Stages

This summer has been a blur. We are heading out for a major cruise in September, venturing to places unfamiliar, and the list I have of things that must get done is not shrinking as quickly as the number of days we have left. I'm going through the stages at this point. Denial, "I have plenty of time. Another beer please."  Darts, "I'll work on this, no maybe that. It's too hot for that now, how about this." Distraction, "I'll read The Retirement Project, they always have tougher projects than I do."  Despair, "I'll never get any of this f-ing done in time. I suck."  Deliverance, "OK, I completed what was necessary, The rest of it can wait, untie the bow, and hop on please."

I'm somewhere between Darts and Despair.  I desperately wanted to knock something off the list, but we had family over on Saturday, so Friday evening I decided to relocate some electrical gear to make room for a much needed holding tank. It had to be a hundred degrees in that engine room, and I spent all evening in there. I had to get it done, or we couldn't start the engine, and the family would be sitting on the boat in the dock, melting and cursing me. I managed to get that task completed, and then Deb and I scrubbed the boat early in the morning. Hot and humid was on the menu, and our personal communications were on the fritz, so I hosed down the galley through the ports that Deb had opened up, thinking I was done with that section. Oops. A little extra work for Deb in the 94 degree day with 80% humidity. We were absolutely shot after that, but we were going sailing, and sailing we did!
Winds out of the south were supposed to be light, but turned into a 10-20 knot oven blast. The south shore of Ontario was flat as a pancake, and we were able to reach East, drift around in the lee of the bluffs and go swimming, then reach back to the Bay for dinner. Good food, drinks and fun in the Sun really beat the heat. Good times.
I even forgot about the list for a while, but then Sunday evening came, and I was so restless, that Deb and I didn't talk too much this morning. The wind was blowing, and something was knocking just enough to aggravate me, but not enough to make me get up to silence it. I kept going over the friggin list all night, and imagining horror for not getting things done. I think this all started with the corroded fitting. Not really over that yet.

So, as I revise the project list to just include things that make us and our boat safer, and save the pretty stuff for last, maybe I'll start feeling good about myself, and move into the Deliverance stage.

Queue the banjos.