Wednesday, 15 April 2015 and

Thursday, 16 April - More of the same. Looking at boats either online or on the docks.

Friday, 17 April - I realized that the title company involved with the sale of our house was dragging their feet about sending the paperwork they promised to get to me and hadn't sent it yet, so I called them and had them just email it to me and went to the UPS store, had them print the pages, then walked up the street to fill them out and have them notarized at Wells Fargo, then back to UPS to ship them back to the title company. Later, I went to dinner with Gary and Lorrie Powers to a BBQ restaurant with their friends. The three of us thought the dinner was "eh, so so." Certainly not up to either the quantity or quality of Pat's in SLC.
It was drizzling as Gary picked me up to go to dinner, but as they dropped me off after dinner, as we made the last turn into the parking lot, the skies really opened up. Gary expressed concern about me getting to the motor home, but I said, "Well, I only have to go about 15 feet." Well, let me tell you how wet you can get in fifteen feet. Pretty darn wet, I'll tell you. By the time I ran to the motor home, unlocked it, opened the door and got in, I was dripping wet.

Saturday, 18 April - I spent most of the morning trying to figure out how or where to get cheaper phone and internet service than I am getting from T-Mobile. First, I went to T-Mobile, then to Walmart to check out all their cheap service deals, then over the bridge to another, independent reseller. I finally ended up calling T-Mobile to sign up for another 2 gigs of data for $10/month extra. This is saving money? I must be a power internet user.

Sunday, 19 April - I needed to update several pieces of software on my phone and laptop, which would use up about 3 gigs of data if I did it via my phone, so I went to the Seabrook library to upgrade over WiFi. That doesn't count against my data usage and is usually very quick. Well, not this time! Just updating the OS on my phone indicated it would take 3 hours. Since I was already there, I thought "What the hell? I'm in the library, I ought to be able to kill three hours reading." So I started the download.
A beautiful blond that I had met at the boat show sat down at the table next to me. She had said at the show that she was buying an Irwin sailboat that I had looked at. She went so far as to have it surveyed (professionally inspected), and the survey uncovered some serious, hidden damage to the stringers in the hull, so she passed on it and has is to close on a Pearson soon.
After 20 minutes, it seemed like my download was going really, really slow, so I restarted, thinking that might help. NOT! I found a good book and ...after 2 hours, my download timed out and stopped. I shut down, returned my book to the shelf, packed up, said "Goodbye" to the pretty blonde, and drove to the League City library. Did all my downloading, upgrading and watched most of John Labrie's last auto race in about 30 minutes, then they flickered the lights to show that they were closing...just as John passed the lead car. I'll have to see the rest of the race later. Good going John.

Monday, 20 April - I went to take one more look at that CSY at Kemah Boardwalk Marina, just to remind myself of a few details. I contacted yet another broker at Nautic Group marine brokers - that's the fourth - and not even one of them has gotten back to me. I sure wouldn't them trying to sell any boat that I owned. They truly seem to be unmotivated and unknowledgeable about the boats they have for sale. While at the marina, I met that blonde again. She was there to work on her new boat.
I thought I'd make one more effort to contact the people over in Seabrook Marina that are near the CSY over there, so I went back to the motorhome, drove over to the Seabrook Marina, got on my bike and rode over to the docks. I was very glad I did. There was a young couple there that work detailing boats in the marina. The girl goes by the name "Swab" and took me aboard the CSY, even though she shouldn't. We discovered that the boat probably hasn't been used since about 2002. Everything inside smelled like mildew. Some nice wines in the coolers, along with several unknown dishes of things green, white, gray, etc. That one's really going to need some work. In the ship's log, we found some information that might make it easier to find the owners, but I think I'll give up on that one for now. Something tells me there's been a death or divorce in the family or something similar. It's such a shame to see such a beautiful boat fall into such total disrepair. It had really beautiful woodwork inside.

Tuesday, 21 April - Went to an RV park in Dickinson to empty my foul water tanks and replenish my fresh water and continued south to the Texas City Levee to do some windsurfing. I arrived later than I should have, rigged, made four passes and the wind died off; so I started derigging, Of course, then the wind picked up again. Too late. I headed out to the dike to spend the night and get an early start tomorrow. It looks like this site gets better winds in the mornings, so I'll try again then. The dike is a spit of land about 50 yards wide and 5 miles long, so I have water on both sides of me tonight and lots of lights off in the distance across the water in the dark. Tomorrow - more sailing and some, supposedly final, paperwork to fill out on the sale of the house.

Wednesday, 22 April - Good Morning! It's 11:00am and here I am on the Texas City Dike waiting for the wind promised by the weather oracles. They promised wind at 15 to 17 knots, and I don't think it's blowing but 3 to 4. What a great job! They only need to be right about 10% of the time to keep their jobs. I thought for once I'd be here early and sail 'til my arms fell off. I guess I'd better make a break for it and go get the paperwork for the house completed.
                  I don't even know how I do it, but I'm really good at it. How can I lose something in such confined quarters. I've recently lost one of my pocket knives and last night I seem to have misplaced a flashlight. I've looked it all the obvious places and all but one of the less obvious places for both of them. This place is so small, how can I lose anything? One of the many mysteries of life I guess.
                  I hope I'm not about to see an explosion. I hear a couple of alarms going off at an oil refinery a couple of miles across the bay.

            Until next time,
                        Let me know what's happening in your neck of the woods.