02-Jan-2011 our life. daily.
Ouest is a pretty darn good walker. We didn’t have a whole lot of that crazy, wobbling-walker, baby syndrome. Not to say that she doesn’t fall down quite a bit, but she does seem to have good reflexes and manages to avoid most of the damage that appears inevitable. Not tonight. Tonight she tripped and knocked her head on a wooden horse in a way that seemed rather innocuous at first. Not thirty seconds later though she had this big knot on her forehead complete with purple bruise.

03-Jan-2011 bumfuzzle.
A few of the things we bought for the boat while here in Oregon. A remote panel for the inverter; essentially just a simple on/off switch since the inverter is located in the engine compartment. A battery monitor similar to the one we had on our last boat. We found this to be one of the best things we bought for that boat.

We bought a handheld VHF. Ali and I tend not to use the VHF much and never really monitor it, so a handheld is really about all we need. The boat does have an old VHF onboard with an antenna up the mast. It may or may not work. Don’t really know at this point. If it does, great. If not, we’re good with just the handheld.

I was just going to use one of those little plug in puck style GPS units for the computer, but then I saw this Garmin on sale for half price and decided to grab it. It’s the same unit as our previous one (except this one has color) that lasted every mile around the world last time around. I was happy with that, and hope this one will be equally as reliable.

And the big purchase of the day was the TackTick wireless depth/speed/wind instruments. I’m not a hundred percent sold on the reliability of these units, but decided to give them a shot anyway. They are about twenty percent more expensive than comparable wired units which in my mind is more than made up for in not having to run wiring from the top of the mast all through the boat to the cockpit. I would have skipped the speed part of the unit, but it came with the package and was actually cheaper to include. But with GPS these days it really seems redundant. I guess I could mount the GPS inside the boat instead of doubling it up outside. We’ll see.

Still a few more big purchases to make before returning to the boat. Namely an outboard and an autopilot. Still hemming and hawing over a few points on these things.

03-Jan-2011 12:09 PM
We’d expected to be back on the boat for the New Year but have made the decision to get Ouest one more treatment on her nose before heading back south. So in a couple of days we’re headed back to Minnesota for a short visit before we can get back to the warm weather. Relatively speaking of course. It’s about fifty degrees at the boat today while we struggle to reach thirty here in Portland.

03-Jan-2011 our life. daily.
I never realized it could get so cold in Portland. The only drawback Ouest sees to this is the length of time it takes to get her outfitted for an outdoor expedition. By the time we get her dressed it’s time for a nap. For all of us.

04-Jan-2011 12:05 PM
Ouest is a dancin’ queen. The second she hears a beat from anywhere she starts to bop up and down, twist at the waist, and clap her hands. Doesn’t matter if the music is from the stereo, a car driving by, or over the loudspeaker at the store, she grooves to it.

04-Jan-2011 12:08 PM
I’m thirty-seven years old today. At any point before, say, four years ago, I would have considered thirty-seven to be an old man. And honestly I still kind of do consider it to be. Like all holidays, Ali and I don’t do much besides acknowledge the day, but for me they are always a good day to look back and reflect at the life I’ve lived, where I’m at, and where I’m going. And today, at thirty-seven, I really couldn’t imagine being any happier with my life. I’m one of those people who can honestly say that if this were my last day on earth I’d die a happy man. And who knows, at thirty-seven, that could be any day now. Now, where’s the aspirin, my back is killing me.

Best birthday ever.

05-Jan-2011 our life. daily.
Grammy and Ouest on their last day together this visit. Well, for six whole days anyway. One of the good things that has come out of Ouest’s hemangioma issue this past year is that we’ve gotten to spend a lot more time with our families than we otherwise would have. Of course that doesn’t mean we’re not making a run for Mexico just as soon as we possibly can. Do you have any idea how cold it is here right now?

06-Jan-2011 our life. daily.

07-Jan-2011 9:13 AM
This morning Ali’s mom asked her how she slept last night and Ali replied, “I would have slept great if I didn’t have a daughter in the closet.” Jeez, what a homophobic thing to say.

07-Jan-2011 our life. daily.
Ouest had another laser treatment on her nose today. She weathered it brilliantly. This was her ninth treatment already which is hard for me to believe. We didn’t get the best news from the doctor today. He said this seems like a pretty aggressive hemangioma and that it is deeper than it had been. However, the good news is that we’ve been on top of this from the start and have kept it well under control. At this point there still is just no way to tell how long we’ll have to continue with treatment. Not that it matters really as we’ll just continue doing what we’re doing until we’ve got it beat and can move on.

08-Jan-2011 our life. daily.
After what was one of Ouest’s worst nights of sleep ever she followed it up last night with twelve hours uninterrupted. I swear we never know what we’re going to get with her. The minute we think we’ve got things nailed down, they change. It’s as if she’s just taunting us. Lulling us into complacency one day and then slapping us in the back of the head the next.

10-Jan-2011 our life. daily.
Ouest had her year-old check-up and a couple of shots today. Let’s just say that she’s had about enough of doctors and nurses in blue smocks this year. She has no more patience for them. She’s willing to be friendly for about a minute, but if they hang out in the room any longer than that she knows nothing good is going to come of it. Even the simple act of weighing and measuring is enough to set the tears flowing. The doctor did get close enough to confirm that all is well though and that she remains at the top of the class when it comes to size (24.5 lbs, 31.75″). Percentile-wise she’s well into the nineties and could easily whoop most two year olds in an arm wrestling match.

11-Jan-2011 our life. daily.
“That puddle? Not me, I think it was one of the dogs.”

11-Jan-2011 9:12 PM
Today I had some business to attend to at the DMV. During the process of dealing with these people I decided that it is high time for us to get out of the country for a while. I am becoming too bitter. I just can’t deal with the bureaucracy any more. It seems like nobody can use any common sense. Today the inflexible lady at the DMV determined that we’d have to have some special form filled out by somebody who lives on the other side of the country before we could proceed. So instead of completing our paperwork then and there, I left the office, miraculously made a signature appear on her form, and drove across town to a different office where it was then taken care of. I’m not saying there isn’t bureaucracy everywhere else, it’s just that there is always a way to get things done. There is no such thing as a rule that can’t be bent or broken for the sake of common sense. I need some of that.

12-Jan-2010 our life. daily.
We flew back to Oregon today rather uneventfully. Thankfully. Flying has become a bit more challenging as Ouest has become more mobile. She is not one to sit peacefully upon our laps while napping and staring out the window. No, no, no. Ouest much prefers climbing, walking, and running. On today’s flight we had a two seat row for ourselves which meant that she was able to spend the majority of the flight on the incredibly dirty floor wedged in the tiny space between our seats and the seats in front of us. She’s one and even she barely fits in there. The floor was filthy, but on a plane with an active baby options are extremely limited. So when she came up at one point rolling around a chunk of cracker in her mouth, cracker that was not hers, all we could do was shrug our shoulders and be thankful it wasn’t chocolate.

13-Jan-2011 our life. daily.
By a lucky chance it turned out that today was my court date for the highly illegal lane change I made last month. I figured that was good news as I could head downtown, plead my case, and get the ticket thrown out or at least substantially reduced from the ridiculous $287 the State wanted. The crux of my argument was that I’m an out-of-stater, didn’t know the highway system through downtown, and I have a clean driving record. Simple and straightforward.

So I showed up at court and found that instead I had to plead to a clerk with a cash register in front of her. I pled no contest, gave her my spiel and then sat back and waited for her judgment. She looked into her computer, punched a few buttons, and offered me a buyout of $259. Wow. Twenty-eight bucks off. Minus the five I paid for parking. Twenty-three bucks. However if I really wanted to I could spend two hours waiting to stand before the judge who had the leeway to reduce the fine to as low as $216.

Anyway, I paid the $259, and became even more determined, if that’s at all possible, to leave the inflexible bureaucrats behind a.s.a.p.

While I was off saving twenty-three bucks Ouest was busy in the garden.

13-Jan-2011 ouest lill. thirteen months.
Ouest,

Well we blew right through the one year mark and directly into your teens. And so far I’d have to say that every month that goes by is more fun than the last for us, but also, it seems, more exhausting. By your six-thirty bed time we could all fall asleep without any problem.

Your afternoon nap disappeared this month, which means you’ve got your twelve hours at night and about ninety minutes of nap time mid-morning. Aside from that you’re on the go the whole time. You definitely aren’t the kind of baby to just sort of lie around. Where your energy comes from in that tiny little body I will never know.

You have started to entertain yourself lately, which is something you’ve never done much of before. I suppose with us always by your side there has never been much reason to. But now you are starting to drift off more and more into your own imaginary world and play by yourself for long stretches at a time. It’s fun for us to just sit back and watch you and carry on conversations right over your head without you even seeming to notice we exist.

We’re expecting a deluge of words from you this coming month.

Also, despite how much fun you’re having at Grammy’s house it’s time we hit the road again. Back to the boat this month where I expect the entire place will seem new to you. While we’ve been away you’ve mastered going up and down steps so you should have the run of pretty much the whole place. Just don’t go out on deck, okay?

Anyway, that’s it from your papa this month. Short and sweet.

14-Jan-2011 our life. daily.
Ouest is talking nearly non-stop now. The only real word we recognize is, “Hi,” but there are entire conversations filled with other words. Words which we need to combine with her body language in order to make an educated guess at their meaning before frustration sets in. She has also begun waking up in the morning and then lying in bed for about twenty minutes talking to herself. It’s frustrating because we know that once that begins she is not going to fall back to sleep, but at the same time listening to her is a pretty sweet way to wake up ourselves.

16-Jan-2011 our life. daily.
Back on the road headed for home. About a month ago we bought a clunker from a friend of my mom. It’s an ’86 Mercedes with a quarter million miles on it, a knocking from somewhere around the belts, a leaky transmission, and an oil leak. Perfect. If it gets us to the boat and manages to hold out for a few months while we finish getting the boat ship shape then we can drive it to the junkyard and be happy. If not, we’re only out a few hundred bucks.

Anyway, we loaded up this morning utilizing every square inch of space in the trunk and the front seat. We looked very similar to the way we did in the Porsche coming back from Mexico last year. We had hoped after getting south a little bit that the perpetual rain that had dogged us since arriving in Portland would let up. It didn’t. It rained hard the entire day, start to finish. This gave me the opportunity to discover that this car had another thing in common with the Porsche, that being a leak that drips onto my right foot while it is perched on the accelerator.

Ouest is not a great road tripper. I suppose because it is one of the most important attributes Ali and I could have used in a child. She flies pretty darn good though so I’ll cut her some slack. And today, actually, she held up pretty well. We kept it short at just under three hundred miles, pulled into Medford, ate, and promptly crashed. Ali was actually sound asleep at 7:15. Now, at 9:30, she woke up, looked over at me and said, “I need to go to bed soon so you need to turn the computer off.” So there it is.

I don’t know how it happened but Ouest has become obsessed with phones. Ali and I both despise the telephone. We have for as long as I can remember tossing a ringing phone back and forth to each other until the person on the other end finally just hung up. We don’t own a cell phone and Ouest has probably only seen on us on a home phone like five times, yet nowadays if there is a phone nearby she is on it. That includes big honking hotel phones.

17-Jan-2011 our life. daily.
We came down off of, I think, Mount Shasta and into California this morning and instantly the sun came out. If any of you in the Midwest or Pacific Northwest have been wondering where it is, I found it. God California is great.

Rather uneventful day’s drive down I-5, but the tension built as we exited off in Sacramento. What would we find upon returning to the boat? Really the only concern was water. We’ve got leaks to be dealt with and the only thing keeping the water out while we’ve been away has been a tarp.

Fortunately when we climbed aboard we found everything just exactly as we’d left it, clean and dry. Ouest went right to explorer mode and checked out every inch of the boat front to back. She let out a yell when she discovered the toys we’d left behind and also did a great job of quickly mastering the steps from the salon into her room and into the kitchen.

I must say, speaking for myself at least, it is a great relief to be back on the boat. It’s been great spending so much time with family, and Ouest needed to see the doctor, but it feels really good to be back in my own home. I’ve got lots of projects to tackle and feel like we can really make some headway now. So we shall see. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll get this big old tub moving soon.

18-Jan-2011 bumfuzzle.
The dinghy is here. Like a big, late, Christmas present.

18-Jan-2011 our life. daily.
Perfect day today. The sun shone for what we’re told is the first time in weeks, we got the boat put back together and a couple small projects done to make it livable again, and best of all we spent a lot of time outdoors. At one point today we said to Ouest, “Do you hear all those birds, and that bi-plane, and do you see that ladybug?” And at that moment we both looked at each other and said, “God is it nice to be outside.”

19-Jan-2011 bumfuzzle.
It almost feels like progress is being made around here. Though I’m not entirely sure why as nothing ever actually is completed. Today however things went pretty well. I started up the engine. She fired on the first try then killed, but roared to life on the second attempt and ran flawlessly. My goal today was to put the engine in gear for the first time in order to check out the stuffing box. Water dripped through, as it should, though at a rate of about forty drips a minute, which is too much. I’ve already bought the packing flax to do the job with so shouldn’t be a big deal, I was just happy to see that water was coming through, as a dry stuffing box is never a good thing.

A couple of other things got started or continued today. I drilled out the holes for the dinghy davits, which was easy enough as the original holes were still there, just filled with teak plugs. And the bathroom got a new faucet as well. All added up the day equals about a three on a ten-point scale of productivity. But hey, we’ll take a three any day with a one-year-old running around.

19-Jan-2011 our life. daily.
Helping Mama put clothes away. Then take them out again. Then put them away. Then take them out…

20-Jan-2011 7:26 PM
Ouest, if you ever want anything just be sure and ask me right after you wake up from a nap. I cannot possibly say no to you at that moment.

20-Jan-2011 7:52 PM
Teething is not something I expected to dwell on so much as a parent, but it sometimes feels as if she never stops getting them. At the moment she is just one incisor short of having a full eight-tooth grill across both the top and bottom. In fact, at fifteen teeth, I think she’s over half-way to a mouthful. At least she’s putting them to good use.

20-Jan-2011 our life. daily.
I love in this picture how Ouest looks as if she’s been slaving away forever cleaning this boat. In fact the truth is that I never allow her to work more than eight hours a day. There is no way I’m paying her time and a half.

21-Jan-2011 bumfuzzle.
Big project today was emptying out the starboard fuel tank of all of its ten year-old dirty diesel. I anticipated this being a dirty job, but with a little planning it actually went off without a hitch, and without a drop in the bilge. The tank has a drain plug located right smack dab in the lower corner which I was able to fit a one-inch hose over. I added a simple ball valve to that hose and ran it down into a five-gallon jerry jug. The only trick came in removing the plug and getting the hose over the hole while diesel poured out. I was able to do this quickly and with a bag underneath catching everything that I missed.

My best guess was that the tank was holding about fifty gallons, so it looked to be a long process. Fortunately for all of us there only ended up being twenty gallons inside. So within an hour the job was done. The guys at the marina were kind enough to offer up some larger jugs to hold it all in and are even going to haul it away for me. One of them is a fireman and they use fuel like this for training fires. Anyway, since we got back on the boat the jobs have been ticking off and working out far better than I anticipated. Next step on this project is removing the inspection plate and seeing what kind of gunk is inside.

21-Jan-2011 our life. daily.
Apparently they hadn’t seen the sun here in Rio Vista for weeks. But the day we got back it came out and every day since it has been shining bright along with sixty degree plus weather. We couldn’t be happier. Unless of course it were seventy degree plus. Or we even accept eighty plus. But hey. Today a lot of time was spent wandering around the marina. Before we left a couple of months back Ouest wasn’t walking yet and there was only one nice grassy spot for her to play. Now, gloriously, she has free reign. This has made life so much easier for us. I honestly don’t understand how people can utter the foreboding words, “Wait ’till their walking.” Walking is the best development yet by far for Ouest. She is a full blown explorer now and she’s got the scabs on her knees to prove it.

22-Jan-2011 our life. daily.
Some friends came out from the city to see us today. Back when we first found this boat online Nick was the friend we called to drive out and check it out for us. He gave it a glowing report, but backtracked a little bit when we said we were going to write the check. I think he worried a bit that he oversold it. Fortunately he didn’t, and our friendship survived what could easily have been a break-up worthy event. Anyway, we all had a great time hanging out, and I’d show a picture of the handsome couple, but really, their dog, Sugar, is so much cuter. And patient too. She let Ouest take over her water dish and didn’t bare a single tooth when Ouest latched on to her tail. Good dog.

23-Jan-2011 our life. daily.
We are currently pushing to get ourselves moving out of this marina and headed for the Bay in the next month. We really enjoy this tiny little place in the middle of nowhere, but when it comes to getting things done it is just not easy. Today we needed to pick up a tool from Lowe’s, a few odds and ends from Target, and have lunner. We left right when Ouest woke up from her nap at one o’clock and returned just shy of four hours later, just in time for her dinner. Four hours to run the most basic of errands. And when trying to work on a boat there is always an errand to run.

Ouest got a bean bag chair today. At least I say it is for Ouest because it is pink, but truth is I love the thing. In the picture she is holding Post-It notes and a tupperware container. This is why we hardly ever buy toys.

24-Jan-2011 bumfuzzle.
Took on the stuffing box today and was soundly defeated. I got nowhere. Couldn’t break the nuts loose. Will try PB Blaster on them tomorrow. After that I need to get a pipe to put over the end of the wrenches so I can get some leverage. As it is now I can’t do much but use my wrists in the tight space.

24-Jan-2011 our life. daily.
So while Ali was off showering this morning Ouest and I got into a little roughhousing on the couch. It ended with Ouest taking a header off the edge of the table. Damn. She only cried for a few seconds and I looked at her forehead and didn’t see anything so I thought, “Great, we don’t have to share this with Mama.” Two minutes later I noticed a big welt just under her eye and thought, “Crap, it wasn’t her forehead after all. No way Mama isn’t going to see this.” The welt later turned into a bruise and now Ouest looks as if I used her as a punching bag. I did have to laugh though when the checkout girl at the grocery store commented how cute Ouest was and Ali still felt she needed to quickly explain the big bruise, the mosquito bites, and the scratch across her nose. Personally I don’t think any explanation is necessary. Our girl is a bad ass. End of story.

25-Jan-2011 bumfuzzle.
Just noticed that there are now two more Spindrifts for sale on Yachtworld. One for double our price and one for triple. Best part? Looking through the pictures I still think ours is the best of the bunch. I was actually excited to find these, thinking I’d find some new ideas for a few things by looking through their pictures, but nothing really jumped out at me. They just look like old, used, and not very well cared for boats. I’ve said this before, but I’ll never understand what is wrong with people who are trying to sell their boats. Why can’t they take some good pictures? Maybe on a sunny day. And maybe pick up a little bit. Your boat doesn’t need to look as if there is no storage space whatsoever, it just looks that way because you can’t move the crap off the counter for five minutes. Serious pet peeve of mine. Second biggest boat picture pet peeve of mine? When the owners of the previous Bumfuzzle simply steal all of our pictures of the boat to use when they are selling it years later.

25-Jan-2011 8:29 PM
Ouest is learning how to negotiate steps without going through the hassle of actually getting down on her knees and sliding backwards. The traditional baby way. Nope, she did that for a month and is apparently ready to move on. She shaved a year off of Ali’s life in the process, but by the end of the day she had it down.

25-Jan-2011 our life. daily.
After a cold foggy morning the sun finally burned things off in the afternoon and we decided to head down to the beach to give Ouest a change of scenery. She made a couple of mad dashes for the water but for the most part was content to play in the sand and look for gross things that had washed up with the tide.

Please excuse today’s outfit. We could have a hundred pairs of pants for her and it wouldn’t be enough. Also, note the way she is squatting in a couple pictures? She can do that without moving for an hour easy.

26-Jan-2011 our life. daily.
I tell you I can’t wait for this little girl to get a little older because I can see already that she is going to be papa’s little helper. The moment any sort of work is being done she gets in the middle of it. Laughing and smiling the whole time. She just thinks it is the greatest thing ever. It’s hard to make out in this picture, but in her right hand is a flashlight and in her left a screwdriver. Oh, that’s also a tube of mascara in her right hand. Hey, she’s still a girl.

27-Jan-2011 our life. daily.
We spent the afternoon wandering around downtown Rio Vista. As I’ve said, this is small-town America, meaning it’s safe enough, traffic wise, to wander Main Street with a one-year-old. The only unsafe part is the things she manages to find on the sidewalks. Cigarette butts are an easy, and very common, target. I’ve never understood why smokers seem to think butts aren’t litter. But I won’t go off on that now. Chewing gum in the bushes and spilled ice cream were also zeroed in on by Ouest. She seems to have a keen eye.

We hung out in the library for a while. Best library ever as far as I, and Ouest, are concerned. Popped in to the florist for a balloon which brought squeals of delight. Visited the bakery for tomorrows sugary breakfast, and browsed through a second-hand shop looking for anything that might catch our eye. All in all a good fun family day out.

Not sure if it is the teeth or what, but the past couple of days Ouest has been trying our patience at meal times. Not every meal, but enough. She puts her food in her mouth, chews it up for a few seconds and then smooshes it back out all over her bib. Bite after bite after bite. Driving me nuts, but she does it without the least hint of malice in her eyes, so we have to give her the benefit of the doubt and assume it’ll pass in a few more days. I am soooo over teething, even if they are awfully cute.

28-Jan-2011 our life. daily.
A couple of years back Ali and I were traveling in Alaska and were invited to stay with Bum friends for a couple of days. There we met the son of these friends. Brian had been out riding his dad’s motorcycle that day and we mentioned that we’d just finished watching the series Long Way Round about a couple famous actors who had just driven their motorcycles around the world. We told him a bit about our travels as well and then everybody went off to bed.

The next day he told us he’d been up all night watching the entire series from start to finish. Seems that random encounter set off a whole chain of events in his life, because just two years later Brian hit the road on his own motorcycle for what he plans to be an epic four year adventure.

Today we got to meet up with him again, repay a small bit of the hospitality that was granted to us way back when, and hear a bit about his travels. It feels good to see things kind of come full circle. I like how travelers, and friends of travelers, lives just seem to intertwine. Favors are given and received, friendships are made and passed on. There’s just something about this “community” that I enjoy being a small part of.

29-Jan-2011 our life. daily.
From inside Ouest’s room looking forward just before pajama time.

31-Jan-2011 bumfuzzle.
The dinghy davits went on today. I’ve still got to attach the brace between them, but overall they feel good and sturdy. They seem awfully narrow though. Ali doesn’t see how a dinghy is going to hang off of them, and to be honest I’m not really sure myself. I’ve also got to figure out how to rig these things. At the moment I’m staring at them without much clue as to how I am going to raise up a two hundred pound dinghy. I’m sure it’ll come to me.

31-Jan-2011 our life. daily.
It’s been a few dreary and cold days around here, so we were quite excited to see the clear blue skies this morning. And we took full advantage, even going so far as to cook lunner on the boat, instead of making our daily run in to town, so that we could spend as much time outdoors as possible. The boat work is coming along, and we can start to see the day that we can motor out of here. If every day were like this it would really help.