May 25, 2010

Well, I’ve been sick all week, which has been a real pain in the ass, but if sickness ever comes at a good time, then this past week, for me, was that. A time to stay in bed, re-read Salinger, drink tea-- I recommend Lemon Zinger, with plenty of fresh lemon and some sorghum syrup from Elroy, if you can get your hands on it. Here is our life to date, in bullet points:

• My kidney-needing friend has had to switch doctors, and institutions, in an effort to find her new kidney. Both her brother and I were rejected by the original doctor, for reasons that nine out of ten doctors agree are bogus. Her brother, being the first choice, is now up at bat again (the lineup having been run through once already). So if you’re one of the people worrying about me and this donation, hold on to that thought for awhile. Or better yet, put it aside. Meanwhile, send your best thoughts and/or prayers (or both!) my friend’s way.

•  Kai graduated May 14, from NC State. Yippee! Not that we ever had any doubts, but the reality is nice all the same. As is the reality of an actual job, which awaits him at Duke Energy in Charlotte. He’s planning to work a few years, pay off debts, save up some money, then go back to school (not necessarily NC State) for his Master’s. For the occasion of my child’s college graduation, I treated myself to a manicure, a pedicure, and some new clothes. I was happy until I saw the photo the waitress took of us at the lunch after graduation—somehow I don’t show up as the beauty queen I thought I was at the time. Or even the handsome matron. As a matter of fact, I think I looked better last winter in my pink Snugli, or Shruggie, or whatever that thing was called. So I include, instead, a very sweet photo of Kai.

• Kalliope (Boat #2) is sold, and gone, as of this past weekend. We actually signed a contract with her new owners two months ago, but the process has dragged out some (okay, a lot, or as a friend called it the other night, “torturously”). The new owners wanted a heating/AC system installed, which Bob did for them, beautifully, carefully, s-l-o-w-l-y, over a period of many months, it seemed at the time, though it turned out to be just the two. Here she leaves the slip at Holden Beach for the last time, under her new name, Alethea.

Here’s what owning Kalliope taught us: We like living on a sailboat, though some of us are still not completely sold on the idea of “sailing.” We prefer the layout of Trio (Boat #1) to that of Kalliope. And we enjoyed, on Kalliope, the solidity, the cleanliness, the feeling that there were no unknowns—no places you just didn’t want to think about. Trio has many of these places. Trio needs a lot of work. Her decks are, to put it nicely, rotten. Replacing them is, for the most part, how we’ve been occupying our time for the past several months, before, after and in between working on Kalliope.

Working on Trio is like remodeling an old house. The window is leaking, so you check the sill. It’s rotten. You try to remove it to replace it, but in the process you break a window pane. The window was old anyway, and not very energy-efficient, so why not go ahead and put in a new one? But when you finally get the frame pried out from the wall, you smell a funny smell. You dig around a little in the wall and discover that a family of flying squirrels has been living there, together with a snake, three turtles and seventeen ducks, because the wall actually opens, without a barrier of any kind, you now realize, into what appears to be a huge sinkhole in your back yard-- (where did that come from??)-- one with black, mucky edges on all sides except the side where someone has started a trash dump, and set some old tires on fire, and chained up some really scary-looking dogs….

But it’s okay. We like working together, for the most part, though there are days when the blend could be better. When you have a work force of two, half of which is looking at every aspect of every job in peaceful contemplation of how to make it better, and the other half is sighing, rolling its eyes and asking questions like “Can we just get on with it??” you’re bound to have some rough moments.

So the goal is to get the boat in good shape (all decks replaced, all hitherto unexplored spaces explored, all equipment installed and functioning well) and in the water by the end of October, or maybe November. Christmas at the latest. Really. At the very latest.

Have a great summer. I’ll keep you posted!