Wednesday, 25 February - A cold, rainy day here in Kemah, so I stayed in the motor home and researched sailboats on the internet and did some reading. I called the broker that was recommended to me by Chip Spence, the fellow who's boat I went out on in Corpus Christi, but he wasn't in, so I talked to one the other brokers in the same office, and will meet with him tomorrow.

Thursday, 26 February - I met with Rick Weiler at Little Yacht Sales and looked at three boats. That's about all the boats I can look at in one day without getting all the features on each one confused. None of the boats really reached out and grabbed me.

Friday, 27 February - I met with Rick Weiler again and looked at two more boats in a local marina and then drove down to Galveston to look at one more. Rick says that there are only two areas in the U.S. that have more boats in as small an area as there are here. The broke was freezing his ass off with the low temperature, high humidity, and 25 mile breezes. I told him I had my long underwear on and asked if he did, too. Says he doesn't own any. Oh Well!!!
                  We stopped and ate at a Mexican restaurant on the way back from Galveston and I bought him lunch. The food was pretty good, but certainly not as good as El Chihuahua in SLC. Rick has been very helpful and is very knowledgeable about boats, but I think he's starting to think I should make up my mind and buy one of the boats that he's shown me. He's certainly shown me a good variety, but nothing that I've fallen in love with. All the boats have nice features, but none have all the right features at a price I can afford. Most of them are set up for day or weekend sailing and just don't have enough usable storage for living on full-time.
                  It's been down in the low 40's to upper 30's the last two nights, and last night my batteries ran low, so the heater couldn't keep up. I hadn't driven anywhere yesterday, so that made two nights in a row running on the batteries. We were through viewing boats around 3:00pm, so I came back to the motor home and took the two auxiliary batteries out and cleaned their terminals up really good. I hope that's all that's wrong.
                  After cleaning the batteries and reinstalling them, I cleaned up and went out to dinner with Gary and Lorrie Powers and some of their old sailing friends to a BBQ restaurant. The BBQ was fair and rather small portions compared to Pat's there in SLC. About half the meat on the ribs as Pat's has. After dinner, I went home and ran the generator for about an hour to make sure I had enough charge on the batteries to last through the night.

Saturday, 28 February - Today's my brother Mike's birthday so I tried to call him several times; not home. I headed to the Apple Store, but forgot to change the preferences to "Fastest" from "Shortest Route" and it took me 45 minutes to go 7 miles across town to the store. I went to the Apple Store to try to find out how to manage my photographs using iPhoto better and easier, and I think I've about got it under control, IF I can remember all they told me. Just because someone teaches me something doesn't mean I learned it. I'll try to get some of the images on line that relate to my travels soon. They showed my more than one method, so I'll try to determine which way is best for everyone...and easiest for me.
                  I got a call from our realtor saying that we got an offer. The buyer wants a response by Monday afternoon.
                  Mike called me back and we talked for a while. He thinks something's rotten in Denmark because the buyer made an offer late on a Friday afternoon and wants such a quick response over the weekend. Maybe, maybe not. From what I understand, the buyer is definitely a contractor that is going to fix it up a bit and put it right back on the market. I think we should probably counter-offer and see what happens.

Sunday, 1 March - Wow! That was a fast February! It's another dreary, wet morning, but I really don't have much to do other than look over the offer for the house.
                  Well, Mike just called and says he beat me to looking at the contract and that there are a couple of paragraphs in it that are totally unacceptable anyway. One says that there are washers, dryer, refrigerators, etc. in the house that we will include and warranty to the purchaser. There are not. Both of us believe that our realtor should have read the contract and told the buyer that was not the case, and rejected it. Another says that the buyer can change the amount on paragraph 3.B. indicating how much he owes us. Not! We don't think we should have even had to read this contract. That's part of the realtor's job, to represent us.
                 I think I'd better run some diagnostics on the batteries and charging system. The batteries made it all the way through the night, but that might be because it only got down to about 56°F last night.

Monday, 2 March - I priced batteries (2) at a marine store ($480) and an RV store ($260) today, but didn't purchase at either place. I'm still not convinced that I can't get buy with what I have for a while. I discovered that a switch for the TV antennae that is hidden in a storage compartment had gotten turned on by something that shifted while I was driving and might be the cause of the batteries draining. I hope that was the problem. Easy fix. Can't happen again. I also tried to purchase a lug nut that holds one of my wheel covers on at the RV dealership and repair shop. I can't believe they don't stock them. No auto store will and I can't be the only person losing them. Special order. You've got to be kidding!
                  I found a large empty parking lot to check the air pressure on all my tires, which, when you have 13 tires, some of which are very large and take 80 lb. of pressure, takes a while. My new inflator came in very handy, thank you. I also checked all my vehicle fluids and did some minor adjustments to the locks on my door.
                 Another thing that took up quite a bit of time was implementing a solution that Duane Fox suggested to the problem I have with jackknifing the trailer when I can't use the rear view camera that Hook gave me. I think I've explained how hard it is to see and judge distances and the angle of the trailer while I'm backing up. Duane suggested that I put some marks (electricians tape) on the trailer with it jackknifed just short of damaging the trailer, so today I got out the rear view camera, slowly and easily backed up to jackknife the trailer on each side, then installed the tape. I'll still have to account for uneven or sloping roads, but it'll be better than nothing.
                  I also had to deal with a contract and counter proposal for the sale of the house. Questions, short deadlines, communications problems, and technological problems. Argh!
                  I had intended to try to contact another friend of my folks and try to visit them today. Maybe tomorrow.
                  The clouds are so low and the humidity so high that a helicopter went over me today at an altitude of what sounded like about two hundred feet and I couldn't even see him. I hope he has his instrument rating to fly. I didn't hear any crashes. I was parked directly below some high voltage electrical power transmission lines and it made me a little uneasy I must admit.
                 I understand winter finally decided to arrive in Utah.

Tuesday, 3 March 2015 - All day spent dealing with two problems and finished with neither; my DC to AC inverter has discontinued operation so I am trying to find a better solution and figure out how and where to install it, and I need to find a convenient place to empty my dirty water holding tanks.

Wednesday, 4 March - I took back an inverter and computer backup system that I purchased yesterday. It indicated that it needed to be installed within 4 feet of the batteries, and there just isn't a suitable spot that close to the battery compartment under the entry steps to the motorhome, and the UPS system wasn't working properly. I guess I'll settle for a system of less capacity, quality, and expense for the moment. I'll continue my quest for holding tank dump sites today. It seems like I'm spending more time putting out fires than I am looking at boats. I never thought simplifying my life would be so complicated.

            Until next time,
                        I hope you're having a great week.