I'm going to take this evening to just pour it all out in hopes getting a better handle on it all. It's going to be a classic brain-dump -- disorganized and inarticulate. Enjoy.
So I've finished Live on the Margin, by Pat Schulte of Bumfuzzle and Nick O'Kelly. It was really great. It was one book about 4 or 5 different things, all of which were just the right things for me to read at this point in the endeavor.
We're in the midst of South From Alaska, which is both inspiring and provides a pretty unflinching look at the realities of cruising, fun and otherwise.
We've been doing our DTRs religiously which has been great for our relationship. There's nothing like a joint BHAG and tons of shared meaning to replace bickering and nagging with support and warmth.
Audrey and I have been cruising through Teach Your Child to Read. I've been learning so much about how to be my kids' teacher, and she's been, you guessed it, learning to read. Check out the story she read tonight.We've been doing all kinds of things to sell the house and have a million things still to do. The clock is now running quickly on getting everything ready to sell. We should probably list officially around April 1. Over the next 8 to 12 weeks we need to:
- Learn a thing or two about selling a house
- Fully bake our FSBO plan
- Finish home repairs and improvements
- Market
- Stage
- List
- Show
- Close
Here's the house stuff we've gotten done in the past couple months:
- Got one of the three missing overhead lights installed in the garage
- Replaced front door
- Replaced kitchen door locking knob
- Got rid of lots of stuff
- Cleaned up a lot of entrenched messes
- Got rid of horrible old stove hood
- Put in beautiful new OTR microwave
- Tiled backsplashes in kitchen
- Got rid of horrible old upstairs bahroom hardboard "surround"
- Took down baby gates
- Scraped, sanded, filled, hardened, primed, and painted kitchen door and windows.
- Tiled shower upstairs
I've been stalled out on losing weight at around 240 pounds. I'm down 33 pounds and very proud of it. All my old pants are loose and won't stay on without a belt. For the first time in my life I am able to ski Eldora top-to-bottom for hours without my legs burning. Still, I cannot afford to stop here. I must and I will find the motivation and the approach that will get me to 200 this year.
It's all left precious little time for things relating directly to cruising. Things like learning everything there is to know about boats and diesels and hull and deck and sail maintenance and repair and storm tactics, and the logistics of entering and exiting countries and how to fish and how to pilot and first aid. But we'll get there.
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