The Summer that Was Not. . .

. . . or as Time Goes By

You may have noticed (or more likely have not) that Kristi and I tend to think of three broad categories when making Blog posts:

• Travel Log – This tends to be Kristi
• Nuts & Bolts – This tends to be me.
• Emotions – This is something we do not see too much in other blogs, etc.  So felt it was important.  What does it ‘Feel’ like – deep down.

Here is one of those latter ones:

No man is an Island, or so the saying goes – even if us ‘Cruisers’ pretend we are our own little Island…    Reading all the glossy Get Away magazines, and even words of wisdom from those who have gone before us, it seems that making An Island is what it is about.  Get away, be free, unplug from  the world!  Sometimes you will get a peek into reality – like that definition of Cruising:  Fixing and Repairing a boat in Exotic locations, or a recount of a particularly uncomfortable night spent riding out a storm:  http://mvvikingstar.blogspot.com/2011/09/it-was-dark-and-stormy-night.html   But there is something that we have not seen talked about too much – just how truly un-island we are when out there.

Last weekend Kristi and I returned from our 3rd (her 4th) trip down to Portland this year – largely for Family related reasons.  Kids and Grand Kids: two surgeries, one in need of help, and well ok, one trip was Work related, but we also combined visits with Family.  While driving back up to Port Orchard I mentioned to Kristi – OK, This summer has not been relaxing.  Too much has happened and I just feel stressed – not ‘retired living the care free life’.  Looking back over our Norm Rockwell 2012 Calendar it is easy to see why:  We have just had too many things to work around.  Trips, park hosting, Sail-ins, visits,  etc.  Our Calendar is Full!

What does this mean?  See time slows down when living this life.  Where we use to think in Days, now we think in weeks.  Weeks become Months, and Hours become Days.  Drive to Portland?  2 Hours.  Motor to Olympia?  2 days.  Spontaneous activity tomorrow – no way.  Spontaneous activity next month, let’s see what is on the calendar – need a +/- 2 week clear window around it!   And as time slows down, activities still fill in.    This summer we have NOT spent long days lazing about working on lineless tans.  Nor have we been at work on Maintenance: the deck bung-plugs need servicing, the aft head too.

Back to the Island thing:  Given the combination of time slowing down, and doing two or perhaps three ‘Things’ a month gives us the current situation.  Perhaps if we were 3,000+  miles away we would be less likely to Hop a Plane to get back to town.  Perhaps in Chile we would be much more ‘island’ like. But we are not in Chile we are in the Sound.  And we have a Full Calendar (Haul out end of September).  And we are grateful to be able to connect with Family when needed.

But it is very un-island like.  And with the Time Slowing effect a week floating now feels like a day.  We need weeks to unwind properly!

And this is the Cruising Life insight:  When pulling the plug and leaving, one does not leave an empty house.  There is still Family there – and you still will be engaged in one way or another. You are not an island.


To read more the Cruising Life click here: http://mvvikingstar.blogspot.com/search/label/Cruising%20Lifestyle