I got a couple of messages from the Universe this week that it was time to update the blog again. Actually, the messages were from readers either asking for links to old content or telling us they’ve been enjoying Little Cunning Plan for a couple of years. Naturally I began to feel the nudges of a particularly motivating form of guilt that always lies just underneath the surface when I’ve been too distracted by life to write. It’s sort of like forgetting to feed my dog.  I know when I’ve been remiss. The blog looks at me with doleful eyes and ears laid flat, then looks away, filled with loathing.

Or maybe just confusion.

But, after all, even if I am not spending every moment of every day working my rear end off right now, I feel deeply all the changes that are beginning to crystallize in our lives. So there is this kind of energetic ‘busy-ness’ that is constant all day every day. There is a tension in the very air, a pregnant waiting.  All big plans have a sort of tipping point where all the preparations begin to suddenly come together like precipitate in a test tube. First that liquid is clear, then one more drop and all hell is breaking loose in that little vial of glass. That’s pretty much how it feels. We’re waiting for that final drop, and we don’t know when, or even IF it will come.

Emotionally, I’m on the verge of excitement but still leaning towards fear. Maybe I just don’t know the difference between the two. Or maybe I’m afraid to feel excited because there are still many, many things that need to come together for this whole transition to be complete. A picture is emerging in this tapestry we are weaving, but we are still depending on our creative imaginations to tell us what the final product could look like. We try to just enjoy the process while having a loose idea of the direction we are going.

Maybe it will look like more of this. That would be great, but we’d really like warmer water and weather for awhile.

In practical terms, that means we’ve done most of the downsizing we can do until we actually move onto the boat. We’ve been meeting with our property manager and there is a concrete plan for putting our house on the short term rental market. This is Plan A. We are positioned nicely in terms of location. All indications are that there is a need for this type of housing in this area because of the huge presence of military bases.  We will throw our hat into this ring in January by advertising on the military websites, targeting specifically that population as well as the larger companies that have executives who come in for periods of time and prefer a home to the local hotels. If people reserve the house, that will be the drop in the solution that begins another flurry of activity. We’ll have to move all of our personal stuff out of the house.

We love our new logo.

So we were a little relieved when this week our name came up on the list for a storage unit at the marina. We signed for it immediately, feeling very fortunate that the timing, if a little early, was not too late. We got a unit about the size of a one car garage, located close to the gate we use at the marina. This is good fortune and we consider it a wink from the Universe that things are working out.

So when are we moving aboard? That is likely to be a process that happens very quickly, and we do not know exactly when it will be. The imaginary renters will determine that when they are made flesh in the real world. It could happen as soon as the end of February. It is likely we will not be full time liveaboards right away. We may be moving back and forth from the house to the boat for awhile, which would be very strange.

We will need to figure this out.

And what about our little Skippy dog? Simply put, we are starting now to get him used to the marina. He’s a smart dog, and we think if we start taking him down with us he can get used to being on the boat. I have been spending a lot of time on the boat seeing clients, which has worked out very well. I am considering taking him with me so he can get used to it. We won’t leave the country with him, but while we are here, he stays with us. He is very treat-motivated (some say extremely so). We hope by the time we are living there even part time, he will be adjusting.

So we are enjoying another Christmas season in our home with our kids. Claire and Dan arrived from Guatemala and will be with us until Valentine’s Day, when they head back to Scotland for a visit to Dan’s home. Claire has made herself a nice career writing for Investopedia and some other financial websites. Dan is a digital artist who designed our logo for Galapagos. We love our logo and we love that they are part of the new ‘digital nomad’ generation.  Look Claire’s articles up on Investopedia and Dividend.com. Dan has a new site with t-shirts he designed to appeal to the young and politically hip crowd. Need a logo for your boat or business? Contact Dan Moffat: moffatdesigns(at)gmail.com.

That day we had a pony party in our big back yard to welcome Claire home from some travels.

Is this Christmas season one last hurrah in our house? Where will we be next Christmas? Will Mike and Melissa and their little dog have to spend next winter aboard Galapagos in the marina? (Ack!) Who knows? We certainly don’t.

And those hatch lenses we fixed with aluminum tape? Still not leaking. Yay!

The season is upon us, and I’m not talking about the holiday season. I’m talking about the rainy season; time of darkness; time of spiraling inward; time of reflection and thought. And time of sitting around wishing the sun would make even a small appearance. Last week we had our first really dark day of fall where the rain started sometime in the night and continued all day long. All. Day. Long. The sun never showed up, even for 5 minutes. I accidentally I left my outdoor work vest somewhere on a wheelbarrow outside. It got soaked and I didn’t care. I stayed in my pajamas all day and whereas I should probably have felt disgusted with myself, in fact, I did not.

This was summer rain. It comes and it goes. Not like what we have now.

This is not depression. This is the rainy season. There are simply days where the most useful thing I can imagine doing is resting and reading. I realize that this is completely un-American but as a licensed Mental Health Professional, I highly recommend the occasional day of complete rest. It wasn’t just me. Mike went down to the boat. And he took a nap for most of the day. So let’s not finger point, okay? Never mind that I’m writing this in my pajamas.

If you’ve been a long time reader of our blog, you’ll know that this is the time of year when we don’t do much on the boat. We hang out on her, but we don’t accomplish much. This year since we’re really focused on getting the house ready, that’s fine with me. But I need to keep the interest in our cunning plan alive. I need support! I need encouragement! I need to know that all this work will be worth the trouble. Because, really, it’s a great deal of work and takes a lot of focus as well as a zen like belief that it will all come together in the end.   Ideally, I’d like to know other people who are in the same place in their process: the place where we are letting go, one little bit at a time, all the obligations, the spoken and unspoken ‘contractual agreements’ that we have with our life on land,  with an eye to sailing out to sea for awhile. Thank goodness for blogs.

One of my favorite photos from this summer. What a great day!

I read a number of blogs, but most of them are written by people who have already sailed away into adventure. It’s like they are already college graduates, enjoying their freedom as grown ups and we’re still stuck in junior year finishing up our distribution requirements.  I wish there were more blogs written by people who are still in the preparation phase. I know they are out there, but I’m having a hard time finding them.  Where are all the west coast people getting ready to go? I guess most people get the blogs going after they get the boats going. Still, I found some interesting new blogs to read while we hunker down for the long dark winter. Maybe you’ll enjoy these, too:

Sailing Consort – Alan and Cheri describe themselves as ‘Adventurous Texans’. Currently in Seabrook, TX, they are starting for Florida soon on their Endeavor 42, so if you hurry and subscribe to their blog, you can read their adventure from the start.

Winds Of Time – After buying a Formosa 41 on the east coast, and after some delays, Rick and Joanne are finally sailing down the east coast toward warm water. I enjoyed spending several hours catching up on their extensive blog today. They have interesting hobbies and are both HAM radio operators. I look forward to following them.

Oh Sail Yes – I love this blog. These folks are younger than us, will be traveling with teenagers, and have colorful hair. It seems like they should be from Seattle, but in fact they are from Oklahoma. They also have a huge trimaran called Eleven Purple Monkeys and will be taking their family purple monkey puppet named ‘Bean’ with them on their trip. I believe there will be videos. They are an entertaining and creative crew. Check them out.

Sailing Luna Sea – Currently in Savannah, GA, Mark and Jennifer are preparing to leave for warmer waters. They sail a Beneteau 393. They comment it will be a few years before they can start taking Mark’s pension, but they are going to figure it out as they go. That’s the spirit, so I’m reading.

These all look like interesting blogs to follow, but come on! They are all going to the Caribbean. Where, oh where, are the Pacific Northwest people who are preparing to go?  Do they not have blogs? Have I not used the appropriate search criteria? If you know of an interesting blog written by people who are still here, in the Pacific Northwest, please do post in the comments. Winter is long and dark. I get through it best by the glow of a computer screen.

Sunny beach, Pacific Northwest Style

The gods of the weekend started off by breaking our garbage disposal before they sent the deluge. At least they were quiet about it. There was no fanfare; no crashing or screeching noise. It was a ‘no drama’ moment, the kind where you flip the switch and receive only a low hum in return. Fine. Okay. We’ll just add that to the list of things to be accomplished this weekend. We are currently busting our butts getting our house ready to photograph so it can go on the military rental websites by the end of November.  A garbage disposal is the least of our concerns and hey, maybe we Mike won’t need to replace it for another 15 years.

Pouring rain. we call this Lake Lucerne.

We spent last night buying some bedroom furniture at Ikea, since we’re renting our house furnished and we were short one bed frame. After a satisfying evening putting the bed together it was time to turn in early because today was a big day and we needed rest. Was today some sort of celebration? Well, perhaps if you have time to actually have fun, today would have been Halloween. Our idea of celebrating Halloween, however,  took the form of dressing up as truck drivers and renting a big red dump truck named Bocephus. (I’m not making this up. That truck is named after Hank Williams, Jr.)

I’m not even going to tell you the name of the outfit where we rented this alleged truck. Let’s just say that this truck had seen a lot of better days. At this point, it was probably held together with safety pins. Apparently you get what you pay for when it comes to dump truck renting because we chose this particular place due not only to its proximity to the huge piles of gravel and mulch we needed, but also for its price. We got the truck for an entire day for less than what the ‘other guys’ charged for 4 hours.  Dump trucks are not cheap. Well, actually this truck was cheap, but still cost plenty if you get my drift. Still, the engine kind of ran if you kept your foot on the gas, and it looked like the brakes worked.  What’s the worst that can happen? So what if the sides bulged a little?

It appears that the mulch is causing that side to bulge, but it’s not.

The thing is, Mike and I actually enjoy this kind of little adventure because it takes us back to our youth when we did things on the cheap as that was the only way we could afford to do things. Sitting up high in Bocephus on that bouncy bench seat, looking down on the traffic surrounding us, we felt both old and young at the same time.  We were hoping for country music, but the radio didn’t work. The truck squeaked and rattled down the road, growling and lurching at passersby as the rain pelted a continuous drill on the roof. Music would have been overkill anyhow.  Mike went over a speed bump and the glove compartment door fell off. We hooted with laughter and prayed that was the only thing that fell off. I thought about scooting over into the middle of the seat to ride next to Mike, but Skippy beat me to it, adding his wet-dog smell to the general atmosphere.  Because it was Halloween, it rained hard and continuously all day long, as is our custom.

Soon we had a wet dog on the seat between us.

Even though we are pretty adventurous souls and you’d think we did this Bocephus truck thing for fun, we actually rented this truck and picked up our own supplies because it saved us money. Unfortunately, all the money we saved doing it ourselves is now going to be spent fixing the front gate because driving a big truck through the gate is not unlike taking a huge, center cockpit full-keeled sailboat into a small marina. You have to watch your rear end carefully or you’ll hit something. So now we have an excellent opportunity to redesign this gate, which we’ve been complaining about for years. See how that works? I mean, it’s as if we are getting a free gate! For the same price as renting a truck for 4 hours at the ‘other guy’s place’, we get a truck for a full day AND a new gate. Are you keeping track of all the projects we’re on top of now? So far, our rental will have a new front gate, a new bed, and a new garbage disposal.

Whoopsie!

After a full day of back-and-forthing between the house and the supplier, Mike was seriously relieved when the truck made it back to the rental place without falling apart.  We figured we’d better stop while we were ahead because one of the gates on the back of the truck looked like it could fall off at any moment and our track record for this weekend had not been that great in the gate breakage department. Plus, after our second load of mulch, the lift on the truck failed and we had to take it back so they could fix it. Then the gravel rake broke in half as soon as I started using it. We believed that one more load could do Bocephus in and we didn’t want that to happen on our watch.

Really?

Tonight, Mike has bought a new garbage disposal. It’s name, as indicated on the box,  is Badger 5. With a name like that, it should be hell for stout.  I am writing this update and considering how many Advil will be necessary for me to get out of the bed in the morning and commence to spreading mulch. I’ve already spent two hours shoveling and raking gravel and there is no end in sight. Therefore: Advil. I forget, when huge piles of gravel and mulch are blocking our driveway, that I am no longer 20 years old.

Tomorrow’s task. There are two other large piles of mulch besides this, and more gravel as well.  Thirty yards of mulch. and 15 yards of gravel. We love us some materials here.

Tomorrow will come and go but I really look forward to Monday.   It’s the day the tree guys come to reduce windage in the tall firs and take out that Mountain Ash tree that I’ve hated for 15 years. That should be fun. Because on that day, we are paying other people to work while we watch. At the rate we’re going, watching is about all we’ll be able to manage. Onward.

it looks like more fun than it is.

This post was originally titled “Things We Did Today” and has been changed because that’s the name of Tammy Swart’s blog, which you can read here.