Easy come, easy go
2002-05-20

Damn, when is summer going to get here? Saturday was about as miserable as a late spring day can be. Cold, wet windy, raw... Not good. The extended forecast for our delivery Thursday looks wonderful though, 74 and Sunny. We leave the dock at 6:00 am. It will not be 74 then. It will be cold and damp and we'll all have way too many clothes on. Such is life.

We did all the grocery shopping for the trip Saturday and I think it came out pretty well. I was right on budget. Cooking for 8 in a boat galley (kitchen) can be a challenge, but we do pretty well. There is nobody in our crew exactly wasting away if you know what I mean. All that is left is to buy the bread stuff and alcohol.

M.E. wanted to go to Foxwoods Saturday night and I agreed even though we really could have saved the money to pay bills. Friends of ours called and she got them to come too. We play high stakes bingo. Yeah I know, bingo, but it isn't like the games you played as a kid, it is pretty intense and the money is good if you win. The big jackpot was $15,000 and in one game you could win a new car. I won neither of those. I did win $500 though. Yeah me. We didn't get home until mid-night and had to be up early Sunday to race.

The whole crew showed up right on time except for Bob Y who forgot. I know this because I called him at home.

Me: Bob, where the hell are you?

Bob: Home where am I suppose to be ?

Me: The around the island race.

Bob: Oh shit I forgot. When are you leaving?

Me: now.. Bob Oh... He lives an hour away so...

We get on the the boat and get all set to leave when I see this pin for the hydraulics that tighten the mast is sticking out. I push the pin in. The whole lever falls down in my hand and hydraulic fluid starts leaking every where. UGH!!! No hydraulics, no race. We pay a visit to my rigger and she loans us some parts to keep things together. We are not in race condition, but we can sail. But we are now too late for our start. :-( So we sail around the island any way and watch the races. It is cold, but nice. Damn I wanted to race. We won this one last year. Beat 58 boats. Oh well.

The riggger is going to try to get the parts fixed before we leave Thursday morning. This will involve a bunch of cajoling and two Fed Ex deliveries. The $500 I won at bingo, well, lets just say it is being reinvested at a very low rate of return (well except for the rigger). I do have a sunburned/windburned face today. I can feel it glowing like a little nuclear reactor. Maybe I can fill in for somebodies neon sign that is missing an O?

I have an easy week at work today. My boss is out of town. Nobody is motivated because of the impending sale of the company. Today I need to find an excuse to leave early and bring the boat in. So I will. Tomorrow I'll be on the road all day. Piece of cake. Wednesday I leave early and start vacation. I don't come back until next Wednesday. Wow a whole week of no entries. That will be weird. Despite the occasional slam I've gotten from this diary, I really do miss it when I'm not here. Sometimes when I go back and read stuff I wrote a while back, I'm amazed at the stuff that is in here. Not because I'm a great writer or anything, but because on some days I just seem to catch the feeling of the day just right. Reareadign it brings back such vivid memories it is like living that day all over again. this can be good and bad... I'm kind of a stream of consiousness kind of writer and lots of times I don't know where I'm gonna end up until I get there. I guess that is kind of like life huh?

Have a wonderful Monday. Only 3 days till we leave!!!

Yeah

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