Cheryl's Notes:

It is hard to believe that we are half way through January. Our days are pretty laid back. Now that it is colder, we have been sleeping later. I know that seems that we are being lazy, but there is a method to our madness. If you stay in bed until the sun has melted the frost on the docks, it is a much safer walk up to the showers in the morning. Our late starts also guarantee that John's knees don't freeze in his shorts. He is bound that he will not put on long pants until it hits 0 degrees.

We have been kept busy with assisting Tom in his recovery. He is now able to spend overnights alone, but the men are still taking shifts with him. The morning shift helps him get out of bed, showered and dressed for the day, and the evening shift helps him with dinner and getting into bed. John has been on the evening shift all of this week. I have been on dinner the last two nights, so we spend time with him together. He has discovered that I love Italian red wine and so he always saves his best bottles for the nights I bring dinner.

I have started doing puzzles in the marinas lounge. The recreation center has a shelf of books, movies and puzzles for everyone to share. I think that we are on our fourth puzzle since Christmas. We just start it on the table and anyone who wants to can stop in and spend some time working on it. I have a puzzle mat that the puzzle is worked on so that we can roll it up and put it aside when we need the table for other things. We are talking about starting a movie night in the lounge. We all have big movie collections on our boats, and so we can trade lists to choose which movies to watch. We even have an air popper for popcorn that we could bring up and make popcorn for everyone. We have already started planning our Super Bowl party. The ladies will be in charge of the food and the men are going to make up a tip board so that we will all have a stake in the game. Our friend Paul is a huge Steelers fan, so he is keeping his fingers crossed for them to make it. Being the Vikings and the Panthers both choked, we have no favorites. It will just be fun to spend the evening together with friends.

On a side note: I am sure by now that all of you have seen footage of the plane that landed in the Hudson River. I can hardly believe that we sailed right past that spot only five months ago. We have first hand knowledge of how busy that part of the river is. On any given day the river is full of water taxis, ferrry boats, commercial barges and dozens of pleasure craft. I find it amazing that not only everyone was evacuated and survived, but that the plane did not collide with at least one vessel in the water.

John's Notes:

It's a good thing Tom Phillips broke his leg and shoulder this year, because, we wouldn't be here next year to help him out. Several of us that are around the marina this winter are making plans for the Bahamas next winter. Looks like the estimated time of departure is around November 1st. Still have lots of projects to complete and lots of time to do them. Well, lots of time until you factor in the fact that every day we take retirement living to a new level. I think we are down to 10-hour days now.

Still don't have the sails back from the sailmaker yet. It seems that no matter where you are, everyone is working on island (Bayfield) time. Just can't escape it. I called him a couple of weeks ago and he informed me that now that the holidays were over it should only be another week. That was two weeks ago.

Everyone says that we will die this summer without air conditioning. It's always the people with air conditioning that say that. I know for a fact that lots of boats here don't have air conditioning so I'm guessing that the body count will rise accordingly. On the other hand, it's the Espar forced air heat system that is keeping us alive this winter. I think that we have finally gotten it adjusted right so that we have a minimal problem with condensation. The locals tell us that this is the coldest winter in quite a few years. The overnight low has been in the high teens the last couple of nights. The high yesterday was only about 28. If what I see on TV is right that would be a heat wave in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Look Mom, I'm still wearing shorts. It's a great way to meet new people. They always stop and inquire if I'm Nucking Futz?

Since we won't be at Strictly Sail in Chicago this year, we are planning a Super Bowl party. Not sure if it was my or Cheryl's idea but it seems that we will have quite a few people. Quite a few around here this time of year equates to 8-10 people. Hard to believe that the actual turnout will probably depend on the weather. It's a long way to our lounge from the boat when it's cold outside. Maybe 600-700'.

We are limiting our blog entries for the next couple of months. They are mainly an excuse to let everyone know that we are still alive. Not going anywhere really limits our ability to tell you about fun things that we have done. Do you really care that Cheryl is on the waiting list at the library for "Scarpetta"? I keep asking myself what life would be like it we were spending the winter in Bayfield. Would it be much different than it is here? Well, yea, it would be damn difficult to liveaboard the boat in Bayfield. Here is an example of how bad we have gotten. On December 29th, the day we got back from Minnesota, we stopped at the ABC store and picked up a bottle of vodka and rum. Today is January 17th. We need to make a run. In the old days that was called Friday to Sunday with a few dollars spent at Portside in between.

Try and stay warm. We are thinking about you.......................honest!

Oh, before I forget. If you know our friend Dave Jones (doesn't everyone know Dave and Pat?) he had a MILD heart attack a few weeks ago. According to him, he's doing fine. That's great to hear but if you know him, give him a call or send him an email and encourage him to retire, NOW. We need company down here.