Tag: writing
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Mine
Paid the seller, paid the broker, not paying to fix the hull blisters at this expensive marina because the surveyor says it can wait until next year’s haul-out. Habibi is mine, all mine. No one can evict me. No one can raise the rent. I can paint her inside and out — any color! —…
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Breathe
“When the ball comes fast — breathe.” This I heard in a San Diego park, near tennis courts, and recognized the instructor’s good advice. The balls are coming fast these days in this noisy marina on the Sea of Cortez: contracts to sign, settlement statements to question, stolen credit card numbers to report, a fallen…
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Velerista
Balanced. Smooth. Minor hull blistering. A bit of rust. A quality build. Satisfactory condition. These are the key words I took away from the sea trial and haul-out of Habibi last week. Yahoo! Two days with the marine surveyor, who crawled into and inspected every nook and cranny. We tested the engine, steering, navigation electronics,…
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Stinky
Early one morning in Olympia, Emmett and I went for a ramble and swim at Priest Point Park. Much to his delight, he found a rotting salmon corpse to roll in. Oh, the joy! Not a problem for me until the return drive home, Emmett in the back seat. The stench! Even with all the…
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Come Sail Away
Sometimes it takes a long time to get back to all right. Been ten years since I exited Olympia and began looking for a home by the sea. Took awhile to realize I could choose a boat instead of a house. Today I wired a 10% deposit on Habibi and contacted a marine surveyor to…
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Round & Round
Sometimes I get frustrated with my indirect, repetitive routes. Up and down California, before I can retrieve the tiny house. Roundabout Oregon before deciding not to live there. Across the country to save my mother, who didn’t want to be saved. Up and down Baja wondering what I’m doing with my life. All this traveling…
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Jiggity-Jig
Home again, home again, tiny house in tow, see how she flies! It’s been almost three and a half years since I inhabited my T@B travel trailer, and boy, did I miss her! So cheerful, so easy-going, so functional and fun. No more leaky tent. No more cramped back seat, feet hanging out the window.…
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Closing
When I learned the name of the buyer of my mother’s house, I knew everything would be okay, because Bianca (Kitty) was a very dear friend of mine. On closing day, while the human Bianca signed papers in New Orleans, I drove to Queen of Heaven Cemetery and found John’s grave. I cleaned the headstone…
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Certified
I did it: sailed around the Sea of Cortez for five days with four strangers and learned to helm a boat. Smiling. The hardest part was the four strangers. Several were loud and chatty. Distracting. But then Doubt is loud and chatty, so I had to deal with it anyway. There were three written tests,…
words & art by shé 