Here are some of the letters I sent out describing my life to my friends.

1-5-07

I'm still here with my boat anchored out in Charleston, SC. I will probably leave for Florida next week.  I've had a local friend and sailor that I met a couple years ago when I was on my first boat in St. Petersburg, Fl. say that he might be interested in sailing with me to Florida.  It would be good to have an extra set of hands along for this maiden voyage.  I still need to check how far I can heel the boat with the water drums, but I'm getting closer and closer to feeling ready to make the trip.

I checked the sails (12 of them) yesterday and this morning, a best as one can check them in the cabin when it's raining outside, LOL.  I was able to get rough measurements on them so I know what I have and which bag to look to get what sail.  The sail cloth and stitching all looks pretty good, all the head sails must have never been rinsed so the clips and grommets that attach them to the head stay were all very corroded.  I got them cleaned up and working again, a few of the clips and more of the grommets on them will need replacing soon but not before they are used again.

Today I will go do some laundry and I will go to the sailing thrift store and look to see what they have for replacement clips and grommets.  Tonight we will play cards at the boat yard, I haven't decided what tomorrow will bring as far as fun, since it's Saturday.  They tell me the big football game is Monday or Tuesday so I'll probably stick around till then and find a place to watch that.

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2-5-07

I'm in LaBelle, the boat is in Stuart, about 80 miles east of here, came here to Norm and Phyllis's to watch the superbowl. I'll head back to the boat probably tomorrow and head this way. I need to do something with my two old boats, hopefully sell them.

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2-17-07

I've got my car, today I went to the Ft Myers gun show looking for an SKS but didn't find one.  I'll be heading up the east coast and then back to Kansas and Arkansas to help my brother pour some concrete on his new house in the next couple weeks.

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3-6-07

Last week I danced with a PlentyOfFish online singles group in Columbus, Oh. and made a bunch of new friends. My little Subaru is going to have 250K on it real

soon. Still going strong. I picked up the finished boat documentation paperwork. Also got some eBay items picked up and some dancing with new friends.  I now

have what I need to get the 1996 Nissan maxima on the road.  I've been running around with my Best friend from college for the last couple days, his dad just died, They knew it was coming. I met him in Urbana, Illinois, visited with his brother and sister who were also there, then we went to his mom's in St. Louis, I've known them all since the first year in College, spent Xmas with them all. We continued our trip toward home and visited his Nephew in Colombia, Mo, and then stopped for a visit with his son (named after me) and future wife of that son, in Lawrence, KS, they are buying a house and we got a tour of that. (They will get married Sept 8th in KC, so I'll probably try to get back for that.)

I'm home in Kansas now, It was good trip, got in two days ago.  A week of dancing, old friends, new friends, ebay items, exploring new towns and bargain hunting in thrift stores, what more could I want?  Except maybe to meet my future wife and mother of my kids.  Everything at the house is fine and still here.  That's always a big relief.

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6-1-07

I'm back in Florida working on the boats, been here for a couple months, heading to Kansas and Arkansas for the 4th of July, having a family reunion, and pouring more concrete on my brothers place on Beaver lake.  I couldn't find a buyer for the 38 like it was so I've been fixing it up to make it a ready to go boat instead of one needing work, maybe I'm one of the few or the only one that buys boats like that, and that's why I get such good deals, ya think...

I'm flying home, it's cheaper than driving, even my Subaru, $3 gas would cost $400, I can get plane tickets for $200, infact I sent out an update my life email, and one of my friends back home will pick me up at the airport, take me dancing and then take me home. and turn around and do it again 3 weeks later, but I found another friend that needed her daughters car driven to Florida so I'm doing that instead of flying back, so only need a oneway ticket, a little over $100. A couple other friends also offered solutions to my how do I get from the KC airport to Manhattan or Arkansas, but it's hard to beat an offer including dancing.

Speaking of that I went dancing last night, haven't done that for almost a month, down here I tend to keep my nose to grindstone.  If you read this line how about right now before you forget, you send me an email to let me know somebody actually does read this stuff, it's good to know I'm not just typing to keep my fingers active. 

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Travel to Florida and the Flying bike V3  Aug 01, 2007  Needed: A trip to KC Sunday or Monday, more follows.  Life has been hectic the last month, I've found myself driving 800  miles in 10 hours in a brand new 08 Sonata, very nice car equal to my  87 Lincolns, and then a couple days ago driving 400 miles with a 1/2  hours notice and doing some concrete work as soon as I woke up.  I've  finally got a moment to write a letter, I'm in Arkansas at my  brothers place again, we poured more concrete on his new house  project and will make another pour Friday morning.  Today I'm working  on my flying bike project, version 3, no the bike will not fly per  say it folds up (really disassembles easily) into a neat small  package that will easily be transported as luggage on a commercial  airplane.  This package will be about 28x26x12 inches and also  contain a folding bike trailer, the package itself (fiberglass box)  we be a major component of the trailer.  Version two was worked on  last week at my friend Glens house, it had multiple disassembly  points and folded 

quite compactly but was found to be too flexible  when assembled.  As Edison once said, I have not failed, I have just  found 10,000 ways not to do something right.  When I figure out how  to make folding or disassembling bike wheels the package can get much  smaller.  Small wheels is out of the question, they just aren't safe  at high speeds, and I do see a tiny 49 cc motorcycle engine being  added to this in the future with 50 mph and 100+mpg not  unbelievable.    Now for the travel part, my plans to get back to Florida to deliver a  car, got totally turned upside down when I was told the car didn't  need to go, she said I could still take it, but there's no need to waste $600 of gas to take a car to Florida and back for now reason,  so I opted for other solutions, I started up my motorcycle and gave  it consideration. Hadn't been on it for 10 years or so, since I last  took a long trip out west camping along the coast and visiting  national parks for a couple months.  The problem with that would be  one more vehicle in Florida, got too many there already, granted the  motorcycle trip would be enjoyable and it would be easy to store and  also tow home.  I also was wanted here in Arkansas to help with a  couple more concrete pours, and had intended stops in Mobile to pick  up a sailboat mast and maybe Atlanta for single campout on the trip  to Florida.  After evaluating alternatives I opted for a flight from  KCI to Ft Myers for a total cost of $97, hard to beat that.  I drove  Del's truck down here to Arkansas, Del is the guy looking after my  place while I'm gone, and will drive back to Kansas Friday afternoon  after we pour concrete in the morning.  I fly out of KC Tuesday  morning at 6AM, so I'll probably stay in KC Monday night and maybe  also Sunday night too.  Anybody having any ideas how I can get to KC  from Manhattan, please speak up, sure I can take the airport shuttle  but that's no fun, that's for normal people and all you know I'm 

far  from normal, LOL.    The 800 mile drive was to pick up Del's daughter from the X in a  little town west of McCook Neb. Del called Saturday evening and  wondered if I wanted to go for a ride, I told him I was out dancing,  pick me up at the bar at midnight.  I drove all the way out there,  that's what Del wanted was help driving and he drove half way back  while I got some sleep.   I'll probably call somebody about buying some used but still good  barn tin I checked on a month ago at a yard sale in Lyndon, KS, if  they go for my offer I'll borrow a boat trailer from my brother and  pick it up on the way home.  I've always got use for stuff like that  around the home, and if the price is right it's a good time to buy  it.   The conveyor A frame support project we worked on last time I was  down here worked perfectly.  I need to figure out a better joint for  the bottom tube of the flying bike, something that rotates in and  connects and has good side to side bending and tension strength, a  hinge with removable pin would work, but surely there is something  out there that is more elegant than that and requires no tools.   Have a great day.  Jon 

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9-17-07  I spent the last month and a half in Florida getting the Hughes ready to sell.  Some fiberglass work, learning how to weld stainless steel, and lots of other little jobs, it's ready now.  Now it's time to learn how to sell on eBay.  Since I've been such a good buyer eBay sent me note that listing stuff for sale is free for me this month.  So the 38 and 30 get listed, I expect the 38 to sell and not the 30.  I just bought a couple sailboat shipping cradles in Ft Myers, haven't picked them up yet.  A thousand pounds of structural steel and a pallet full of about 30 jackstand screw jacks and pads. 

Haven't been doing any dancing, just work on the boat, learning about poker statistics, wrote a few programs to calculate things like expected winning hands for any number of players for different games.  I've been playing a lot of poker lately that's what spurred that on, $5 game twice a week.  I also played in a couple $25  texas holdem games and came out ahead.  I've actually learned enough interesting stuff that I'm planning on writing a book about "The math and probabilities of poker."  I couldn't find anything about the hand probabilities of draw poker after the draw, so I calculated it, and found out stuff that most would not expect, that warrants a book about the subject.

Welding stainless steel was pretty easy using a gas welding torch, read about it online.  Basically you use a fuel rich mixture to get rid of all the oxygen, use a piece of stainless rod, I just used part of an old animal cage, keep the flame steady to keep a good shield gas, and melt everything together.  It takes a lot of heat, stainless is a good conductor.  I learned once more how to release hot metal quickly, didn't even have any long term blisters, just a sore spot for a day or so.  It was a success, the bow rail on the Hughes is one piece again, and even looks good where I welded it.  A grinder is a wonderfull tool.  Then finish up with a wire wheel, a stainless wire wheel would be better. 

The last week, I've been helping with an online search for Steve Fossett, the adventurer that set all the worlds record's and then went missing while flying in the Nevada desert.  Basically I spent 30 hours or so looking at 7000 satellite images, and then also reviewing what other people had found, passing the info on to the search team on the ground and in the air in Nevada.  You can see a couple pictures about that on my photo page.  I was at the landing and got to meet Steve in Salina after he finished the solo round the world trip in the global flier.  Many say I'm just like him, but he has more money.

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Need ride from Topeka friday.  October 15, 2007  

Friends in Manhattan/Topeka area:

If anybody knows of somebody that works in Topeka that wouldn't mind giving me a ride from Topeka to Manhattan when they come home from work on this Friday, I can get a ride from KC to Topeka in the morning and spend the day shopping.

I moved two boats yesterday, the 30 footer should be headed to Puerto Rico, the 38 is still up in the air, I get people asking questions about it, hopefully soon somebody does more than just ask.   Today first thing I need to get the big boat off a mud flat it's been sitting on for a the last 9 months, I figured that would be a safe place for it mostly sitting high and dry.  It's about a foot to high, going to have to use an anchor or two from the mast top and lean it way over again.   I haven't been dancing since I got back down here to Florida, that's months.  Life has just been work on boats, day in, day out.  Soon it will be just work on THE boat, and I'm getting it set up so I can do that anywhere while travelling.  I keep adding pictures to the web site.  I'll be around Manhattan for the next 3 weeks.

http://www.jheld.mysite.com/photo_5.html  and MISC PHOTOS has the new pictures.

Thanks 

10/15/07  I moved two boats yesterday, the 30 footer should be headed to Puerto Rico, the 38 is still up in the air, I get people asking questions about it like on from

Israel and the head of Fiat in India and many other places, hopefully soon somebody does more than just ask.   Today first thing I need to get the big

boat off a mud flat it's been sitting on for a the last 9 months, I figured that would be a safe place for it mostly sitting high and dry.  It's about a foot to high, going to

have to use an anchor or two from the mast top and lean it way over again.   I haven't been dancing since I got back down here to Florida, that's months.  Life has

just been work on boats, day in, day out.  It's great to finally be working on the big boat, I'm getting it set up so I can do that anywhere while travelling.  I'm heading

home Thursday evening flying into KC.  Old friend Angela will pick me up at the airport and I'll spent the night in KC.  If anybody is has reason to drive from KC to

Topeka or Manhattan on Friday or Saturday morning I could use a ride.  Basically need to be in St George by late Saturday afternoon for a BBQ. 

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10/18/07  I'll be around Manhattan for the next 3 weeks till Nov 11th so I could use a ride to KC then. I wouldn't have any trouble spending time in KC for a day or two shopping and sight seeing.  So If your headed that way please let me know. 

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11/04/07 I've been working on a couple projects, went to Arkansas and helped my brother with the last walls on his new house, we only have one major pour left, the roof and then the house will be ready to start work on closing it in and making it read to move in. There also will be tons of dirt to move to cover it, you can see pictures of the progress at my other website

http://www.jonheld.mysite.com/photo3_1_1.html

I've also been helping with building the the stage set for the local High School play "Beauty and the Beast" pictures of my work can be seen toward the bottom of this page.

http://www.jheld.mysite.com/photo_4.html

It's hard to believe it's almost been a year since the pictures below were taken.

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 Heading back to Florida   November 07, 2007

I'm heading back to Florida on Sunday.  I need to figure out how I'm getting to the KC airport Sunday afternoon.  I have options but am always open for suggestions.  I can get a ride to Junction city and take th bus to downtown KC and then figure out how to get to the airport from there.  I can get a ride and go dancing with friends on Saturday night in Topeka and then figure out how to continue on to KC.  If you know of anybody travelling from Manhattan to KC sunday that wouldn't mind a rider please let me know.

Lately I've been working on the set for the play Beauty and the Beast at the local High School. It's quite neat.  You can see pics at

http://www.jheld.mysitecom/photo_4.html

I've also added another paragragh on the bottom of my life at

http://www.jheld.mysitecom/custom3.html

We finally finished the walls of my brothers house.

http://www.jonheldmysite.com/photo3_1_1.html

I've got more new pictures but they haven't been posted yet.  I need to figure out how to extend that page or just start a new page but the page templates the site offers have changed and I haven't decided how I want to deal with that.  The old ones have been eliminated, but I'm sure I can figure out how to reuse them and keep the look of the site consistent.  Life goes on.

I think I've got somebody interested in the 38 foot boat now, he lives in the next town over from my brother in Connecticut, not sure which town and which direction yet, but he sails out of New London.. 

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Boat sold, need item taken to Arkansas, pay gas. Nov 20, 2007 

 I'm in Florida, got here no problem, just had some help from new and old friends, and also free airline tickets from giving up my seat on a flight last summer.  thanks all.

I am putting out a call for help once more, no rush.  My brother that's building a house just bought a concrete grinder surfacer here in Florida on Ebay but it needs to be in NW Arkansas where the house is.   I picked it up last night, it is gasoline powered about the size of a garden rototiller but the handles come off and it fits in the back of my Subaru station wagon no problem.  If anybody is heading from Florida to anywhere near Arkansas we would be happy to go out of our way to meet you and reduce the effect on your trip and make a large donation to your gas cost to help get this on it's way.  No rush, my brother would like to have it there by February so keep this in the back of your mind.  Everybody can come out ahead.

Yesterday I finally sold the 30 foot boat, so I'm only a two boat guy this morning and soon will have some money in the bank, been almost a year and a half since I've been this way, but I'm sure I'll be able to rectify the problem of having money in the bank real soon..... LOL.

I still have the 38 foot boat to sell, and finally starting to work on the steel boat to get ready to go.  The guy that bought the 30 foot boat is from Peurto Rico, so now I have a good friend from there.  He's been here for the last week and learning much about debugging problems on boats.  We went through the boat from stem to stern fixing things along the way and making sure it's ready for the trip to his Island in Caribbean some time next spring.  It will be stored on the hard for the winter at Glades Marina and new bottom paint and the hull inspected before making the trip.

I've got a couple interested in the 38 but nobody making the trip to look at it yet.  Money is very tight, I expected the 38 to sell and have trouble with the 30 since there are many many more 30 footers for sale and not many 38's and most everybody that has a 30 would like a 38 and the price is definitely in the lower part of the range. 

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Merry Christmas  This will be the last email from me unless you respond, more about that later but first  here is a Xmas thing you will enjoy.  

------------------- This is a group of college guys who sing a wonderful take on the 12 Days of  Christmas....you will definitely be smiling.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fe11OlMiz8  ----------------- Now back to the last email thing.    I believe many of my emails sent out end 

up in the spam folder of the recipients for  two reasons, my amateur radio email address, n0ryq, is considered spam by many spam  checkers 

and the fact that it also is addressed to many addresses. Anyway I will update my email list to only those that respond.  You may have two 

copies  of this email, I started a new email address jheldatksuedu@gmail.com and sent this email  from both that to eliminate the n0ryq problem 

and n0ryq@juno.com for those that receive  it ok from there.  If you only received one and it's the first that you've heard from me  in a long 

long time your spam checker might be the problem and the new one works. I've  sent out at least one email per month for  along time.  Maybe 

if you sent me an email to  the juno address your spam checker would learn that n0ryq (2nd character is a number 0)  is not spam.  I don't 

intend to stop using that email because I've used it for years and  that's where most people expect to find me.  Please send me an email 

and tell me how many emails you received, respond to the juno one  if you got it, if not we will try to get the juno one to work, it's the easiest 

for me  and the one I check and use most.  I also have the jheld@ksu.edu, it's automatically  forwarded to the juno, I can't send from it because 

KSU makes you change your password  every couple months (suppose to be more hacker proof, but a stupid idea and ridiculous  burden for the 

thousands of users in my opinion, but nobody asks me.) I plan to keep the web sites updated, www.jheld.mysite.com and www.jonheld.mysite.com 

If you don't get either of these emails, you don't need to bother to send me anything,  LOL.  Unless of course you got this a different way and 

want to be put on the list.....   I'm in Arkansas at my brothers the day when I first wrote this, we got the grinder  delivered.  Then I went to south 

central Kansas, a funeral, unfortunately.  Then last  Thursday I made it to home to Manhattan.   I'm getting reacquainted to cold weather, a  week 

ago I was swimming at 7am just to wash the sweat of me, a day of driving and I was  in 20 degrees, the last couple days I've been helping my 

brother cut firewood.  We drag  whole trees with the backhoe to the splitter then cut it to length and split and stack  it.  The progress on the big 

boat is slow and steadily moving forward, I've got the engine  room about done, still no tanks under the floors and have to paint the bilge, it's 

coming  along.  I still want to reshape the main bilge under the engine on the boat, to eliminate water  sitting on steel, since with a bilge pump 

you can't pump out every last drop.  This will  involve pulling the main engine and pouring some concrete that will slope to the cut off  bottom 

of a 5 gal bucket set in the concrete to act as a sump.  This after bilge pumping  will leave a little water harmlessly in the bottom of a plastic 

pail a long way from any  steel.  The only thing left in the engine room is to decide what to do with the exhaust  from the two engines, I probably 

want to keep it a dry exhaust, right now it's a tractor  type stack complete with flapper valve coming out the back of the cockpit.  That will  

change but not exactly sure of the details yet.  There is a 4 inch diameter fiberglass  exhaust pipe headed to the back of the boat, but that's 

designed for wet exhaust, I had  to introduce salt water to anything inside the boat. Any ideas are welcome. The engine  cooling is a closed 

system keel tank, basically just like an automobile type radiator  system.  This trip I am without my phone, it's sitting on the front seat in 

my car in  Jacksonville, Florida. It didn't make the transfer when we unloaded the grinder and other  stuff to Jason's car for the trip to my 

brothers.  After talking with the phone companies  customer service, a long drawn out process, due to language barriers and the little  knowledge 

of what to do about the problem on both ends of the phone.  It was learned that  I can buy a new phone and have the old service transferred to 

the new phone.  This will  give me a replacement phone for the next couple weeks while I'm in Kansas.  It seems I  should go thorough the 

process of buying a new phone every time I need to add minutes to  my old one, since the new phone comes with more minutes and longer 

activation for less  money than the cheapest minute cards.  This new time will get added to minutes and  service time I've got on the old 

phone.  I love to find financial loopholes in a system,  LOL.  Soon I should have a phone, I checked what's available locally, but the phone  

ordered one is a better deal.  Basically I need to loose my phone every 4 months buy a  new one, and I can have a cell phone for about $8 

a month.  I should be back in Florida in early January but my travel plans are still unknown and up  in the air.  If you know of anybody traveling 

toward Jacksonville, that has space for a  rider please let me know.  I could use up one of my free flights or I could drive another  vehicle down 

that way, one that could tow the Subaru home and carry lots of stuff, or one  that I could sell down there for maybe more money than it would 

be worth in Kansas.  Have a Happy New Year too.  Jon    

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