I have been running around a wee bit today. I suppose that since it was yet another day off and I had nothing else to do, that is to be expected. I took the drogues in to our friend Dave's canvas working shop to have the grommets put in. We could do it ourselves but he has a tool that will put them in more solidly and since we are going to rely on this device for Nelleke's well being and possible our lives, I want it done well.

As I mentioned yesterday, the yard crew at RNSYS have been kind enough to invite us to their Christmas Party so I went around to the offices to confirm place and timings. I am looking forward to seeing the team again and to wishing them Merry Ho Ho and I also took the opportunity to let Wayne, the yard foreman know our plans and potential timings for the spring and summer. It is always a good idea to let these guys know of your plans.

I had another reminder of how lucky we are to have had at least one of Barb and myself have a career in the military or at least the civil service. Besides the universal medical plan that all Canadians enjoy, when I retired I also had my medical plan extended to cover Barb and myself during our retirement. It does cost a little more that it did when I was in the service, but I don't think that $30/month that extends the general medical plan to cover private hospitalization, the dentist and pharmaceuticals is much to pay. I renewed two of Barb's prescriptions that would have cost $140 if I paid it all but which only cost $33 through the plan. Whew! I did do some things right.

On the sad side, we found out that yet another one of our friends has been informed that he is literally in the battle of his life with a diagnosis of advanced cancer. So help me, whoever comes up with the cure for this thing should be canonized and have statues put up all over the world in their honour and if any pharmaceutical company even thinks about trying to limit manufacture to drive up the price I think that should be grounds for capital punishment meted out by the mob. Barb and I were talking about it in the traffic as I was driving her in to work. It seems that so many of our friends are succumbing to the iron crab or something else, this sort of thing makes it all the more important for folks like us to get out and get sailing while we have our health. She has even enthusiastically endorsed taking Nelleke across to Europe. She still wants to fly over and meet me there with the dog, but she does want to make the trip. Hurrah!