Dream Away Update 08-15-2008
Greetings,
Not a lot of progress to be
reported on boat projects in this update, but we do have some significant progress
made on two other fronts:
One, we have finally reached our first goal before we can go cruising again. That goal was that we get out of debt!! It seems almost un-American to be out of debt and to own your home, but I have always been one to march to a different drummer. Two more goals, and then we will be cruising again. First of two is to complete some necessary boat projects, and second is to build up the cruising kitty.
Two, on the other front, there is some significant progress being made with our daughter, Judy. If you remember two-and-a-half years ago she was at Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation learning how to walk again. She was recovering from her bout with bacterial meningitis. Now she is walking in a three-day marathon that supports Breast Cancer Research. To think, two-and-a-half years ago she was learning how to walk again, and this coming October she will be walking in a sixty-mile marathon. We are very happy and pleased. Even though she is training hard ... she is walking up to 11 miles a day now ... she has to raise $2,200.00 before she can walk in the actual event, so I am asking all of you to please donate to breast cancer research in her name. It is a deductible donation, and if you go to this link on my web page, all the information is there to make the donation.
The progress made on boat projects are the Sinking Main Mast and the Aft Deck Box Lid Repair. When you click on the Sinking Main Mast link, scan down to near the bottom of the page to see the latest additions. The progress being made is small, mostly because of the lack of time. Hopefully, that problem will be changing in the next couple of months. Preparation and recovery from tropical storms eats up a lot of time. I am still working for Baker Energy driving the crew boat. On my last "off" week, I got to drive to New Iberia, LA, to attend mandatory training. Of course I get paid for the 8 hours training, but I get to use more of my "off" time to drive there and back. Kitty usually drives over with me, and we have a mini-holiday, but she was not able to go on this trip, because she was trying to get in as much work as possible before her contract at Schlumberger ran out.
It is official, Kitty was notified of her last day at Schlumberger. It will be the 22nd of August. I know she will hate leaving the job, as the people she was working with are great and she loves the work. She will also miss her car pooling mates. She has been car pooling into Schlumberger for the past three months, and the two women she rides with are also sailors. One lives on a boat two boats down from us, and the other has her boat in a marina a mile or so away.
Kitty now must look for another contract. She has several irons in the fire, but nothing for sure yet. When she gets a new contract, it only has to last six months. That should be enough time for me to get Dream Away ready for cruising, and the cruising kitty topped off. We shall see what the future brings!!
regards,
jimk
Member Seven Seas Cruising Association
WEB page http://www.dreamaway.net