Day 315, Year 8: Happy Birthday, Justin
Date: Saturday, September 14, 2013
Weather: Yet Another Beautiful Day
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Thirty-six years ago tonight our son, Justin Bryant Handley, was born at home in Jenkins, Minnesota. Tonight he celebrated his birthday in South Hampton, England, with his wife Jo and her sister Kath and husband-to-be in just four days, Tom. We talked to Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco via Skype late yesterday afternoon, and they all seem to be recovering from the trauma of the van explosion a week ago. Ziggy has been sad about losing his ‘home’ away from home, but is letting that go now. Justin has been working like a madman trying to make money to make-up for the losses and Jo has been dealing with ordering or shopping for those things they need to replace right away. Friends and family have been very generous and they have been given lots—so thanks to all for that. Little Coco has just continued enjoying life which is what a one year-old should do. She is walking now and we got to see her in action on Skype video which was great. We’ll hope today had none of the drama of last Saturday and that Justin had a wonderful birthday. Happy, happy birthday, Justin!!!
Today was a big day for Jonah. He had his first soccer practice. You can’t be in the Munchkin Soccer program until you are four, so he has watched Sam for the past couple of years and could hardly wait for his turn. His team was given blue shirts, his favorite color, and three of the friends that go to his preschool are on his team. In Munchkin Soccer, they don’t really play official games, but they practice and after a few weeks they will get to ‘play’ against another team. Jonah was so excited and it was great to see him so happy. Sam and Ollie had to watch from the sidelines this morning, but Ollie kept grabbing soccer balls and kicking them or sitting on them. I guess his years of watching and wanting to play like his big brothers have begun. Soccer for Sam’s age is on Saturday afternoon now, so Saturdays are pretty much a soccer affair for the Goldstones for the next few weeks. It was a beautiful day here, so Heather and Jed took the kids to the beach in-between the soccer times and again after Sam’s game. We, on the other hand, took off after Munchkin Soccer and headed to Newport.
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| 130914 Day 315a Cape Cod, USA–Jonah's First Soccer Practice |
We didn’t go to the Newport Boat Show last year and we hadn’t planned to go this year. BUT the news that our dinghy leak cannot be found has sent us scurrying about looking at dinghies and the Boat Show is one place to go to see a number of them at one time. We had hoped to see some Caribe and AB dinghies, but there was only one Caribe and no AB’s. It’s just as well as they are both so expensive, but it would have been nice to look and see first-hand what we’d like but can’t afford to buy. There were a lot of Walker Bays, but they are very expensive. Our current dinghy is an AB Vestus, a 9’6” fiberglass rigid inflatable with hypalon 17” tubes. Replacing the same thing would cost $3,600 and we are just not going to do that. The advice of one saleswoman today was to use ToobSeal and hope for another year or two out of the current dinghy. This is a product that you somehow put inside the tubes and then roll the dinghy over and over, once every 30 minutes for four hours. Not easy, but something we could try with a little help. Mark can buy a dinghy through West Marine which is one option, but the diameter of the tubes on all of the WM dinghies is 16”, not 17”. And one of our bottom lines has always been having a dinghy with 17” tubes. But the price is right so West Marine might win the day. We found two aluminum bottom dinghies today that were enticing because they are so much lighter in weight, but the Boat Show price for each is around $2,000. Either tomorrow or Monday we will drive to the West Marine in Hyannis to look at the West Marine dinghy we are considering (not available here in Falmouth) and then we’ll make the decision.
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| 130914 Day 315b Cape Cod, USA–Newport Boat Show Dinghies |
