We have now been “retired” and full liveaboards on “Letitia” for a month. It has been busy but busy in a very relaxed manner. In fact we are so relaxed that we're still in our slip at Oak Harbor Marina in Slidell LA. We had originally planned to head East in early February. Instead, we are perfectly happy to hang out here for the next month - where the weather isn’t very wintery, Eight Dock is full of nice folks who also live aboard, and where we can continue to finish up projects that we didn’t know we’d have when we moved onboard! We have decided that since “we’re retired” and have no specific deadlines of any kind, we can pretty much configure our own schedule. What a lovely concept.
The kinds of things that have happened during the last month that we
didn’t exactly plan –
Total exhaustion for both Mary and Elliott -
except we didn’t even know we were that tired. We just knew we had a complicated
moving schedule to keep
Of course it didn’t occur to us that slowing down would be a good idea. So the decision was taken out of our hands….Mary managed to turn a normal cold into a whopping case of pneumonia and landed herself in the hospital for 3 days. Now that slowed us down…as did the next 10 days of recovery time. And neither of us regret the enforced, and most welcome, change in pace. It was a rather dramatic move but we are now so pleasantly adjusting to doing what the day calls for, enjoying the sunshine when we have it, enjoying our lovely small home at any time of day, that we wouldn’t change anything.
Things that break – let’s see now, can I actually remember how
many things have not worked quite the way we’d counted on? The day
I decided, finally, that I was really sick and needed to do something about
it, our toilet system (otherwise known as the head and holding tank) decided
to quit altogether. So EB had to deal with me who was sort of comatose
and get the local marina head repair person scheduled …and since then,
the gauge that measures how much the holding tank is “holding” has quit.
So we’ve been exploring how to get that most important gizmo working again.
EB has the technology conquered now, ordered the parts we need and we have
managed to, between the two of us, learn how to physically work in a spot
that is basically unreachable! 
The
cabinet door that leads to what needs to be repaired is all of 10” wide
and maybe 18” long…plus the cabinet is right next to an unmoveable toilet
! Lots of fun to lean over the toilet, shove one shoulder only into
the space, juggle a screw driver or wrench plus keep some kind of flashlight
focused on one small spot.
Let’s see what came next? Oh yes, after successfully handling 5-6 loads of laundry my onboard washing machine decided that it would be fun to drain right onto the hallway floor & carpet. That was sort of a squishy mess…took lots of towels and a couple of days for the carpet to dry out. Luckily our marina has a Laundromat handy, so we do still have clean underwear. We have now done about a week’s worth of internet research and local appliance store shopping…finding stackables small enough for a boat is not quite as easy as going to Sears and ordering a washer and dryer for a house. BUT as of this afternoon, we have ordered a replacement set of machines and will look forward to getting reliable machines on board in about 2 ½ weeks. Of course, we haven’t yet mentioned that we have to take down a portion of a wall in the bedroom, finesse the machines not only out of their spaces but deal with the fact that the furniture in the bedroom and the closet in the hall are fixed obstacles… but our contention is that the machines got into their spot somehow, and so they are going to get out and replaced somehow!!
Somewhere in here we’ve gotten our tax materials organized and sent off to our CPA, organized our office area so we can actually keep track of our banking and bill paying, found storage spots that mostly make sense for all the things that we “couldn’t live without” when we moved aboard, finished a project I began in November (bringing our credit reports with all three credit bureaus to current status). We’ve found a church that we are really enjoying on Sundays – and will sing with their choir for the few Sundays we are here in the Slidell area. We’re developing some wonderful habits…like having coffee and a sweet roll at Starbucks on Sunday morning, plus picking up a Sunday NY Times for interesting reading throughout the week…and as of today, we’ve found a newsstand that carries the Wall St.Journal,so we can have our WSJ fix whenever we need it. Having time every morning to read whatever interests us while drinking coffee on the sundeck, admiring the early morning mist. Once spring gets here, mornings will be even more enjoyable.
We’ve not been very good communicators with family and friends during
the last month but we will get better now that we’ve finally found the
internet access solution that fits our lifestyle. That was one of those
“projects” that took a long time to conquer but now that we’ve found the
vendor (Verizon) and the plan (unlimited data access), we couldn’t be happier.
Not having as much internet time as we wanted was a real cloud hanging
over us….now solved.
So, the
month of February, though dependent upon weather, should hold several day
trips to places in and around Lake Pontchartrain where we can enjoy the
destination plus get in some needed boat practice. Plus ample opportunities
to share stories and questions with fellow cruisers who live here at the
marina, lots of Mardi Gras doings both locally in Slidell and of course,
in New Orleans. And a Valentine’s Day dinner dance at our church…don’t
know anyone there yet but I’m sure we will find some nice people.
So that’s what we’ve been up to…and what we think we will be up to….and
the bottom line is that we love our house on the water, the flow of our
lives as retired folks and are looking forward to whatever this month,
and the following months, bring us.
Take care and keep in touch,
Mary and Elliott
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