Sad Sailors, Sigh

Wil smama had a bad start to her day - mine was much ado about nothing (though we had plans, many plans!).

Today we finally got my boat onto the (now legally registered) trailer, the missing plug arrived by UPS yesterday (and it fit), drove an hour to the lake and....(drum roll...) discovered that my adored and adoring husband had not only dismantled a difficult to assemble set of lines (the kicking strap AKA boom vang) BUT lost the critical piece that attaches said assembly to the boom (and which secures the boom to the mast) on while helping me put it back after a dry run the previous night. No kicking strap, no sailing.

Thinking he must have left in the garage - I drove home with Crash to see if I could retrieve it and save the day. No go. Where, oh where, did he put it down? Crash and I drove back (it's now 3 pm, we left at 11 ish). Take the boat out of the water (did I mention that we'd put it in the water...we were that close??).

Four very sad sailors. Next possible sail date is September 6. I am praying for good weather already!!

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The boys and I are blaming it all on Math Man's Myers-Briggs. Crash and I are INTJ, Barnacle Boy is ENTJ. Math Man can't remember what he is (so we're sure he's not a J!). I'm threatening to get us all t-shirts with our codes on them...and to restrict rigging and take-down to J's only.

RGBP Friday Five: Stress Busters

...how do you deal with the stress monster!!!???
1. First, and before we start busting stress, what causes you the most stress, is it big things or the small stuff ?
It the rate of "stuff" happening that does me in. If I've got a moment to take a breath in between stressors, it's less likely to cause brain implosion.

2. Exercise or chocolate for stress busting ( or maybe something else) ? Laughter! Exercise followed by chocolate runs a close second. In true desperation, Crash's brain sucker (guaranteed to provoke serious giggling, if not outright guffawing).

3.What is your favourite music to chill out to?Something I can sing along to...that makes me breathe deeply. Or something off my "calm" playlist if I can't sing.

4. Where do you go to chill?
Right where I am now, the huge chair in my bedroom. Windows open if the weather permits, listening to the trees rustle likes waves on the shore.

5. Extrovert or introvert, do you relax at a party, or do you prefer a solitary walk? INTJ, that's me. So that would be a walk - all by myself. At a recent family gathering, my attempts to walk the hills alone one evening were met with "Just let me get my shoes..." and "Oh, are you going for a walk? I'll be right there!" Thankfully I can say, "Not tonight, dear!"

Bonus- share your favourite stress busting tip!
Find something to laugh at, yourself if you can....

Some Like it Hot

....just not us! We went camping for a week. We lasted 2 nights - albeit two nights where the temperature never dropped much below 80^o F even in the wee hours, and the humidity was about the same. No need for a campfire to melt the chocolate for s'mores - it melted just sitting under the picnic table.

I still feel like a wimp for coming out and telling Math Man this morning that I really wanted to come home. As we hiked this morning (in the indescribable heat), we came up with ten reasons NOT to wimp out on camping.

1. It's been raining solidly for 3 days and will rain for 3 more.
2. You're morning sick.
3. You have a two month old who wakes up every hour.
4. Fifteen minutes after you set up the tent, a bear has come to call.
5. Your 2-yr old (Barnacle Boy) has consumed an unknown number of Advil.
6. There is a river of water running through the tent.
7. You hung the sleeping bags out to dry while you hiked and another storm rolled in.
8. You have no dry sleeping bags (see 7.).
9. The entire campground is infested with poison ivy. (And neither my then 1 yr old or 3 yr old managed to get into it, sometimes God is good!)
10. Someone fed your 15 month old (Crash) an entire pint of blueberries.

Fiat Lux!

We finally succeeded at getting the Fiat Lux out of mothballs yesterday. She cleaned up nicely, and we're hoping to get her ready to sail, if not this week, soon. The only missing part is the transom bung plug. Seems small, but as I told Barnacle Boy, water going inside the boat's hull is generally not conducive to speedy sailing - just to speedy sinking!


I bought my Laser in 1990, at the Philadelphia Boat Show. Currently you can only get a Vela grey hull, not my splashy red. I have the radial rig - which is rated for one person massing 50-65 kg: perfect for me, the Boy and Crash. Math Man needs more wind that we do to fly (he really should sail with the standard rigging), but he still can get a good reach out of it. This year, the Laser Radial will be a women's Olympic class, the standard rig (for 65 kg and up) has been an Olympic boat since '96.

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Vela is from the Latin for sails.

INTJ - really

I have one introverted kid (Crash) and one extraverted kid (Barnacle Boy). These days the Boy is using "introvert" like a curse, he's looking for a companion to bounce with and after three weeks of camp Crash needs a bit of down time. After the umpteenth exchange of insults this morning, I just sent Crash up to my room with the instruction to either "nap" or "nook" (curl up in the chair in the nook of the dormer and read). "I can't nap." "Then nook!" Meanwhile, the Boy is blasting Harry Potter Puppet Pals behind me, someone is weed whacking mint in a nearby garden (noisy, but smells nice), my niece and nephew are playing video games in the living room and I would be trying to write a review of two opposing papers, except for the I vs. E war, the YouTube videos and the weed whacking.