downsizing/upsizing

Melbourne, FL  on the hook

Beautiful, windy morning. Yesterday we put a sail out and gained about 3/10 of a knot/hr. Winds up to 19 knots. Ooooh. I was at the helm. Ooooohhhhhh.

Clearly we're headed north and home. So regular thoughts about house, garden, the amount of work they take, beloved family and neighbors, need (or not) to plan or at least have some guidelines for the next 5-10 years of living in the world. Downsizing...not from the boat size but maybe from the 2-story house size.

I've read all those Next Avenue posts about how your children don't want your stuff. No children but I expect no one close to me wants my stuff either, especially the stuff that has only sentimental value to me...the wedding pot David and I bought in New Mexico or AZ, the Harlequin pot that was my mother's and maybe my grandmother's, things that came from my parents' collection just because it was important to them. Would my cousins want any of this stuff? Maybe Patsy or Dale or Kay's children? Hard to know.  Anyway I was thinking about having an open house for Shannon, Maggie and Sharyl to offer them some things...whatever they might want now or to put their name on if I wasn't quite ready yet to part with their choices. Then, open house for whomever...maybe close friends first...to whittle down. All this whittling in preparation for smaller house, maybe new place.

No alarm. This is perennial exercise for me. But brought on at this time, maybe, from meeting Doug and Diane, originally from mid-Maine who "bought a boat slip and a condo came with it," they said. Little Washington, NC, has been their home base for the past two years. We met in Vero Beach this past week. They've just returned from the Bahamas. Hmmmm.

Two dreams last night involving my mother - In one I was to pick up my parents at the airport. I was leaving too late to be on time, trying to straighten my house and yard before they arrived...open the pet door so cat could get in but worried that other animals could get in...kitty went in so I closed the cat door...the yard was dry, unattractive...gotta go as Dad will be ,or pretend to be, annoyed at my lateness. (I just thought of "pretend" which was probably true more frequently than he let on as he was uncomfortable expressing love and delight at seeing me. And I know he loved me deeply.)

Dream #2 - I'd come into my mother's house (?) (my childhood house? sort of) and all the furniture in the kitchen had been pushed against one wall to accommodate deep cleaning. I checked to see if other rooms were similarly "ready." Maybe I could start cleaning in the kitchen but didn't know what Mother had planned since the counter surfaces were full of kitchen stuff. Should I clean the cabinet interiors or....I didn't want to upset her plan so...
I woke up before having to start working.

No idea what either of those dreams means but glad to have my parents visit in my subconscious. They are always welcome.

Here I sit on the aft deck with coffee. 8:20 a.m and two jet skis are zipping past about a quarter mile away, salt water spray surrounding them in their speed. Our dinghy laps and smacks the water behind, actually in front of me. Time for me to check the weather for today and the rest of the week, into possible rocket launch on Monday. Amazingly, Easter is only four days away. Hmmm.

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And then at 9:20 the boat engine started....and quit. David started it again. It quit. Oh, merde. Now what? Open up the barn doors, take the engine insulation box apart, get the flashlight and paper towel, look carefully. Nothing obvious. A small leak but "the gas bulb doesn't feel right," he said. Apparently it is a Sheldon trick but you have to replace the bulb regularly as the diesel fuel deteriorates the rubber. "Do we have a spare?" I asked. Of course. My captain husband was a Boy Scout and tends to be prepared. Turned out to be a split hose that a previous mechanic had cranked the hose clamp too tight. Aaaaarrgh. Another little slight in the work of the Zimmerman boatyard. Those slights have added up to a LOT of money and lots of lost time and inconvenience and potential danger. Once again, thanking my sailing and mechanical angels.

We finally left our anchorage around 11:00 a.m. and had an easy run, with sail (!), to Titusville, just across the Indian River from NASA and Kennedy Space Center. We'll do our research tomorrow, along with shopping errands...we need cereal! Friday we'll visit the space center, spend the money and do it as there is little chance that we'll have this easy an opportunity in the future.

Fordyce came over for drinks and snacks and conversation. We had dinner, a cooperative effot between David and self.

Now, Spanish study.