that's what it is. I don't know why she hates me but, all I wanted to do was add some roller bearing drawer sliders. The drawers in the aft cabin use wood on wood sliders. You know, like the ones you find in the quality of furniture that comes with assembly directions written in four languages and relies on plastic buttons to hold the whole thing together. Load them up with anything heavier than a couple of pairs of socks and a T-shirt and opening them is like dragging Velcro across itself. We use these drawers to store things like tools and spare parts, thus making every opening is an exercise in frustration. Roller bearing sliders to make life easier; a couple of measurements, a few screws, what could possibly go wrong?
Feeling pretty sure of myself since the table project has been getting rave reviews, with yet another weekend of constant heavy rain curtailing any outside projects, and having the new sets of shiny, easy rolling sliders in my fat little fist, I took to measuring and screwing. Such a project undertaken at home would consume an hour, so on a boat; maybe a day. And that's about what it took since the framing around each of the drawers had to be notched for each slider; three drawers = six sliders working in a somewhat tight space with pretty poor lighting. Set the drawers in the new sliders, a few more screws and ... and ...
... and the drawers wouldn't fit. It is a bit of a long story and hard to explain, but all said and done the drawers are now about 3/16s of an inch too wide. Yep, three lousy, tiny, sixteenths of an inch ... that would be 3/32s of an inch on each side. Various options were considered but in the end the only hope is to take my handy little router tool and shave some wood from each side. Except, well, I might have overworked my handy little router tool a bit during the table build. Right at the end of the job some of the magic smoke leaked out and now it doesn't work anymore. On the way home from the lake we stopped by Harbor Freight to buy another handy little router tool. (I promise to be more gentle with this one.) Tomorrow I'll try my hand at drawer shaving.
Really? Each side, 3/32s of an inch? Anyone who claims the sea is a harsh mistress has never met my boat.
Still, not all was spite and frustration. We pulled the water proof cover off of the hatch we re-bedded a few months ago and let it set out in the rain. Much to my delight it actually appears as if it doesn't leak anymore. Only one hatch and four more ports to go. Items which Deb suggested be added to the list; which led to a more serious problem.
For you see, friends and neighbors, I was forced to confess that I threw my to-do list away several months ago.
I know. I talk about the list all the time. And I know, the list is a holy item among boaters. I'm not sure one can claim to belong to the congregation of the sea and not have a "to-do" list enshrined somewhere. Deb had entrusted me with the sacred duty of keeping of the list. And so I strove to live up to expectations, mislead my trusting Wife into thinking I was working off the list, and lying to you Good Readers. And I am rightly ashamed.
But alas, the demands of the list became too great. Things were being added to the bottom of the list faster than I could remove them from the top of the list. I'd work harder. The list would grow faster. It bedeviled me, this list. Laughed at me, taunted me with mountains of work undone and projects untouched. I struggled to live up to the demands of the list, but like all poor sinners was left wanting.
So I threw the damned thing in the trash.
That's right, I have no list. If a hatch drips on my head, I'll get around to fixing the leak. Some improvement that we can do to make the boat more like home catches my eye, I'll give it a thought and see what I can do. But list? Sorry. I'm never going to remember all of the things I have done to this boat. And I don't really care about all the things that need done to the boat. Right now I am fixing drawers. After that I might fix leaks, or I might remount a winch, or maybe something else will pop up that I'll do. Maybe I'll just get a beer and watch the sun set.
For I have discovered that working on the boat is boating. Working on things was something I used to like to do ... and I am going to like it again. Having a to-do list for boat projects is like having a list for morning projects: take a pee, brush teeth, make some coffee. That isn't a list, that is just living.
And all I want to do is live on my boat.
Feeling pretty sure of myself since the table project has been getting rave reviews, with yet another weekend of constant heavy rain curtailing any outside projects, and having the new sets of shiny, easy rolling sliders in my fat little fist, I took to measuring and screwing. Such a project undertaken at home would consume an hour, so on a boat; maybe a day. And that's about what it took since the framing around each of the drawers had to be notched for each slider; three drawers = six sliders working in a somewhat tight space with pretty poor lighting. Set the drawers in the new sliders, a few more screws and ... and ...
... and the drawers wouldn't fit. It is a bit of a long story and hard to explain, but all said and done the drawers are now about 3/16s of an inch too wide. Yep, three lousy, tiny, sixteenths of an inch ... that would be 3/32s of an inch on each side. Various options were considered but in the end the only hope is to take my handy little router tool and shave some wood from each side. Except, well, I might have overworked my handy little router tool a bit during the table build. Right at the end of the job some of the magic smoke leaked out and now it doesn't work anymore. On the way home from the lake we stopped by Harbor Freight to buy another handy little router tool. (I promise to be more gentle with this one.) Tomorrow I'll try my hand at drawer shaving.
Really? Each side, 3/32s of an inch? Anyone who claims the sea is a harsh mistress has never met my boat.
Still, not all was spite and frustration. We pulled the water proof cover off of the hatch we re-bedded a few months ago and let it set out in the rain. Much to my delight it actually appears as if it doesn't leak anymore. Only one hatch and four more ports to go. Items which Deb suggested be added to the list; which led to a more serious problem.
For you see, friends and neighbors, I was forced to confess that I threw my to-do list away several months ago.
I know. I talk about the list all the time. And I know, the list is a holy item among boaters. I'm not sure one can claim to belong to the congregation of the sea and not have a "to-do" list enshrined somewhere. Deb had entrusted me with the sacred duty of keeping of the list. And so I strove to live up to expectations, mislead my trusting Wife into thinking I was working off the list, and lying to you Good Readers. And I am rightly ashamed.
But alas, the demands of the list became too great. Things were being added to the bottom of the list faster than I could remove them from the top of the list. I'd work harder. The list would grow faster. It bedeviled me, this list. Laughed at me, taunted me with mountains of work undone and projects untouched. I struggled to live up to the demands of the list, but like all poor sinners was left wanting.
So I threw the damned thing in the trash.
That's right, I have no list. If a hatch drips on my head, I'll get around to fixing the leak. Some improvement that we can do to make the boat more like home catches my eye, I'll give it a thought and see what I can do. But list? Sorry. I'm never going to remember all of the things I have done to this boat. And I don't really care about all the things that need done to the boat. Right now I am fixing drawers. After that I might fix leaks, or I might remount a winch, or maybe something else will pop up that I'll do. Maybe I'll just get a beer and watch the sun set.
For I have discovered that working on the boat is boating. Working on things was something I used to like to do ... and I am going to like it again. Having a to-do list for boat projects is like having a list for morning projects: take a pee, brush teeth, make some coffee. That isn't a list, that is just living.
And all I want to do is live on my boat.
3 comments:
Congrats on being project list free. Make her safe. Make her reliable. Make her go.
Remember... Cruising is fixing your boat in exotic places...
We are working on gettng that far, right now "curising" is fixing my boat at the dock in Carlyle, IL. Nice place, but hardly exotic...
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