Aboard Again!

Sunday was a beautiful, sunny, calm day - a good day to reboard Eolian for the first time because the wind wasn't holding her way off the dock...  she was snuggled right up against the fenders.

And we spent the night aboard, ending the longest hiatus away from her since we acquired her way back in 1997.

I still have quite a ways to go before we could consider taking her off the dock, but that's ok - we normally wouldn't do that this time of year anyway.

So...  its good and getting better!

Here I want to say thanks to the boating community for all the support, concern and help I’ve received over the past months.  It is wonderful to be a part of this community!

bob

Aboard Again!

New Eyes, New Beginnings

One of the marks of a great artist, or a great writer, is that they can look at a scene or situation with new eyes, even tho they may have experienced it a million times before.  It is that ability to see instead of just looking that is the great divider.  I know people who have this ability, but it is a rare commodity, making these very special people indeed (yes Sarah Gayle, I am talking about you).

I do not have it.

As a consequence, it is difficult indeed for me to see living aboard, or sailing, or boating in general with new eyes.  If I have addressed a subject once before, it is hard indeed for me to find something new to say about it.  And after 10+ years of blogging about life on board, I need to find my "new eyes".  Thus the dearth of recent posts.

None of this has been made any easier by my recent health problems - problems that have kept me off the boat, for all but one partial afternoon where I was required to literally crawl aboard on my hands and knees, since the end of July.

But I have had the surgery, and I am regaining strength in my legs.  And hope has replaced resignation.

I believe that once I sleep aboard again, I will get those "new eyes"  because I will have a new beginning.  There will be more, and more frequent posts, written at the desk aboard Eolian.

Fair winds, following seas, and calm anchorages to you.

bob

New Eyes, New Beginnings

Hiatus

I apologize for the long hiatus in posting something here.  There have been two reasons for this; I will address the second reason in the next post.

There is a lesson in this, expecially for us "seasoned" sailors...  listen up:

I have had arthritis in my spine for a long time; I am no stranger to back pain.  In fact, I have had two spinal fusions already, L4/L5 and L3/L4.  So, the back pain I was experiencing early this summer was not a surprise, just a slight intensification of what I normally feel.  With one exception:  sitting down immediately relieved the pain.  Why is that unusual?  Well (putting on my engineering hat), sitting down should have made very little difference if the pain was arthritic - since L3-L5 were fixed in position, sitting down would have made no difference to L2 and above - sitting or standing L2 and above bear just about exactly the same weight.  It was a mystery - one which I solved with Excedrin, all thru June and July.

We spent an idyllic month aboard Eolian, living at anchor in the San Juan Islands, moving very little, reading, and crabbing.  Trips to shore were only determined by the longevity of the wine supply.  Excedrin continued to hold the back pain at bay.

In August, things began to change.  First, I noticed that I was walking kind of "flat-footed"...  that is, the forward part of my foot and toes were slapping onto the ground and providing very little "lift off" when walking.  This was accompanied by excruciatingly tight calf muscles.  Weird.

And then one day I was unable to board Eolian, except by crawling aboard on my hands and knees.  OK, something was definitely going on here.

I left the marina and camped out in my primary care doctor's office until they managed to squeeze me in - the doctor examined me and immediately ordered an MRI, which I got a day later.  While this was happening, I managed to score an appointment with my favorite neurosurgeon down in Seattle.  Total time duration from requesting an appointment with my primary care doctor to the neurosurgeon appointment: two weeks - a miracle.  He examined me and my MRI, said "Holy cow!" (well not exactly...), and scheduled me for surgery 2 weeks later, the first opening in his schedule.

In those intervening two weeks I essentially lost the remaining use of my legs completely.

The MRI and then later the surgery revealed a synovial cyst growing and squeezing my spinal cord.  There were actually two cysts; only one shows in the MRI slice above.  The neurosurgeon managed to dissect the cysts off of the sheath of my spinal cord without tearing it and letting my cerebral-spinal fluid leak out.  He also fused the L2/L3 joint which will prevent future formation of cysts, and finally he replaced the disk for good measure.

So,  No boating blogs posts - in fact, no posts at all.  But that is changing - I am getting better every day, tho it will still be a while before I can once again board Eolian.

It is too bad that it is far more difficult to search for causes of symptoms on the Internet than searching for symptoms of causes.  A search for synovial cysts will produce results showing exactly my symptoms.

Here are the learnings I have from this experience:

• Do not ignore persistent spinal pain, or hide it from yourself using Excedrin.
  
• Spinal pain is nothing to take lightly.  TV ads for various devices are all well and good.  BUT see a doctor, get an MRI, and see a neurosurgeon - let him recommend a device, if that is appropriate.  Uninformed self-care can lead to a wheelchair.
• If I had had single-payer health care like my neighbor who has waited an entire year to get an appointment with his VA doctor, I would now be a paraplegic.
• Do NOT put off dealing with back pain!  The best case is that you will live for years with pain while only delaying the inevitable.  That's the best case.  The worst case is that you will become permanently crippled.
• This was my third spinal fusion and my fourth spinal surgery.  I can say with personal experience that recovery from the surgery will take less than a month (about 2.5 weeks in this latest case).  Recovery of function will take longer, depending on how long you lived with the pain before the surgery.  See, living with the pain will cause you to curtail activities, and hold yourself in distorted positions in order to minimize the pain.  It will take you longer to unlearn/relearn and rebuild unused muscles than to recover from the surgery.  How much longer?  Well, that depends on how long you lived with the pain and avoided the surgery.

And most of all...

• Life is NOT a dress rehearsal.  If you want to cruise or live aboard, MAKE IT HAPPEN, NOW.  Don't put it off... You never know when it will suddenly not be possible for you...

Hiatus

Milestone

The Romans were not the first to erect milestones - not by far.  It is a human tendency to mark the passage of time, or distance, or whatever with reminders of how far we have come.

Well, here's one that is relevant to my thousands hundreds many 6 readers who have loyally hung with me all these years...  

That last post about cleaning vinyl windows was the 1000th post on this blog!  (Well maybe.  One of my blogging tools says 1001...but I am pretty sure that if I went back and actually counted, I wouldn't get the same number twice either.)

Who knew, back on January 28, 2009 that this would go on for 8 years?  I certainly didn't.  

Milestone

Blogging to meet people

Those of you who have been blogging for a while (we'll hit 1000 posts sometime in 2017) know that a blog is a wonderful way to meet folks.

On a rare occasion, the meeting comes not in the bloggosphere, but in person - these are most special!

And this weekend, it happened again.  We met Jonathan and Sarah, the brand new owners of s/v Odyssey, a beautifully maintained and fitted out Baba 35...  that was coincidentally for sale right here in the Cap Sante marina.  Jonathan & Sarah are from Oregon, and have both apparently been readers of this blog for some time, so when they found themselves headed to Anacortes, they contacted us and arranged a meeting...  a meeting that lasted 4 hours aboard both Eolian and Odyssey, included wine and champagne (!) and a wonderful from-scratch carrot cake that Sarah had baked aboard.  And it turns out that we have way more in common than we could possibly cover in that short time, so I'm sure that this was only the first of many cozy times aboard one or the other boat.  Because Odyssey is going to stay in Anacortes to serve as their platform to explore the San Juans and the Inside Passage....

It turns out that Jonathan is also a blogger (I didn't know!) - you'll want to read the story of the journey that took them to Anacortes and Odyssey.  There's always a story about how the boat picks you...

So the moral of this blog post is:  Blog!  Write!   Look for opportunities to meet your fellow bloggers... don't be shy!   Something wonderful could happen...

Blogging to meet people

Not up to it

Sorry there hasn't been any activity here of late - I had neck surgery and I'm just not feeling up to it yet.

Not up to it

Hiatus?

All four of my regular readers have probably been wondering why there haven't been any updates here for a while.  There is more than one answer...

First, for a part of the time we were out in the San Juan Islands, and if you know the area, you know that there are a lot of places out there where there is no cell phone and no internet reception.  From the point of view of blogging, this was bad.  But for the soul, the interruption in the constant "right-now-ness" of the internet is a good thing.

Next, we went back east to Indiana for a family reunion.  It was a wonderful time where we got reacquainted with relatives from near and far, and spent time with Jane's 101 year old mother.

And finally, there was Dude Tour V, where a bunch of guys take their classic (mostly) cars on a 600-mile drive thru the twisties in the mountains:

Looks James Bond-esq, doesn't it?

This year, there were a total of 14 cars, most of them classics, including my 1968 GTO.

My car is the red GTO, second from the left in the back row

This is a part of almost every Dude Tour

So, now that things are a little more back to normal, I hope that this blog will return to more-or-less normal too.

See you soon...

Hiatus?

Blogger Blog

I had a real treat yesterday.

In this world, this life, connections with other people are some of the most important things we have... maybe the most important.  And yesterday, one of those connections got a lot stronger.

It seems that Rick and Ruth Bailey, of s/v Cay of Sea and the Middle Bay Sailing blog had made a cross-country drive to deliver a 7 foot antique clock to their son on Whidbey Island.  Rick contacted me, and we arranged to meet for lunch at Dad's in Anacortes.

What wonderful folks they are!  As you would undoubtedly guess, the conversation ranged over boat topics...  lots of boat topics.  And if you knew the correct pronunciation of Cay:

 A cay (/ˈkiː/ or /ˈkeɪ/), also spelled caye or key, is a small, low-elevation, sandy island on the surface of a coral reef.

then you would not be surprised to know that music was covered too.  Tho I must confess that the right brain simulator I run in my left brain (my actual right brain is a shriveled up raisin) doesn't hold a candle to either of these folks, who both have huge glowing right brains, Rick in music and Ruth in art (Rick often features Ruth's work on Middle Bay Sailing).  I knew that I wasn't going to attempt to play when Rick picked up my guitar and ran thru the opening riff from 'Blackbird', flawlessly.  Oh my.

It was a wonderful visit.  And firming up these tenuous connections we have with each other over the Internet with actual personal contact is too a wonderful thing.  I only wish that it was possible to do more of it.

Thanks for visiting Rick & Ruth!

Blogger Blog

Comments and Google+

I have received several complaints via email that in order to make a comment on this blog, you must have a Google+ account.  I completely understand why most folks would not want to be pressured into joining the Google borg just in order to make a comment - and I want those comments!

I have finally found the setting that enables Google+ comments.  Unfortunately, "enable" is a word that does not adequately express the strength of the action.  In fact, "enabling" Google+ comments replaces the alternative comment mechanism that this blog used to have.  That setting is now turned off - you no longer need to have a Google+ account to make a comment.

I apologize for the frustration that this has caused.

Bob

(and now I expect some comments on this post...)

Comments and Google+

The elephant in the room

Our first boat (Cal 21) came with a trailer.

Our second boat (Catalina 22) came with a trailer.

Our third boat (O'Day 25) came with a trailer.

Having those trailerable boats allowed us to avoid the issue of moorage - our moorage was our driveway. 

Ah, but here in Seattle, having the space to park a boat on a trailer at your house is the very, very rare exception.  Many houses (and even more condos and apartments) don't even have space to park a car, let alone a boat on a trailer.

So, for that elusive prospective new cruising sailboat owner, there is really only a single realistic alternative:  moorage at a dock.

Now lets put things in perspective:  my kids were offered a well-equipped Catalina 27 in good condition,  For FREE.  And they turned it down.  Why?  Because the moorage was more than their budget allowed.

The cost of moorage is also the second-most common question asked of me by folks who are potential new cruising sailors.  It is a not insignificant portion of the cost of owning a boat in Puget Sound.

Like space at a boat show, the cost of moorage has done nothing but go up, up, UP.  In fact, since we moved to Shilshole in 1999, the price of our slip has almost exactly doubled.  Why is this?  Because every new boat sold increases the competition for the existing slips.

And it takes an act of Congress and an army of lawyers to add new slip space - the Port of Everett did it, but that is a rare exception in modern times.  In fact, the Port of Seattle spent millions to renew and reconfigure Shilshole,  but ended up with fewer slips at the end.  Fewer, but larger slips.  Slips in the 30 foot and under length were the primary victims.  Slips which would have served those just entering the cruising sailboat market.

So as I see it, here are the barriers holding young families from entering the cruising sailboat market:

• New, small cruising boats are too big of a jump financially, for a family not sure if this is something that will work for them.
• Used boats come with no guarantee/warranty, a problem for folks entering the cruising market and who don't yet know boats.
• The adventurous family, one that uncommonly already has the skills and knowledge to purchase a used boat, is then faced with another financial hurdle: moorage.

It's not difficult to see why the demographics of the cruising sail market are aging:  Those who are in the market are staying.  And aging.  But efforts to actually welcome and entice the potentially interested young families are almost entirely lacking, or at best are going WHOOSH right over their heads financially.

This in spite of the fact that there has never been a better time to buy a used boat, a boat that moves for free.

While diesel sells for nearly $5 at the dock. 

The elephant in the room

New year, new beginning

There are cultures which set aside a day for the forgiveness of debts. 

I imagine that this forgiveness does not extend to financial debts, but perhaps it does.  But it is not the financial debts that are the most troubling.  Instead, it is those debts piled up by insults, slights, comments and actions, whether intentional or not, that we carry around inside of us, much to our detriment.

Unforgiven, these debts eat away at our happiness, and if carried long enough, our very souls.  Eventually they will rule our lives.

I think using the New Year as a marker, as a day of reconciliation in our emotional lives is a good idea.

So here's my New Year's resolution:  To start the new year with a clean slate.  To discard all those emotional debts accumulated over the last year.  To start the New Year Happy!

New year, new beginning

So: Is it any different?

(courtesy of www.hdwallpapersinn.com)

Today is the first day that I can lay claim to being retired.  My last day of work was last Thursday, but today is the first day I would have gone to work, if I was still working that is.

Does it feel different?  Well, no, I can't say that it does.  To me, it feels like just another day of weekend.   And with my previous 3-day/week schedule, there were always plenty of those.

What I don't feel:  That giddy, start-of-vacation feeling, that giant release that the last day of school gives.  None of that.

I suppose this might disappoint some of you nearing retirement.  You might be looking for confirmation that the grass really is greener on the other side.

So far, all I can say is that it is the same grass...

So: Is it any different?

Still #1

In case you haven't been folowing, this has been going on for a while...

Still #1

Google, blogger, comments and integration

Google has been working for some time to get blogger more closely integrated into the Google empire.  The most recent change in that vein came when Google +1 and Google comments were allowed on blog postings.

Unfortunately, however, the integration is incomplete.  Comments entered on blogger are moderatable (is that a word?) and each one generates an email message to me.  So I know when I have a comment to respond to, or to delete/mark as spam if that is  appropriate.

Unfortunately, none of this works with comments made via Google.  They just appear on the blog. No warning, no notice.

So I apologize in advance if you make a comment and I don't respond to it in a timely fashion - please bear with me: I am still learning.

(And the spammers must absolutely love this!)

bob

Google, blogger, comments and integration

Baby Chickens. Again.

Oh no... This is not good news.

I'm beginning to think that baby chickens are at least equivalent to kittens as internet image searches...

Baby Chickens. Again.

RIP Google Reader

How do you read this blog?

If you do it via Google Reader, You must be aware by now that Google has announced that they will be retiring the service 01-July-2013.  Oh NO!

But hey, there are alternatives.  Who knew?  Google was the 800 lb gorilla in the room.  With them active, the alternatives were boutique news readers, largely ignored except by the Neteratti.

I am not going to tell you what reader to use - that is a decision that each must make for him/her/self.

But I am going to tell you what I chose:  Feedly.  Why did I choose it?

• It uses OAuth for authentication, via your Google account.  (That means that Feedly asks, via OAuth, that Google authenticate you.)  Why is this good?  
• Federated identity management (OAuth - Open Authentication - is the authentication portion of OpenID - a federated identity manager) is the way things will be working everywhere in the future.  Step aboard the train!
• Doing authentication properly is hard.  Google is an experienced old-hand at this.  I trust them much more than I'd trust a brand new site.  
• If you are already logged into Google, you will not be asked for a password when opening Feedly.
• No new password to memorize
• Feedly will automatically import the current state of your Google Reader.
• There is an iOS Feedly app
• There is a Firefox Feedly plugin.  

The user interface is different - it is much richer.  It's going to take me a while to get on top of it.  But here in the fast-paced Internet world, change is the only constant, so join me in embracing change!

RIP Google Reader

Missed marketing opportunity

I was going to start this post with an image of a spot bandage that was a smiley face.  Guess what I couldn't find?  Spot bandages that are smiley faces. 

But to the point:  Monday's operation was a success.  I am at home and getting around OK, albeit carefully.  I am very much on a pain medication regime, which means that coherency is not a strong point right now.  But the pain meds are working.

Just wanted to let you all know that all is well and as expected, and that I will be rejoining the bloggosphere - just don't know when yet.

bob

Missed marketing opportunity

Out of it

When you read this, I will likely be unconscious, thanks to modern anesthesiology - better living thru chemistry!  I am having a spinal fusion , adding L3 to my already fused L4/L5.

Since responsible bloggers don't post whilst on morphine and oxycodone, this space will be strangely quiet for a week or two.

But don't change that dial - Windborne will be back!

Out of it

Baby chickens?

The Internet is an exceedingly strange place.

It is a well-known fact that large numbers of people spend hours every day trolling thru the Internet for pictures of cats and kittens.  I have exactly one post that has a cat picture, and those folks regularly find it.

But for reasons that are completely beyond my understanding, I see a small, steady stream of visitors to this post, looking for "baby chicken photos".

I guess that they will now be coming to this page too, so that by simply recognizing this odd fact,  I am inadvertently increasing the weird traffic.

Baby chickens?

The mind is a fleeting thing

This morning, I had a great idea for a blog post, but I was not near a computer.

This afternoon, I am near a computer...  but I'll be danged if I can remember the idea.

All that comes to mind now are three concepts that were somehow linked in my mind to the post:

• The letters "SEM"
• Pink
• Small

Which, now that I have written it, seems like a frightening bit of over-sharing.

Now you know how my mind works.  Scary, isn't it?

The mind is a fleeting thing