Saturday, April 26, 2008

Mixing Up My Schedule

The price of gas has reduced my visits to my boat but not the usage of it. Wednesday was always a work day on the boat and I have started to skip that day for two reasons: the cost to operate the car and the amount of timing spent driving. In the morning during the week I must wait till the traffic thins out and that is the same in the evenings so having to conform to these harsh rules eliminates the freedom a sailboat gives. To lessen the cost of fuel I switched to commuting on my motorcycle a couple of months ago but it is dam hard to carry anything of size. So I got a locker at the marina for off-boat storage but it is hard to carry supplies.

My next step in my plan was to drive my Westphalia over there with my bike in the back, leave it there and ride my bike home. Then for my next trip I would return on the bike to the marina. This allows for combining my ride time with my boat time. When I got back into sailing my cycling started to take a back seat and riding my track bike and racing mountain bikes ceased. Now I have to get back in shape to make the 45 mile commute (one way) on my bicycle which would have been no problem when I was in shape. So everyday this week has had ride time on my mountain bike and a chance to me old friends, the rattlesnake. Again when you add one thing to your life something else gets pushed aside like this blog.

Time is surely available but the computer here is shared my a group of mutant teenagers that have decided that this a good place to hang out, watch YouTube, play on the Playstation 3 and work on bicycles and cars. The body count exceeds half a dozen at times and yesterday I volunteered to drive all of them down to the local Marine recruiting office, tell the Master Sargent they were all my kids and they wanted to join. Another option would be to charge for parking: three VW GTIs, a Ford Ranger, a Turbo Subaru, a trashed Toyota pickup, an Explorer and a new lifted Nissan plus the other mutants that don't drive yet. My neighbor across the street says he enjoys watching all the kids as it reminds him of when he was a kid but has refused my request to take them in. Almost forgot, some of the mutants have girl friends so my son does clean the house from time to time. Before the kid with the old truck could drive his mother would drop him off as they didn't live close. After I submitted her an invoice for groceries she stopped coming by and he started driving over and but his eating hasn't slowed any. At the present time I am proud of my mutants, take the time to praise them, love to make fun of them, constantly reminding them how to wear their pants correctly and showing what a book looks like.

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