Hi all.  Well, we're getting ready for our vow renewal ceremony in September, then a vacation - we'll call it a honeymoon we never got. 

The roof is replaced after a massive hail storm back in May, as well as new gutters.  The house has been painted outside.  When we're back from vacation the carpets get ripped out, the walls painted and some internal repairs that I've been putting off, then new carpet goes in.

At that point, the house goes up for sale.  Probably October or mid November we hope.  Today is the 21st of August so we are officially at 4 years of our five year plan! 

Winds of Change is for sale - as is "Small Change" (the dinghy).  I'll probably get my old 2000 Jeep Cherokee up for sale soon as well.  We have a lot of junk in the house to go through, pack and get rid of as well.

JoAnne has been in and out of the doctor and dentist getting examines, physicals and her teeth fixed.  I've been into the dentist a couple of times as well and had one of my wisdom teeth pulled.  Two more to go.

I'm writing this blog post on our new "Navigation" and Boat computer.  We picked up a new laptop yesterday.  I have been adding OpenCPN, charts and some gps drivers.  I've also tested it with my amateur radio communications software and that works as well.

Right now, I'm decompressing the charts for the US.

We will use this program some for navigation, but likely not a lot.  We will tend to rely on paper charts most of the time.  I prefer the feel and look of paper, plus, you can't get those darned plotted lines off the screen when I forget and use ink :)

Looks like we have several folks who are somewhat interested in the boat.  Nothing firm.  One offer was well below what we were asking (in fact it was low enough I didn't counter offer, and their second offer wasn't enough either.  I countered that one and they didn't want the boat after that I guess... too bad, because it would have been a good boat for them as they were new sailors).

At this point we've had two interested parties contact JoAnne personally and one saw our sign and came by on Sunday.  I've not heard back from that person yet.  He seemed pretty interested though.  Well, so far most people who I have spoken to said I don't have the boat priced too high for the area or for the boat.  Some have told me different, but they don't know anything about boats, and know even less about the stuff on the coast. /shrug

I've not really had a lot of time to put anything here - so this is going to be the last for awhile until we get through with our ceremony and get on vacation.

I'll post more if we sell the boat, the dinghy, or anything significant happens.

Oh, I wanted to say one more thing.  Over the past couple of years, I've lost several friends, my sister and nearly my dad, either through cancer or other things.  Nine days ago a friend of ours and his wife were involved in a pretty terrible accident.  Ted and Mary Ann Allison - Ted was a ham radio (N0NKG) operator I've known since coming to Colorado.  He was active in ARES, and he was a mountain climber and a fast-walker.  He died a couple of days after the accident and his wife passed a few days later.

The man who hit them still has not been charged.  He was apparently speeding (he flipped their car), going the wrong way on a one-way street and went through a light or traffic sign without stopping.

Life moves too fast for some, and not fast enough for others.

Ted will be terribly missed. 

I will leave you with this thought....

Slow down and get where you're trying to get without killing yourself and others.  Nothing is so terribly urgent as to run traffic signs, speed way over the limit or go the wrong way.

And you should NEVER KISS GORILLAS!

Good Bye Ted.