road trip

Norfolk, VA

Yippee! We're back on the boat. Dear Grace is a little chilly. We have the tiny electric heater going and the propane heater and the two oil lamps. All the way up to 48 degrees. I'm wearing my hat. We are comfortable! The wind is blowing so we're swaying a bit on our lines. Comfortable. Amelia is on my lap. We've just finished a dinner of pasta and brussel sprouts. YoYo Ma and Bobby McFerrin are on the cd player. Good Scotch and good (?) red wine. Can you imagine life is good? I've had a bit of that good Scotch so I'm swaying with the boat.

A day in the car. Kitty was not pleased but tolerated the journey with only a minor throw-up of Doritos. Now who would feed a cat Doritos on a road trip? Bad human. She seemed to enjoy the salt, but really!

Before we left NC aunt Kathleen had a little tumble in her bedroom. I'd been thinking she'd been gone from breakfast for a long-ish time so went to check on her, heard her calling through her closed door. "knock, knock." Seems she'd turned quickly and lost her balance so succumbed to gravity. No damage but caused concern as she IS elderly. David helped me help her up then we just sat on her bed and talked for some time. She is concerned that she may be loosing her memory. A reasonable concern as all us more elderly people might do so. I think her worry is, maybe, more about how she will be seen by her children than...no that isn't quite right. I guess I don't think her limited memory loss is too significant. She has to be reminded to take her medications, else she gets distracted and doesn't take them in a timely manner. So what! Remind her and make a little joke about it or just admit that her children are more comfortable if they remind her and are confident she is taking the drugs as prescribed. It is a small adjustment. Her concern, her vulnerability, the inevitability of her death sent me into tears after I left her room. Fucking inevitability of death. Merde alor!!! I will try to be in touch with her much more regularly.

Easy driving, though a long trip, about 6 hours. Only one detour, slow down. Beautiful, though filled with traffic, day. David and I shared driving pretty equally. Not, he did more taking the beginning and the end after dark. We went to the Zimmerman boatyard to pick up the brackets that had been taken off Grace, just in case we decide to change the motor mounts. David and I had a good conversation about our options. We'll begin by checking all the bolts to see if anything is loose. Maybe buy some hours from another recommended mechanic to have a look at our vibration challenge. We've pretty much agreed, though, that if we can't fix the problem easily, there is no need to return to Zimmerman. That yard will charge us for any additional work and we might as well get into a warmer climate to have any additional work done. Sigh.

At the Zimmerman yard we re-met Michael who launched Grace about a week ago and who has two cats and loves all cats. He was on his way to a party but came back and helped us look for the boat parts that we wanted to get. What a dear he is. And we realize we don't know his last name or even the name of his boat. He is living aboard there at the yard...in the water. He spoke of leaving next year to move back to Stuart, FL. I'd love to run into him there. I'm really feeling the regret of knowing, briefly, wonderful sailing friends and expecting to not see them again. Another "sigh". My life is so filled with lovely, gently or exciting people and I have no ability to stay as intimately connected with them as I'd love to do.

Meanwhile, listening to the YoYo Ma/Bobby MeFerrin tape and remembering a dance I made at USM to this particular song. Such joy - so many joys - fills my life. And all is temporary. Kissing all these moments and these memories and the energy of dear, dear friends. Sweet souls. Love wins!

Hey, who is reading this blog regularly? I've no way of knowing unless you identify yourselves or "comment".