Here I am back on reduced hours while the owners are awaiting either more rigging work or a kickoff for the Christmas season. I can't fault them for reducing my hours as they have an extra salaried staff that they didn't expect to be employing. He is a fellow that had left to join the Navy but midway through his recruit course he opted out and came back to the Binnacle. Since I will be leaving in the spring and he is a full time employee that they hope will hang around for a while it is logical that I am the sacrificial goat. Still, it is a little less money than I was hoping to bring into the kitty.......Baaaaaa! Baaaaaa!

It's still quite overcast but at least it is not pouring down rain. Peri is quite the little poster dog for creature comfort. He simply won't go out in the rain, even if he is busting for a pee he will go as far as the nearest vertical object, conduct business, and then drag me back into the building. I don't mind particularly but after a couple of days of this I can't help but feel that he would be getting a little constricted.

As you can see, the Admiral has also broken silence and posted to the blog. She is quite passionate about the rudeness of some of the people that she is confronted with at the store, but I should make it clear that it isn't only people from NYC and NJ that give her the problems. There are also cultural differences presented at a cash register by people from some of the other European Mediterranean countries, but as she says, these folk are an exception. Just thought I'd throw that in to (hopefully) soften the rant.

I have also been musing in a sort of economical metaphysical bent of late. One of the neat things about the world of the future that has been developed in the sci-fi series Star-Trek is that the inhabitants of that world have developed beyond the requirement for money. Basically science has provided the technology that would allow everyone to have whatever they need or indeed would want and that their existence is motivated not by the desire to acquire but rather for self improvement. How cool would that be if we have that sort of situation now? For example, as I have mentioned in past postings, Barb and I are presently slugging away to pay off bills and to be able to get a few new bells and whistles for Nelleke so we can return to our selected retirement lifestyle. Wouldn't it be great if those energies could be devoted more towards taking some courses, or working on crafts or some paintings or simply exploring, or helping out other folks who are also on the journey to find themselves. I have always had a fantasy about developing an organization similar to Medecins Sans Frontiers or Doctors Without Borders only for cruisers, a sort of Sailors Without Borders or Marins Sans Frontiers to use the same format. These folks would provide a simple transport function in times of disaster or would lend their services, whatever their skills and capabilities might be, in places where they might stop. Granted all cruisers aren't doctors, nurses or dentists, but you could help build a school and then teach a few lessons in it, or dig a well, or help construct a power source, or any number of things. I have heard several accounts of cruisers doing pretty much just this, but wouldn't it be great to have a source for people or agencies in need to approach to tie into this resource or for cruisers to get an idea of what they could do and where? With the current technology I could see this all coming from a website but there would have to be some coordination done by someone with skills that I don't have to set up and maintain such a website. The big thing with something like this is that once started it would have to be maintained, plus we would have to avoid "contamination" buy commercialism or politics. Anyone out there interested and have the skill set and the inclination?