Life is sweaty good

Life is good. Good and sweaty. I seem to go through several T-shirts per day now. What's with the chest sweats? I never had sweat in that area unless I was covered in hockey equipment. What do I have to do, use antiperspirant on my chest? Oy. I started going shirtless, sporting my farmers tan. I'm pretty scary white within the T-shirt boundary, and the brightness commands attention to the fact that the gym has not produced anything worthy of full daylight exposure, but it's better than accumulating several t-shirts for the laundry basket every day.  Of course the first day I went shirtless I got sun burned like a Wisconsin red head.

There was some activity in the Atlantic of the counter clockwise variety. We, like everyone else on a boat in this area, has to keep an eye on these things. The escape option is to head inland, up river. We really have to be ready to move quickly, and I believe we are. Our location right now is not primo should some rotational nasty decide it wants to visit Jax.

I'm adjusting to Florida. People are weird, but hell aren't we all to some extent? I'm starting to find them entertaining, instead of creepy. Our marina is not the friendliest spot I've ever been in. People say hello, and are polite, but that's as far as it goes. At one point I thought this was an FBI witness protection dock. Everybody keeps conversation short and information to a minimum. This is quite a bit different from what we are used to. There were some encounters with homeless seeking shelter on some boats at the other side of the marina, but the cops dispatched them rather quickly. Sad to see so many homeless folks around town. It would be even more depressing to find them camped out in your boat overnight.

My projects are starting to get rolling. Finally! Our hatch screens are done, and the forgotten freezer should be wrapped up shortly after that. Our fridge kept having problems starting after the battery bank got down about 50 Ah. This was really weird, but I found the fuse holder for the fridge to be bad. I replaced it and the problem went away. I would like to mention that we were away from the boat for four days, and the solar kept up with the fridge without a problem even in this heat and some partly cloudy and rainy days. When we got back we were down only 5Ah. Cool! We have a 500Ah bank, and we never leave the Alternating Current on when we are gone, so no charging off the dock power. I'm thinking the bank can handle the addition of the freezer, so it looks like Popsicles for Pauly!

Not much happening on the engineering re-entry. I have had a few interviews, one in person and the others on the phone. There is a headhunter working for me, but the more I talk about engineering in these interviews, the more that knot forms in my stomach. It might be time to find something else to do until we say adios to Jax. Some money to pay for my trips to WM and harbor freight would be nice, and also some extra cash for the new T-shirts and antiperspirant would be cool too. Oh, and Guinness is pretty pricey these days.

So, that's all I have to say for now. When the freezer is done I will do a little write up on it and show you where I screwed up a few times. I also have a holding tank to plumb up, as we added a 30 gallon tank in place of the little bag of crap that resides under my pillow. Yes, the rubber bladder tank is located in a locker under the mattress in the aft cabin. We refuse to use it, as I could not sleep knowing someone's waste is sloshing around under my head. The 30 gallon tank will not be under my pillow. It's located near the engine, so it can heat up and get really really stinky. Hmm, methane, heat...

I'm not one for words these days. Not sure why. Maybe it's the sweat on the keyboard. I'll fill the void with photos and video instead.

This one surprised me near our slip. Silly fat cow.

Every morning this bird tries to give me a heart attack.

Manatees are regular visitors here, and the funny thing is I'm really the only one who sees them on a regular basis. Deb keeps missing them. She left for work one morning, and they popped up right next to the boat as she got in her car. Funny. My daughter loves Manatees, but keeps missing them too. They floated over the day after she flew home. The only other creatures besides Deb's mystery Gator are crabs. They seem to be everywhere. They scurry all over the docks when they are wet. The flying cockroaches kind of creep me out, which is why I placed priority on the hatch screens. My friends in Michigan recommended I wear pantyhose on my head to keep the spiders out of my ears. Funny, but we don't have the spider issues down here like we did in Sodus Bay, I reminded them. They suggested baby cockroaches as an alternative fear. These are my "friends".  They love to stoke the fear factor, especially with spiders as I had an extreme spider encounter many years ago. I went to bed, turned on a light to read, and apparently the spider hiding in the lamp did not like the heat and crawled out onto my shoulder and then into my ear. I'm not joking. I HATE spiders! I freaked out, whacking myself on the side of the head, jumping around trying to get the spider out, when it fell on the bed, and started running towards me. This was a black hairy thing, intent on getting back into my ear to eat my brain. I smashed the hell out of it until it was an unrecognizable spot. Deb was out of control with laughter, and I think she even laughed in her sleep while I laid there with eyes wide open, stealing glances at the reading light. Pantyhose may not be a bad idea, as long as I remember to take them off my head before I exit the boat.

Moving on...

Weather moves in quickly down here.

We noticed that sunsets are rather quick down here. You really do not have twilight in Florida. It's like a switch is thrown, and it's dark. Up north we would have a semi-darkness for hours after sunset. It was always the time for mischief when I was a kid, and sometimes as an adult. Mid-Summer it would be almost ten O'clock before it got really dark. I kind of miss that.

Bark in the Park, Savannah Baseball with the kids and Mo.

Life is still a beach :)

Having a great time down here.
Cheers!
P