Weekend loomings...

The pile of stuff that needs to go to the lake accumulates throughout the week, slowing engulfing the living room floor around the front door. Clothes, tools, delivered bits and parts, food... since we never seem to take as much stuff off the boat as goes on I sometimes wonder how it is Kintala has any room left for us. A big part of the pile has to do with projects currently underway, seven of them at the moment. (That does not include fabricating and installing a dodger, though there is some stuff in the pile that relates to that job.) My major plan for the weekend is centered on plumbing, replacing the rest of the potable water lines and linking the engine / water heater together - or at least figuring out just how it is I am going to make that happen. There is also a spice rack build / install and splash guard fit / install in the galley, and the never seeming to end drive train repair. Oh, and replacing the missing cutting board that used to sit over the stove. So far behind the curve, I'm about to post a ban on mentioning any more projects until at least a few of these get finished.

It is good that, once buried in a job, tools scattered about, bits coming off and other bits going on, wood getting measured and cut, assembled and installed, my inner kid / mechanic / fabricator comes out to play. Time passing is forgotten, replaced by concentrating on the work being done. We bought the boat to reach a goal that seems far, far away at the moment. I still talk of heading off "soon," joining those who have made the break from land living. "Soon," on a boat that doesn't seem anywhere near ready to leave the dock at Carlyle Lake, let alone take on big, blue water.

But this weekend, like most, will be a weekend spent living on a boat, floating (barely) on familiar waters, in a pretty place with good friends coming and going. Not the clear, warm bays of the Bahamas or Keys, nor the more challenging waves of places further north. It isn't sailing of any kind really, just a big project being done in an out-of-the-way lake far from adventure. From the outside it looks like a project that has commandeered all of my attention, absorbs all of my energy and drains my bank account.

But that is the way of any dream worth having, and I am looking forward to the weekend.