Visit our Popular Forums

dana-tenacity · 01-11-2007, 19:47

The week we moved off the boat and back int a house I had to buy a vacuum cleaner, closest I've ever been to suicidal.

**Ex-Calif** · 01-11-2007, 20:57

When we moved back to the states I had to get a riding lawn mower. I am standing in Sears and a good ol' boy (complete stranger) sidles up and starts discussing with me the relative merits of each mower.

That's when I knew my life was over and I had to get out of that place - It took 6 years but I'm never going back...

S/V Antares · 02-11-2007, 13:37

For the last 20 + years I have always been traveling on our Anniversary. We are leaving tomorrow to go cruising with no set agenda So my wife asked me " What are you going to do for our aniversary" knowing I will be there for the fist time. I simoply repplied " I guess I will let you steer on Thursday"

The swelling is down but it left a mark!

maxingout · 03-11-2007, 15:08

It's hard to figure out how much to bet on the next throw of the dice, because we don't control the game. You purchased stuff for a machine shop, and then globalization happened. Suddenly a machine shop isn't economically viable. Things have gotten out of control. We have a generation of baby boomers ready to retire, and millions of them are discovering they can't afford to retire.

You only live once, and you're life should be pleasing to you. The problem is, sometimes it's hard to figure out what you want until you are in over your head.
The more stuff you have in your life, the muddier the water gets, and the harder it is to find your way.

Stuff eventually becomes the hurdles that we have to jump in order to reach our dreams. The more stuff we have, the bigger the hurdles that we have to face.

We all need to come to an agreement with all the stuff in our lives. The stuff that serves us, we keep. The rest we toss out.

Life isn't about stuff. It's about running our own race and making our lives into what we want them to be.

maxingout · 03-11-2007, 15:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by dana-tenacity

The week we moved off the boat and back int a house I had to buy a vacuum cleaner, closest I've ever been to suicidal.

I know exactly how you feel. I have been in a house now for four months, and I continue to rebel and resist the idea of buying a vacuum cleaner. I wonder how long I can hold out? What will happen if we don't get one. Am I going to sink in a sea of dust? What if a gale happens and all the dust gets in my eyes? Is it possible to pitchpole in a sea of dust?

maxingout · 03-11-2007, 15:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ex-Calif

When we moved back to the states I had to get a riding lawn mower. I am standing in Sears and a good ol' boy (complete stranger) sidles up and starts discussing with me the relative merits of each mower.

That's when I knew my life was over and I had to get out of that place - It took 6 years but I'm never going back...

Ah, yes. One of those Sears moments. Your whole life flashes before you, and you hope you live long enough to make your escape. I can feel your pain.

senormechanico · 03-11-2007, 16:12

A lawn is the dumbest thing anyone can have.

First, you spend money getting the ground ready. Fertilizer, the right dirt, grading etc. Next, lawn seed. If you want nice lawn, it's expensive too!
Then after watering it, waiting for it to grow, you mow it. Expense for gas, the mower, the time wasted mowing when you could have been sailing.
Then to top it all off, you have to spend money to get rid of the clippings!
You can't even eat it!

Lawn is totally the dumbest thing I've ever seen.

Although my bluewater cruising days are over and I have to live in a house with the boat at our dock, at least I have river rock for "lawn".
The photo is the launching after doing a bottom job in our side yard.

My wife has a mounded flower garden out front which I occasionally get roped into helping weed, but we don't own a lawnmower or even a weedwacker.

Steve B.

Mike Banks · 03-11-2007, 16:34

Yes--I can not adequately describe it--but as soon as the bow lifts to the ocean swell a wonderful feeling of freedom and well being takes over.

Sort of adds meaning to John Masefield's poem.

**Ex-Calif** · 03-11-2007, 17:43

I had a young guy working for me in Malaysia. In most of Asia house gas for cooking is LPG bottles on a bad out back.

He didn't have gas. Only a coffee maker. When asked about that here is how the conversation went.

"Eric, when are you getting a gas bottle?"
"Slippery slope, man. First you get a gas bottle and then you cook. That means getting a pot. You get a pot and then you're tempted to get a plate. Then you need dish soap and a sponge. Then comes knives and forks and before you know it you have a table cloth and napkin rings."

Eric told my wife he could make tuna casserole with his coffee maker. She asked for the recipe - LOL.

Eric cleaned his entire house with Tide powdered laundry soap. His entire apartment smelled like a laundromat. He made good coffee though.

At the end of 2 years he decided to have a going away party. My wife couldn't stand it. She brought our househelper over to his apartment and spent the whole day cleaning it, brough a gas bottle from our house, cooked the food and basically ran the party.

I think Eric is brilliant - He's my hero...

Therapy · 03-11-2007, 18:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ex-Calif

"Eric, when are you getting a gas bottle?"
"Slippery slope, man. First you get a gas bottle and then you cook. That means getting a pot. You get a pot and then you're tempted to get a plate. Then you need dish soap and a sponge. Then comes knives and forks and before you know it you have a table cloth and napkin rings."

I think Eric is brilliant - He's my hero...

A perfect example of how all humans decide what is wanted and what is needed.

"It's all grey."

TaoJones · 03-11-2007, 18:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by maxingout

Stuff eventually becomes the hurdles that we have to jump in order to reach our dreams. The more stuff we have, the bigger the hurdles that we have to face.

We all need to come to an agreement with all the stuff in our lives. The stuff that serves us, we keep. The rest we toss out.

Whenever the conversation turns to "stuff," I always think of two distinctly different things.

First, the George Carlin riff on "Stuff." Almost everyone who's heard it remembers his observation that, to the owner, his **** is "stuff" - everyone else's stuff is ****.

Second, the most famous short film ever made, Louis Bunuel's 1928 classic Un chien andalou (An Andalusian Dog). No one ever forgets the scene of the razor blade slicing through a woman's eye, but, to me, the real haunting scene is of the man trying to drag two grand pianos, two rotting donkey carcasses, two live priests (one of whom is played by co-writer, Salvador Dali) and the Ten Commandments.

The image has come to represent, for me, the burden of moving through one's life while saddled with "stuff." I'll leave it to others to assign meaning to what the items in the scene represent.

TaoJones

charley · 05-11-2007, 07:12

"Stuff" Is right, my wife was saying just this past weekend, " I don't think I can part with my antique sofa". I can blame her it is early 1900's Cuban Mahogany. Can't even get the wood anymore. I told her "we can store it at you parents till we need it again".

Back to HOME, realized that my whole front porch was rotten wood and all needed to be replaced. I was wishing it was decking on a boat that I was replacing as that would have been so much more enjoyable.