Holy Darn COW!!

Honestly!

I think blog friend/reader Margaret said it best in her comment: “…. the baby in the White House…” And the GOP senators, house members are generally (there are some great exceptions) being complicit (Ivanka might not know that word, but I’m guessing most of the GOP does!!!) in enabling/humoring Trump while the election process and America’s reputation is further diminished.

And President-elect Biden/Vice-President-elect Harris wishes to unite us become much harder.

So far, the good news is that the -elect are moving forward with not much attention to the bad news, i.e. they are getting on with the job. And I was encouraged by the choice of Chief of Staff: Rob Klain. I watched Mr. Klain speak about the bipartisan effort of stimulus and he was complimentary of the process on both sides. Hoo-rah!! It seems as if he is on the path of “let’s work together to solve problems” … I hope so.

Enough politics. I hope and pray that all moves forward peacefully. Hopefully … eventually, most will be open-minded enough to work together, to compromise to work for the best for all.

Meanwhile … it is Winter again at my house:

The morning walk. Hard to see, but it is snowing. That blue band is Emmett’s LED collar :).

Morning snow.

To date (11/12), I think about 6 inches of snow fell and that has settled at 4 inches, but it warmed up this afternoon and we had some melting.

It is a bit early for “cabin fever”, but so far, Auggie does not seem so inclined to go out in inclement weather as he was previous years. He was 7 in July, but … we’ll see as Fall/Winter progresses!

My new obsession: Vendee Globe 2020.

Vendee Globe is an ocean sailing race: around the world, solo, non-stop, no assistance. Vendee Globe happens every 4 years.

I grew up sailing and did some small boat/lake & river racing. Over the last year, I have been following some “’round the world” cruising vlogs on YouTube. By virtue of those connections, I happened to see info on the Vendee Globe race and got hooked!

Aside from the sailing, there is a fascinating technical aspect of this race. Because of COVID-19 as well as technical advancements, this race was designed to be “consumed” via the internet. The boats are wired for input: video, text … and every skipper has some social media people digesting and editing … as well as the Vendee Globe site…

Above is an early image of the tracking map showing the position of every boat. The tracking map is updated every several hours.

Onboard videos are updated from each skipper as they have opportunity.

There are skipper cards with info about each skipper, their boat, their experience and how/why they are competing.

The individual stories as well as the entire history of the Vendee Globe race is incredible: 28,000 miles (plus/minus), non stop, 1 person-1 boat with no help. The current record is 74 days. Yes, 74 days!

As I said, I am hooked on following the race. I started with a focus on Pip Hare: 46 years old, sailing a 20 year old boat, British, a LOT of ocean racing experience (Medallia sponsorship). I added Alex Thomson: 46 years old, sailing a brand new boat, 5th Vendee Globe and a super high tech site (Hugo Boss and Nokia sponsorship). And since I have been following, I am getting to know the other skippers, their boats and sponsors and reasons for racing.

It is GOOD NEWS.

It is stuff that has passion and requires super-human dedication. It allows me to reject that crappy political stuff.

So. Alex Thomson racing/Hugo Boss/Nokia … their technical info is incredible:

Skipper Alex is wired for health and well being info.

I didn’t include, but there are also inputs for the boat and the environment. I think other skippers have similar, but Alex’s info is the most readily available to me.

The Vendee Globe 2020 main site above.

It is well done! I wish I had better French as many of the skippers are sailing for France and their posts/videos are in French … Still, the visuals are incredible. Honestly … these boats are in the middle of whichever ocean and I am getting real time updates!!

Tomorrow will be nerve wracking as the group heads into/around Theta:

YIKES.

This will be the 3rd “low” with high winds/high seas.

I will be watching.

The political bad news … GAHH … NOTHING compared to the good news of the 33 skippers challenging the oceans of the world.

Perspective is everything :)