Tuesday, 1 November 2022 - Pickleball, then, when I returned to Susie's, she was out, but called and said that she had pulled the gravel pan off of her car again a couple of miles away and was waiting for AAA to arrive. She finally gave up waiting after over two hours and caught a ride with a taxi home. She ate a quick lunch, called the taxi back, and we went back to the car with some Gorilla Tape. I did a quick repair job and we drove home. Upon return she took a nap and I improved on the repair, getting a light and a corner sensor on the car back in working order, too. We met Ted Williams and Leta and Roland at Dockside for what the band calls "Country Night". Not Country Western, but still some good dance music.

Wednesday, 2 November - Pickleball in the morning with a couple of new "Never-Ever" players. One had played quite a bit of tennis and was pretty good, the other has played badminton and wasn't very good; way too slow. They'll get better. I stopped by the marina and got one piece of mail, a birthday card from my brother, then went to the post office to fill out a temporary change of address card. The marina can't keep accepting my mail so I'll have it temporarily sent to the boat yard but by the time you read this I should be back in the water at the city marina.

Thursday, 3 November - During the repair of Susie's patio and seawall, the workers piled lots of construction materials and trash in her driveway. After pickleball today I took a very strong magnet and a metal detector of Susie's out to her driveway and removed all the nails, screws, staples, a nickel, and other metal artifacts that I could find. I'm amazed that she hasn't gotten flat tires recently. Donnie McDaniel of the band "Three Sheets To The Wind" has returned to Marathon along with other snowbirds and played at Dockside tonight so we joined Leta and Roland Kok, Anne Mullett, Donnie and Michelle, Ted Williams, and others for dinner there this evening.

Friday, 4 November - Susie had an appointment with her radiation oncology team today in Miami at around 1 o'clock so she dropped me off at the Marathon Community Park at 9 AM then headed to the mainland. It's about a 2 1/2 hour drive to get there. I caught a ride back to Susie's with one of the pickleball players. Susie returned with good news. She'll only have to undergo five days of radiation. That's wonderful news.

Saturday, 5 November - Today was a lazy day spent at Susie's catching up on news, email, and some reading. We'll meet others for dinner and dancing tonight at Havana Jacks here in Key Colony Beach to listen to Ty Thurman, Bob Jaeger, and Bongo Bob De La Torre.

Sunday, 6 November - Today Susie and I drove up island to Islamorada to the Moose Lodge Bacon Fest, a street festival for charity where all the vendors raise money by selling food that incorporates bacon; bacon wrapped sausage links, bacon wrapped scallops, bacon and jalapeño pepper tacos, bacon, bacon, bacon. It was fun, tasty, and Randy, Mark, Bob, and Bob were playing there. We returned, had dinner and went to Dockside to listen to Randy and the others host open mic night, too.

Monday, 7 November - We had eight players at pickleball today.

Tuesday, 8 November - We had enough players for two courts at pickleball again today, and although Donnie McDaniel and "Four Sheets To The Wind" were playing at Skipjack Resort and Randy and The JibSea Cowboys were playing at Dockside, Susie was too tired from anxiety about her cancer oncology appointment tomorrow to go out this evening. She still has lots of questions that she needs answered by the doctors.

Wednesday, 9 November - Because hurricane Nicole is approaching the east coast of Florida, Phil Vachon suggested that we cancel pickleball today. I countered with the observation that the wind here would be out of the north and that the row of sea grapes beside the courts would protect us from most of the wind. Luckily, others agreed with me and, thanks to a couple of new players from out of town, we had seven players show up and had a good time. Susie had her cancer oncology appointment at noon in Miami today so she left at 7:30 AM to go up there. They tattooed six pinhead sized dots on her so that when she goes in for the 15 radiation treatments over the course of four weeks starting next Wednesday that they have decide on, she can be positioned in exactly the same each time. Apparently, the X-Rays can be aimed with about 1 mm precision. Susie had also fretted about hurricane Nicole making the radiation center shut down or too much wind, rain, and seawater on the road from high tides to have a safe trip to Miami today, but she got there and returned before the hurricane came ashore.

Thursday, 10 November - I checked on the boat this morning. It looks like there is still at least another week's worth of work to be done on it. Susie went out to play bunco with "The Bunco Girls" this evening after going to the consignment shop to buy a beautiful sequined dress that would fit the "Bling" theme of that party. I think she wore every black and white piece of jewelry she had that evening and looked "maaaavelous."

Friday, 11 November - Susie and I dined at Isla Bella this evening. Before hurricane Irma construction had been started there but the only thing they had done was flattening the ground to bare coral for about two blocks along the southwest corner of Marathon. That was perfect timing because they already had their contractors lined up and there was absolutely nothing for Irma to damage. Immediately after the storm construction started and they built their beautiful facilities including rooms, two or three swimming pools, restaurant, bar, reception facility, etc., then they installed an absolutely gorgeous jungle to screen everything off from the surrounding area with hundreds of 40 foot palm trees spaced along the wind approach and other, smaller palms, bushes, mixed plants and flowers. It's absolutely beautiful. There are several small private beaches that are each raked clean and smoothed every day. The facility and service is all top notch to match, but as you would expect, not cheap. What lured us there this evening was that Rick and Dana Leader, a married couple that we've enjoyed at Skipjack Resort were playing there. The bar and sand dance floor were pretty quiet until a wedding party from their reception center showed up, then the place really livened up.

Saturday, 12 November - This morning Susie got her third Covid booster and afternoon we started out to make enchiladas but since the tortillas that we had broke up as she rolled them we decide it was a fabulous enchilada casserole. It sure tasted good and that's a good thing because I think we made enough for a week's dinners. Yum!
                    We met Phil and Carol Vachon for dinner at Havana Jacks and listened and danced to Ty, Bob, and Bob's music along with cocktails.

Sunday, 13 November - Susie and I met Roland, Leta, and the rest of the usual culprits for cocktails at Dockside for dancing and other merriment.

Monday, 14 November - Susie had to have her car serviced in Key West this morning so I took advantage of that and rode with her so that we could stop on the way back at Naval Air Station Key West so that I could renew my security clearance that will allow me to have access to the army outpatient clinic in Key West. A couple of years ago they found a Chinese national on the premises taking photographs so now everyone that needs to go in has to have a security background check. I had to fill out a form with all kinds of questions that they asked last year and, I'm sure, they have a record of. It seems to me that they really only needed to ask me one question, "Have you, since last year, become a spy for a foreign government?", but they didn't even ask me that.

Tuesday, 15 November - Susie went to work at Christina's Consignment Store this morning because they were expecting a "Thrift Store Bus" to deliver about forty avid thrifters down from the mainland. She always has fun working there and the madhouse caused by so many shoppers at once didn't change that. Afterward, we finished off the enchilada casserole that we made Saturday then went to Skipjack Resort to hear Donnie McDaniel and "Four Sheets To The Wind" and then to Dockside to dance to Randy and the JibSea Cowboys' music.

Wednesday, 16 November - Susie left this morning at 7:30 to go to Miami for her first radiation treatment. She'll get a treatment each day and stay there until Friday, then return. I played pickleball and upon my return to the house I dismantled the door knob mechanism on her front, hurricane proof door. Something was making it hard to lock and that something turned out to be termite frass. We had recently noticed some of the frass (Termite poop) by the doorway and, since she has a contract with Terminex, she had had them come and respray. However, we continue to see frass by the door. When I removed the door knob about a half a cup of frass and termite wings spilled out. I cleaned up the space and lubricate the mechanism and reinstalled it in fine working order. Apparently, the frass was gumming up the works.
                    Susie called this evening and it looks like her very first radiation treatment has given her an apparent sunburn. We weren't aware that that side effect would start so quickly. We should find out tomorrow when she gets her second treatment if that is normal.

Thursday, 17 November - There's good news and bad news. The bad news is that, yes, she apparently got a burn and that it wall get worse from here till the end of the treatment. The good news is that that is normal.

Friday, 18 November - Susie came back in town from Miami and her radiation treatments. Susie got back around noon and we went to see if I was really going to get the boat back on Monday as I'd hoped for. The upper parts of the hull and deck were taped and wrapped in plastic to keep sprayed paint off of it, but the wind and rain have been keeping them from finishing.

Saturday, 19 November - A blustery day here so Susie and I stayed in, then met Phil and Carol Vachon for dinner at Havana Jack's for dinner.

Sunday, 20 November - Susie had to leave for radiation in Miami at 5:30 this morning. I got up to see her off then went back to bed until 6:45. I got up, then since the city park pickleballers don't play on the weekend, I rode my bike over to the Key Colony Beach courts to play. When I got on the bike to return home there was a loud clattering noise and the bike took an enormous amount of energy to move the first few feet. The reflector under the rack on the rear of the bike was rubbing the tire. Upon inspection I realized that the seat post was bent. When I tried to straighten it, the post, seat, rack, and basket that was mounted on it totally broke off so I had to balance all of it on the bike as I walked it the mile and a half back to Susie's.

Monday, 21 November - This was one of the rainiest days that I've seen in Marathon since I've been here so pickleball was cancelled and I started reading one of the recent books that my brother has sent me, Mr. Midshipman Easy by Fredrick Marryat, a writer that actually sailed with Horatio Lord Nelson in square rigged ships fighting Napoleon's navy at the turn of the 17th century.

Tuesday, 22 November - I couldn't get a ride to the Marathon City Park this morning so I played pickleball at Key Colony Beach. I walked over since the bicycle is out of commission. The players, on average, are much better than those of us at the Marathon city park and it's fun to play with them. I play better when I'm playing with players that are better than I am. I have to try harder and concentrate harder. It's still pretty windy so I'm sure they didn't get to finish painting the boat today. In the afternoon and evening I read some more of Marryat's book.

Wednesday, 23 November - I played pickleball this morning before Susie arrived back from Miami again since they won't treat her tomorrow, Friday, or on the weekend. When she got home we went to the boatyard to see what progress had been made on the boat. Not a lot, but they were painting the blue stripe around the upper topsides at last. They seem to think I can splash the boat this coming Monday, again.

Thursday, 24 November - Thanksgiving Day - A busy day for us. Susie went for a long walk early, arriving home just as I was about to go to play pickleball at the park from 9 till 11:45. When I returned, Susie was taking down some decorative lights that she keeps up all year round in order to replace them with Christmas lighting. I helped her so that we would have time to complete the job before having to clean up and go to the Thanksgiving pot-luck dinner at the city marina where we got to stuff ourselves on our choice of about 70 different dishes and visit with friends, most of which I haven't seen for a couple of months while the boat has been worked on.

Friday, 25 November - Susie walked early and I played pickleball at the Marathon City Park. When I got back I showered then we installed seventy five feet of icicle style strings of Christmas lights around the back porch, the length of the house, and the front of the house, then we went to the boatyard and reinstalled the dodger, some of the fenders and three of the docking and spring lines. By that time it was dark and we went home to turn on the lights.

Saturday, 26 November - Susie loaned me her car so I could go to the boatyard and work on the boat in preparation for getting it back this week. She stayed home and put up more Christmas decorations. I got much of the cockpit cleared so I can motor back to the mooring ball and completed a task that I had really dreaded and hoped that the boatyard would do for me, but time is running short and so is my money. The bow of the boat is where the anchor chain and rope rode is stored and both drop down into a triangular compartment right below the electric windlass. That compartment, the anchor locker, has a divider in it on my boat. One side for the chain and the other for the rode. In order for the rigger to reach nuts right up in the forepeak of the boat to replace the bow stay, they had to move that divider. Occasionally in the past, part of the chain would fall into the wrong side as I brought it aboard so I installed an extension at the top of the divider. They ground off the heads of the bolts to remove it and I was only able to remove two of the three bolts. The other broke of flush with the surface of the divider. That compartment is very small, hot, and awkward to work in and replacing the two bolts took me about four or more hours, partly because my tools are stowed away so the boatyard workers won't use or steal them. When I finally finished that I replaced the shackle that attaches the rode to the boat and reattached the rode and chain in the locker, then worked on replacing some of the cabinetry that had not been replaced yet. I also made a short list of things that still need to be done, so I'm fairly sure I won't be getting the boat back on Monday. When I returned to Susie's I was wowed by the Christmas decorations that she got up today, a decorated tree, more lights, snowflakes (in the Florida Keys?), and lots of other decorations. I think she's going to have a very high electric bill for the month of December.

Sunday, 27 November - Susie and I went to the boatyard this morning and she helped me put all the anchor rode and chain back into the chain locker and mount the anchors on the bow rollers. She also vacuumed the dust and trash caused by the workers sanding and painting the woodwork that had fallen into the cockpit. There was enough there that I was afraid it might clog either the scuppers or the drain lines. When that was done she returned home to put up more Christmas decorations and I placed the fenders back onto the safety lines, ran the furling lines for the two foresails and the mainsail through all the sheaves back to the cockpit. I also did some more vacuuming and dropped down into the engine room where Chris Jasinski had replaced my water heater and found that I needed to raise and support some of the lines to get them out of the way when you enter the engine room on the port side from the cockpit. Susie came back around 4 pm and we cleaned up and went to Dockside for their open mic night along with Phil and Carol Vachon, and Roland and Leta Kok and others. Susie had been looking forward to that since she's been out of the loop up in Miami for her radiation treatment.

Monday, 28 November - Susie had to head back to Miami this morning around 8 am so she took me to the boatyard to get the boat launched. I had hoped to get the boat in the water in the morning so I would have time to get assigned a new ball at the marina but that didn't happen. There was still too much work to be done on the boat. There was still a tiny bit of water leaking out of the skeg that the rudder is mounted on after two months out of the water. The boatyard personnel wants to ignore it but I said, "No, if water is still leaking out and we don't repair it, water can leak into it, too," so they sanded, filled, sand again, put a fiberglass patch on it, and repainted it. The boat was finally ready to go back in the water but Chris still had to complete the reinstallation of the cabinetry and stereo. When he put it back in, it wouldn't work so he pulled it out again and found a wire or two had parted. He was going to get tools and parts to fix it, but I told him that I would do that because I can't afford the $150/hr. rate for him to fix it. He also finished installing the pin rails on the shrouds. It wasn't fitting right and we realized that he had them upside down. The boat was finally ready to go but it was so late that I couldn't get to the marina in time to moore, launch the dinghy, reinstall the outboard motor, and register, so I closed up the boat and returned to Susie's via taxi.

Tuesday, 29 November - Joe and Esther La Corte picked me up at Susie's before pickleball this morning and took me to the boatyard to get the boat moved back to the mooring field. They showed up early and in my rush to get out the door to ride with them I forgot my second pair of glasses which was not good, and my cold water bottles and some food that needs to be kept cold, which turned out to be a good thing. I had turned on the refrigeration on the boat yesterday so the freezer would cool down but upon arrival at the boat this morning I discovered that it had not cooled at all, so the food would have ruined. I topped off my water tank with about 100 gallons of fresh water, went and paid my bill for the work on the boat, then had the yard cast me off. I immediately got on the VHF radio and called the city marina to get a mooring ball assignment, knowing that I could not go back to my old ball. Roland Kok had told me on Sunday evening that there were lots of balls available and that I could probably get one near him and Leta, but that didn't happen. Most of the balls appear to be occupied now. They must have gotten a lot of new boats in yesterday. It turns out that the couple that Susie and I shared a table with on Thanksgiving Day are on one of the boats right next to me now. As soon as I got the boat moored I started attending the refrigeration. I put several ounces of refrigerant into the system to bring the low pressure side to 10 lb. of pressure and the unit started cooling again, but very slowly. I think I may need to check the level again soon. If it's not frozen in the morning I'll know. Next, I had to launch the dinghy, put the engine back on it, and reinstall the oars, seat, navigation lights, and under-seat storage bap so I could go into them marina to sign up for the ball. Upon doing so, I discovered that my registration for the boat expires tomorrow and the dinghy's registration expired a month ago. Oops! I would have sworn that I paid the Coast Guard for the boat recently. I need to check. When I got back from the marina I started moving everything back into their correct places. The boat is a mess. Most things, since they had to remove all the cabinetry in the saloon and forepeak, have been stored (stacked) in the aft cabin to the ceiling or in the forward shower stall. It took me an hour to find all the parts for the dinghy and twenty minutes to find a pan that I could heat a can of chowder in for dinner. I got a lot done but there's still a long way to ge before everything is back in its correct place, but I'm not in a hurry; I am, after all, on Island Time.

Wednesday, 30 November - I got to play pickleball this morning then headed to the tax office to re-register the dinghy and the boat with the state. I left there about 12:30 and had lunch at the Overseas restaurant across the highway from the marina then headed back to the boat. The refrigeration is still not performing well but I had other things to do. Apparently, Chris Jasinski, the fellow working on my boat at the boatyard closed the hatch improperly and broke the heavy spring that holds it open. I have a spare so I started to replace the broken one. I got one end of the spring off, it was screwed in, but the other end is bolted and I realized that I'll need to remove the bars on the outside of the see-through hatch to access the bolt heads and that's going to take to long for now. I dug out the brand new carburetor that I received just before the boat came out of the water. It had a 30 day return policy and my boat and dinghy have been out of the water for about 70 days. I installed the new carburetor and took the dinghy out for a spin. Slowly...the new carburetor didn't cure my problem at all. I gave up for the evening and did a bit of reading.