My month at the South Carolina Vocational Rehabilitation assessment center is now complete. What a month( well, I finished it in 3 weeks). So much happened in such a short time. I regret not getting more pictures taken but I was in a constant state of intensified pain and needed to keep focused on the testing,etc.

First on the list was an old friend revisited. Yup....just like the one I slept in(or should I say tried to sleep in) after getting hurt. I couldn't lay on either side or lay flat on either my back or front for over 5 years. I still cannot lay on my stomach or left side. It is not very comfortable laying flat on my back but I cannot lay on the right side all night so I do what I can. Either way. This is almost the spitting image of  the bed I once owned.

The Crew!!! The people in my week starting. 7 out of 10 went until finished. Notice the chairs. There was not much for comfortable seating if you had a back injury. Tracy, the gal in the orange, also had a back injury. After the first 3 days The only option I had was the pool. She went to physical therapy a few times more than I did. The gal running pt told her they don't get very many back injuries. I agree, I think I have been doing more for my back than they could have. My impression was that they see a lot more of people who were not very active before they were hurt. Lots had strokes. a guy in my group had two kidney transplants. Well, you get the idea. I am not complaining. It is the first time I was able to have access to a pool. I was able to get some relief and I did try my hand at swimming again. Turns out I still know how.

Leaving the pool. I spent up to 3 hours a day up there on occasion. The weekends were not enough time to recover so by week 3 I was having a lot of difficulties.

We attempted a puzzle one night. After finding out that several pieces were missing from the border.... no more puzzle.

Said goodbye to Lucy this month. She made her 15th birthday on October 1st. What a wonderful little dog. Vivian thinks I gave her a few extra months with the care I gave her. I think if I had not been in Columbia this month she would have made it longer. She always perked up and seemed to do so much better when I got back on the weekends. She was deteriorating in front of our eyes though. She had congestive heart failure. In the end she died in her sleep knowing we were there.

The vet sent a card. It will take some time to get over the loss. I have always had a fondness for dogs. Lucy was a sweetheart. I am glad I got to spend time with her.

Of course Vivian sent me a selfie or two. Just to remind me of what else I was missing. She really is somebody special.

  So I was beginning to think that going back to work might not be possible yet. My pain was escalating daily. I was looking at career opportunities and realizing that I wasn't even getting in a 40 hour week at the center and was having trouble. One class we had was with the guys that build and/or supply what is needed to get you working. The guy rolled out a $1000 ergonomic office chair almost the first thing. Not being one to watch opportunity slip away I found myself sitting in that chair for the rest of that period. It turns out that without knowing I could sit in that chair, they were going to recommend me as not being capable of employment. Also, My counselor asked me if doing something like dispatching part time until I could handle full time work was acceptable.
  My question to that was....When I am in good enough shape to work full time, will there be training available for me if I need it to get a job I like?? Yes, there will. That chair or one like it will be waiting at the Conway,SC. office when I get to my next meeting with my area counselor. I will work what I can there until they feel I can handle a part time job. Been a long haul with no end in sight but every day is one more day closer.

When I met my counselor at Columbia. I was struck by how very much she looked like my friend Rogers wife Debra. Enough that I mentioned it. Turns out she is English and irish. I think Debra is also. Speaking of Roger

When you realize he is wider in the shoulders than I and dressed for cold weather it gives you an idea how big the elk was. Roger always gets his elk.

So....down to the last significant detail of the month. Vivian drove up to retrieve me from Columbia Friday afternoon. slept in (I was prescribed a non-narcotic sleep aid and it helps) went grocery shopping early Saturday afternoon. Didn't feel great early evening. Got into bed with the chills. Had 202 fever sunday morning. Was down to 101 last night. this morning was 99. Yup... I got the flu and Vivian did not,good thing, I would have missed out on seeing how wonderful she is at taking care of me when I am sick. I was in good hands. I know I don't have to remind anyone how miserable the flu is.

I am beginning to get the sailing bug. I know....Seems like I started this a long time ago.

I have started working over the local library for reading material.

Dug out my splicing tools and book. I have a spool of double braid rope the right size to replace all the rigging on Mary Lee.

As I drag the old lines from the garage to the street and unspool the new line to measure out the correct lengths I see Vivians neighbors studying me.

I find the right page in the book. I will try doing an end splice first.

I get the right tools and begin. I still find it hard to believe this actually works. But I cypher the directions and do my best.

One end finished. It is rolled in on itself like the fingers do on a rubber glove when taken off. No whipping needed and it will never come loose. I am pleased with it. Now for the other end.

Find the right page and continue. This line fastens to a block with a pin through the loop. I try a smaller loop.

The deed is done. The loop ended up a little smaller than intended but is still just fine. The bigger line on the right is the first splice I did that first summer working on Mary Lee. The other two ends are the next ends I will splice. The existing lines on Mary Lee are all to big for the blocks. The ends are not spliced correctly and the choker lines on the wishbone booms I suspect are very old if not original. Mary Lee is an '87. Hard to believe the lines are that old but they are totally black and clearly deteriorating. I looked through all my pictures but do not seem to have one handy of the choker lines. The topping lifts looked somewhat better that first summer and they fell apart when washed.
I used single braid lines for those because the price was right and it took a different technique to splice. I guess I just wanted to waste money on something I would have to replace right away. :-)

If I had to guess....I would say the previous owner put almost no money into Mary Lee. Aside from buying it, everything I have seen tells me that if anything was done at all it was cobbled together in the absolute cheapest way possible. I suspect the lines came off a larger boat when its lines were replaced, and were free. The loops are all just the ends bent around and seized with whipping that is now falling apart. By the time I am done...I will have worked on just about everything. I don't mind. I will certainly know my boat inside and out. Once done with the lines, I will start sewing new canvas. I am just going to do a piece at a time. I should be sailing before I get it all done. Unless something comes up I will be living in Florida by spring.
I have taken over a week to rest now. No gym, no biking. I am certainly better off than I was just a couple months ago. November is a month of rehabilitation with the experts. I am anxious to see what comes of it. I have not had professional help with physical therapy in a long time.

As always....I reflect on the journey. So much has changed. I find myself thinking about the people I have met along the way. Of course this leads me to think about the dogs.

Lucy right now.

Bailey supervised my dinghy build

Yup...Bailey before the summer haircut.

Finn supervised Bailey. It was an easy job. Bailey was resting.

Most of the time.

Unless Finn needed assistance.

And how could I forget Bella.

Bella was the first dog I had spent much time around since getting hurt. What a great little dog. All the potential in the world.

November 4th is day one at the rehabilitation center. I feel like a new chapter is opening up once more. I could not have imagined the turns along the path when I flew out to Baltimore with intentions of buying Mary Lee. I left everything behind when I moved out to work on her. The changes have been consistent. Some were very hard fought improvements. Some changes caused by regrets. Some have just been nice. We are the product of our environment. I can see the changes is myself. I ponder what changes are yet to come.

I think I have finally figured out why my legs are so fatigued most of the time. When my lower back spasms, it feels like I can barely move them. Like somehow they are just to heavy. When I take it easier, The spasms are much less and the fatigue is also less. I was able to mask some of it with the pain meds. Of course maybe it was just masking the pain that made it so much easier to deal with. My first thought was to just ignore it until it went away. That has not worked, no matter how much I have exhausted myself with exercise. I think the pain wears me out to some degree. Maybe the rehab center knows a trick or two that can help. No matter. I will continue improving whether my back wants to or not :-) I must, back pain still puts me on the ground from time to time. I imagine what beating through the waves is capable of doing. The time to test this is just about here.

Time to get out of my pajamas and get something done

This week my bike fenders came in. I had a little trouble deciding what kind of fenders to install on a mountain bike. I didn't care for the little plastic clip-on style fenders I was finding. I finally decided on cruiser bike fenders. I wanted a full fender, front and rear.

Not knowing what I was getting into with my bike having quick detach rims and being a different kind of bike than what the fenders were designed for. I found some cheap, black, steel fenders.

I had picked up the parts for a cheap portable bike stand to make working on bikes easier. I put it together first. I think I spent a grand total of $25-30 for everything.

Stand went together well. Maybe 20 minutes as I had to cut and fasten two pieces of plywood together for the platform.
It works well.

It helps so much to not have to bend over to work on the bike.
Front fender is finally on, after a bit of modification.

Back fender needs modified to leave room for shifting mechanism. Both fenders need a little modifying to allow brakes to work properly. Not much, but still needed. Wheels still come off quickly for fixing flats or storage.

All back together with fenders and basket. with the steel basket and fenders, this bike is getting heavy. I will live with it, at this point it is about getting in shape not racing.

Speaking of getting in shape. I have taken a couple days off lifting weights and biking. As I write this I am on day 3. I may have to admit to over-doing it a bit. However, I am certainly stronger now than I was before this last several weeks of pushing it. So...I doubt I will quit pushing. I will try to take breaks in the future when I notice I am getting wore out.

Not easy to do. I regressed so far in Maryland last winter that it was not funny. In only a few months I ended up back on oxycontin and when spring came it was like starting over again. I cannot allow it to happen ever again. I am better now then I was going into last winter. This time I have access to a gym, a yoga studio and a great area for bike riding.

Speaking of Yoga, The studio here has a deal. $50 for the first month and you can go to any and all classes during that month to see where you fit in. I could go a couple times a day, every day of the month. Intriguing isn't it??

November is the voc. rehab. center in Columbia, SC. I will have 5 days a week of physical therapy with access to a doctor and nutritionist. I am thinking of a month of Yoga and bike riding for December. January is looking like the best time to start the P90x exercise program. Vivian already has it. Why not give it a go. It is 3 months.

I know it looks like I am setting up to overdo it again. Maybe?? I have a sailboat that needs used and I am going to be in good enough shape to use it. I expect to be in shape again by spring. I intend to spend this summer sailing. Next fall I am planning to start making trips to the Islands.

I have much to do. Of course plans are made loosely as it seems things don't always work out the way I think best. I think the difference is in always implementing some kind of plan. If it changes....ok...but better that, than sitting in a recliner dreaming about it.

Sitting on the calf machine. I have switched my focus onto leg development. Still working upper body but now doing legs 3 times a week instead of two. I work out 6 days a week and ride bike all seven.

From the time I bought Mary Lee I have struggled with atrophied muscle. Getting off pain pills and this absurd fatigue. My first summer working on Mary Lee I had to take a pain pill in the morning. Wait until it started to work, then drink an energy shot to give me enough boost to get moving. Even then I had to fight exhaustion to make myself move. I hid what I was going through pretty well. But I was already cutting down on the pain pills and pretty much felt horrible the whole time.

So about noon, I would be hurting and exhausted to much to continue. I would take a pain pill, lay down, and as soon as the pill started to work, drink energy shot and get moving.  By evening, as I knew the pain meds were part of the problem I had falling to sleep, I drank about a half bottle of rum for pain relief. It was not much help. I think I had been on strong pain meds for so long that I never noticed any kind of buzz or relief of any kind. Kind of takes the fun out of a good bottle of rum.

I knew the whole time as I worked on Mary Lee that my physical and mental condition were not really up to speed. As disappointed as I was when the engine died, In retrospect, I was not even remotely ready to go. As it turned out. I found broken motor mounts and other problems the next summer while repairing the engine.

So with that in mind. It was really a good thing I was not able to get going. I would have had so many problems.
As it was, there were still problems. But I get ahead of myself. I house sat for a friend in Thompson Falls, MT. I started walking all I could. It was a mile and a quarter to the post office. I would walk there every day. I had to really fight with myself to make the return trip. Since there was no place to sit and rest in the snow. I had to finish the walk. At first that was all I could do. I kept doing it and was soon walking much more. I started yoga. The instructor told me after a time that it was painful just watching me try to stretch. It was pretty painful doing it. Still the exhaustion continued. It was all I could do much of the time to just lift my feet to walk to the kitchen for a glass of water.

So I quit doing yoga and joined the local gym. I forced myself to go every day. When I started I was only able to make about 3 minutes on the elyptical machine. I was soon making 45 minutes on it and then going to the treadmill for another 45. I was going on sheer will power at that point. The first step was just as exhausted as the last. It would sometimes take me over an hour of sitting on the bench to find the strength to walk home. No surprise, it was the same effort to go to the gym. By the time I needed to get back to the boat, I was quite a bit better off than I had been. Still taking pain meds and using the energy drinks body builders use before working out, but better.

So I got the engine in. Headed south, still had problems. Hurt my back the beginning of the 3rd day pulling up the anchor. Was 3 or 4 days hurting so bad I could not get out of my seat without help. It was pretty bad. Then the exhaust broke. First sign that something was amiss. found new motor mount had worked loose. Same one that had been broke before. Couple days later the prop broke. I dove on it and found out for sure. That hurt. Good old boat U.S. Towed it into a marina and once again I went to stay at a friends for a rest.

I regressed physically while in the cold during my stay in Maryland that winter. I am not sure how far it went as it is sometimes hard to remember just how bad it was without considerable thought.

Soon it was time to get back to Mary Lee. It only takes so much time away and I start getting the bug again. I replaced the prop and headed to North Carolina. I spent the summer with a friend there. I was totally beat down. Still not understanding the severe fatigue. I got off the pain pills completely in Oak Island. I also started riding bike and built a dinghy.

Of course I put the biggest basket I could find on the bike. It is handy but to date, I have not seen another one like it on any other bikes :-)

Still the exhaustion. Trying everything I can think of foodwise. Cannot figure it out. I wake up early, then fight with myself until I am going. I know the circulation in my legs is bad. My calves hurt from just laying on my back for a long time. Just the weight of my legs while laying down made them ache. So I have been fighting that since the beginning. How much was exhaustion from lack of sleep?? How much from to many pain meds and a poor diet for so long??

So it was finally time to move Mary Lee to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

It took 12 hours but I finally arrived.
Exhausted.

I have spent the last couple months trying to sort out a better diet and rebuild muscle.

Why the recap?? Partly because I forgot what I posted the last two times. But also because I am finally making progress with my recovery that is really worth noting.

 During this last week, I have finally had a break through in figuring out the solution to the exhaustion I have been fighting for so long. I have dubbed these times of improvement as reaching new plateaus. I have pushed myself to work on Mary Lee almost out of desperation since buying her. This innate desire to not fail at achieving this goal. Mostly I have been to exhausted to even sit and daydream of the things I had planned to see and do with her.

For the very first time since I got hurt in March of 2006, I am starting to feel like I am actually recovering. I find myself once again day dreaming of places to see, and yes, I am even starting to think of the projects I need to finish as much wanted improvements instead of....I have to do that!!

The next stop is Florida. I am not recovered yet. I am just realizing that I can and will. Over 6 months off pain meds and my brain is out of the fog brought on by that.

I will be spending much time in the gym yet. I need more. My body is tightening up. Muscles are getting hard again.
Something I realized by watching Steve and Linda Franko's blog is that the traveling will not be fun for me if I have to fight exhaustion and atrophied muscle just to explore. I am shooting for the level of fitness I had when 30. I felt very good at that age. Also can remember that far back :-)

I am actually starting to get the bug to be boating. I had it before the work began, I found out that My body was no longer able to keep up with my hearts desires, and now I am coming full circle. My body is finally getting strong enough again and my brain is clear. My desire to be boating has never slipped. I just chose to be prudent and get my act together so the boating can be the best experience possible.
If I had felt this good when I bought Mary Lee, I would already have been doing what I want to be doing. I also realize after watching Steve and Linda doing the Canadian loop, I am going to want to do some of that some day.
So there you have it. I have a busy winter ahead of me. But by spring I should be turning over a new leaf. I have done everything I could physically do every day since buying Mary Lee. I end the days completely exhausted and hurt. But I am now able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It is coming up fast. I have persevered with dogged determination and the battle is now mine.

It is beginning to look like this blog has less and less to do with boating all the time. Actually... looks can be decieving. I knew from the minute I bought Mary Lee that I had my work cut out for me. Not the boat work. That is just labor. I have worked on and fixed things for as long as I remember.

The work I talk about here is rebuilding my body, mind, soul, etc. I have devoted so many long and hard, suffering hours to this. I have yet to have a good day. I just do the best I can with what I have.

A little bragging is in order though. Over 6 months off pain pills. I take nothing at all for pain anymore. Still have pain...but I finally have a handle on it.

I ride bike just about every day. Seems odd...but I have less back pain sitting on a bike than laying down or sitting on a couch. Go figure!! So I ride a lot. 20 mile days are pretty regular. 30 mile days are happening more often. I cannot do these rides all at once. It takes a few tries. Legs are always exhausted. Similar to what I went through in Thompson Falls. I just keep pushing.

I thought I would throw in the shot of odometer. I had never ridden 60 miles in one day before. Took about 5 and a 1/2 hours. I may have over done it. I rode 20 miles a day for each of the following 3 days and ended up sick. I never knew you could get sick from over doing it. That put me pretty much out of it for a week. I still did enough to keep the blood moving but I realized that I needed more information.

Off to Barnes and Noble for a book. This is where I read that by overdoing it you can lower your immune system and can catch cold. Who knew??

But I am also in the gym 5 days a week. Seems like I need a better plan.

This guy trains Olympic athletes. He ought to know more than I do. I have been lifting weights with the techniques he describes and I am certainly seeing a difference. I am supplementing and eating correctly so I am getting plenty of good fuel for my workouts.

Everything is part of the search to find why I am still so exhausted. Upper body is not. It is getting stronger all the time. I am gaining definition and strength. Legs still feel like I can just barely lift them most of the time. I have improved much. No question that I am stronger. My quads are getting quite hard at this point. I have just started using calf and hamstring machines. I suspect poor circulation from spending all those years mostly on my back. But just in case it is nutrition.

I decided to get the opinion of someone who works with professional athletes. I just got this and the first chapter alone was worth the cost. I am not backing down from what I have started. I will recover. Why such a hard push??? Remember Mary Lee?? Just single handing her down the ICW wears me out. I physically am not capable of what I have planned. I am getting closer to my goal.

Once I get all the atrophied muscles strong again I want to take a scuba class. I have tried just swimming and am not able to swim but a few strokes. It still hurts my back. I have a plan for that.

I start my month at South Carolina's voc rehab center on Nov. 4th. Just week days. They shut down on weekends. One of the things I will be doing is swimming. They are going to get a kick out of me. I doubt they get many people like me going through the program. I am still trying to decide if I should take my bike. I could get in a ride before breakfast and after dinner.

So what are my plans for after the assessment center?? Job search. I have decided Florida is best. I want to work on the coast so I can go out on Mary Lee when not in gym or working. There is more to this plan but I will save that for later. I have a lot of sailing and refitting to do on Mary Lee before I am competent to do what I want.

Soooo.... Even though it looks like I am not on track for a life of boating. I am all over it, so to speak. I am dead serious about being fit enough to do anything and everything I want. My goal??  I want to be as fit as I ever was.

Funny how we plan things sometimes and fate intercedes. I  finally eased back on pushing myself into boating before I am ready. Whether you believe in it or not. I realized after a time that fate had plans for me that I could no longer ignore. I could not make that boat go where I wanted. Everything went wrong until I finally decided to just work on me and open my eyes to what was around me. My life has changed in ways I could never have seen coming. I am still the same me. Yet somehow I am different. I won't go into the changes. No need. They were for me and me alone.

I will be moving Mary Lee further south this winter(I think). Unless something comes up here that I cannot pass up.  Vivian and I will figure out how to spend time together. She has vacation time to use up. Gonna miss her a lot. Vivian is so special to me.

 I miss all the friends I have made. People are important to me. How strange sometimes to look back at how this all started.

My 49th birthday has come and gone. I am happier now than I ever remember. Jump back in time to the beginning of this adventure.

The day I bought Mary Lee I was a total wreck. 120 mg. of oxycontin a day and I could not hardly stand upright with a cane. I rode the wheel chairs through the airports and was nothing but a gob of atrophied muscles wracked with pain. I was sick physically, mentally and emotionally. When I finally drove back out 3 months later to start working on Mary Lee I almost sold her. I was so hurt from the drive I just wanted to puke. It took several days just to drive the last 400 miles.

My friends gave good advice. I knew I had to do this. It was about saving my life. I knew it would be the hardest thing I had ever done. It has been. I left everything I knew behind. The people I have met along the way have made a difference. I love the boating world. I know I belong in it. Barbara...a very good friend...told me that of all the people she has ever met. I would be the one who could pull it off. She also told me that I had a knack for putting myself in a corner so I had to fight my way out. That is what I did here. I dove right in. Do or die.

It turns out I am still as capable as ever. Maybe I am still not as strong as I need to be yet...but I will be.
The only guarantee we have in life is what we already did. what we do right now is all that we know we have coming. Because nobody said tomorrow was a sure thing.

I am just getting rolling again and the rest of my life will be the best of my life.

It is getting busy around these parts. As always(it seems) I am slowly rebuilding myself. It appears that back injuries do not go away just because you wish it so. Mine  has not.

 I have certainly found a nice gal to spend time with. Vivian and I are  Yin and Yang, if you are the type who believes in such things. It is sometimes uncanny the way we seem to fit together. I have known her 6 months and it seems like we have always been together. I cannot explain. Maybe sometimes you find someone who just "fits", for lack of a better word.

I have joined a gym again. It is 5 minutes away from Vivian's place, by bike, and as I have been spending a lot of time here during the hot spell, it is handy.

The gym is on the old air force base if I remember right. It was a gym and was remodeled a couple years ago. I was going in the morning. I have a new workout routine I was trying that requires explosive lifting with medium weights and letting the speed of the lift create the needed tension on muscles. The book was written by a guy who coaches olympic and professional athletes and has written over 300 articles for different fitness magazines.

The idea is, harder workouts in a shorter time. Kind of like standing up on that bicycle and pumping those peddles hard as apposed to sitting and poking along at a leisurely pace. I will let you know how it goes.

I have a routine worked out that trains four different parts of my body. One each day with weekends off. At this point, only 2 workout stations each day. Lots of time for each muscles recovery between workouts. Yet I workout 5 days a week. The problem was going first thing in the morning. I could ask people if I could have the two work stations for several minutes while I went back and forth working the muscles to failure. Inevitably....Some gal in her 70's would walk in and plop down at a station for a slow extended session while I was on the other station. What could I do. If I asked for a few more minutes I either got a "I will be done shortly" or the look that made me feel like I was in the way :-)  What to do???

Turns out that about noon....The place is nearly deserted.

Everybody is happy now.


I am also riding bike every day. Like I stated above. I peddle as hard as I can for stretches with short breaks to catch my breath. When exhausted, I head back.


So what else is new??  Monday was a road trip to Columbia, South Carolina. Vivian and I went on a tour of South Carolina's vocational rehabilitation assessment center. I will be going there soon for a month. Weekends off. It turns out that South Carolina has a top of the line operation and other states send their people there to learn how the operation works. I qualify for it and once completed, I qualify for any and all help the state has to rehabilitate me and get me working again.

So........
What does this mean for traveling on Mary Lee????
For starters,,. I have this intense desire to return to work. I am working at finding something that will allow me to work about anywhere I am with Mary Lee. I have sold cars before. I enjoyed it, just had a chance to manage a grocery store and wanted to try that. I am looking into an apprenticeship sewing canvas/upholstery. The way I see it. With the sewing I can find work about anywhere I go. With the sales I can find work I enjoy anywhere in the U.S. Mary Lee started my recovery and spearheaded the dream. I will still be using her to learn on. But for living?? The size is limiting.
What about now??? I am really not in the best sailing grounds. Next spring, I will move Mary lee to a better place and all weekends will be spent with Vivian sailing. Vivian has commitments that will keep her busy for a while.. However, she will be doing some traveling with me. Lots of Islands to see and learning to be done before any major trips are taken. Vivian has quite a lot of vacation time to be using up.
Not the original plan, but it is certainly a better plan. I will get new canvas on this winter. Topsides painted. Prop changed,etc. Early spring will see all the new running rigging installed. I am getting stronger and am hoping by next summer I will finally have my back past the point of re-injury. I am planning to move Mary Lee south in early spring. Will look hard at finding work in Florida. Will take the best job possible but Florida would be nice. A serious thought to consider is moving up to a bigger boat. More on that and why later.
I have been doing a little canning.

Garbanzo and black beans.

A little baking.

Trying to eat better. Herring in wine sauce. cottage cheese with hemp hearts on top. Breakfast at times. Vivian is a sort of Vegetarian. Will eat fish but no other types of carcass. She does not force her eating habits on others and both her boys are confirmed meat eaters. I can deal with that. It means I eat dishes that are a lot healthier along with my meat. I still don't eat anything with eyeballs....I cut the heads off :-)

If you have ever seen the movie,"My cousin Vinny" with Joe Pesci. You will remember the suit he showed up with on court day. We think we found the women's version. Vivian would not try it on for a photo shoot. It was quite shimmery. However, she did try on the flower child version of a moomoo

Kind of entertaining when you know that she had no idea these pictures would end up on the blog. I just took them so she could see how it looked. :-)

Still reading about the places to go.

Lucy does not care. She is 15 on the first of october and needs her naps.

But talk about the practiced and sad looking stare down when she sees you with food.

Always time to learn. I usually just figure out the bike repairs when they are needed but I thought that it is time to go through the bikes here for a regular maintenance and greasing/adjusting while I put a new chain on mine. It might be nice to read a manual on it. Just about done. Learned quite a bit actually. No longer need book. I have now seen(in the book and have had hands on experience) most bike repairs done and read the hows and whys. This method works because I already have a background in it. repairing Mary Lee's engine was the same. I already had a background in engine building so reading the manual was a very simple way to convert all the information to memory. Next dinghy I build will be the same, etc,etc.

And it is nap time again!!!