I'd love to tell you that the delay in this week's blog is because we are off adventuring but, alas, that is not the case. Still hanging in Cocoa doing projects and the weather has been beautiful so we'll count that as a good week. This week, we have been entertained and somewhat confused by who is making the rules and are they just pulling them out of the "Rules that don't make sense" bag? First, Brevard County, Florida opened the beaches this week. That was exciting news! Caveat....The public parking lots at the beach will remain closed. That worked well. We had rented a car one day this week to run errands and I almost killed at least three people because everyone was just parking on the side of the road by the public parking lot to go walk on the beach. Those, I am sure, would be counted as Covid related deaths. Next caveat, you can go to public parks and the parking is open. Not sure what the difference is? Not even sure who to ask. You can get a haircut in a salon. But only a dry cut. Not a wet cut. But, if you get your hair colored, you can have a wet cut. Seriously? I am just asking that someone make sense. So, in order to save my sanity (what little is left), I move on to our boat projects.
There is a saying in boat world that goes something like "gotta love Taiwanese engineering". Our boat was built in the early 80s in Taiwan and we have never understood this saying. Our boat has amazing wood carvings on all of the doors, beautiful woodwork throughout and has proven to be a durable vessel on rough seas. As of last Sunday, we have a clearer inkling of what that saying means. We had a soft spot in the deck. It is very common in older boats and generally just means that you take up the deck topping to find a sheet of core wood that has gotten wet and needs to be replaced. No big deal. The picture below shows what we found in our deck. Hundreds of little pieces of wood scrap held in with hard resin. What does this mean? This means that we need to remove each little piece of wood in order to replace it with a solid piece of wood. Some pieces were wet, some were not. Therefore, some pieces crumble while others hold strong and true. Sigh. So, now we cut, chisel, sand, repeat. I think we are at least entertaining the neighbors with our colorful language! We won't miss this project once it is done and I will be sure thank the Taiwanese boat builders should we ever venture to Taiwan! I leave you now to go back to my chisel. I hope that everyone has a wonderful week and enjoys some of the loosening house arrest as May approaches. Just don't get a wet haircut in the public beach parking lot and you should be fine!
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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! I'd love to tell you all that we are living a huge adventure right now but alas.....we are still waiting along with the rest of the population. Most important news of the week...For those of you who have been on "cookie watch", the cookies arrived safely and are being happily consumed! We have managed to accomplish a ton of cleaning chores this week. We continue to work on the bilge (I told you that Youtube was wrong....) and I have decided that Gone Galt is much like Hermione Granger's purse in Harry Potter. The more stuff we pull out, the more stuff there is! We have wires that run to nowhere, boat parts that are at least 40 years old and some mystery items that we both stare at, shrug in confusion and toss out. Speaking of cleaning, I am pretty sure the end of the world is coming. My mother is cleaning out closets and she even has my dad doing housework...given that he doesn't even know that the dryer must be closed in order to start gives me doubts on the housework angle..... Sorry for the short blog this week but there just hasn't been much excitement down our way! Stay sane and Happy Easter to all!! Enjoy a few more pictures this week and a fun educational fact of the week! Educational fact of the week: The history of Easter Eggs!
Eggs have been used as fertility symbols since antiquity.[8] Eggs became a symbol in Christianity associated with rebirth as early as the 1st century AD, via the iconography of the Phoenix egg, and they became associated with Easter specifically in medieval Europe, when eating them was prohibited during the fast of Lent. A common practice in England at that time was for children to go door-to-door begging for eggs on the Saturday before Lent began. People handed out eggs as special treats for children prior to their fast. As a special dish, eggs would probably have been decorated as part of the Easter celebrations. Later, German Protestants retained the custom of eating colored eggs for Easter, though they did not continue the tradition of fasting.[10] Eggs boiled with some flowers change their color, bringing the spring into the homes, and some over time added the custom of decorating the eggs.[11] Many Christians of the Eastern Orthodox Church to this day typically dye their Easter eggs red,[12] the color of blood, in recognition of the blood of the sacrificed Christ (and, of the renewal of life in springtime). Some also use the color green, in honor of the new foliage emerging after the long-dead time of winter. The Ukrainian art of decorating eggs for Easter, known as pysanky, dates to ancient, pre-Christian times. Similar variants of this form of artwork are seen amongst other eastern and central European cultures.[13] The idea of an egg-giving hare went to the U.S. in the 18th century. Protestant German immigrants in the Pennsylvania Dutch area told their children about the "Osterhase" (sometimes spelled "Oschter Haws"[14]). Hase means "hare", not rabbit, and in Northwest European folklore the "Easter Bunny" indeed is a hare. According to the legend, only good children received gifts of colored eggs in the nests that they made in their caps and bonnets before Easter.[15] We have settled into a marina in Cocoa, Florida to wait out Virus Mania 2020. We could continue our route south but with Florida and the Bahamas on shut down, we figured we would just stay where we are and be good citizens for awhile. Since sitting, we have decided to change our original plans. We are only about 2 days travel from Lake Worth which is one of the places that we could cross over to Freeport, Bahamas. So, instead of grueling all the way to Miami, we will launch over to Freeport and begin our Caribbean adventure from there instead of Bimini. I am sad to miss Bimini but it will definitely be on our future visits list. How are we staying occupied in our times of isolation? Let's see: we have calculated (or rather Bill did given my excellent math abilities) that if we walked the length of the boat deck 1760 times, we would have walked a mile. I'll let you know how that goes....! We have discovered that cleaning out the bilge (definition: area of boat where all the unwanted water flows) is a disgusting but necessary job and it definitely does not take "just a few minutes" as advertised on Youtube. I have also figured out that refinishing teak is a great bicep and tricep work out, however, only in my right arm so I am going to soon have one Popeye arm and one Olive Oil arm. Next discovery, everyone's definition of "essential" varies greatly.....for dog owners, Chewy deliveries are top of the list per the huge pile of Chewy boxes that are in the marina office. For vapers and CBD users, those items are essential as evidenced by the fact that all of the restaurants near the marina are closed but the vape shop is open. For everyone else in the world who is stuck at home, puzzles are definitely in high demand as evidenced that poor Kaarin can't find one anywhere in the world. So, I would definitely like to say that I am very glad I am not in the position of determining essentials for the entire population. If I was in charge, you would all have of plenty of M&Ms and ice cream to meet your needs! Bill's sweet cousin, Julie, has been our very gracious Uber driver while we have been in Cocoa. She is my kind of Uber driver! She showed up with PIE! How is that for service?! Then, she loaned us a car for a few days so that we could stock up on our essentials.....Home Depot for Bill and Dairy Queen for Sally. My next essential is in the mail as I write! All week I have been crying, "Where are my birthday cookies?" My long time friend, Patti, has always given me Girl Scout Thin Mints and Samoas for my birthday. She had no where to send them this year so they have been in her freezer and I have been in despair! Never fear....they are on their way and will soon be piled among the Chewy boxes in the marina office just waiting for me to pick up my "essential"! Stay well and happy puzzling to you all!! Educational Fact for the week: I don't have an educational fact for this week so I will just leave us all with a thought to ponder. As I watch dog owners in the marina pick up poop as laws require and put it in plastic bags.....I ask myself....is it really a smart move for society to pick up natural fertilizer that would just break down in a few days and put it in a plastic bag that will just stay forever in a landfill? I have to say "hmmmm?" Just a thought to ponder......
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AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
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