Monthly Archives: December 2014

A Chance To Catch Our Collective Breath

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The whirlwind has had its way with us, and we’ve finally been spit out the other side. I can’t begin to describe what we’ve been through this past week. Not because I’m at a loss for words (Me? Never!), but simply because there’s just not time to do it justice. It’s a week before Christmas, and we haven’t even done our cards yet, much less wrap up our shopping for family and friends, so a comprehensive blog post is not in the offing. Let’s just say that our walk-through with the buyers was scheduled for 9AM last Tuesday (December 16th), and at 8:30 we were still loading trash from the garage into my truck to haul away and dispose of. After a week of extremely long days consisting of early mornings, late nights, movers, cleaners, shoving things into boxes to haul to storage, we arrived for the walk-through five minutes late because of that final trash run. That’s how tight things were. But we made it. We closed. The check is deposited. We’re officially homeless. The shock is starting to wear off, and we’re adapting to our new reality.

We’ve never spent Christmas in a hotel before (I guess there have been quite a few “never before’s” this year). But when the folks at Homewood Suites heard that we’d be staying with them through Christmas, they delivered a tree to our room to brighten our spirits.

Hotel Tree

Meanwhile, Eagle Too’s mini-refit is coming along nicely. The waterline has been raised six inches to accommodate all the gear we’re about to bring onboard, and a host of issues to help the boat be a better liveaboard are being addressed. We should be splashing the boat tomorrow (December 19th) and shortly after, we’ll move her to Palafox Pier, a marina in the heart of downtown Pensacola, where we’ll take up residence. It will be an interesting change for us, going from living a quiet rural life in a sprawling home on acreage, to living within the cozy confines of a 37 foot sailboat amid the hustle and bustle of life downtown with its festivals, street fairs and community events.

Waterline

For the moment, things are quiet, and we’re enjoying the opportunity to collect ourselves and catch up on our sleep. Maybe I’ll make the time to enjoy a good cigar, and take my lovely wife on a date night to see a movie or two. But things start up again right after the new year, as we continue converting Eagle Too from a comfortable liveaboard into a boat that can truly support a Life On The Hook™. Please stay tuned.

Oh, and Rhonda and I wish you all a very merry Christmas!

Hours Seem Like Moments, But Weeks Have Turned Into Years

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We all spend our lives doing battle with father time. We agree to trade large parts of the precious time we have on Earth for money by selling our labor. We sometimes wish chunks of time away (I wish my vacation would hurry up and get here! I wish Christmas was tomorrow! I wish I was old enough to drive/drink/retire). Occasionally (rarely) we make it work in our favor. Consider the miracle that is compound interest, and the steady increase in wealth that results from steadfastly salting away a few dollars a week for several decades.

Sometimes in our back and forth struggle with time, circumstances cause our perception of its very flow to change. Such is our experience at the moment. Since that Tuesday morning of Thanksgiving week, we’ve experienced the oddest sort of time dilation.  We seem to be running as fast as we can in slow motion. Every day is a blur of sorting, packing, purging, storing. Yard sales, Craigslist, calls to make, inspections to schedule. Trips to the bank, trips to the marina, trips to the post office, trips to the store (more boxes! We need more boxes!).

At the micro level, time seems to be flying by and we’re rapidly burning through our available supply. We start breaking down a room after breakfast, and in the blink of an eye it’s mid-afternoon. Where did the time go! Minutes are gone in a flash, and hours have become the briefest of moments. But at the macro level, it’s unbelievable that it’s only been two weeks (today) since we received that early morning call from our realtor. It seems like months, years, a lifetime ago. Only fourteen days, but it feels so far in our past that it’s merely a memory of some quieter, saner moment. Our weeks have turned into months, if not years.

But we’re entering the final stretch. Our kids will take what they want on Saturday. The movers will arrive on Sunday and take our treasures to be stored. The cleaners come on Monday. And we go to closing the next day.

And then we’re done. With this part at least. Our address will be the Homewood Suites while we finish a quick haulout and mini-refit on our new home. Maybe we’ll be living onboard by Christmas. Maybe by New Years.  And maybe shortly after, time will resume its normal flow, and we’ll be able to stop, relax, and have a leisurely cool one without having to keep one eye on the clock and the other on the calendar, thinking constantly about the next task, appointment, deadline.

We can’t wait…

TimeMovesSlowly