Saturday, January 13, 2018
There are days when I work very hard to accomplish things, and others where I am completely ambivalent, fully satisfied to just let the world take me where the universe sees fit. [Today’s featured image is Home Free at her slip in Marina Zea in Athens]
The more I sit in front of a computer screen (as opposed to an ipad or cell phone screen), all of my Type A characteristics start to reappear. I haven’t given it a lot of thought yet, but I think this is a direct result of my patterns from my youth. For the sake of clarity, and you don’t think I am more crazy than you already do, I will provide an example.
I started reading about computers you could assemble yourself in magazines (comic books or Circuit Cellar I think) when I was about 12 or 13. By the time I hit high school the TRS-80 had come out, and then the Commodore computers, which later became the Commodore 16 and Commodore 64. I was fascinated. From there what I did is, I started planning how my life should go to take advantage of these new fangled devices. Things to study, skills to acquire, communication methods, etc.
Today those characteristics define me and so, today I have not looked at the bilge pump at all! I have been reading emails and documents, typing responses, documenting ideas. Coming back to my point, that skill means that when I sit at a keyboard I start getting things done. All this technology makes me feel productive despite the fact that it has nothing to do with my actual (and very necessary goal). Fix the bilge pump.
So I sit, diving through email rapidly and responding to many business and planning items that have built up over the past month or so. I am half way through I think. I have started a page that better describes the boat (menu item above) and will fill it out with fitting pictures as I go. Most of those photos show the boat as it was staged for selling, not it’s current condition.
Below is a current photo of the office (in the guest cabin) where I am typing this post. As you can see it is a pretty functional office and should allow me to work effectively at a computer almost anytime. (I am sitting on the guest bed to take that photo, so it is starboard side, in the guest cabin, at the bow). Note the dual screens, because two screens make you about 15% more efficient. You can’t see the very, very cool monitor stand. It is a desk clamp with two arms that I bought on ebay in Toronto for $80 (retail $970), turned upside down and adjusted the mounting bits. Then I had a small ring made to hold the (normally) top in place on the desk, and the clamp part (normally the bottom, clamped to the desk) holds it in place on the shelf just behind the desk. A bit of ingenuity and the monitors don’t move a bit while underway (the biggest seas we have seen so far are about 6′, we will see how it does when the boat hits some real weather in the future).
In any case this is me being office productive, not boat productive!
This evening I made two failed attempts to get off the boat and accomplish things, one failed due to bad planning, the other, bad weather.
Around 3:30 in the afternoon I decided that I would head to central athens for dinner and walk about and be part of the downtown atmosphere, but I wanted to go to an electronics store first. There are some bits there that will help with my reconfiguration of the rope lights, or so I hoped. Unfortunately by the time I got to the train station it occurred to me that all the stores were closed or closing and I rechecked times. Stores here close at 4pm on Saturday. Ooops. I rechecked the store times on google and there it was “Σάββατο 9:00 – 16:00″. I am still translating these things in my head and not immediately recognizing them as we all do in our native language. So back to the boat for a few hours because 4pm is the end of lunch around here.
At 8pm I decided to go out again and walk around in the cool evening air, see the people and enjoy the atmosphere in central Athens. As I exited the train station, the rain was coming down fast and furious . . . another plan thwarted. I grabbed a quick bite and back to the boat for an early night’s sleep.
I continue to learn how to function in the city, pick up some Greek and thoroughly enjoy the environment here, all through trial and error. Hopefully the trials continue apace and the errors diminish with time!
Tomorrow the bilge . . . 🙂 It’s in that back corner. I have about 10″ to squeeze through to get to it and then, under that floorboard (with tools in hand), is the bilge which needs to be removed. Maybe you can see why I am procrastinating!
If you don’t hear from me for a few days, have the authorities check the engine room for my skeletal remains.
