As winter slowly loosens its grip on the Northwest, I find myself with a shocking degree of ambivalence. Something about winter here, with its cold and grey days and soggy bone-chilling nights, leaves me content to stay inside a little more, stay in bed a little longer, and drink too much...coffee of course. All that to say, there's somehting alluring about an excuse to be cozy, to be lazy, to rest more. Change of season around here is always like bears coming out of hibernation, we aren't quite sure what to do with ourselves. The ambivalence for me comes from the boat project. Because now I actually have no excuse to not go and be overwhelemed by how far over my head this whole thing is. This week, however, did wonders to inspire me beyond my self-justified lethargic slumber.
My cousin David, his two boys Corbin (13)and Justin(15), and David's Dad (my uncle) came out to help me work on the boat. Why they chose this as their vacation, I'm still not sure, but we all had such a great time together. The boys were superstars and David and Uncle Ray spent the better part of two full days helping me build a flight of stairs up to the boat. I think they cost me a total of about $50. We cannabalized scrap lumber from around the yard for most of it. Every time I go up and down them I have a smile on my face. This will make the work this summer so much safer and efficient.
We also fixed up the interior so we could camp on the boat. They all spent three nights aboard Epilogue and had a grand time. Again, I'm still amazed that they would spend their vacation like this. Gratitude.
