Christmas is near, Jennifer is leaving, friends are coming and I start to think about boats and boating.

Port Townsend, 8-Dec-2023 — Tuesday, I’ll go down to Gig Harbor and install two additional solar panels on John Riley’s boat, this will give 320 watts, which is roughly what I have on Caro Babbo. Instead of two one hundreds, he’ll have four fifties to aim as he wants, in addition to the 130 on the dodger. It’s cold here and cloudy, there hasn’t been any sun in a few days and his house battery has died. I’ll buy him a new deep-cycle house battery for Christmas.

It is Christmas, at least for me. I’ve started shopping…on line… and figuring out money. I’ve spent a lot more this year than I had intended. I’ve helped friends, and have family to attend to. Jennifer is off to Berlin and Flora may come to visit for a day or two (or perhaps a week or two). My stepdaughter Samantha arrives on the 21^st, with all the attendant flurry that accompanies her, as well as her boyfriend.

Friday, Susie and her husband arrive for the weekend. A combination of a winter break and the beginning of Hanukkah. I’ve known Susie since 1991. I thought at the time she was my age, she’s five years younger. I’m a terrible judge of age. I was doing a startup to make XTensions for QuarkXPress. The owners of the company were my age and I expected most of the senior staff to be close to my age, and the kids were just out of college.

It was odd being 39 (by ’93 when things got ripping) and being seen as old and out of touch. I used to stay at one of Ian Schrager’s hotels in Manhattan, the Paramount. I was walking through the lobby one morning on my way to the publishing tradeshow I was in town for when I ran into two of the Quark kids. We said hello to each other. They paused and asked, with some incredulity, what was I doing here? I said I stay here when I’m in NYC. They didn’t say anything. They just stared. I said goodbye and continued on. It didn’t hit me until later that at my advanced age not only shouldn’t I have stayed there (in their minds), I shouldn’t have known it existed. (There was no sign on the outside of the building.) I’ve always wondered what happens to young people who view older people as not being able to be in touch with current trends. Ian Shrager is 8 years older than I am.

Susie and I kept in touch until about ’97, seeing each other at shows and when I came to Denver to see Quark. In ’01, I dropped out of newspaper publishing for a few years, and when I returned Quark was no longer a player. Jennifer and I were driving through the Denver area in 2019 and I somehow set up to visit Susie. She had been married and divorced, and was working for someone… herself?

She’s moved to Seattle, married Kevin, and enjoys everything Seattle has to offer. Something Jennifer and I should do. And so she will come visit, with her two dogs, and Kevin. She’s bringing vodka, I’m supplying vermouth. We’ll see what happens.

Jennifer, who has been content to sit in Port Townsend for the winter has gotten itchy feet. We were supposed to go to A’dam in October and then November; she is now asking about repeating our drive to Baja in January. I asked what about our trip to A’dam/Europe in April. She asked, what about it? We may not be here for much of 2024 it seems, just like 2023, and 2022, etc.

And Caro Babbo sits, not patiently, in Northern Enterprises. I received a call from Don Keller telling me that the mainsheet on the boom had come loose and the boom was waving in the breeze. Carol at Northern Enterprises called the next day to tell me the same thing. Don went over on the third day. I need to have the boat surveyed for insurance. The last time was in 2013.

As I sit and ponder what needs to be done in the spring, nothing major, beyond what I am planning, has shown up in a crevice of my mind.

I haven’t been asked to crew anyone’s boat: money is changing hands in both directions. Some skippers have started getting paying guests, and the delivery crews are afraid for my health (over time that will pass, as I stop talking about it and everyone forgets.)

I have put together a partial list of what I need. I worry about the dripless seal and the engine alignment. Something is leaking at the seal; the engine seems fine. I worry about that. For the seal, I wonder about the bellows or perhaps the attachment to the hull: things to work on in the spring.

I’m quite thin, and trying to figure out what weight to be. When I was in my middle forties I was (for me) heavily muscled and weighed 160. I’m at 152 now and trying to put on muscle, which is coming slowly. Do I need to let my weight go up, or leave it at this weight and keep exercising? Well, Christmas is coming. Trying not to gain too much will be the adventure.

I’m thinking of what I want to cook while everyone is here. There may be more people than planned, like last year, which I am really looking forward to. I still have presents to buy – I’ve bought Jennifer a Christmas dress to wear in Berlin and a bulky sweater (Amazon’s try before you buy made that possible). So Christmas is on its way.

My lack of sense of time, makes it seem much closer than it is, it is still two weeks away.

I don’t know if I will post again before Christmas. Have a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Call if you’re nearby.