Betwixt Quick Fix And Nix
28 March 2019 | Hout Bay YC Marina
Tuesday 26 March 2019
Nick (doctor Nick Martin) looks like he could bench press Jan and me together and not break a sweat. Orthopedic surgeons need to be strong to use the saws, chisels, hammers and other implements of destruction necessary for their profession. This is not like neurosurgery, it's industrial. If you need a knee replacement or think you ever may DO NOT look at Youtube videos of the procedure without strong drink, a bucket and the memory of a two-year-old. It's amazing that a knee can ever recover from that level of abuse. Ergo opioids (errata: Oxycontin is not an opiate), but why for only two or three weeks. I am duly impressed at the body's capacity for recovery. Went for nineteen day post-op checkup at 1000 this morning. Ripped off dressings, yanked out staples, picked up all records, done and dusted.
Wednesday
Turns out boat is in worse shape than me. No word yet on injector rebuild or mounts. Jan's at all-day bread making class so engineering crew is home alone. May have to stop eliciting sympathy by pretending to be a cripple and begin doing a few projects.
After melting our one British style 240 vac outlet using a portable heater have replaced with South African unit. Huge metal pins should theoretically provide less resistance and reestablish warmth to evening showers as air temps descend into teens Celsius. Since this moribund plug will not even be used by SA much longer, another change will be necessary as we bid farewell in perhaps a couple of weeks. Timing reference Yanmar engine.
Visa runs out 13 April, two days before settlement day on US taxes that politicians are more than happy to fritter away at insistence of oblivious or misinformed citizen's who think they're getting value for their money. Successful politicians are those that convince the most voters that a turd may be picked up by the clean end. The country oscillates between the two major political parties as swing voters discover that their end is actually dirty and switch to the other side until making the same discovery with them and going back. No one seems to learn from this. A growing number of people have come to believe (with help from politicians) that government exists to fix everything they think is wrong. Only your mum could kiss your boo boos and make them all better, yet her main job was to teach you to be an independent adult. ** Sorry, I tend to get a little cranky around tax time **
Thursday
After completing extension request form and rounding up various necessary paperwork including letter from doctor, went to Home Affairs to discover, contrary to assurances, that it would take no less than ten weeks to get a decision during which we could not leave. Scratch that. Current plan is to either wrap up all loose ends before the 13th or fly over to Lesotho or Namibia just as current permit expires and hope they let us back in with new one. Formulation of relevant rule seems to be somewhat capricious.
Jack & Jan