Great news......I think......

We made the trek into Halifax yesterday for Barb to have a wee chat with her surgeon and oddity of oddity he isn’t knife happy. Either that or he has more than enough to do, for he told her that he didn’t think that she needed a new second knee. Instead if she did some exercises to build up some muscle in her legs that would support both the old and new knees she would be ok for a number of more years, certain well enough to go to sea once more. Part of me is saying yippie yahoo as the surgery is quite invasive and she goes through six months of pain and aggravation which would be great to avoid. The other part of me is saying that she is only putting off the inevitable. Oh well. We’ll see. First we have to buy her some ankle weights so she can do her leg lifts and build up the quads. Plus I`ll drag her out for some long hikes to get a full workout.

The other possibility is that we could get away earlier than next summer, but I am still looking at the cruising kitty and would really like to get that a little higher than it will be this fall before we set off. Based on past experience and our cruising preferences, I would like to see a certain minimum income to sustain us when we set out. I know that there are people out there who can make do on $500 or less a month but that`s on a par with camping and I promised Barb more comfort than that so we aren`t one of those stalwart souls. The one thing that it does do is that if the reactionaries in town have their way and they let me go, then we could leave this year if we get Nelleke back in shape. At the very least we could start the cruise as soon as the weather opens up, perhaps cruising slowly down the coast of Maine as well as cruising the Chesapeake. If they don`t hold sway and we can stay another winter (shudder) then it will be back to plan A.

I am the acting Commodore for a couple of weeks this month as Bruce is away somewhere south for holidays, so if you want a great deal at the docks c`mon up! This deal expires 31 March 2013.

We are getting stuff done on the house slowly and by slowly I mean glacially. Barb is finishing the scraping of the wallpaper in the upstairs hallway and I have almost completed the `mudding`` to fix the holes and cracks. I have also finished off my workshop in the basement and begun the room under the stairs for Harry Potter when he comes calling and for the cleaning stuff in between his visits. So we are busy.

Barb may even have a part time job.