Land Life – It Ain’t Half Bad
/We’re back in Las Vegas and things are going well. Mother Nature has helped out extraordinarily … the weather has been in the mid-70s every day with no dearth of sunshine. Just what the doctor ordered … no winter blahs here.
Tubs 'o' stuff in Mary's more-than-adequate closet.
It took us a couple of days to get Blue unloaded and things put away. Mary’s closet (which, by the way, is large enough to house a small family), is burgeoning with stuff combined from Lin’s basement and Nine of Cups. It’s been a long time since we’ve been able to store all our belongings in one place. Even though we’ve pared down significantly, there’s still lots of ‘stuff’.
Beyond unpacking, we’ve been quite busy. We've begun walking our three miles around the golf course every morning It's a good way to get started on our day. David found a good deal on cupboards on Craigslist. He and Paul came home with seven brand new ones leftover from a building project with plans to rearrange and organize the garage. Between Paul’s tools and David’s tools, this is a tool-rich household. The cupboards were so nice looking that Mary and I commandeered a few of them to install in the laundry room. All were installed in both laundry room and garage. We are definitely becoming organized.
Rafter storage in the garage
The guys also built a rafter storage area above the garage door which houses extra lumber, plywood, drawers (also purchased from the same guy who sold us the cupboards) and various extra Blue components like unused insulation sheets. It’s tidied things up considerably.
Additionally, the long anticipated backyard deck is in the works. Plans were drawn up by David with modifications and improvements agreed upon by the household. It is currently an in-progress project.
The long anticipated backyard deck is in the works!
It’s an odd feeling to know that we don’t need to make plans to return to Nine of Cups because she needs attention. We can come and go as we please, for as long as we please, and do not have boat chores on the top of our list of to-dos. There is no diesel/bilge smell when we enter the house. Nobody wrinkles their noses at the smell of our clothes when we enter a room.
What do we miss? The lap of water on the side of the hull … it’s comforting and soothing. At the moment, we’re sleeping with the windows open at night and the coyote howls compete with the city sirens. I miss sitting in the cockpit having a sundowner and watching river traffic pass by although the freezing temps on the east coast precluded that activity for the past several months. I’m sure there’ll be many more things we miss in the months to come, but we’re so busy at the moment, there’s barely time to think about it. And once we begin traveling regularly in Blue, I think the sailing life will become a pleasant, but distant memory. That’s not to say we wouldn’t enjoy sailing with friends or even chartering sometime in the future.
Cups arrives at King Harbor Marina in Redondo Beach, California. Check out those palm trees!
Speaking of which, in case you missed it on FaceBook, Nine of Cups arrived safely in California last weekend. Murray and friends have been working non-stop putting her back together and it seems to be going well. David and I will head out there later this week to help with the recommissioning and the “splash” as Nine of Cups enters the Pacific. Come to think of it, Cups still demands a bit of our time, but not for much longer. I think she’s going to appreciate the warmer weather and her new family … we certainly do.