Has been quite busy. Still going to physical therapy twice a week. That is painful as the therapist is now working deep into the trouble spots. Will start working on getting my vertebrae broke loose beginning Saturday.

My walks are now up to 18 minutes. I use a heart rate monitor and push it. I am going to start walking twice a day. I will follow the walks with a bike ride. Riding hurts less so I can keep my heart rate up for longer.

I am almost finished with painting laundry room. You can't say it is a dark and uninviting space now. Will take the last doors off and have finished and put back by the weekend.picture does not do it justice.

Helped Jon (Vivian's youngest)with brake job on Volvo. I seem to be doing a bit of brake work lately. I don't mind.

I am not exactly sure of my actual start date for work. Not my fault. They have not set a training schedule yet.

 Looks like I will be getting hearing aids. I got tested and it appears I have lost the upper register(mostly affects hearing voices). Hmmm??? I also have to have a special chair for work. Maybe I am getting older?

It appears my memory is also not quite as good as I remembered it being.

I have been researching vacuum setups for laminating wood. I will be setting up to do Mary Lee's interior this next month. I want to be ready to roll on that as soon as the weather starts warming a bit. I figure a month of weekends should see it being wrapped up. It will be nice to have a bit more storage. A booth to eat in. A better bed.

I am starting to get the sailing bug. It is now getting more real for Vivian. My health improving is also key! Time flies. It is just a short time until Mary Lee is finally in good sailing waters. Not much longer until I sail her to Florida.

My reading is now switching back to boating. I have a lot of interests. I generally read about things as I prepare to do them. I am now dreaming about being on the water at all times(day and night). I have the perfect partner for it.

Of course I have been "lined out" on the fact that she is the admiral and I am the cap'n!! Not by her, but no matter. Vivian is just very easy-going.

I don't mind, I rather do like the term "Swab". Guess I will have to save that one. Besides, anyone willing to let me put them up 40 feet on a boatswains chair, the day after I finished building it, is certainly deserving of a more esteamed title!

Mary Lee was the wisest purchase I ever made. Without her, I would never have met Vivian. There is no question about us being made for each other.

We have just a short time to go before we start living our dream. That being said.....Nobody else I would want to share the dream or the actual living of it with.

So here I am, a third of the way through January.

I have to be serious about winding up some old projects. I am still surprised at how many things I can get going. Usually, something comes up and the current project goes on hold until later. Sometimes(this happens a lot), my back flairs up and I move on to something I can do.

A good number of times, I am unsure of exactly the best way to continue so I work on other things until I am sure.

So the cabinet handles are now done.

 Also needed another coat of polyurethane on Vivian's stool. 'Nother thing done.

Time to finish washroom painting. Not quite there yet, but getting after it( you can see the old beige color where I stopped with the yellow). Moving the machines out and painting behind them was hard on my back. I survived. I had therapy today so will finish the painting tomorrow. I debated for a while on the best way to finish the doors. Stain and poly. Laminate, stain and poly. Also, laminate with vinyl and just paint edges and inside. Will be taking doors off three at a time. Filling edges, sanding smooth and then painting the same color as walls.

The color put on by the builder made it such a dingy entry way. The light yellow with all the white trim is really brightening it up.

I mentioned going through South Carolina's vocational rehabilitation program to
see if it was possible for me to work again. I spent three weeks up north last winter in the voc. rehab. center being assessed to see if I was even capable. I believe the verdict was...Not really, but as I was one of the few they ever get that is already on disability and attempting to get off it,(I suspect most are using it as a place to prove they should be on disability, whether they really should be or not) they had to admit there was a possibility I could work again. :-) I can be hard to deter when my mind is made up.

 I have to share this....I rode the bus back to Myrtle Beach a couple times. The one time, I met a gal who had just got out of prison for drugs. She asked what I was doing. When I mentioned vocational rehabilitation, she says...that is okay, we all make mistakes. I never bothered to try explaining what vocational meant. In her world rehab had meaning. I have noticed that a lot. Most people hear rehab and think alcohol or drugs. Vivian and I laughed about it. My only mistake was using the milk crates, the customer I was delivering to, had  for steps on the loading dock. Oops...pretty big mistake.

There have been a good many things over the years I was told I couldn't do. I can't think of one off hand that I was not able to do. I will admit to biting off a pretty big chunk on occasion. I will also admit to wondering why I did, on said occasion ;-)

The point of this? I start to work the third of February. Voc. Rehab. is buying me an ergonomic office chair and sending me in for a hearing test. I have tinnitus(ringing in ears) pretty bad. I guess they will even buy me a hearing aid if needed.

I am worth much more as an employee than what I will be making. That is not the point. Curious??? I will be working for an outfit that takes motel reservations for the motels in the area and sells vacation packages. Yup....sales. Whatever....I get to put a recent job on my resume and who knows? I might like sales.

This changes nothing when talking about moving south. We are looking seriously at the Tampa, Florida area. Clearwater is nearby. Mary Lee was built there in 1987. We have seriously started looking into the move. It sounds like the best place to be for sailing in Florida.

There is much to get done this summer before taking Mary Lee south. Finishing refit. Doing some canvas. Add auto pilot and solar panels. Much sailing in Charleston harbor this summer. I want to sail to Florida as apposed to running the Intra-coastal waterway. I have at least one friend who has volunteered to make the trip. Vivian and I will try to work in a few overnight runs for practice once we are comfortable with the idea.

Jon will be off to college next fall. Once he has a semester in...we will start implementing the big move.





We are both excited about what is coming next. I am able to stay busy during the freezing weather for the first time since getting hurt. I am thinking, that as the weather warms this spring, I will shift into high gear.

Oh ... I almost forgot, I still have a dinghy to build.

So off we headed for Bonita Springs, Florida. It was a surprise 80th birthday party for Vivian's Mom, Doris. 12 hours down/750 miles.

She never suspected a thing. I am sure there is a picture of her jaw dropping as we all walked in. I don't have it(likely safer that way as I tend to use the pictures I do get). That is Vivian on the left, her sister Amy in the center and Doris on the right.

The shindig was at Amy and her husband Harold's home. They were wonderful hosts and a good time had by all.

Vivian and I tried to drive up the coast a ways to look at a couple marinas. The tourist traffic was too much for us.

We did spot this little bait shop. We stopped by for a photo op and a couple t-shirts on the way out of town the next morning.

 The car has a definite shortage of cup holders, especially for long trips.

 I made this one in about 10 minutes just before we pulled out of the driveway on our texas trip this summer.

It did the trick in the pickup but was much too big for setting on the passenger floor board of the car. It did work on the floor of the back seat.

I didn't spend much more than that on this smaller one until I put finish on. I had a can of gunstock finish in storage. Decided the cupholder was the right thing to try it on.

Ever try putting a nice finish on plywood? I can do a gunstock in 3 or 4 coats. My finish looks as good as any you are going to find. I guess I owe that to Dad for all the times I watched him paint cars. I knew how to watch the flow of material before I ever tried. Anyway....plywood is thirsty. The round piece in the center is the piece I cut out. No finish. The rest of it has 5 coats and is close to done.

Although I don't see myself wasting a lot of expensive finish on plywood in the future, I must say that I forgot how much I enjoyed laying the finish on hardwoods. I am going to build a much nicer cupholder out of oak, with dovetail corners.

Wait until you see the table I will be building to put in Mary Lee!!!

I mentioned using the pictures I get. Guess who I caught standing out in the courtyard? Classic! Right?

If you don't want me taking the picture, best not to stand there telling me. I just keep snapping great shots.

This is a dog belonging to a co-worker of Vivian's.

Dog loves his boomerang!

 At the end of the day!

 Nobody else I would want to be with