So Much Easier on Land

We bought a new mattress for my mom's bed. I called and ordered it. They delivered it the next day, moved it in, set it up and hauled the old mattress away. How could it be that easy? I did have to open the door for them and put sheets on the bed, but hey...  

We didn't have to borrow a van and drive an hour each way to the mattress store. We didn't have to cram the mattress into the van and then wrestle that mattress down the dock worrying that on such a windy day, it would get away from us and fall into the water. We didn't have to wrestle the old mattress out of the aft cabin and bring it to the skip bin (dumpster) where it wouldn't fit. Nor did we have to dissect the new mattress on the dock and reconfigure it in order for us to get it down the companionway, into the aft cabin and fit it into its new, odd-shaped home. We didn't even worry about the possibility of rain. This exercise brought to light just how easy land folks have it!

We have mom's car at our disposal. It has a trunk. So we can go to any supermarket we'd like and buy more than we can fit into our backpacks. We can also go to any chandlery we'd like, but then, being away from Cups, we haven't needed much boat stuff lately.

There's a laundry room across the hall from my mom's apartment. It's closer than having a washer/dryer in your own basement and I find it much easier than hauling a dive bag full of dirty laundry to the closest laundromat which is usually anywhere from five blocks to five miles away. It's certainly easier than hand-washing everything and stringing clotheslines in the rigging. She has a dishwasher which we forget to use. She has a full size vacuum cleaner … and carpeting to use it on and furniture that moves. Her apartment, on the other hand, does not move. It doesn't rock or roll or pitch or yaw … even when it's really windy.

She cannot, however, pick up and clear out in an hour if she gets tired of the neighborhood or the neighbors.

So with all this talk of how easy it is to live on land, why don't we? Hmm … do you need really to ask?

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