How time flys! Here we are drawing close to the end of November already. After three years of cruising it sure feels odd to realize that we will be on the hard this year over the winter and maybe even next year too, especially if Barb’s knee surgery takes a little longer to happen. Oh well. There is still loads of cruising to do down the South and French Shores of Nova Scotia and since we won’t be in a rush to get anywhere, we can take our time and if we find a nice spot we can hang out and commune instead of being in a rush to walk Peri and get moving again. Before anyone says it, I know that cruising isn’t about being in a rush, but try squeezing in a cruise while you are still working and only have two weeks vacation, or try getting from Nova Scotia to anywhere south of the 35th parallel after November 15th because you won’t be insured south of that line if you go earlier. Then you are racing the cold. After all your dreams are about warm winters and warm seas, not chill dead fish which was our experience one year. Folks like our friends on Silverheels III have the right idea, get far enough south that escaping the Hurricane Zone means heading further south, not coming back north.

As it is yesterday we dodged a bullet as the first major winter storm forecast for the area dumped snow on pretty much everyone else along the shore but left us with rain and a little sleet that melted as fast as it hit the ground. I guess that is one of the other advantages of living here – relatively mild winters, but I think that everyone is getting those what with Global warming all winters are disrupted and weather patterns are changing. Even the town engineer in Halifax is putting together a plan for what they will do if the ocean levels rise. All coastal towns have some areas that even now the difference between high tide and roadways or peoples’ basements is as little as a couple of feet. Where we are in Shelburne is about ten feet above the high water mark so perhaps if we wait long enough we will have water front property. Unless of course the town does a Netherlands or New Orleans and builds dykes.

Barb has finished putting the final coat of paint on the living room walls and as soon as it dries we can start to move the furniture back into place and hang some paintings. That’ll make it much homier, if that is a word.

The second living room bookshelf is constructed and ready for finishing. I am hoping that the fourth coat of varnish will be on it and dry so we can put it into place and stack the books into is so the tote boxes that they are currently stored in can be put in the basement for future use.

I guess it might be safe to mention now that I have been actively pursuing the Manager of Public Works position in the town here in Shelburne and it looks quite promising as long as my references check out OK. They had me touring about yesterday with some of the people that will be my staff checking out what they do and what the big picture responsibilities will be. Everyone seems to be very pleasant and solid in their jobs so my efforts will be mostly towards coordinating and planning on behalf of the ratepayers. If I get this job it will mean that the work on the house will be mostly shouldered by Barb and I will contribute what I can in the evenings and on weekends. To that end we have bought some halogen work lights that are strong enough to tan you if you stand too closely to them. They know that we won’t be year round residents in town for a huge amount of time and that we will be getting back into cruising in a few years after Barb has finished her knee business and they are accepting of that.

Fingers crossed for me, please. We have been talking about uses for the extra income. Things come to mind like paying down the mortgage, paying for house improvements, saving up an extended cruising kitty and perhaps even every other year flying to Europe or the UK to take a cruise. I’ve always wanted to go on one of those longboat cruises in the British canal system or the comparable ones in France and the Benelux countries. Maybe this will be an opportunity to do so.

Oh, and one more thing. Over the years we have managed to acquire two antique clocks that we have finally gotten around to getting repaired. Yesterday they arrived from the Clockmaker and one is now on the mantle and the other in the upstairs hallway. I had thought that they would not impact us too much as we have the ship’s clock chiming away which we had become quite used to. These clocks are a lot louder and they chime on the quarter hour as well as on the hour and half hour. At about three o'clock this morning I was getting pretty sick and tired of the tune”

“All through this hour
Lord, be my guide.
And by Thy power
No foot shall slide.”

…..the Westminster chimes. I will give it another night with the bedroom door closed before I decide if the upstairs clock need to be repositioned.