October 20, 2019

Forgive me dear reader, it’s be over a month since my last posting.  I could say that we’ve been busy getting ready, but that would be an understatement.
  
We spent the better part of September visiting family across the nation thanks in part to our youngest son delivering a gut punch of guilt saying our grandchildren wouldn’t know who we were on our return.  So what was supposed to be a quick trip to Texas for my mother’s 90^th birthday, ended up being a trip to see most of the kids and grandkids.  

Attic Yoga

We started by driving to Houston to deliver some appliances we had in storage we figured our daughter could use, as well as a basket of all of the birthday and Christmas cards to everyone over the next two years for her to send out for us.  Once there, she had a short list of daddy-do’s (as opposed to honey-do’s) that we thought we could tackle during our quick visit.  We set about checking off each item.  At one point, Dale said that he had traded boat yoga for attic yoga as we insulated her attic with radiant barrier in an effort to keep her house more comfortable and her electric bills more manageable.  As you can see, the tin man would have been very comfortable here when we were finished.

The only mishap came when she climbed up to help and promptly fell through the ceiling catching herself by her elbows across the rafters.  I learned that as her mother, I was only vaguely aware of the salty language she was capable of prior to this incident but got a full run down of her complete repertoire as soon as it happened--and for some time afterward.  Of course, Dale and I tried to assist in bodily pulling her back up from her precarious predicament but found ourselves fighting disparately not to dissolve into giggles over the whole mess.  After we raised her to the attic level and made sure there were no broken bones, I checked to see where she would have landed.  The closest I can figure, she would have fallen only about 2 feet to the hot water heater below but I’m sure she would not have landed on the flat surface but instead on one of the several PVC pipes and most likely puncturing a foot in the process.  Although she would have argued it at the time, she’s probably better off covered in bruises instead. 

Next, we traveled to Ft. Worth to celebrate my mother’s 90^th birthday.  Mom being Mom had already ferreted out the surprise portion of the party and came early to greet her revelers.  The invitation I received said that it was supposed to be a 20’s costume party, so Dale and I came appropriately attired.  Except for my sisters and us, most others must not have received the same invitation.  It didn’t matter, we had fun shaking our tassels or flinging our feathers.  Before you go too crazy, I’m a feather flinger not a tassel shaker.  I have to remind Dale that at our age, he’s lucky I’m flinging any feather.

Happy 15th Alayna

Then, it was on to California to see the boys and their families.  We were just in time to wish Alayna, one of our granddaughters, a happy 15^th birthday and to catch the girls in their various after school sports.  Hunter was home from college for the weekend, so we all got to catch up with the whole family over some well deserved ice cream.  

Then it was on to China Lake where our youngest son had taken the day off to go dune buggy riding with his own son, Aidan, and Dale.  I guess it was a 3 generation attack on the desert.  His wife, Stephanie, granddaughter Adrianna, the baby, Alistair, and I spent the day creating Halloween decorations.  That was a 3 generation attack on JoAnn’s.  Then a midnight flight home to continue with our boat preps first thing in the morning.  


Since then, Dale has cleaned out the garage, rearranged the storage area, hoisted our asymmetrical sail, reattached my newly designed side shade panels, reattached the grill (with its new cover), refurbished and reinstalled the camber spar (with its new sail cover), changed the oil in the outboard engine for the dinghy, ordered a spare prop for the dinghy, repaired the dinghy dodger attachment points (the cover now has zippers for easy removal to wash), changed the oil, fuel filters, and impellers in both main engines, replaced the cable clamps on the steering cables to both engines, purchased satellite minutes for the phone he installed, chased and cleaned all of the wires for the Single Side Band Radio and although he can hear much more clearly, he still cannot determine whether he’s transmitting or not.  He consulted a professional who suggested that he try again once we leave the base; too many antennas and security protocols to ascertain whether he’s truly transmitting or not.  Half the time, we can’t get a decent telephone call through, so it doesn’t surprise me.  

He’s downloaded charts, weather software and subscribed to weather information services.  My sister-in-law, teased that most people have a cup of coffee the first thing each morning, Dale checks the weather.  


I’m positive every single electronic device on our boat has its own GPS signal and antenna.  A friend of mine said that with the antenna array we have on the back arch, she thought we’d be able to contact the Space Station easier than the guy down the dock.  


Besides sewing, I’ve renewed passports, military IDs, and drivers’ licenses.  We’ve filed for Social Security and Medicare (it’s only taken 4 months to finally get that all straightened out).  I’ve renewed registrations on the boats for the entire time we’ll be traveling and the cars that will be in storage.  I’ve cancelled most subscriptions and arranged for whatever bills remain to be sent to us electronically and cancelled all the rest.  I’ve updated our EPIRB information and requested next year’s Customs and Border decal. Today we went in and requested our absentee ballots be forwarded to us.  


Thinking that I had covered all the bases (or at least had calendared them), I really scrambled when the mail came with a notice to renew our boat’s documentation through the Coast Guard.  Since I have saved all such links on my computer, I just hit the one I had previously used, filled out the information and hit send.  There was something about the confirmation that caught my attention; it didn’t say government anywhere.  Sure enough, when I called our credit card company, they told me that third parties can now remotely change your saved links, so that when you click the link, thinking you’re going to one site, it actually redirects you to another; theirs!  What’s really frightening is that it looked legitimate.   First robo-calls, now this!  I was fried!!  Probably more at myself for not catching it than anything else.  


Of course, through all of this we try to spend time with our friends before we leave, so we have lunches or dinners every other day at the local restaurants which leaves me trying disparately to ignore my expanding waistline.  When I had to sort through which clothes I wanted to take on the trip, I tried on everything to make sure I could at least zip up the pants to determine whether or not it would fit on me prior to deciding whether it would fit on the boat.  Bathing suits I relegated to a box.  There’s too much violence in the world for me to be trying on bathing suits at this point and risk the possibility of going postal.  The neighborhood is a safer place without that misstep.  Dale kept a wide berth; probably a good idea as he appears to be losing weight throughout this ordeal.  


Dale’s colleagues from work dropped by for the nickel tour last evening, so we had to put everything still cluttering the counters and floor from our various projects away.  Now the big push is to empty the boxes, bags, piles and collections throughout the house and actually load them onto the boat without messing it up.  A challenge to be sure!  We still have the in-water insurance survey to complete on Monday but as long as I have a place for everything as we take it down, I think we’ll be able to access all the parts and places without drama.  Once that portion of the survey is completed, we’ll have a day and a half to finish loading up prior to taking off early Thursday morning to make it to St. Augustine for the out-of-water portion of the survey on Friday of next week.  That leaves me tomorrow and the weekend to grocery shop and pre-prepare meals that can be frozen or eaten on the go.  Wish me luck!