We're Home!

It feels good.

Having Visited the Boat, We're Starting to Get Excited about Heading Back for the Summer

Several weeks ago, we took a quick trip to Deltaville to arrange for some work to be done on Second Fantasy. She's still on the hard, but we were able to board her and feel happy being aboard.

Tom took the motor off of our soft-sided dinghy; we brought it home to see how it will work on the hard-sided one that came with the boat.  

And now the time draws nigh to return to her for the summer; we hope to head that way later this month.

MGTF

Tom's first car was a 1949 MGTC, a memory become rose-colored, as old memories do, in his mind and heart. I have heard tales of him working on the old thing in his parents' driveway in Tulsa, driving his mother crazy. His brother Richard fondly remembers the excitement of riding in his big brother's cool car; Tom remembers those episodes fondly, too, though for him the positive feelings were due to the fact that the car was actually running rather than from any filial sentiments. 

 Tom also remembers, shall we say, at least one romantic conquest in that car. Hmmm . . . hard to imagine from this perspective.

This one is a '54, but very similar to the '49, as post-war British auto manufacturers were slow to improve. But how could one improve on a cutie like this?

Friends greeted us from our front porch as we drove up, having picked the car up from the Home Depot parking lot just a few blocks from us. Note the giant transport truck that brought it from California -- it would have had trouble on our narrow little streets.

Ooh, cool!

It was St. Patrick's Day -- thus the green (except for Tommy, the rebel). Tom had boiled crawfish rather than cabbage, which we enjoyed on the porch along with the Pot 'o Gold mixed drinks that I concocted. Great evening: British car, cajun food, Irish drinks, American friends.

March Post

Okay, surely I can handle a monthly post, right?

Some photos that I've recently taken prompt me to get back to this undertaking, which gives me some insight into my loss of interest in blogging: Apparently it's a desire to display my photos rather than a desire to write that prompts me to continue my blog. And since I've only just gotten back into picture-taking, I've only just gotten back into blogging.

Tom and I occasionally watch  an episode of a set of Great Courses photo-taking DVD's that he got me for Christmas, and that has re-inspired me to play with my camera. I needed a refresher on the basics, such as the relationship between aperture and ISO and shutter speed, and I'm getting it. It's too easy to take good photos with a digital camera, and I've gotten lazy with it. I've always had a good eye, and an observant awareness of light, and of composition, important qualities when one wants to take a good picture, but I can do better than that. Time to step up again!

Two recent occasions prompted me to do that.

Last week we ventured into Houston and the Museum of Fine Arts to see the exhibit "Sculpted in Steel," a departure for the museum in its display of cars and motorcycles. But appropriate it was, as these beauties were works of art, fully as stylish as they were functional. Tom loved it.

These photos were taken with my IPhone.

and he appreciated in ways that I couldn't.

The same evening we attended a Loreena McKennitt concert at the University of Houston Cullen Hall and then spent the night at the Hilton there on campus. It was a good afternoon and night, and an early celebration of Tom's birthday. 

Then on Saturday we visited, along with friends, Railean's Distillery in lovely San Leon, a place we didn't even know existed. Luckily, we have friends who are more with-it than are we, and who include us despite our lack of hipness.

 Kelly Jean Raelean, owner, proprietor, distiller, tour guide, and distributor of samples. Those samples led us to buy two bottles (the limit), one of vodka and one of coconut rum.

 I really like this shot -- note the female bartender, still and central in the midst of the excitement.

And, of course, we ended up at Gilhooley's,

where we were served by Boom-Boom, aka Chester, our great waitress:

Okay, still not very interested in blogging -- wonder if that will change when we get back into cruising mode this summer. We are living our lives as millions do, with no big desire to record every moment, or any moment, for that matter. I can't explain the change.

We have just returned this evening from a lovely visit with Paul and Lauren, Lakewood Yacht Club members and the original owners of our boat. Have you wondered how our boat, Second Fantasy, got its name? Dozens have; we have tired of the question, "What was your first fantasy?," shouted out as we eased by. They told us tonight: their first boat, a sailboat, they named "First Fantasy." The DF 44 they named "Second Fantasy," and their plan was to name their final boat "Ultimate Fantasy." Good plan, but one that hasn't panned out as of yet; their current boat is named "Small World." The explanation for that name is long and fascinating, but is one I won't tell right now.

Some photos from some of our winter activities:

 Christmas scene

 Rainy Day

 Our may, his wife, and granddaughter at Mancakes, the Clear Lake Shores' Civic Club annual pancakes breakfast manned by the men of the community.

 It's been a very windy winter.

Kay, Tom, Debbie, and Bobby awaiting the arrival of the Carty Gras Parade, when neighbors parade their Mardi-Gras festooned golf carts. Fun day.

What's Going on, Doris; Where Have You Been?

I can't really explain my absence, but I think it has to do with these factors:

1. Once we got back to our home in Texas, I was on tenterhooks, waiting for our little Teddy to be born. Turned out he was late by about a week, while I expected him to come a week early,* so my wait was pretty long. But during that time, though we entertained a couple of times and were entertained alike, though we kept a couple of medical appointments, and though we had plenty of settling in to do, for me, all activities were done with half my mind and heart, the other half being in Mountain View, waiting with Elizabeth and Nathan. 
2. I had somewhat foolishly agreed to chair the annual Clear Lake Shores turkey dinner, held the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and that endeavor took enormous amounts of time, almost like a full-time job for a while. So my leisurely-writing time was limited.
3. And this is the big one: I just wasn't interested in blogging. Living my life seemed enough. Oddly, I also spent less time photographing, being less interested in that endeavor, as well. I refuse, by the way, to feel guilty or concerned about that fact; it just is. My interest, however, is returning. In fact, Tom bought me, for Christmas, the Great Courses set of DVD's on photography, and we plan to start watching them soon, together. I plan to get out my previous camera, a Panasonic, for Tom to use as I use my Sony and we learn together. It is a sad fact that I used to know more about photography decades ago, when I had a manual camera. F-stops, ISO, the whole shebang: I understood it all. Not so much now. But, just as a familiar phrase in French returns unexpectedly from a wrinkle created during my high-school class or just as the lyrics to a song forgotten since 1962 pop up from an even older wrinkle, perhaps my long-ago-learned knowledge will reveal itself as I study. And by the way, Tom, mostly pre-me, enjoyed taking photographs, mostly black and white (just as I did), but pretty quickly turned that activity over to me. Maybe he'll get back into it. 

And so I return, though I can't tell you how frequent my posts will be. Enough for now. 

*I was indulging in what Joan Didion, in her book about the year after her husband and daughter died, called "magical thinking." I didn't want Teddy to come before our appointments, but, once they were done, I was ready, and so thought he would be, too. Why wouldn't he want to indulge his "Dodi"?

Have We Been Missed?

I am posting this on both my land and boating blog, the last post on land and the first on cruising for a while, probably four months. So welcome back to "cruising on second fantasy"! It is certainly good to be back.

We were happy, as we drove up to Tiffany Yachts, to see that our boat was back in the water; the last time Tom had spoken to owner Randy, they were still working on the stabilizer and she was on the hard. But by Friday at 11:00 a.m., when we arrived, she was happily afloat. Dirtily, too, I might add, but what can you expect when workers have been in, out, and around her for months? And what workers they are -- the entire crew is hardworking, competent, cheerful, and accommodating. It's a family affair; so far we have met three of Randy's family members on the staff, and I discovered today that "Tiffany" was the original owner, Randy's dad's, name. Sounds like there's a story there, but I haven't heard it yet. We should be here a bit longer, so I'm sure I will. I already feel like these folks are family -- I hope I don't end up having to work here like the rest of the family, rather than cruising off as we'd planned!

 Taken from the bow on a beautiful evening.


We took our time, and a different route, getting here. Stopped in Sherwood, Arkansas, just north of Little Rock, to see Doris R., with whom I worked at Laying the Foundation and whom I haven't seen since before we began cruising. She seems to be happy and relaxed in her retirement, which is just as it should be.

We also stopped for the night in Winchester, Kentucky, to see the Elliott cousins, the three children of my dad's oldest sister. I wanted particularly to pay my respects to Harold, just recently widowed when Betty Jo, to whom he'd been married for nearly sixty years, died recently. It was wonderful visiting with them, salt-of-the-earth people and reminders of many of my happy childhood memories. I can see why my mom fell in love with the whole clan when she entered my father's life.

We are busy getting settled and organized (and cleaned up) and doing the electrical and other tasks we need to do. Tom's dexterity is not what it used to be, and he now calls on me and hires shipyard workers more, but he carries on. And we are both happy to be aboard, sleeping the gentle sleep that the boat induces and living the simple life that it enforces.

With great delight, we did take a break from the shipyard to go to KC's Crabs and Cues down the road to see friends from Chesapeake Boat Basin and to watch the Rockets cream the Clippers and thus move on the semifinals of the NBA Playoffs! I've just been reading online predictions that the Warriors would beat the Rockets in five, but what do they know of Clutch City? Let's take 'em on.

 Playing with different effects. No, the sky is not golden here, but we are in a little jewel of a spot.

Very cool bird, one of many interesting species around the shipyard. And there are two osprey nests in viewing distance. Nice.