This week reminded me of just how hard it can be to get where you're going.

This week brought back memories of how hard it was to check out of society 10 years ago and go cruising for our first time.

This week contained all those little details that should have been so easy.

This week we made an offer on a boat.

However, it's the first boat of several on a list. We're starting with our favorite, which of course, is a bit out of our price range. As is the second boat on our list. Therefore, deep down we're not expecting to actually get an acceptance from the sellers anytime soon. Which is probably a good thing because the boats are located in the French Mediterranean and in Martinique, respectively.

So . . . on the first day when this first contract was emailed to me, my printer ran out of ink while I was printing this very important document. I made it to the office supply store with 5 minutes to spare before they closed. At home, I carefully read and signed all of the pages before scanning them to send back. That is when I discovered that the scanner part of my HP all-in-one printer isn't acknowledged by my new iMac. Since time was of the essence, I re-routed my printer to the old PC with wires running across to the other side of the room. That's when the old PC decided not to forgive the neglect it had received and didn't want to have anything to do with the printer. After some troubleshooting, and without knowing what I did, I managed to get the forgiveness needed to scan the contract. Now I had this very important, signed document on the old PC. The next step was to send off the contract via email. The old PC must have decided one consequence wasn't enough. Heck with the PC! The next solution was to burn the document images to a disk and carry them across the room to the iMac. I can't tell you how afraid I was that the iMac wouldn't accept the images from the old PC! Guess what? It worked! A mere 4 hours after I had said I would send the signed contract back, I finally had success!

I believe it was later that same night when I suddenly thought about passports. Where were they? Were they current? Again, the answer wasn't easy. The passports are in a safe in the trailer in Durham. We are at the beach. The next morning, I did manage to find copies of them (here at the beach) that I'd made 10 years ago before we went cruising the first time. Yes, 10 years ago! My passport expired 6 months ago. The copy of Wil's passport shows that his expired 3 years ago. However, he believes that he renewed his passport before going to Mexico 2 years ago. Now if we buy the boat that's located in France, we will need passports by mid-February. If we buy the boat that's located in Martinique, we will need passports by the last week of January. The current day was January 10th. I frantically did my research the next morning and discovered that it's possible to get a passport renewal by expedited mail.

So the plan . . . get my passport photos on Saturday, fill out the forms, and have Wil take everything and mail them with the old passports from Durham on Monday. We drove an hour to the nearest UPS Store that was capable of taking passport photos. My photographer was a young kid who had to do 3 re-takes and then take forever to clumsily cut them to the correct size. Once at home with the photos, I returned to the passport website to double-check how to properly attach the photos to the form. That is when I discovered the rights and wrongs of what a passport photo should look like. Mine was too dark and could possibly be rejected.

The next plan . . . tomorrow I will attempt to get new passport photos, and Wil will overnight my old passport to me. If all goes as it's supposed to, I should be able to overnight my passport renewal by January 13th. My fingers are crossed that the government is correct on their 2-week estimate for door-to-door expedited service.

These are just little things in the whole big grand scheme. Some might say maybe it means this isn't the right boat. Or maybe it's not meant to be. To me . . . life is a challenge and there are risks. The little things happen, and where would we be if we just quit when things get complicated. If you want something badly enough, you move forward, work hard, and go for the goal. At least, you can say you tried.

Tomorrow is the start of a new week. And tomorrow we find out if our first offer to purchase is accepted or rejected. What will the dawn of a new week bring?