Friday, 8 April 2022 - As usual, this was my morning to be the monitor for the Cruiser's Net. I was afraid that not enough pickleball players would show up to play today, but, to my surprise, cooler weather brought out enough for three courts. This afternoon, I sent the IRS money I owed for 2021 and for the coming estimated taxes for this year, too. I don't mind paying my share of taxes, but I sure hate dealing with it.

Saturday, 9 April - The anniversary of my dad's passing. To say that I wish I had taken more advantage of his wisdom and knowledge would certainly be an understatement. I spent the day with Susie today and repaired the latch to the gate on her fence that separates her back patio from the dock. We spent about an hour and half looking for her lost driver's license. She finally found it in the back pocket of a pair of bluejeans that she has never worn yet, only tried on to see if the would fit. We had, of course, searched every purse, drawer, pile of paper, trash can, cracks in every couch and chair, the dirty clothes bin, etc., and wouldn't you know it, there it was in the last place we searched. Later we went to Skipjack Resort for dinner, to dance and visit with friends.

Sunday, 10 April - I defrosted the freezer/refrigerator this afternoon and spent a significant amount of time trying to export several of my playlists from my old phone that did not get moved over when I got the new phone and have now disappeared on my laptop, too. The songs are there, but not seven of my playlists. Online I have found several "help" files that purport to have instructions to export from the iPhone to a laptop, but, in reality, do exactly the opposite; laptop to phone. This evening Susie and I are headed to Dockside to meet Rowland, Leta, and other friends to listen to music at their "open mic night" and dance.

Monday, 11 April - Right after pickleball this morning I had to briskly walk about a mile to the dentist. When I got there I let the dentist know that I had tried at least four or five times over the last month to call his office, sometimes during working hours, and sometimes after-hours, left messages each time, but never got return calls. He seemed very glad to know it. He repaired a spot near the roots of one of my molars, then told me there was absolutely to charge for today's services. Gratitude for the tip about his staff, I guess. On the way back to the marina I set another personal record buying groceries, this time over $280 worth. Are food prices, or for that matter, prices on everything, going through the roof, or what? Susie and I eat out a lot and I'm only buying groceries for one person.

Tuesday, 12 April - It was a fairly nice day for pickleball this morning but we still only had enough players for two courts to play and two extra players, but play was pretty good. I returned to the boat and shortly thereafter Phil called and wanted to return the two kayaks that I had loaned him. Unfortunately, the friends that he'd expected to come visit and use the kayaks got checked in at the airport to come here, then their flight was cancelled for some reason.

Wednesday and Thursday, 13 & 14 April - After pickleball on both of these days I spent time on the boat changing my mailing address from my mail forwarding service, Saint Brendan's Isle, to the marina's address: 800 35th Street Ocean, Marathon, FL 33050. I think I have given them enough of my money.

Friday, 15 April - As usual, this was my morning to host the Cruiser's Net and the VHF radio at 9AM on channel 80A. Upon finishing that I immediately dinghied in to play pickleball. This evening Susie and I joined several others to listen to and dance to music at Dockside Bar again. They had a large band that had come down from Ohio along with 70 or 80 groupies to play and collect money for a cancer charity. I don't know how much they collected tonight, but it was a pretty good amount.

Saturday, 16 April - Susie and I had a late breakfast at the Wooden Spoon and while we were there, I happened to remember that we had promised Diane Smullen that we'd take her up to Lorelai Restaurant in Islamorada this evening. We'd been planning on going for several months, but since she works most Saturdays, and since daylight has been so short all winter, we had a hard time setting a date. Last night we did. Susie worked from 10 o'clock till about 11:45 at Christina's Consignment Shop. We picked Diane up about 5 o'clock and made the 40 minute drive to Lorelai. We got there just as they were filling all their tables and got seated well near the back of the outdoor area. We ordered and had our dinner then attempted to move to another table up by the band. We were told we'd have to re-register at the front desk and wait about 45 minutes to be reseated, but got lucky and got seated within about 10 minutes. The band was very good, but we didn't stay long because Diane's boyfriend called from a bar back in Marathon, so we joined him there after driving back.

Sunday, 17 April - Susie and I had Easter brunch at Key Colony Inn. Wow! What a spread of delicious food. We had planned on dinner at Dockside, but discovered that they were closed for Easter holiday, so we had leftovers and popcorn in front of the TV tonight.

Monday, 18 April - We still had just enough pickleball players after the Cruiser's Net this morning to fill out three courts, but we only set up two nets. That lets us take a short break to cool down and rehydrate between games. I had one more address change to make today. XTO Energy had sent me a form to fill out, sign and return. I don't have a printer so I fake it. I download their PDF, convert it to Word, open it in Pages on my Mac, fill it out and add a copy of my signature, then convert back to a PDF and email it back. It takes awhile, but it's better than having to go to shore to print it out. I, also, called Walt Avery to tell him that I won't be coming to ping pong on Monday and Wednesday afternoons until the pickleball courts get too hot to play on. I need to give up one sport or the other to get more done here on the boat and pickleball is a lot better exercise.

Tuesday, 19 April - This week portends to be very windy so although the harbor yesterday seemed to be emptying out, lots of boats have returned to the safe harbor and, as I understand it, only two of the 226 mooring balls are available now. Randy, Bob Jeager, Mark and Bongo Bob, the "house band" at Dockside, call themselves "The JibSea Cowboys" on Tuesday evenings, their "country music night", and they were in full form tonight, sounding great. Susie and I enjoyed them with Phil and Carol from S/V Uno Mas joining us at our table.

Wednesday, 20 April - For the last two days it has been off and on cloudy and quite breezy, making pickleball cool and quite challenging. After I returned to Island Time this afternoon I cut some 1 1/2" PVC tubing and made up a replacement steering extension for the outboard motor. This is the third one I've had to make. They can only handle so much flexing before they give up the ghost.

Thursday, 21 April - Another truly breezy day at pickleball today. We all miss lots of shots because the ball just seems to change directions just before your paddle impacts it...or balls that you are sure are going to be well within the court suddenly make a 45, or more, degree turn at the last minute and land just out of bounds. Frustrating, but funny at the same time.
                    While returning to the boat today the inevitable happened. One of those things that you know will eventually happen, you just don't know how long it will take. As I stepped aboard the dinghy, it bumped the boat next to it, throwing me off balance, and into the harbor I went. I was amazed that no one saw it happen. There were others not too far away but I guess they may have heard the splash, but upon looking to see what the noise was, since I was low in the water next to the dinghy, they saw nothing unusual and went about their business. Since I currently have a sore shoulder because of a torn rotator cuff, it was pretty hard getting back up onto the dock without getting cut up by barnacles or muscles attached to the dock, but I finally succeeded, embarrassed and thoroughly soaked. Since I was just 100 feet from the showers, I walked over, rinsed myself and everything I had on, then got carefully back into the dinghy and went home. This evening I finished the second of the last six "Lord Ramage" books by Dudley Pope that my brother recently sent me...a great series of 18.

Friday, 22 April - I hosted a pretty quiet Cruiser's Net this morning. The only section that got much response was Trivia. It had rained during the night and was still raining when I got up so I rigged the lines to the water catchment system. Before my Net was over, the rain stopped and radar showed it was over for the day so I suggested that we squeegee the court dry and play some pickleball. I rushed over to the courts hoping to see that others had dried the courts out, but to my disappointment, I was the only person to show up, even though, since I was late because of hosting the Net. I decided to get the equipment anyway and practice some dinks, short shots from near the net that barely pass beyond it, and some serves. After about 30 minutes dinking, another player, Tony, happened to show up and we set up the net and switched between serving and dinking practice for about two hours. With pointers from me, his play, especially his serves, improved significantly and my play did too. I've always though that the best way to get better at anything is to teach it. Teaching makes you really pick apart and define what you are doing yourself so you can instruct your student.
                    After dinner at the Ale House Susie and I joined Phil and Carol of S/V Uno Mas for drinks and dancing at Dockside.

Saturday, 23 April - Susie and I had assumed that we'd get continued rain and wind this weekend according to the weather reports, but we were wrong. Today turned out to be a very nice day, but since we had nothing planned, we took it easy at her house. We did spot a group of four manatees in the channel behind her house and some small schools of mullet that are here to spawn. Mullet are usually about 12 to14 inches long and attract tarpon frequently, which are ofter 6 feet in length, but I don't think the school of mullet in her channel was big enough to draw the tarpon in. In fact, the numbers of mullet spawning in the dinghy channel at the marina seem to be way down this season and we haven't seen nearly as many tarpon, either. Maybe it's just too early.

Sunday, 24 April - Susie had to work at the consignment shop today. I spent the day replacing the broken steering extension on the Yamaha outboard for the third time. The PVC that I'm making the handles out of appear co only handle so much flexing before they break. We joined Phil, Carol, and Phil'l sister, Janine, at Dockside for the evening.

Monday, 25 April - Phil's sister, Janine, joined us at pickleball this morning even though she had never played the game before. She did very well for a total rookie, but won't be joining us again because she had to catch a plane to go home this afternoon.

Tuesday, 26 April - At pickleball this morning I pulled a muscle in my left forearm trying to adjust the middle post in the net. I thought the pain would go away by playing, but it only got worse. Now both of my arms are sore and I'm pretty sure I've torn the rotator cuff in my right shoulder. Susie and I went to Skipjack Resort to say goodbye to Roland and Leta who have moved their boat into a canal for the summer and are headed north in their car to norther Florida on Thursday or Friday. Susie wanted to go to Dockside to meet Diane Smullen so we only stayed at Skipjack for one drink then headed to Dockside. It's only a couple of blocks between the two restaurants but as we drove over, a police car pulled out in front of us, then two more pulled in behind us. The one in front stopped in the road at Dockside and the one behind us quickly passed us and pulled over at an angle right in front of Susie's car. Both policemen got out and headed into Dockside so I pulled around both of them and by the time we got the car parked, they had already walked in, had a troublemaker pointed out to them, tased the guy, cuffed him, and left. Phil and Carol were already there and saw it all happen but have no idea who he was or why he was arrested. We, again, joined Diane, Phil, and Carol for the rest of the evening.

Wednesday, 27 April - Well, my left arm felt fine this morning so I enjoyed several games of pickleball again this morning. Back onboard the boat I repaired a flag halyard and emptied the remainder of a tank of gasoline into the dinghies gas tank and cleaned and put away the water catchment water filter. This evening I finished the 15th book in the Ramage series of books by Dudley Pope that my brother had sent me. Just three more to go in that series.

Thursday, 28 April - We had a good pickleball session this morning, although we only had enough players to fill three courts. Sessions have gotten better because players have gotten better over the winter and we're not getting many novice players. It will get too hot to play pretty soon, then we'll start all over again with new players next snowbird season. When I got back to the boat, Tom Crank and his wife were cleaning the bottom for me. They were going to replace the sacrificial zincs on the propellor shaft, too, but couldn't get one of them off. Apparently, the two on there have different Allen head screws, although that seems unlikely. I put those on myself when the boat was last out of the water and I don't remember using different wrenches.

Friday, 29 April - I tried to stretch my Cruiser's Net out this morning but was still only able to make it 35 minutes long. We only had enough pickleball players to justify setting up two nets today, too. Tom Crank came back to the boat today and finished replacing the sacrificial zincs on the boat while I was gone. This afternoon I tracked down what I hope to be the correct part numbers for the CDI (Capacitive Discharge Ignition) module and ignition coils for the Yamaha and ordered them along with some snap studs for use on the dodger windows. I needed extra long studs because they need to go through extra layers of canvas and plastic. I still am not sure what year model my Yamaha is. The date plate is missing and I find conflicting information online that says that it could be a 2004, 2008, or 2009. Many parts are interchangeable, but which ones are and which ones aren't, I have no way of telling. Very frustrating.
                    Susie and I have always enjoyed a performer that shows up frequently at Dockside and plays a few tunes on their Sunday open mic night that calls himself "Popeye". They finally booked him and his band for the full evening and we've been looking forward to it. Tonight was the night and we, along with Phil and Carol Vachon, and many others really enjoyed it although I think the "house band's" drummer, bass guitar player, and lead guitar players are better. Still a great show with great song selection.

Saturday, 30 April - Susie really has my favorite breakfast down pat, "blindfolded fried eggs" with Tabasco sauce; highly superior to "over easy". That's what we had for breakfast, then for lunch we headed to Porky's. I kept telling her that we'd eaten there before but she insisted we hadn't, until we walked through the front door. Good food under a huge Tiki Hut, then two of their deserts for take-home for watching a Prime TV movie this evening at Susie's along with popcorn.