Good morning from rainy Canton OH! My S.O. is still asleep. Last thing she said last night was to wake her early so she could water the flowers. God's taking care of that, so I'll let her sleep.
~I had a moment with no thought yesterday and looked to see if Sea Magazine had been resurrected. I started looking at various comments about it and somehow ended up on the trawler forum. I've been a marine engine tech since 1958, with one spell of lust for cars leading me to The Hertz Corp, where the employees at my first management position and I started the Hertz # 1 Club. Twelve years later it was mandated all management had to have Master's degrees, so this ignoramus turned in his keys and left Maine to head back to VA. For those 12 years I kept picking up "beer money" after hours, so when we settled in, I started a mobile service that went from DC to the NC/VA line, west to Richmond. A couple of slow winters I worked for Suzuki Marine, and was fortunate enough to have friends in Suzuki and Bombardier who helped me attend schools. Most of my service was outboards, but delightfully, I lived right next door to the company that manufactured the Ford Lehman and I was able to enjoy working on a couple of trawlers that didn't require contortions such as most outboard-powered boats did. My lust changed from cars to Grand Banks, but I'd already spent the money on cars. My mobile service was called The Motor Doctor. MaryLou, my significant other, is a retired nurse so our license plates were MOTR DR and MOTRNRS.
Back to Sea Magazine. By a fluke I picked up a In-Fisherman magazine and was reading a Q&A column. Some advice given was wrong, so with my worldly knowledge (!) I called the editor, told him he was wrong. I was challenged to do better so had that gig for a year. One day a visitor to my website said he liked my column in Go Boating. I said I didn't write for them. He sent me the magazine where I found a column had been filched from In Fisherman. I called the editor who hemmed & hawed then hired me on a freelance position that had me writing a column for Sea monthly, plus a feature a year, and a column and feature every month for GoBoating, which became Boating World-- for thirty-two years! For the last 2 years I even had my own Andy-Rooney style column, "Grinding Grid's Gears." In 2019 I was hit with something called "Still's Disease," which took months to diagnose, had me moved to several hospitals and rehabs where I had to learn how to stand, walk, eat, dress myself. Each time I got out of rehab I was out a short time and Still's took over. I was hospitalized for 3 of 5 years. I survived 3 Covid bouts. All this time Duncan Macintire, who owned Sea and Go Bo, had his people push me for deadlines (the word sounded ominous, believe me) but I firmly believe that between my faith, my MaryLou, and Duncan pushing me, I'm here today writing an exceedingly long introduction, and I thank you for your patience. Though I've offered to do a Q&A for papers here and Cleveland, or teach seminars, I never had any takers, so have spent my time self-publishing 4 books of boating humor, one technical, one large one titled "What do I do Now?", one novella, and right now a full-length novel (suspense) that I hope to have done next year. Again, thank you for your patience. I could have sounded like an AA meeting: "Hi, I'm Grid," but since I don't drink, I don't know what comes next! A demain~
~I had a moment with no thought yesterday and looked to see if Sea Magazine had been resurrected. I started looking at various comments about it and somehow ended up on the trawler forum. I've been a marine engine tech since 1958, with one spell of lust for cars leading me to The Hertz Corp, where the employees at my first management position and I started the Hertz # 1 Club. Twelve years later it was mandated all management had to have Master's degrees, so this ignoramus turned in his keys and left Maine to head back to VA. For those 12 years I kept picking up "beer money" after hours, so when we settled in, I started a mobile service that went from DC to the NC/VA line, west to Richmond. A couple of slow winters I worked for Suzuki Marine, and was fortunate enough to have friends in Suzuki and Bombardier who helped me attend schools. Most of my service was outboards, but delightfully, I lived right next door to the company that manufactured the Ford Lehman and I was able to enjoy working on a couple of trawlers that didn't require contortions such as most outboard-powered boats did. My lust changed from cars to Grand Banks, but I'd already spent the money on cars. My mobile service was called The Motor Doctor. MaryLou, my significant other, is a retired nurse so our license plates were MOTR DR and MOTRNRS.
Back to Sea Magazine. By a fluke I picked up a In-Fisherman magazine and was reading a Q&A column. Some advice given was wrong, so with my worldly knowledge (!) I called the editor, told him he was wrong. I was challenged to do better so had that gig for a year. One day a visitor to my website said he liked my column in Go Boating. I said I didn't write for them. He sent me the magazine where I found a column had been filched from In Fisherman. I called the editor who hemmed & hawed then hired me on a freelance position that had me writing a column for Sea monthly, plus a feature a year, and a column and feature every month for GoBoating, which became Boating World-- for thirty-two years! For the last 2 years I even had my own Andy-Rooney style column, "Grinding Grid's Gears." In 2019 I was hit with something called "Still's Disease," which took months to diagnose, had me moved to several hospitals and rehabs where I had to learn how to stand, walk, eat, dress myself. Each time I got out of rehab I was out a short time and Still's took over. I was hospitalized for 3 of 5 years. I survived 3 Covid bouts. All this time Duncan Macintire, who owned Sea and Go Bo, had his people push me for deadlines (the word sounded ominous, believe me) but I firmly believe that between my faith, my MaryLou, and Duncan pushing me, I'm here today writing an exceedingly long introduction, and I thank you for your patience. Though I've offered to do a Q&A for papers here and Cleveland, or teach seminars, I never had any takers, so have spent my time self-publishing 4 books of boating humor, one technical, one large one titled "What do I do Now?", one novella, and right now a full-length novel (suspense) that I hope to have done next year. Again, thank you for your patience. I could have sounded like an AA meeting: "Hi, I'm Grid," but since I don't drink, I don't know what comes next! A demain~
