So March second was my first day back at work in nine years.

By now Vivian has figured out that if I have pictures of me to use, I am less likely to use pictures of her.

So I am looking like I had very little sleep, also, I need to work much harder on that profile.
Well, I'll get to the lack of sleep in a minute.

Turns out the training for a month just may be necessary. This is the training room during break. That is my new chair up in the leftcorner. $2500. (Remember last winter when I went to the South Carolina State assessment center? Because I did, they will bend over backwards to do whatever it takes to help me return to work. )New system to learn on computer. Phone protocal and even the rooms we will be booking. Yup...I will be doing that, at least part time, until the move to Florida.(I will get to that in a minute also)

 Jon, Vivian's youngest, had a soccer tournament up in Rock Hill, S.C. to kick off the season. Off we went. It was a bit cool. Not bad 38°. We even got some rain with it. I let Vivian use my heavy wool coat. Was okay, I own warm clothes. I am used to Idaho weather.

Only one problem. I was pretty much packed the night before. I just needed to put on the clothes I intended to wear. By this I mean shoes. I had two appointments. A hearing aide adjustment and then pick Vivian up and head to physical therapy. I wore some lightweight sketchers I had bought for on the boat. So...I spent friday night, Saturday and Sunday sitting outside with cold feet. We did go find me a pair of wool socks. That helped some. Lucky the wind seemed to blow right through anyways.

So that was fun! :-) Now we start getting to the good part. The motel was clean. We found the breakfast(continental) was over at nine am. We got over there at 9:05. Looked like it had been put away for quite a while. Okay...we don't normally eat that kind of food anyway.

The part that matters in this is the little bed (well okay, fullsize). Maybe not so much the size...but maybe the fact that someone very heavy had spent considerable time sitting in the middle of the one side. Right on the edge. Well I didn't actually look. Perhaps they ate it because they missed breakfast. I let Vivian have the other side. I hope it was the good side :-)

So.....now we are getting somewhere in this sordid little tale. Not much sleep. Cold feet all weekend. Guess what that got me? Yup....I got sick.

 I refer to the first picture. Walking in to work. I was tired. Felt a little odd but not unusual for as little as I am able to sleep. First day went fine. Second day. Not out of bed more than 10 minutes and I throw up. Few minutes later I felt better. Must have not agreed with something. Second day, seemed okay, pretty tired. Got home and almost literally the s--t hit the fan. Diahrea big time. Pretty steady all night. About every hour or so. Great!! Called in for my third day. Was pretty rough but I knew I couldn't miss much work. Showed up thursday. A bit lightheaded, wave of nausea occasionally. Good to go. They chased me off and sprayed the place. This was the Fifth. Since the first. They had already booked over 1800 rooms and fielded over 4000 calls. Cannot have a sickness spread there.

Turned out to be a good call. I was nowhere near well. I would have embarrassed myself had I stayed. I won't go into details but Vivian had to tolerate a lot. Like changing bedding at 5:00 am saturday while I showered. I was really bad. I lost 10 pounds in 5 days. That is more than enough details. You get the picture. I decided early sunday morning (while showering) that if not better by monday morning it was doctor time. I turned the corner at mid-day.

So....I am the sickest I can remember...my first week finally back to work. Nine years after getting hurt the worst I ever did.....REALLY!!!!! Are you freaking kidding me?

I restart work the 16th. I guess it is okay as Vivian has me trying to keep on the braty diet(bananas, rice, applesauce, toast and yogurt). I still feel ill off and on. Next week should go better.





I just did some research on a better way to cook and peel hard boiled eggs.(If I cannot go to work, I will find something to do)

This is what I came up with.

Got my steamer out of storage for this. Is simple and fast. About an inch of water in bottom of pan is more than enough.

While bringing to boil, add however many eggs will fit in the top tray. Then put in after water is boiling. It said 11 minutes for hard eggs and 6 for soft. I turned the heat down to medium while cooking because it seemed to be boiling pretty hard. The second batch I did 12 minutes and they are almost hard. Just the center of yolk not quite finished. Next time I will leave on high.

When timer goes off. Put in ice bath. Let cool. Then, and I love this trick, hit large end of egg with teaspoon to break shell

That is all you need. Pick off that little bit of shell. Then insert spoon under that piece of skin that makes peeling egg so easy.

Slide spoon up and pop shell off. I think I could do a dozen eggs in under a half hour. From the time I reach for the pan until the eggs are cooked, peeled, everything cleaned up and the pan put away. Cuz it only takes about three minutes to peel 8 eggs. So that is not a rush job. Anybody could do it.

So last....but not least.

The dream board has now got pictures of Banana Bay on it. Yes.....Marathon, Florida. We are making it Mary Lee's winter destination. Helps when you finally decide on the where and when. But Charleston harbor in South Carolina for this summer.

It's official, I start work on March 2nd. On March 31st it will be nine years since I got hurt.

Talk about a long, difficult vacation! Pretty sure I don't want another one of those :-)


Seems like forever ago that I decided to buy Mary Lee. I remember very well how I came to the conclusion that I was just laying there waiting to die. Not wanting to. But unable to stand much in the way of activities. I also remember thinking at one time, much earlier, that if nothing improved. I had enjoyed all the fun I was likely to ever have. The pain was pretty intense for a long time.

I knew if I never took drastic steps to change things, my inactivity would lead to an early demise. I don't even know how I made it through the first year with Mary Lee. Like Barbara(a very good friend )said, I backed my way into a corner so the only choice I had was to come out fighting. I did do that!!

 So here I am. Finally going back to work. It is going to be a very busy summer. Along with working, I will be giving Mary Lee some much needed changes. She also will be moved to Charleston harbor for a much anticipated summer of sailing.

This fall she will be moved to Florida, finally!!!

So right now, I am starting to wrap up some projects so I can get to Mary Lee's projects.

I did get the washroom cabinets done. Trust me, the picture does it no justice.

When we got my stuff out of storage. I had a quite expensive mattress set that was barely used. We decided to use it. On Vivian's frame, it is quite tall. I even have to roll myself up into bed. I built Vivian a stool. Finally built a better stool for her and now I use the original.

They are made from the same boards. Just white pine. I used steel wool rusted in white vinegar for stain on the dark one. Just wiped the rusty looking liquid on and watched it darken while drying. That is two coats. Same polyurethane on both. I guess it works on the tannins in the wood. Who knew?

Better yet, if one wanted an ebony look. Just use the rusted steel wool pad and scrub the liquid into the wood. The two pieces of oak on the left are from the same board. Once the wood has dried. The finish will bring out the color stain has made the wood. (Everything I show here has polyurethane on it) Or, you can wipe it with damp cloth to see what it will look like with finish on it. Do not totally understand the science behind it. Just know it is a cheap and affective stain. I guess you can add food color to it and get a different tone.







This weekend is a trip out of town for a soccer tournament. Jon, Vivian's youngest son, is playing his last season of high school ball. He is starting his third year on varsity. Soccastee (sock us tea) high is a AAAA school this year. New league. Jon has assured us that they have a really good team this year. They had a good team last year.

I must admit. I never really watched soccer before. Vivian needed a soccer compadre to go with. Turns out I kind of enjoy the game. Who knew??

I find it interesting that a school this big, with a soccer team this good, hasn't got more people in the stands. The picture is not quite right. The crowd of about 30 to 40 is to our right as I took this. Mostly parents. The bleachers on the other side are indicative of what you generally see on the visitor's side. Mostly Soccastee's side has the same wherever they play. Soccer parents are pretty reliable for Soccastee.




Oh well, they are good games and Jon scores often. Vivian is quite the fireball in the cheering section and I am highly entertained. All is Well :-)

I am beginning to think I forget to take pictures of half my projects. When I do, it is usually just the final product. I will work on that.

Today started with Vivian's hair dryer. The cord had finally been twisted enough times, it shorted out where it goes into the handle.

Got a spare dryer out.  Flipped breaker. No power. Once I got her out the door I started working on the problem. It turns out that the outlets for both upstairs and downstairs bathrooms are on the same circuit. No problem, but why no power? Turns out the "one" outlet, with a little gvi switch for safety, is upstairs. Good! Well..not good. But good I do not have to fix a cobbled up wiring job on a new house.

So....being me, I eyeballed the hair dryer and decided to fix it. I have a solder gun and solder in the garage. Why not? Pulled unit apart. Unsoldered cord from both switches. Cut off bad end. Soldered back onto switches. Put together. Works fine.

I am still getting used to the idea that everyone doesn't just fix everything. Vivian said she paid about $100 for it 6 years ago. It is a good little machine. Maybe it will last a few more years.

I put together my paint mixer/tumbler this week.

I had a smaller one I used for cleaning brass when reloading shells when shooting a lot. It was rather small and although I could put small spray cans on it to mix while I got ready to paint. I could not use it in anything larger than quarts.

I realized when I was doing Mary Lee's bottom paint that I wanted to mix gallon cans the same way. The motor is a shoe shine machine. It works great. I epoxied the old pulley, from the little motor that came on the old tumbler, onto a piece from the shoe shiner. Added a vacuum cleaner belt and it works great.

Speaking of shoes. Vivian had work shoes that were still in good shape. Just scuffed enough they needed re-dyed.

I did six pairs. Deglazed them first. I could have used acetone but had deglazer. Dyed them. Then used my airbrush to put the protective finish on. It is a finish designed for leather. Flexible and water resistant.

I built the frame for Vivian's dream board this week. I had attached eyebolts to a bedroom wall so she could do her exercises before bed.

She wanted to put up pictures of tropical places we may see boating.

I got my hearing aides.

Pretty neat hearing all those small sounds I had been missing.

I built a jig so I could have router set up horizontal. The router table is great, but I have found it lacking.

The router mounted this way allows different things to be done. I also realise that I will have to build a better router table sometime.

 I have outgrown the one I bought.


I finally got around to repainting the stool I built for the bathroom.

It got a coat of flat white when built. Kind of had that whitewash look and looked interesting. So I left it. Noticed it was looking a bit bare the other day. I know Vivian was expecting white when she got home. I thought the bathroom could use a splash of color.

Therapy continues to help. I am sleeping better. A lot of that really overwhelming fatigue, I have battled for so long now, is easing up. It is freezing outside right now. This is the first time since I got hurt, that I am doing projects during the cold stretches. Only a couple months until I hit my two year anniversary of stopping the pain pills. Last winter at this time, it was all I could do, sometimes, to get breakfast dishes cleaned up before Vivian got home in the evening.

Can you just imagine how good this summer will be? I have much planned.

Definitely not going to crash clown bike this year! 😉

I have so many things on my plate that sometimes I wonder how I get myself into these things.

Of course you already know about the upcoming work on Mary Lee, trying to get projects finished here before I start work. Well....I have had something on the back burner for several years. I am that guy who can never find a good pair of shoes. Most shoes look mostly new when thrown out. I buy shoes when I need them. Soon as they start breaking in....they are no longer comfortable. I think I have a half dozen in there right now. Two pair look new. I don't like them.

So years ago(already?) I started pondering the idea of making my own. Pre-computer days it was quite hard to find tools or even a book. I have most of the tools now. Still unable to find a book that works for me.....but I found lots of good videos on utube. So this week, I finally found lasts in my size. 12EEE.

It took some doing. I made all the regular searches. Ebay, craigslist, every other site that advertised lasts. Best I could come up with was suppliers that would only sell them in lots. Whatever style you want...you had to buy a run of sizes in that style. At $180 a pair, buying several sizes I had no use for seemed a bit too much. Suddenly ebay has a bunch of them. A few more things to get and I am going to give it a go.

Why?? I have heard the old"buy a custom pair" speach. For $3-400 I could have one pair. For much less than that, I can own the tools and build several pairs. I watched a lot of videos. Frankly...I would find pulling an engine out of a sailboat, rebuilding it and installing it much harder. Oh wait!!! I have done that also. I saw nothing on any of those videos that I could not do. Soon I will prove it. All it takes is taking your time and not moving on to the next step until satisfied the current step is done correctly.

I replaced my phone last week. While switching everything over. I found email address was compromised. I now have a new email address. Same phone number.

Was cold on the beach the other day. Vivian was showing me she was tough enough to take it.

Physical therapy continues.

The first picture was taken a few months ago. Notice the big knots.

Vivian took this the other day.

 Different position, but you can see the knots are going away. I was so locked up everywhere. The hamstrings have been especially fun to get loosened up again.

I doubt if much of me was not all knotted up. Slowly changing eating habits. I walk as much as possible. Some days I hurt too much, but on a good day I have walked up to 2 1\2 hours. I use a heart monitor when exercising. I keep my heart rate between 75-80% of maximum. My 2 1\2 hour walk got me 10 miles.

Tonight is clam chowder night. I told Vivian it would be on the stove when she got here. Lucky she had gym after work and a soccer meeting with Jon(her son). I better run....later

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