Packing It All Up To Go - Leaving Tomorrow

Pile of stuff to be packed

Yes, we are leaving KC tomorrow.  Let me say that one more time.....we are officially leaving KC tomorrow. Woo hoo.  We packed the car this afternoon and we are ready to go.

Packed to the roof

Packing It All Up To Go

Have you ever tried to stuff a your brand new power tool or printer/scanner/copier or small kitchen appliance back into the box it came in?  Did it fit back in exactly like it came out?  Most likely not.  With this in mind, we decided we probably needed to do a trial pack on the folding kayak.

When Tom bought the kayak, it was already out of the bag and ready to be used.  Until yesterday we had never attempted to get it back in the backpack.  We were a tad nervous about whether we could get it back in there and for moving purposes we really need it to fit back in it's bag. 

Success!!

Retired!

Tom officially retired yesterday. 

Limbo Land Slumber

Have you ever found a place were you sleep really hard?  I don't mean nice night of sleep but deep, deep sleep....like the sleep of the dead?  Perhaps a high end hotel with blackout shades or your childhood bedroom.  Here in Limbo Land we have moved over to some other friend's spare bedroom.  We didn't want to wear out our welcome where we were last week even though they said we weren't.  In our new digs I am sleeping like a dead person.  I don't know if it's a factor of all that has been going on in the last two months or what but man am I zonked out each night.  And of course these friends have been equally as fabulous about letting us crash in their spare bedroom all week.  THANKS to both of sets of friends - last week and this week.       

Squatting Doesn't Suck

Tom enjoying the "drinking porch" at our friend's house

I mentioned previously that we were living in Limbo Land but as you can see, it's not so bad. 

Dining al fresco - such a wonderful porch

Check out Beyond Burgoo tab for more on our Limbo Land Food

Tom "getting by" ha!

Limbo Land

First you need to get the music in your head so click HERE, then you can read this with the proper tune in mind.  Ok, the song doesn't really have anything to do with this posting other than the term limbo.  I just think it's a catchy tune.  Remember, life is all about attitude.

 
Limbo Land is currently where we are living....not in our house (it's occupied by our new tenants) and not yet on s/v Honey Ryder but still in KC wrapping up the last of land life.  Our friends have been absolutely wonderful by letting us crash at their house in their spare bedroom.  Their dog Riley welcomes us each time we walk in the door with rapid tail wags.....although she has managed to trick us newbies into various "treats" on occasion but we are catching on - slowly.  We have a few more business items to conclude before we hit the road and unfortunately one big item is depended a contractor getting his work done first at one of our rental houses.  So in the mean time we are living in Limbo Land.  Actually the company we are keeping here in Limbo Land is tops so all in all it's an ok place to be.
*Also big thanks to our tenants for letting us keep our "Take to the boat" pile in the corner of the basement until we are ready to head out and putting up with our frequent stops by the house to get mail, tools and such.    

Email Alerts of Blog Updates

sorry for the bad pic but I wanted to actually show it

I think I have finally figured out a way so readers of this blog can automatically get an email letting them know that there has been a new posting.  On the right hand side of the blog, there is a section that says - Follow by Email.  I am told that if you click on this and sign up, you will get an email confirmation.  I believe you will also get an email each time we do a blog posting.  I think.
I post this because many friends/family have emailed that they want notice of updates.  If you are not interested and/or don't want to get emails..no worries.  I just wanted to let those interested know.
*Thanks to my Sailing Sista Sammie for helping me test this!

NoTurning Back Now!

5-20-13 This is what Tom said last night as we moved into our temporary home - the spare bedroom of our good friend's house.

Tom's bag for the week in our temp room

Yesterday morning we took the last load to storage of the few personal items we are keeping.  Ok, by few I mean several rubbermaid containers and such but this is actually only the second load so we feel like we have done pretty good at purging the stuff of our lives.  It only took 10 mins to haul from the cars to the attic (of one of our rental houses) so not bad!  The couple that will be renting our house arrived yesterday afternoon just as promised from a long road trip with their car packed to the roof with most their worldly possessions.   Their excellent car packing skills give us hope for the near day when we have to pack all of our remaining worldly items into the Murano and head for s/v Honey Ryder.  I use the term renters but actually these are friends so we were SO excited to see/meet them yesterday.  We spent the afternoon chatting and getting them oriented to the house.  They have never been to our house.  In fact we have have never meant in personal until yesterday but have been email pen-pals (is that term still used?) for many years.  Kansas weather generated a big Welcome to Kansas in the form of thunderstorms and tornado warnings.  Fortunately, we only had strong winds and rain with dinner.  Oklahoma wasn't as luckly and our hearts are heavy for them.

My bags for the week

Tom still has many items to do to wrap up his business so we gathered up a duffle bag each, our backpacks, laptops, and various files and headed to our temporarily home around 9:30 pm last night.
The last load of  items for donation will be dropped off tomorrow.  Yep, no turning back now but then we wouldn't want to - it's time to get going towards s/v Honey Ryder.   

When?

When are you leaving?  What is your departure date?  When?  When?  When?  Ugh!!!!!  Everyone keeps asking when we are leaving KC.  Truth is...we don't have a specific date.  I know, I know....cruiser philosophy says you MUST set a date or you never leave.  But we do have a date that we have been working towards.  May 15th.  This is the day the people renting our house will show up.  We agreed that there would be some overlap as we got them set up and settled in but May 15th!!  Yes, that is today!  But life happens the way it happens and we needed a few extra days.  Luckily our new tenants were able to help us out and we really appreciate that.  So the new date is May 19th!  They will roll into KC May 19th.  We are very excited.  We are currently working on the hundreds of last minute details. Will we be piling in the car and hitting the road May 20th for s/v Honey Ryder?  Um...no.  Tom still needs to wrap up some business items so we will be crashing with friends for a short period of time but.... May 19th!!!!  It's a date and that is good enough for now.

Rear View Mirror -Sleep Vacation

*Current lack of sleep as we sprint towards moving aboard prompted me to dig out this draft I wrote last fall.
Oct 2012 Very early this morning on a flight from Atlanta to Jacksonville, I met a couple, similar in age that are headed to St John in the USVI for a week's vacation.  We exchanged a few pleasantries and then they both promptly fell asleep.  Did I mention it was really early?  Really, really early!  We landed and as we waited to deplane, I wished them a good vacation. She thanked me and then said "looking forward to just sleeping."  I acknowledged and we went our separate ways.  I headed north towards s/v Honey Ryder.  However, it got me thinking about vacations and life in 2012.  I think we all look forward to vacation time.  Some vacations are spent action packed whether it's four jam packed days at various theme parks in Orland (personally my idea of hell on earth, but that is just me) while others go skiing, kayaking, hiking, camping, etc.  Some vacations are very event specific like the Annapolis Sailboat Show or the boat shopping whirlwind trips we took 2 1/2 yrs ago....you get the idea.  Yet, I think we have all taking those vacations where we did very little other than sleep.  Sleep in late, at the pool, on the beach,  on the boat (cruise ship), afternoon naps, etc....  So is where we have gotten to as a society?  We now go on holiday to catch up on our sleep?  Are we over extending ourselves to that point?  Are we packing too much into a single day?  Do we really HAVE to or do we just feel like we have to?  And if so, what does that say about the quality of that busy, busy day?  Hum?  Yawn- well off to bed, even though I had a little boat nap late this afternoon.  *Did I mention that it was really really early this morning!

2272 Craziness

Atlantic temp is good

Tom and I looked around last weekend and decided we had too much stuff in our take to the boat pile for one carload.  It wouldn't all fit in the Murano when we take off soon, especially with the new solar panel.  We could rent a trailer to haul behind but for reasons I won't go into, the better solution for us was for me to make a delivery run down to the boat with a car full.  So I grabbed my ESS (Evil Sailing Sister) Kim and we did a Thelma and Louise style ESS roadtrip down and back this week -minus Brad Pit, Harvey Keitel and the cliff scene!  Kim arrived 5:50am Tuesday morning at our house.  We jumped in the fully packed Murano and hit the road.  18 hrs later we arrived in Brunswick GA.  Yes, 18 hrs.....actually 19 for Kim since she had a 1 hr drive to our house.  We both limped stiff legged, bug eyed, brain dead (from all the driving) aboard s/v Honey Ryder and fell into our bunks.  LATE the next morning we unloaded the car thus loading up s/v Honey Ryder.  Surprisingly the waterline didn't drop too bad.  A quick check-in with Dock Mistress Sherry and we were off so Kim could see some area sights. 

Given the freaky freakin May snow storm in KC last week, it was nice to be wearing shorts and sticking our toes in the Atlantic.  It was the perfect temp.  The monthly 6pm meet and greet back at the marina gave us a chance to chat with fellow cruisers - most of whom had just sailed in from spending the winter in the Bahamas.  We were asked "when did you arrive?"  Kim and I would reply 12:15 am Wednesday morning but a quick glance at our snow white skin vs their golden tans hinted correctly that we didn't sail in like they all did but instead drove in.  Dinner on the deck at Marshside Grill wrapped up our evening in Brunswick. 

On the back deck at Marshside Grill

We opted to break up the return trip up by staying over in Paducah KY.  It still made for a long, crazy week with 2272 miles round trip.  Oh yeah....we took a leg stretching break on the way back in Chattanooga TN - home of the MOON PIE!  Ooey, gooey marshmallow smashed between two processed cookies and covered in chocolate - the childhood memories came flooding back.  

Moon Pie - childhood field trip food

I am very grateful to ESS Kim for taking the time to go with me.  Tom had his own crazy week with 10,000 things converging on him at once.  I guess some craziness is to be expected when moving from one phase of life into another completely different phase.    

Room for Rent? Moving Aboard a 40 ft Sailboat

Walk into your bedroom and take a look around.  Not at the stuff in your room but the actual size of the room.  Bedrooms vary but the average American master bedroom is say 14 x14 or 196 sq feet.  Now imagine that room empty.  Let's start filling it up together but in a new, special way.  One half of the room will be filled with furniture permanently set in place - cabinetry if you will.  In, around, and on top of this cabinetry is filled with tools and parts.  Many, many tools and spare parts.  Food, water, equipment, gear and fuel take up the remaining area in this half of the room.  It's getting pretty full on this half.  Let's turn and focus on the other half of the room - the empty half.  First we need to divide that half into half again (1/4 of room in other words).  In this space we MUST put life saving equipment/tools that we hope to never use.  "WHAT" - you say -"take up vital space in my bedroom with stuff I may not use?"  Yes!  Much like the clothes you hope to lose weight and wear again, this equipment probably (hopefully) won't ever be used.  So now we are left with 1/4 of the room.  In this area, you are allowed to put whatever you like - clothes you wear, hygiene, books, music, hobbies, musically instruments, personal items.   But wait....you share your bedroom with someone so you really don't get 1/4 for your stuff.  You must share that 1/4 so you only get 1/8 of the room for your own personal area.  So how is it going in your 1/8 of the room?  Are you finding space for all your personal treasures?  Oh, I forgot to tell you.  Forget the rest of the house.  You are going to live only in your bedroom, no other rooms.  Your kitchen and bathroom also take up space in this one room as well.  How does it feel?  Essentially your newly filled bedroom is the equivalent of living in a cruising sailboat full time.  Welcome to our (soon to move aboard) new world.  Now you know why we have been purging all of our personal items like crazy trying to get down to the bare minimum.  Friends reading this.....we have more stuff to give you...er gifts, yeah....we have some gifts for you.   

Rear View Mirror -What Else Do Sailor's Do In The Winter?

Doors for access panels Tom plans to cut in both heads. 

January 2013.  They order sailing stuff - equipment, gear, raw materials.  And they plan projects.  Many, many, many projects.

Our companionway doors arrived this week!  We had a cheaper, less sturdy wooden pair of doors like this (from a totally different company than Zarcor) on our C30 and we LOVED them.  So much better than putting in hatch boards, taking out hatch boards, putting them back in, taking them back out.  We are very excited to have top, quality Zarcor doors for s/v Honey Ryder.

I am like a kid as Xmas every time the FedEx guy shows up at the front door with another part or spare.  I think I might be freaking him out with my enthusiasm.
*The snow last night reminded me of this Rear View Mirror posting so I thought I would pull it out and post it.  Yes, I said the SNOW last night.  That is not a typo or a rear view mirror comment.  It's May 3rd and we have snow on the ground!  It's absolutely crazy.  

What About Larry?

Picture by Maryanne Hogarth

Friends, family, neighbors keep asking us "what about Larry, is he going with you?"  That would be a big NO.

Larry is our one remaining cat.  Reba died a couple of years back at the age of 26!  Yes, our old cat lived 26 human years.  Larry was a walk up 10 years ago, adopting us.  He is a pretty kewl cat.  He doesn't act like your typical cat.  He acts more like a dog.  Friends that don't even really dig cats like Larry.  As his V-E-T  Dr G says "Larry is a really great guy!"

However he is a bit clumsy.  He doesn't have his front claws.  His previous owners did that (who are unknown to us- remember walk up).  He is also a bit of a sensitive boy.  He doesn't like loud noises and runs when someone rings the doorbell.  We are pretty sure he would NOT like living aboard a boat.

AND.....I think the worst smell on this planet is cat pee.  NOTHING smells worse.  So.....in response to the title question what about Larry, we reply Larry must find a new home.  We have been saying this for a several months now hoping someone would take him in.  Our first choice was the neighbor that takes care of him when we are gone (and his second family).  He spends a ton of time down in their yard, just hanging out.  However they have a family member that is allergic to cats.  Doesn't everyone?  Hum?  The next choice is another neighbor (and his third family) that feeds Larry breakfast every morning outside her door.  Yes, Larry has two breakfasts most mornings.  However she has a huge, active dog that barks he head off at Larry. KSU Brenda really wants Larry but she also has two very active dogs.  We didn't think he would do well with other dogs.

But never fear, friends have been rallying to help find Larry a new home.  One friend has secured a cat loving person to take him but she can't until August and we are leaving soon......eeek.  Now what?  Aunt Helen to the rescue.  The same friend has convinced her Aunt Helen to take Larry in until August.  Yay Aunt Helen!  We SO appreciate you giving Larry a temporary home.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!    

Rear View Mirror - Steps Each Day

July 2012- Last week was really tough for me work wise.  It was all self induced.  While having a "light at the end of the tunnel" has really helped.  It can at times have a negative affect.  Moving towards a simpler life makes the complexities and politics of corporate life frustrating and painful.  There is SO much extra noise....emails, alerts, newsletters, campaigns, reports, spreadsheets, blah blah blah.  And most of it is utter BS thought up by corp people so they can say they are making a difference.  The main priority of customers and sales is pushed to the back and forgotten.  In my opinion, K.I.S.S is still the best strategy for success.
Anyway....because of the tough week, I decided that I needed an attitude change immediately so it wouldn't affect my customers/work.  I decided to do something each day towards our cruising goal.  Even if was a little item.  It could be to start researching health insurance.  Or start re-read Jimmy Cornell's World Cruising Routes (certain parts) again.  Or unsubscribe to all the email alerts I get on a personal bases.  So I started doing that and it really helped my state of mind.  One of the first things I did was draft my corporate See Ya Later email. This is not my official resignation but the email that will go out to everyone saying good-bye.  That was a fun activity/task.
5-1-13 - I am posting this Rear View Mirror as a follow up to The Right Way that I posted the other day.  The above is just another thing we/I did along the way to get us to where we are now.