The Next Adventure...

We've been talking a lot about sailing this summer.  And why not?  It is relatively cheap (once you get the boat), there is so much to see by sea, and we can be weekend warriors!  So, the spring re-fit season is approaching, and we will document what we are doing to get Destiny cruise-ready once again.

Some of the potential trips in the idea bin:

Hudson River Cruise: up the Hudson to West Point and points north.  Perhaps as far as Albany... and who knows, maybe we'll lock up to Lake Champlain!  That would be greta trip.

New York Harbor - Hells Gate - Long Island Sound:  I've always wanted to do this trip... NYC skyline by night, and into LI sound for a weekend of exploring.

NJ Shore:  I haven't been back to the fickle NJ shore for years.  Lots of great beaches and harbors, crazy inlets with brutal currents, gambling (of course)... and the Inter-Coastal Waterway for those days when the weather offshore looks too sporty.

That will keep us busy... for now.  At this point Destiny only needs some cosmetic work, along with a few electronic upgrades, and a bimini cover for some shade in the cockpit.  We will keep you all posted.

*If you are curious about the Flicka class sloop, check out www.flicka20.com

 

Let me tell you what won't happen...

He says:

I don't have a crystal ball, but I wasn't born yesterday.  Let me tell you what is NOT going to happen...

1.  The bailouts will never end.  Ever.  Once you shatter a window, it never goes back to being a window... unless you melt it back down and reform it anew.  Same thing goes for our FIRE economy (Finance, Insurance, Real Estate).  The FIRE economy is dead, a corpse, rotten and bloated.  And the bailouts are just so much plasma and platelets and fluids... No one is checking for a pulse on the body, no one can believe that it is dead.  These guys loved the FIRE economy too much, and they are not the best ones to be giving emergency care.  Someone needs to walk into the room and put a gentle hand on their shoulder, and whisper "Stop".  Until that happens, the bailouts will get bigger and bigger, until one day, people stop believing that the dollar represents value...

2.  The dollar will not hold value.  Not really a shocker, the dollar has been a terrible store of value since 1913... the year the "Creature from Jekyl Island" took control of the country.  Thomas Jefferson warned us of the danger of a central bank, stating that if we give the power to print money to private bankers, that "through the process of inflation, then deflation, our grandchildren would find themselves penniless on the continent their grandparents conquered".  He was right.  

And the value of the dollar is really based on our collective confidence, and not much more. But the problem is that confidence is not measured on a scale from 1 to 100.  You can't "sort of" trust the dollar.  Either you do, or you don't.  Just like derivatives and credit swaps, when they fail, they go from 1 to 0... like a binary switch.  ON or OFF.  So it will be, when the American people realize that the Federal Reserve is flooding the world with worthless dollars.

3.  Private retirement investment vehicle will not be left in the private sector.  They will be confiscated.  Perhaps not overtly, but I'm guessing that the day is coming where you must invest your tax-deferred accounts in T-bills (ONLY) to keep tax-deferred status.  In case you haven't noticed, T-bills have not beaten inflation for years, and the one month currently yields 7 basis points... seven.  Thats a whopping $700 return on your million dollar investment!  Yikes.  

4.  Taxes will not stay low.  Believe it or not, our Gov't has a bit of a spending problem, an even bigger debt problem, and a whopping future liability problem.  They will raise taxes, fees, pay to play, fines, you name it.  We will all pay more, regardless of income bracket.  

I wish I knew exactly what was coming.  I don't.  But I've read enough history to know that the sky is darkening, and the leaves are showing their bottoms.  The coming storm will not be gentle like the great depression.  It will probably be more like the Civil War, or the French Revolution.  I wish I felt differently about the future. 

Winter Dreams

It's cold, snowing, a real winter in NY.  It reminds me of my childhood back in the 70's, when the snowbanks were piled higher than the tops of our hats.  We were headed into a new ice age, or so the leading scientific consensus of the time stated.  I guess things change.  But one thing doesn't...

In the depths of winter, I always start dreaming of summer.  And with summer (in my mind) comes wind, water, and sailing.  I love to sail, and I love to look at sailboats.  Beauty, simplicity, form following function.  I think I love daydreaming about sailing just as much as the actual practice of sailing.  That's not true.... but it is close. 

To me, sailing is self-contained self sufficiency, a vehicle for adventure, and a traditional art-form.  I loved teaching sailing back in Oregon, mostly because the students questions drove me to research the origin of arcane terms and words, like Foc'sle (folk-sul).  But I also loved watching students change from awkward hamfists to wind sniffing artists.  Trimming sails, noses held high to the wind, steering a sharp course.

Anyway, I am dreaming of woodworking projects and polishing bronze and brass.  Maybe a new outboard for the dinghy.  Destiny (a Flicka class sloop) has a lot of teak, too.  You'd be amazed at how dingy teak gets, even when she is put away under cover for the summer.  And once she is back in the water, perhaps Elizabeth, Mo, and I can feed the rat by making some trips up the Hudson or down the river into NY Harbor and beyond... (and Elizabeth has a lot to learn about sailing!!)

"I'm in Love, I'm in Love and I don't care who knows it"

She says:

So folks it's been a while, far too long actually, and I've been meaning to write but things kept coming up, and honestly I was feeling a little sheepish about writing. After documenting all our adventures out west, our rock climbing feats, car camping escapades and walks through the wilderness, it felt so anti-climatic to tell you that we were headed back to the east coast to plop back into our old jobs. But much has happened since the last time I wrote and I figured it was only fair to bring you up to date on our goings on.

So a recap of our trip back east, After Seattle (our last entry), we made our way to Idaho to spend a day or two with Dougie (a fabulous friend of Jeffrey's.) As I said we were planning on staying for a day or two and after two days we drove to Dougie's office to say fairwell and be on our way, "But its must see TV tonight, you gotta stay, 30-Rock... it's new!" Dougie protested, he knew our new-found weakness for creature comforts and played right into them. We barely put up a fight... and then the rationale to stay just kept sounding better and better, "Well Friday we can't leave friday, we gotta have a night out on the town." Saturday we were too hung over to leave the couch which lead to a 30-Rock marathon, Sunday we were promised a delicious Pancake Diner Breakfast and Monday we were back to must see TV... It was hard, but after a week we peeled ourselves away.







We had a worldwind tour through, Utah and Arizona stopping at many national parks including, canyonlands, zion, brice and the northern rim of the grand canyon. (This part of the trip was crucial, since I'm an east coast girl I had visualized the west as the red rock canyonlands of Utah and I refused to go back east until I saw them. I was far from disappointed and it felt more like I was touring the terrian of Mars than the US of A. We made our way through Colorado, through the winding roads and snow capped Rocky's and spent a few days with Jeff's younger brother Craig and his girlfriend Laura (who just moved to Basalt, CO.) From the beautiful landscapes of CO we were on a mission to get back to Central New York for Halloween. But not before we visited with my friends Joe & Christy in Ohio, so after 30 hours of straight driving we arrived in Dayton, OH and got to meet Ms. Caroline Amato (Joe & Christy's beautiful new baby girl.)



Finally we arrived back in NY, greeted with open arms by Denise, we relaxed and enjoyed Jeff's mama's company... and I enjoyed the comforts of a modern kitchen with an oven and the makings for zucchini bread. For halloween I didn't have enough time to execute one of my favorite non-traditional costumes, but I was excited to finally be able to do a couples costume and so with insirpation from the local costume shop, Jeff and I went as Frankenstein and Frankenstien's bride. We tried to make Moby and mummy dog, but we wanted little to do with it, and Denise went as a flapper...



On our way down to my Mothers house on Long Island we stopped in White Plains for some apartment hunting, found a decent apartment that took dogs in an afternoon and headed to Sayville to see mama and all her animals. By mid Novemeber we were moved into our new apartment and back at work.

So we are back at Malcolm Pirnie our old company, long story short, Jeff got a call from his old boss somewhere back in September that they needed him back... and if there was anything he could do to entice him back please let him know. With our budget getting smaller and smaller and the cold months of winter looming, our minds were already drifting to what to do next... so the offer did have allure, after a few days HR called me to let me know if I was interested in coming back, they would be happy to have me. So if we wanted we could both get our old jobs back, and after much deliberation we decided, that we have big dreams, we know we can live cheaply, but if we want to continue to fulfill our dreams we were going to need jobs... and we liked Pirnie, they treated us well, and we enjoyed the culture of the workplace... and we didn't even need to interview or go through all the job application leg work. So it seemed like the thing to do.

Thanksgiving was spent with Jeff's older brother Jon & fam in New Hampshire and was filled with mouthwatering smells coming from the kitchen all weekend, an annual turkey bowl football game on Thanksgiving, trips to Portsmith and the local candlestick bowling alley, lots of scrabble, nights full of board games and I even badgered everyone into playing charades (which after some intial complaining everyone seemed to enjoy.)

As the holiday season sprang into full gear I was certainly sweept up in the holiday spirit. Since we were in Alaska last year, this is the first year Jeff got to see me in action. Christmas trees in every room, garland over every doorway & window, mistletoe, advent calanders, holiday songs and of course lots of baking.

Christmas was spent with my mother, we drove out to her house on Christmas eve and I was determined to get us all to midnight mass for the first time in years... and as we were getting ready to go, my eye's were misted from the emotions brought on by the good people of Bedford Falls as I watched the end of "It's a WonderfulLlife" and then... Jeffrey, right there in the guest room of my mothers house, got down on one knee and asked if I would be his wife. Obviously the mist in my eyes turned to full on tears and I clumsily put out my right hand insteand of my left and shook my head yes.

So we're Engaged! Yay! No we have no idea when the wedding will be... but of course it will be fabulous and our honeymoon... sounds like a good excuse for another adventure to me. *~

So I hope you all had a warm and loving hoilday season and I hope the new year finds you in good health and happiness. I don't know how often we'll be writting from here on out, as the blog was to document our adventures in the great outdoors... but we had fun writting while we were on sabatical and we hope you enjoyed reading out tidbits...

Till the next adventure, so long