My dad is always talking about the "good old days". "Times were simpler, people talked, no one needed medication to get through the days...." It always sounded good until he got to the part about waking up with his breath frozen on his pillow. At that point, my sisters and I always voted that we preferred our good new days. Well, this week has officially made me miss my good old days! At the beginning of the week, Bill asked if I wanted the oh so lovely 40 year old vinyl ceiling in the boat's salon replaced. He knows that I have hated it from day one and have tried everything to remove 40 years of yellowing but to no avail. So, of course, I jumped on that offer! I knew it would be a big job and I had my doubts that he could pull it off as easily as he said he could. Little did I know that his part of the job would be the "easy" part. I quickly discovered that we are not currently living in my lifetime's good old days. First, I logged into Home Depot's website and easily found the cedar planking we needed. That was easy. I put it into my virtual cart and went to check out. That was easy. I selected "home delivery" and things started to quickly spiral from that point....no home delivery for oversized products at this time....really? Why would I need undersized products delivered? So, I had the panels sent to the local store. Next issue....how to get the wood from the store to the boat. In Sally's good old days, I would just drive over and pick it up. Hmmm, we sold both of our cars prior to leaving South Carolina so that wasn't an option. I'll just call Home Depot and rent one of their trucks. Hmmm, that would work if I had car insurance still in place. Okay, next plan. I'll get Enterprise to come pick me up, rent a truck and then they can drop me off again. Hmmm, two out of three of the Enterprise locations were closed and the one that was open was not providing pick up service during the quarantine. Okay, next plan. Get Lyft to come pick us up, go to Enterprise, rent truck, pick up wood, return truck, get Lyft back to boat. Finally, a plan that worked! I would like to point out that Enterprise would not let anyone in their building yet they were all hanging outside to help us, so obviously, I have found ground zero for Covid...it is hiding inside the Enterprise building on Merritt Island.
So, boards were successfully purchased and we decided the ordeal was great practice to prepare us for living outside the US (once we get on our way!). Bill finished the ceiling and as you can see from the pictures below, it turned out beautiful! He had to use a little University of Georgia engineering on some parts of it but it looks great! Now, when I look back on this time, I'll remember the "good ole days" when it only took me 12 hours to get 8 boxes of cedar paneling the distance of 1.5 miles.... Here's to open beaches, soon to open restaurants and getting everyone back to employment!
1 Comment
Rebecca Smith
4/30/2020 10:23:08 pm
Wow! That looks really great!!! Cheers to things you wouldn't have thought would be such a trial 2 months ago!!
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
|