Winding Down

SHIP'S LOG:

     I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas. It probably would have been more memorable had I won the Mega Millions $626 million jackpot but I did not. I was in the running . . .I got two, count'em "2" numbers, but not enough to winner a major prize. Well, that was a whole dollar wasted!

     The days are now getting longer, though I can't say that I notice that yet, and next week will be New Years Eve/Day, and aside from a lot of partying, but not by me, and a lot of football watching, yes, to a certain extent, what New Years engenders in me is the anxiety of where is the money going to come from for all those extra bills that must be paid. Not so much the regular monthly bills as those get covered  "easy" enough, but the extra ones.  The TYC dues will be due in January and that means coming up with about 1 4/5 Marine Units. The yard bills that I will be facing will be somewhere in the 3 0r 4 Marine Unit range. I am not complete sure as while I send them money I can't stand to open the bill each month and check out what I owe. Then there is the condo -  anyone want to buy it? - and at this time of the year they always have some sort of "special" assessment that runs for 6 months. That'll be another 2/5 of a marine unit per month from February through July. I could go on by I am sure that you get the idea as most of you are in similar type financial fixes. Ah, it will be so much easier once Publishers Clearing House finally finds me. I know that they are looking hard for me as I get an email from them at least three times a week saying so though I don't understand why they are having such a difficult time. I've had the same address for 0ver 10 years and if they were really interested , they could set up a time, date and day by email. Perhaps they are just leading me on.

     Hopefully, our January will come this year and last a bit longer than the crazy 60 - 70 degrees weather that we had in December. That will give me an opportunity to take down the rest of the overhead in ABISHAG, zap whatever black-mold issues I have, and plan out, measure and cut (and perhaps install) the stringers for the re-worked ceiling panels. If it lasts long enough I might even get the panels themselves repaired and painted. If those get done, there are sanding jobs and the first-step-of-refastening jobs that can be done. Usually, the thaw, when it comes, doesn't last but a week, so if it comes, and I hope it does, there will plenty to do.

        Years ago, I actually looked at real estate in the American Virgin Islands. Did  a lot of look but no buying. What they say about whatever you put on the Internet never goes away is true. For the last week I have received tons of real estate offers and there does seem to be an end insight. Like I said last week, if I wasn't already tied up with a condo up here, I might take a plunge down there. Then again, if Publishers Clearing House finds me, I can have the best of both worlds.