This morning had us waking up to an overcast sky full of dark clouds on the horizon that foretells of a sheet of incoming rain. And well turns out it's all a perfect excuse to put The Chores on Hold, stay below for a little while longer, perhaps even on the computer, writing This Blog and enjoying a great cup of Java.
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There's a Cruisers Social Event that happens on the First Saturday of Every Month at Secret Harbour Marina, called The Jumble Sale.
You can go to The Jumble to socialize, to buy and/or sell your "treasures", or just to while away a Sunday morning. It's usually lots of crowded chaotic fun, where you may or may not find
THAT something that you didn't even know you needed, and when it's all over, a perfect time to grab a Burger with Friends.
But to prelude this, let me recount this small tale. My trusted love of a Canon Camera has been acting up for the last little while. Salt Air is never a good thing for any electronic device, and with the last two years of cruising and constant use, mine has slowly started to Bite The Dust.
While we were back home in the land of Shopping, with my Birthday as an
excuse, we went looking for a replacement. One of the decisive factors in my choosing a camera is my personal monetary threshold, my happy place for dollars spent, should there be an Ooopsie. As in perhaps fall in the water while we're sailing or I fell into the river when hiking or hashing, or so on.
Size is another consideration, and well, followed by a few other tekkie type of factors.
So in shopping around in aisles and aisles of cameras, we noticed that prices for a suitable replacement, that would rival the one I had, had absolutely skyrocketed in the last year. We were now looking at between $300-$400 or more which is way more than my happy comfy threshold place.
So we came back without a camera, and of course, Murphy's Law being what it is, 99% of the photos I have been taking since our return, were coming out blurry, or the camera wouldn't focus, or, or, or and UGH.
Short prelude of a tale over, Dave and I are walking around at the Jumble Sale. When LO and BEHOLD, what do we see, sitting there, on a table by the entrance, seemingly calling out our name?
A brand spanking new Nikon Coolpix P520. Just bought by the owner a few months ago in Sint Maarten, complete with manuals, DVD's, all necessary items and even the receipt !! Bonus, it comes with an additional battery and case. It
IS a tad bigger than I would have liked, BUT, it was in MY threshold of a price. Score !
Took a bit of convincing, as any significant money purchases usually do, but I was seriously doing the Happy Dance when, after an exchange of dollars followed by a handshake, and we were walking away, new camera in Hand. Thanks HUNNY!
Sometimes when life doesn't easily go your way, you're not finding what you're looking for, you KNOW it's the Universe, saying WAIT, there's something coming up for you that's better and just what you visualized and wanted and thought of, HA !
Haven't spent much time playing with it/learning to use it, as, as you know, we're still on the Dock at Secret Harbour Marina, doing Jobs and Jobs and oh, more Jobs.
Sails are on! Boat has been washed and is ready for Waxing. The inside settee cushions have been washed (and are still drying!). Curtains, washed. Seals on the Hatches have been Vaseline'd. And The List goes on and on and on. Life is still a cluttered Mess, but things are slowly coming together.
It sure feels good and best of all, we're following our mantra of NO RUSHING.
We took the Shopping Bus the other day. The Capt'N needed to head to IWW to buy a Sealant for the Inflatable, which was Sold Out everywhere else, and when he got there, turns out it was Sold Out there too. Darn.
I, in the meantime waited out the Bus Game, the complicated dance of carting all the cruisers through the route of shopping destinations, which include waiting around at the bank for some serious time before the next bus-load gets dropped off, and the first bus-load can leave to their next destination. We've noticed that the amount of cruisers that seem to have forgetten common sense and good manners, insisting on butting-in, pushing-around with a ME-first attitude, seems to have needlessly afflicted some to Bus Rage proportions. Yikes!
Given the HOT, HOT temperatures, the work that needs doing NEEDS to get done by noon-time, because the heat and sweating is just too intense after that. An afternoon siesta or a cockpit quite time, before another chore or two gets scratched off The List not to mention the Three More added to the list, and all that is usually followed by Volleyball,
and perhaps some photo-ops of creatures that, sort of like us, are just hanging around.