August 26, 2006

Summer vacation is over. It's back-to-school time, and it's my job to write "What I did on my summer vacation." I sit staring at a blank computer screen but can't think of words to fill the page. The dog days of summer have eaten into my brain!

At least I have a few photos. As you can see, in June Tom was easily re-domesticated, which is good because I got to eat tasty ribs cooked on the grill. I'd say the animals were happy too, all three of them. 

By the second week of August the Carlsons (folks we house-sat for) were back from their RV trip out west so we moved back on board Pura Vida. It felt good to be 'home' again. For location, we couldn't ask for a better place to stay than the Atlantic Yacht Basin. We only have to walk down Battlefield Boulevard to get to a huge supermarket, our bank, drugstores, hardware store, restaurants, propane refill site, the YMCA, important things like a Dairy Queen, Wendy's and all the pizza chains, as well as a chiropractor and doctor. Oh, yes, I was in need of their services during my month-long bout with a miserable attack of sciatica. That slowed me to a halt but I'm over it, at least for now. And Tom can once again keep a sharp eye on things, now that he's had his second cataract surgery. We were finally stopped in one place long enough to get it done! 

One of the best things about traveling by boat, or any other way, is the rare and entertaining people you meet along the way. This place is no exception. The Phyllis May is a 60-foot-long by 6 1/2-foot-wide vessel that was shipped from England to Norfolk by Terry and Monica Darlington, who are planning a trip down the ICW and through the Okeechobee Waterway to Fort Myers in the fall. The boat was made six-and-a-half feet wide in order to fit through the seven-foot-wide canals of England. Terry has written a brilliantly funny account of their 'bit of an adventure' in the canals and crossing the English Channel to France along with their whippet, Jim, in a  book called Narrow Dog To Carcassone (www.narrowdog.com).

We still have no plans for September. If a hurricane happens to find its way to Virginia, we'll feel relatively safe here in the yacht basin, away from the Atlantic and surrounded by tall trees. So, unless another house-sit or something else appealing comes along, we'll most likely stay put until the first of October. We've become lazy as slugs. 

(click on pictures to enlarge)