Kaimusailing

The photographic artist at the West Main Street Gallery was Jay Fleming who has a new book out, Island Life. It is full of amazing photographs.
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The marina will begin winterizing on November 8th and live aboard will not be allowed after November 15th. Next Spring’s season starts on April 15th. I had toyed with the idea of sailing Sunsplash down to St. Marys, Georgia, but with the engine out of commission that idea is dead. Also my plan to haul out is dead. I have to re-winterize the engine and give it a go next year.
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I will be renting a car to make the trip down to Georgia and booked on for the 8th, a one way rental from Salisbury to Jacksonville. It will be sad to depart, but it is always sad to depart.
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I drained the hydro-lift muffler that was back flooding the engine. It was my mistake of opening the seacock to let the engine pump water into the exhaust when the engine wasn’t firing to blow it out. Next year I will probably have to pull the head and work on cylinder 1’s valves, maybe just unstick them. Hate to have to remove the manifold, etc. The carburetor might have to be replaced.
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The next day after Pizza Night I went around getting my act together and finally texted Eve about putting away the pizza oven. It is heavy and I can handle it. She said how about now. I biked up and in 5 minutes the oven was stowed away. I sat in a chair. What’s next. It was overcast and a gale was forecast along with rain. What about the cellar door? Do it now? Yeah, why not?
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It was simple, just remove the door hinges and pull the door out of the way, demolish the half rotten vertical part of the door frame at the hinge side, cut a new piece of timber to jamb in their and put it all together, 20 minutes and we’ll beat the storm and the rain.
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It started out that way and we removed the door and demolished the vertical rotten wood. The new piece of wood had to be carefully measured and marked and cut with the circular saw, which had a new blade that had never cut anything. I was very careful with my measurements and cutting. The new wood was so tight we had to hammer it into position. It was slightly thicker than the old piece, so the door had to be trimmed. This was also carefully measured and cut.
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Something happened and the cut was perfectly straight except for one spot where the saw deviated and ran into the door. We completed the cut to the edge of the door, but there was this flaw. I couldn’t figure out how it could happen, we were using a straight edge and the saw had to cut straight, maybe wander off away from the edge, but not into it. We remounted the door and it was still tight. Well, we’ll just cut a little bit more off and also take off the deviation. It started raining.
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We quickly put away the tools, electrical first, then metal that can rust, then off to the marina to close Sunsplash’s companionway, which was wide open to the rain. We came back and the rain had stopped. Get everything out again and continue. Trim the edge, try to mount the door. It turned out the framework of the door wasn’t square, or maybe the door opening wasn’t square, and the door was difficult to fit in its frame. We were both suffering from our exertions on dance night on the city dock and looking to end it all. I’m stupid and persistent. We’ll just cut the edge of the door again to make it fit. No, Eve glared at me. She began banging the door frame with a large hammer and I could see some of the masonry screws we had used were now proud of the wooden frame. When we screwed them in, they just lifted the wood off the masonry and made the opening for the door smaller. But it was still not small enough. She could fit the door in the frame with that hammer. Watch out.
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The hinges were rescrewed to the wood, the handle reattached, the latch relatched. Everything had to be put away, rain was threatening again. I went to the kitchen and washed the crud off my hands. I poured a glass of malbec and took my cell phone into the art studio to sit for a while. Eve approached and said we could have leftovers, she was hungry, or we could go to the Legion for cheesesteaks. I could eat a whole cheesesteak there. For sure. We also had to discuss her studio’s vinyl sun windows, some of which needed repaning.
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The rain was intermittent, it was not cold out yet, we drove over to the Legion for cheesesteaks. When we were sitting outside, under an overhead deck or something that would protect us from the rain, I took a photo of a glass of merlot and sent it to Cuddily, the caption was, “Legion”. She arrived soon after and Eve texted Teri, the artist, to come and share wine and cheesesteak. Soon we were all together with the wind getting stronger and rain appearing from time to time. We were not rained on. It was Teri’s birthday. She asked who put pizza slices in her purse the night before. Well, they were in ziplocks, so no tomato smudge. It’s another second birthday party now. We retreated. It was still early, but we are old people and have to recuperate after a long weekend.
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I can’t remember Thursday night, but Friday was the Oyster Night at the Legion, Saturday was Dance Till You Drop on the City Dock, after the event at the art gallery, catered. Sunday was Pizza Night. We all worked hard. Now we were struggling, dragging ourselves around. Monday was struggle with the cellar door day. Back at Eve’s I got on my bike, it’s not raining, and she looked like she was ready to sleep in the yard, spent. I rode back over the wet streets to Sunsplash in the marina. The rain was starting to come and wind. Gale warning.
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I awoke at 1 AM and felt like it must be like 6 AM. There was rain in the dark and I spent some time with a crossword puzzle from the Washington Post, a reprint of the LA Times crossword. I felt strangely awake, like it was morning time, but it was in the dark of the night. I realized I probably wouldn’t be able to sleep very well, I was sore from the weekend, the cellar door torture, no relief. Maybe I was awake because the ibuprofen wore off.
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I resorted to the smart phone and Cuddily replied to me about making soup in her kitchen, she had scheduled a coronavirus booster shot, but was it possible to make soup after 3PM, yes, I replied, at 1AM. I noticed the phone was at 85 percent charge and the little lightning bolt charge indicator wasn’t on, was the phone not charging? The charge port was hot and I disconnected the charge cable, I have spare. The end of the cable was hot. I plugged the spare in and there was no charge indication. The charge port smelled like it was toast, I mean burned electronics.
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Now you know how much your stupid smart phone really means to you. What was I going to do at 1AM to rectify the situation. No phone is disaster. How can I live without my Galaxy. I ordered a replacement, I know this model is out of date, but I have the charger, I hope, and the defensive armor and screen protectors for it. The replacement was around a hundred dollars with expedited shipping. I also ordered an inductive charger, which would keep the damaged phone alive, from Amazon, about 20 dollars, including expedited shipping. I can see them yawning at 1AM, saying yeah, OK, another freaked out urban dweeb, why can’t he just get a little separation from that phone device? We cannot live otherwise. Well, we can, we just don’t want to do it after we’ve been where we’ve been.
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I kept my phone off, to save battery charge, and then sent a text in the AM that I wouldn’t be on phone 24/7, just turn it on now and then to load any attempts to contact me. I could always turn it on to send out an emergency message, “Please help me, my cell phone is dying, boo hoo.”.
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Well, after 1 AM I tried to get back to sleep but I couldn’t. I tried zen meditations, my mind wandered, there was too much, I am not living simply enough. My contact with the universe was going to shut down, don’t want to have that day. I still had some leftover cold pizza in the fridge and the coffee bin had something in it, I knew I was running out, but I didn’t take care of it, did I. I made coffee and there was enough for a decent cup, the cold pizza was from Teri or Cuddily, they both put too much sauce on it, but I like extra sauce. The skies were clearing up outside, but I was out of sync. I thought it was, like, 11 AM, but it was 8:30, and I was very tired.
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It was gale warning and the wind was up to the task. I drank the coffee and ate the cold pizza. It is chilly out there, and I am almost out of cold weather clothing, got to do a laundry day but not enough quarters for the marina’s machines. I had on old foul clothes and went to the office to get more quarters for the laundry. The front door was locked. What?, I went around where I heard some talking, it was a little office I hadn’t seen before. Inside they were talking about the waterlines and repairs and such. I waited. I waited. Finally the fellow who seemed to be in charge was off the phone and said, no, there is somebody on duty. We went in through the back door to the main office and there was someone on duty, just that the front door was locked.
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I went to the laundry and put in a good load. I had also thrown my Aqua Sox into the laundry machine, they smelled so bad, wash them, wash them. I sat on the boat while the laundry went through its cycles. I kept the Aqua Sox, now presumably clean, and threw the rest into the dryer.
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I ran up to the grocers for coffee and coffee filters. It is brutal for me to cycle against a headwind. On the way back I was floating along. I stopped at the wine store for cabernet. I ended up at the laundry waiting for the dryer to end. Maybe 10 minutes. The scene in the marina was getting hit by more wind. By the time I got the clothes out and folded, some of them still damp, I couldn’t pedal against the wind up the dock to Sunsplash. I walked the bike. Someone waved to me from a boat at the other dock. Another person I don’t really know.
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I awoke at about 6AM and felt pretty bad, achy and sore. A result of the chore of getting that cellar door installed. I used the donated heater, it was chilly. I did some puzzles, the Washington Post daily crossword, I hid under the covers, but that was not good, I resurfaced to get chilled, then hid again.
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At about 9:30 I began cooking breakfast with nice new fresh coffee right out of the big coffee can. I was eager to get my coffee and a ham and cheese omelet, maybe I can made a good one this time, onto my plate. The wind outside was howling as it had been. Sunsplash was rocking like at sea. I sat and ate my omelet and solved another puzzle.
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The chicken soup at Cuddily’s was still on. She asked for a shopping list and I sent along what I had. A new inductive charger for the defunct smart phone was on the way, to be delivered today, on Cornelia Marie’s porch.
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I had to shower, bike up Cove Street, get the charger from the porch, bike up Cove Street into Eve’s driveway and yard. She was working on shrubbery and her dog, Kahlua, was barking and wanting to play. I parked my bike and waited. We all went inside and considered available ingredients for the soup at Cuddily’s.
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Eve had ordered vinyl for her windows in the studio and we sat there drinking a bit of wine. Cuddily texted and it seemed like she wanted us to be there and begin making soup. She had all the ingredients ready. Eve was not happy. Her back hurt and she wondered if she even wanted to go out for dinner. She drove me to Cuddily’s with chicken stock for the soup and diced chicken from a donated hen.
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I chatted with Cuddily while starting to prepare the ingredients. She had a new sharp knife, so sharp I cut my finger while scraping celery slices off of it. She brought a bandaid and I got most of the way through the prep. Eve returned with her black lab bitch puppy Kahlua and announced she was tired and worn out and wasn't going to do any cooking. I kept on making the soup and started a mirepoix with a little olive oil and after a few minutes began adding chicken stock. I turned up the heat and after a few more minutes the spinach and kale were wilted in the boiling stock. I belatedly added the garlic, it should have gone in a little while after the mirepoix. I started a second pot, bigger, with butter and flour to make a roux, 5 minutes they say, and don’t burn it. When it was ready I started ladling the stock into the roux, whisking, waiting for it to thicken, add more, whisk, thicken, ladle. At some point there wasn’t much liquid, stock, to add, so I started adding the ingredients from the stock pot. I rinsed the stock pot out and mixed the soup pot. The chicken went in, mix, a pint of half and half went in, should have been a quart. There was a lot of soup there for just four people.
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Baguettes were heated and sliced. Eve took over the task of slicing because I had done a bad job on the first baguette. Cuddily had made a nice salad and we sat down to eat some salad and some french bread and drink some argentine wine. After a while we were ready for the soup and we served ourselves from the big pot. Cuddily and I had our soup, Eve was sitting down with hers when she let out a remark that pushed me over the edge. We were both achy and tired from out work on the cellar door and now we were at the end of the day, frayed, we argued. It was my fault, I blew up. She left abruptly and drove away. I was in shock.
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Diana took Eve’s soup and we 3 sat their trying to comprehend what had just happened. It certainly diminished our love for that soup. We’re the Bad Crowd and I had been bad. The baddest. My bike was at Eve’s house and how could I go there now to retrieve it. Diana drove me into the marina to the dock and I sulked to Sunsplash.
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I apologized to Eve with a text, but there was no reply. The next day I did so again. No reply. I was in touch with Cuddily and Karen, who couldn’t make it to the soup dinner with her broken foot. We went to Eve’s house, but I did not go inside. She did reply to a phone call that she had hurt herself, falling over her dining room threshold. I took my bike back down Cove Street to CM’s porch where I had a replacement cell phone waiting. It was still windy and I returned to Sunsplash to open my new package.
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The replacement phone was not expensive and it looked cosmetically great until you turned it on. The screen had massive burns on it, it looked like it had been used in a warehouse and someone left it on for a few weeks with a really bad burned in image. I couldn’t access any Android functions or apps on it, even with wifi. I still worked at it, trying to find a way to make it work.
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Karen contacted me that she was back home and I could help her with her computer. She was getting around now and had driven out on some errands, but when I got to her pretty house, like a doll house, she was in a recliner with her foot in an ice wrap. I left my Aqua Sox outside, they were smelling foul again. Her dog wanted to play, very aggressive, putting the dog saliva soaked crocheted on my leg while I sat. I could feel the moisture.
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Karen’s computer was defunct, but there was a screensaver image on it and I knew it was probably still working somehow. The lifesaver was that when I tried to boot into BIOS, the Dell laptop had some installed tools to try to fix itself. It took a while, but it repaired the partition on the hard drive and the boot sectors, and even tried to repair Windows. It ended up we could boot up the computer but it was insanely slow and I decided to download and run Ccleaner, but it was already installed. I ran it to clean up files and fix registry. The computer was better but still pretty awful. She wanted to delete her Google email account and I couldn’t see any way of doing it. Finally we got a code to her phone that enable us to make a new password and then get her Google account out of “paused”. She said she was happy with it, it had cost her two beers and a little bread and cheese.
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She had nervously asked me when was the high tide and I said, after looking at the Tides Near Me app on my phone, in about 2 hours. I had noticed FLOODING signs and STREET CLOSED signs being set up on my way to her house and when I was aboard Cuddily’s car she had asked why there was water on the street. Maybe it was leftover from recent rains, I said, but maybe not. Outside Karen’s house the water was flowing on the sides of the street and only the center of the road was dry.
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Cuddily had gone out to bring some soup to Eve, a very nice gesture, but had to turn back, she was blocked in by flooding. I left on my bike and the water was up over my pedals. I cycled down the middle of the road certain that a local car would be zooming up to meet me head on.
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There are worse things than having a head on with a car while on your bike.
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The image is the flooded finger pier at Sunsplash. I got my feet wet.