Goodbye Slackerville

It's been over three months. When I retired I said I would take three months off and detox, relax, and basically do nothing much but maybe putter around the boat, the beach, the bars. I went light on the bars. No really, I did. All my friends and coworkers suggested I, "Take some time. Relax.".  So here I am, totally relaxed and living on a boat in a marina in Florida. No job, no stress, no shoes, no shirt, no problem, right? Ha! Of course there's a problem. This whole slacker thing is addicting! I can't snap out of it. I'm wasting away again in Slackerville, looking for my lost ambition.

Sitting around doing next to nothing in the Sun sucks the energy right out of you. It feels really good, but the longer you slack off, the harder it is to get away from it. Kind of like the crispy sun bathers down here. It feels so good, they can't stop. Slacking tends to get you into a relaxed state of mind, where your most stressful day is when it's raining and you can't get to the beach.  If I could repeat this whole process I am not sure I would take the three to four months off. I kind of feel like a slug. My brain fills up with all kinds of weird stuff if I allow it to be task free. You can see the evidence in my blog posts. If anyone needs to put me away, they just have to hand over the blog. I'm sure Deb has already made copies.

My work life was hectic and fast paced, with quick thinking and piled on stress, and then suddenly all that stopped, and I'm  left with sunshine and whole days of doing whatever the hell I want. Guess what the result of that is? A dirty incomplete boat sitting in the heat of Florida. I got into a routine of reading blogs, news, morning tea in the cockpit, watching neighbors do stupid stuff, biking, beach, more reading, and the occasional attempt at boat improvement. Pretty lazy. I had chores of course. Meals, cleanup, laundry and such were all daily events, so it's not like I just sat in the cockpit falling asleep, but it's not enough to sustain me, or to make me look productive in the eye's of the admiral. I was missing a purpose, a goal. I need tasks with a deadline. Is this wrong? Should I be feeling like this when I'm retired? Shouldn't I just wake up and think I'll work a little on this, then a little on that, then hit the beach? This might work for some people, but it ain't happening for me. Believe it or not, I do better with a list, and I hate lists. More so, I hate just sitting around. It gets to me after a while. I think relaxing feels better after accomplishing something. Kind of like getting a beer after a long day working on the engine, or freezer. You deserve it. In a way though I do deserve to relax after working like a dog all these years, so maybe I'm still in recovery mode. Anyone care to do an analysis?

Health wise, this life has been good. I have to admit I am stress free to an extent. Not sure I even need the BP meds anymore. I am getting much more exercise than I used to, and I stopped coughing up any carbon dust from the plant. I even noticed I have whites in my eyes. Most of the time they were red and burning from the poor environment, except on Friday mornings. Thirsty Thursday you know. So you would think feeling so healthy would generate some energy to dive into a major project, but I just couldn't get myself up off my ass to do it. I was getting a little worried that I was becoming a bum. No job, no purpose. Just lay around unshaven, in a ratty old t-shirt on a boat losing it's shine to the southern sun. Wait, isn't that cruising?

One day recently I took my cup of tea and walked the docks. This must be a northern thing, as people here were looking at me kind of funny, and I never see anyone being nosy strolling. I walked up and down, stopping to look at each sailboat. Some were covered in green mold, others were faded beyond any 3M products capabilities. Some looked abandoned, but there were a few that still looked good. The boats that did look like they were taken care of were actually transients, docked here temporarily.  Hmm. How do we look in comparison? Uh Oh.

In the past, I used to get jabbed by my fellow dock mates for trying to scrub the gelcoat off my deck. I was always giving our boat a nice wash down. This happened once a week, minimum. It's been several weeks, or maybe a month now since I gave our girl a bath, and the deck needs a serious wax job. Living in a salty environment takes it's toll, and I have been lazy with keeping her shiny. When you are surrounded by boats of decay, it's easy to look at yours and think she ain't too bad. The other day I decided to cleanup the bow pulpit stainless, removing the rust stains. I used some barkeepers friend, and some 3M polish. I wanted a job in the sunshine, and this was perfect. When Deb got home I prodded her to marvel at the shine. She was mildly impressed, but I could see the difference. She cleaned up nice! This one task changed my whole attitude. I looked at the nice shine and was thinking I can't wait to hit the rest of the stainless. After that I cleaned out the aft locker, getting it ready for a fresh coat of paint. The freezer floor is in better shape. More on that later. Looks like I'll have the freezer completed in  a couple weeks.

Amazing isn't it? All it took was a tea, and a walk down the docks to get me out of downtown Slackerville. I really needed to snap out of it, as we need to get Kelly Nicole ready for some serious cruising, which brings me to the other thing that got me moving, a deadline. Yes we have a deadline. We want to get away from it all early next year, and follow all you slackers to the Bahamas. I'm still going to polish all the stainless regularly just to make y'all feel guilty :)

I even cleaned out the V-berth! Nice touch with the bear, eh!

Manatees were attracted to the shiny stainless. "Nice job. Got lettuce!"

Slackerville is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.

Cheers!
P