33

I have been reading quite a bit lately online and in the news about people trying to live minimally, downsizing substantially, and/or simplify their lives in terms of material possessions.  Living the bulk of our time on a small sailboat, I can completely understand.  Tom and I are currently in the process of tweaking our wardrobes a bit after completing our first year of living aboard.  We are getting rid of items that don't work and replacing those with more lightweight, efficient, easy clothing.   Fellow blogger and liveaboard sailing sister Jaye wrote about a new challenge she recently took up along these lines.  Jaye was challenged to get by with just 33 piece of clothing in a 3 month time frame.  Now you fellow sailing sisters out there living aboard might think this sounds easy, but is it really?  Please check out Jaye's posting about this on her blog Life Afloat to see how she fared and then check out Project 333.  Could you do it?  Could you live with just 33 pieces of clothing?  Guys could you do it? It's not as easy as it sounds.  I created a quick list of the clothing items I have aboard and sadly I am over the 33 but this now gives me something to strive for in terms of keeping it "simple."        

Making Your Vote Count From Afar

August 8th, 2014
I am posting this in case other cruisers or soon to be cruisers want to be sure they can still vote while out cruising.  And I KNOW you all do!

August election primaries just wrapped up here in Kansas.  I contacted the local election office today to inquire about early and or email/snail mail voting for the main event in November. My personal voting policy is that I am not allowed to complain or bitch unless I voted in the local/state/federal election.  I had to leave a voice message with my inquiry.

A very nice man from the election office called me back the same day.  I explained that we would not be in the USA for the November election, nor would we be here when early voting starts in October.  He said he needed to ask me some very specific questions to determine what could be done to assist me.  O-Kay.  My mind was racing.  I was trying to figure out what he would ask so I could answer correctly accordingly but I couldn't even begin to guess.

"Are you going on vacation during that time?"  No.  "Are you in the military?"  No.  "Is a member of your family in the military?"  No.  "Will you be working overseas?"  No.  "Are you on a mission trip?"  No.  "Okay, so it's a vacation?"  No.  I was really hesitant to say "I live on a boat and cruise - it's a life style and NOT a vacation!"  Most people just can't process that.  I find the best way to phrase it is to say "We will be traveling abroad for an extended period of time."  I generally use that when talking to various utility/cell/service companies and such.  However that really didn't work in this case.   He said again "Ok, so you will be on vacation."  Sigh - No.

He said the best he could do was snail mail out our mail-in ballots 20 days in advance of the November election for us to fill out and return.  We have learned that mail from the Caribbean back to the USA can take forever!  Postcards mailed the week of February 14th, 2014 arrived in April 2014 -seriously!!!!  I don't have a clue how long it would take for snail mail to reach us in the first place but it didn't seem like we would get the ballots in time to vote and return them for counting with only a 20 day turnaround time frame.  I tried to remain calm.  I said "Well this just won't do.  While we live abroad for the bulk of the year, we are still residents of Kansas.  We have property here and a business.  I must vote."

He asked me something else and I stressed again that while I am not working overseas, I am in fact living overseas, NOT vacationing and won't be returning until 2015 at the earliest and therefore should be allowed to vote via email!  He explained that it is was a very thin line separating those overseas that can vote via email and those that can't.  He seemed satisfied and said he would email me an application. We will each need to fill one out and then return it.  I am assuming those will get approved and then we will get our actual ballots via email.  I know, I know.....assume =ass of me and u!  But hope springs eternal.  I will keep you posted.

August 15th, 2014 UPDATE
He did email me the application the very same day we spoke on the phone.  I decided to use a link in that email to pull up the handy online fillable form at FVAP.  Once completed, printed and signed, I opted to walk them into our local election office just to be sure all the i's were dotted and t's crossed.  The nice guy that I talked to on the phone came out and checked it over.  He said everything looked fine and made special noted that we wanted our ballots via email and confirmed that the email addresses were in the correct format and box.  He said we would get our ballots via email approximately 45 days prior to the November election date.  Whew!

Again, I post this only so others can learn.  If you are planning on cruising outside the USA, don't wait too long to start this process so your vote can be counted.  It's important!  By the way.....what is your personal voting policy?  Do you have one?

Reader Challenge - I challenge you to compare voter turnout here in the USA to various a Caribbean island like Antigua.  Go online and look up your local county or state or federal voter turn out and then compare here at Antigua Politics and Elections.    Voter turnout for the August 2014 primary in our part of Kansas was 18.11%.  Shameful!

Hurricane Season Break

We are still on a short "break" from our cruising life.  I had hoped to do some blog posts on what we have learned and discovered over the past year of living aboard.  However, as you can see from the lack of activity on this blog, I just haven't gotten to those postings just yet.  Life on land is SO busy/hectic.  Shheesh!  I will try to get those written and posted in the next few weeks so stay tuned.

Strange New Land

We have arrived at another new destination.  As this last year has taught us, each new landfall provides us the opportunity for unique adventures and interaction with the locals.  Taking in all the "strangeness" of the new landfall if you will.  Actually this land is not new to us.  We have made landfall here before.  Even still, the "strangeness" of this land has become more apparent to us upon this latest visit.

Where are we?  What far off land have we landed on?  None other than the USA.  Yep, that is right.  We are back stateside to attend to some business and visit family/friends during hurricane season.  And while we have been here before, we have never been here from this perspective.  It is truly an odd sensation.  It feels like a foreign land in many respects.  The pace is very fast.  The language, while English American, is somewhat un-recognizable to us "Did you see the funny new whatever commercial/episode/movie?"  "Do you have a Fitbit yet?"  "Do you think whatever college/pro team has a shot this year?"  ???????

As the weeks progress, it is becoming obvious that we strangers here.  We just don't fit in.  Oh we could if we really had to or wanted to, but at this point, we don't want to.  It's sort of a been there, done that, have the t-shirt to show for it AND battle scars (of stress and modern American life). *Man, did we literally have the t-shirts too - when we left I gave away no less than 150 + t-shirts so trust me when I say we had the t-shirt!  How two people can accumulate that many t-shirts is astounding to me!

But I digress.  I don't mean "been there, done that" in a bad way.  We have just moved into another phase of life at this point.  Since we are only here temporarily, we are ok playing the visitor roll.    Like all of our other adventures, we are taking it all in - the good, bad and strangeness.