Day 268, Year 7: Full Moon Over Eel Pond
Date: Thursday, August 2, 2012
Weather: Sunny, Hot, and Humid
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
The difference between living in a house versus living on a boat becomes
most striking when you think about how connected you are to the moon. When
you live in a house, you might catch the full moon if your happen to be out
and about, but otherwise, you really don’t think much about the moon. But
when you live on a boat, you really are connected. If you are sailing at
all, you have to be aware of the phases of the moon because of the impact on
tides and currents-especially in this part of the world. We have a
beautiful full moon tonight and we are going to have another one on August
31st to kick off Labor Day Weekend. Once in a ‘blue moon’, we have two
full moons in one month. The last one I remember was on December 31, 2009,
when we were in Thailand. It was a great New Year’s eve with that blue
moon, the term referring to a second full moon in one month. And tonight, I
am enjoying that golden orb shining down on Eel Pond. It is beautiful.
I walked the mile or so this morning to pick up the car. I was so impressed
with the shop where we had the work done. The owner/manager, Eddie, is the
kind of guy you want to do business with. The cost was exactly as he quoted
and he spent time going over the condition of the car and made a
recommendation that we take it back to the person who most recently did work
on it and have them fix a few things they missed. When I told him the story
of the work done in the past couple of weeks and the cost associated with
it, he was able to explain to me why the work took so long and cost so much.
And the explanation was that it should have taken no more than eight hours
and cost no more than $1100. We were told that a used pump for the power
steering system was not available. Eddie explained that this is just not
possible. When cars are junked these days, they are torn apart, piece by
piece, and each piece that is reusable is put into a national data base. He
says there is no way on earth that a used pump for a 1999 Ford Taurus was
not available through that data base. And then he explained that the reason
the rack that was ordered did not fit was because the one ordered was for
the wrong engine. If the VIN number had been used when ordering, the wrong
size would never have been an issue. So long story short, if you have an
old car, make sure that whoever is doing the repairs notes the VIN number
when ordering parts. I just wish Streetwise was on the Cape, not in Boston,
but I will take the car there for future issues even if it is a bit of a
distance.
Heather had to do some commentary live from her home phone at 1 pm this
afternoon, so Mark and I drove straight there and did our best to keep the
boys quiet during the time she was on air. Immediately following it was nap
time, and I got a chance to catch up on my time away from Oliver by holding
him during the first part of his nap. Love those chances to hold a
grandbaby.
Windbird was fine when re got here late in the afternoon, but the charge on
the engine was down to a complete zero. But somehow the temp in the refrig
was still normal, so we didn’t lose a lot of food. It is almost 11 pm and
we are still running the generator. But it is time to shut it off and head
to bed. We’ll continue tomorrow.
