of a sexy, dark-haired man giving us that “come hither” look. The other sample pictured a fellow obviously aimed at the younger set with little sex appeal and an arrogant, rather goofy stance. That's just us though. We scratched. We sniffed. We wriggled our noses in unison and said “yuck”. This exercise entertained us for about two minutes until we both started sneezing.

I like the scent of a man … my man, anyhow. Well, I guess I need to clarify that ... after David's crawled out of the bilge or the engine room, all sweaty and smelly, the “scent” can be a bit overwhelming. I tend to avoid him then. To be more specific, I like the scent of my man just after he's come out of the shower. No need for colognes to disguise what already smells good.

According to Wiki, the world's first recorded chemist is a person named Tapputi, an ancient perfume maker from 2000BC who plied his trade in Mesopotamia. Certainly scented oils and incense-based fragrances have been around for centuries. In fact, in the Islamic religion, it is considered a religious duty for men to bathe on Fridays and use perfumes. I think perhaps perfume use in some of the European cultures where bathing was rare, however, was not based upon enhancing the post-bathing experience, but rather covering BO.

I use perfume, but rarely. My favorite? You probably have never heard of it. It's Yanbal and I first sniffed it in Peru. Our friend, Gonzalo, is VP of Manufacturing for the company Yanbal and gave us a tour when we visited Lima several years ago. He gave me a sample of Yanbal and it was the most perfect smell ever. It's not cloying or sickly sweet, it's just ... wonderful. I still have it and use it sparingly. It's like a gift to myself whenever I wear it.

So...back to the scratch and sniff samples. I don't think even Pepe le Pew would appreciate them.