Amazing! Fantastic!

So I went to my doctor's appointment. He took one look at my leg and got very excited. He said: Amazing! Fantastic! Apparently, it was a lot better than he expected -a lot better. The previous visit he was making noises of sending me to a wound clinic. Today he sent me on my way with just a few minor instructions on how to take care of myself. At the end of the appointment, the doctor said he had one request for me. I thought he wanted me to lose weight.

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “I want you go and have a good time.”

“Okay,” I said. “I can do that.”

A few days back my lovely wife was reflecting on how we've refused two free sailboats. The first one was a 42 foot ketch, based in Maine. The problem with that boat was its wooden hull. The hull was sound, but we wanted to sail warm southern waters. There are critters in tropical waters that eat wooden boats. It would have become a maintenance nightmare. My lovely wife pointed out to me that we don't want to fix boats; we want to sail them.

The second boat we refused was a catamaran. I was salvaging what I could from the wreck of our Ranger sailboat. The tow boat guy said he felt really bad they couldn't save my boat. He knew a guy who was losing his boat storage and was looking for someone to take a catamaran off his hands. I know that my lovely wife was not ready yet. Had I know it would have taken her only a few weeks to get back on the horse, I might have taken the guy up on it. Anyway, at the time she wasn't ready.

So my lovely wife says we better take the next free sailboat that's offered us. Less than two days later we find out from my oldest daughter about someone who's giving away a 30 foot sailboat. They sold their house and are moving away from the ocean. As part of the deal they have until the end of the month to remove the boat from the property. I would have gladly paid to have the boat trucked to the marina and tied to a mooring ball. I've been putting together a sailboat fund and that would have more than covered the expenses.

Unfortunately, it looks like we may have missed our chance on this one. The owner was supposed to get back to us but did not. While I have not totally given up hope, it doesn't looks promising. Of course, someone in the middle of selling their house has a lot of balls in the air, so maybe they just got too busy. We shall see.

Even if that deal falls apart, I'm not too worried. The universe will provide. In the mean time I've been fixing up the Oday 19. The mast light's replaced and new bow lights wired in. All I need is some sealant to finish that job. The old charge controller for the solar panel failed, but I had a replacement that's better than the one that died. The battery itself seems to have developed an internal short, but might still be under warranty. After that it will be ready for sailing.

There's been a huge change in the weather. Sunday we had snow. Wednesday it got into the mid 80s. Thursday it'll be around 90, and records may be broken across the state. How weird is that?

I'm glad my leg looks good enough that I can wear shorts again. Before the ugly zombie flesh could have frightened small children.

-Sixbears