No Worries, Mate!

SHIP'S LOG:

No sailing yesterday. Actually I spent the day trying to get my financial house in order. It is not an easy thing to accomplish either. If you doubt it, try this mathematical equation: $1,100 of salary divided by $2,500 worth of bills is how much? I am not a wiz at math but even I know that the answer is NOT GOOD! However, God, through some friends, made everything alright, pretty much as He has been doing forever, but certainly in a rather spectacular way during my sojourn. It never seems to fail that when I have exhausted every conceivable means of righting my financial ship, and I am going down like the Titanic, God comes through, always. And simply out, it happened once again.

Aside from that wondrous and humbling experience, the day was spent hustling around to take care of a few other "slightly pressing matters."Few things can be worse than waking up in the morning, staggering to the kitchen(galley) and finding you have neither coffee nor cream for the coffee aboard. An early morning row solved the immediate problem and the longer term solution lay in a trip to the market. I have to admit that I have gotten lax in the securing of and the maintaining of provender aboard ship. Heck, even the "iron rations" ( the last supplies you use) of peanut butter, Spam and Dinty Moore Beef Stew have long since disappeared. Trust me, you have to be both lazy and desperate to make a meal or just peanut butter(no bread) or Spam (with or without bread or crackers) or Dinty Moore Beef Stew( there are not enough spices and/or condiments in the world to make it palatable)! I guess that the fact that I can be "launched" ashore or row myself and so have access to markets and restaurants, even Fred's Shanty (which is right up there with Dinty Moore Beef Stew when they are having a particularly good day) has just led to a laxness which has led in turn to a nothing in the way of provisions. My lockers are as bare as Old Mother Hubbard's Cupboard! And there is no worse shopper than me. For me a well balance shopping list would include a bag of Granny Smith's, two packages of Chips Ahoy Cookies, a jar of Planters Dry Roasted Peanuts, some beef-stick summer sausage, Mission wraps, humus, a pound of roast beef, a pound of honey cure ham, a pound of Swiss cheese, to gallons of cranberry juice, to cases of water in bottles, Coffee Mate, Instant coffee, a package of Splenda, a bottle of rum, Romain Noodles, several cans of Progresso Soups,and the odd condiment like horseradish sauce! You can easily see what a well balanced meal can be developed from all that.

I am too much an impulse buyer which is why I avoid West Marine like the pox. If I have to buy something there, I call ahead of time and they get it and I pick it up and pay for it at the counter and leave. It is the only way I can be safe. It explains how I got in debt up to my chin restoring ABISHAG after I bought her. West Marine, Harbor Freight, Home depot, Sears . . . . they are all places I NEED to stay away from.They are financially dangerous!

I must have really been tired last night. I went to bed before 9pm and slept through a rain storm, which is a pretty good trick especially when you are sleeping under an OPEN HATCH!!!! didn't even realize that it had rain until I sat in a puddle on a cockpit cushion as I was having my coffee this morning. It woke me up better than the coffee! Today , NOAA is not calling for rain, so I will batten the hatches and expect the worse. Of course, they will probably fake me out and we will have a nice day though right now it doesn't look so hot. In any even, I have to pay bills online and get everything squared away. . . . financially. I may even be able to register my boat, my dinghy, my motorcycle and get my license renewed . . .if there are the funds available after the bills are paid. So much for all of you who continue to think that living on a boat is one big vacation!