July 1...I wanted to cancel the month, fast forward to next month, and reschedule fireworks for Aug. 11, my 33rd. It looked to be a great day to start a month on, cool morning, lots of breeze, homemade blueberry pancakes and coffee, and plentiful sunshine. Went for a walk in Solomons. Heather's ear infection had been getting better but she felt horrible Sunday so we turned around and started back to HP. The Possum Cops pulled us over. Even though our whistles (aka noise producing devices) are tied to the dink in plain sight he asked about them and asked where they were. Our registration for the dinghy was in the form of tendering. We've been pulled over in FL, SC, and 3 times in NC and all saked if we were tendered and had no issue with it. This old boy was in the mood to give tickets (working on a Sunday will do that to Government officials) thus we are $85 poorer. So much for the month's budget being under $400. Possum Cop is holding my license in his hand asking me my height, weight, hair color... I am 5 feet in front of you, Barney Fife. How 'bout takin' a look at me. Still blonde, still 140, still 5' 9"...nothing has changed, buddy. He told us where we could register here in MD...did my research and they tax you for the value of the dinghy AND the motor, 5% of the estimated value...you know as well as i do that they don't estimate low. When I figured out the cost I about choked. So did some research and found that Georgia registers online, $15 for the year. I like that price much better. Got everything done and went to print the temporary registration... the printer is out of black ink. So I changed the color...we have one in brown and one in midnight blue, the most stylish registration card in the state. I crammed two toes on a block and bloodied myself as well as the deck and preventer block. That was all before 3pm. Sundowners came early Sunday.
July 2...the antithesis of yesterday except for the weather. We had to mostly shut hatches last night, it wasd down in the low to mid 50's with a good wind a-blowin'. Got out sheets and snuggled up. What a change from last week, and what a welcome change it was too. The day was a mirror image in blue sky...it seemed like it was welcoming us to July. But, then, yesterday did too and then turned like a Pit Bull and bit us. So let's see...
Went in for a walk and errands in our freshly registered dinghy. While getting gas for said dink we met a couple from Chesterfield, MD who invited us aboard and raved about the city and pulled out charts and showed us multiple anchorages. They gave us a slip of paper to use as a reference to their Yacht Club to get in for a day and socialize, tie up, etc. What nice folks. We went to West Marine to pick up our iCom handheld VHF radio. The store didn't want to sell it to us so we called the catalogue who gave us a further $20 discount plus the sale price, used our rewards certificates, etc. and we got it for $23. Met another great couple from M/V Edge, had a great conversation about St. Mary's, GA one of our favorite places (yes, Diane, we told them about Read 'Em Again) and St. Mary's, MD one of theirs. Went next door to the package store and did our business, filled water jerry jugs, and motored back sans the excitement of yesterday.
Getting ready to do some painting in the cockpit tomorrow. Let's hope the 3rd stays on track with today and does not revert to the ways of the 1st.
By the way, Heather is feeling much better today, I think the antibiotics are working and the infection is on the run. If it stays in remission we're planning to go to Oxford, MD on the 5th, then on to Annapolis, pop over to Chesterfield, then to Havre de Grace. West to east to west to east to west. Criss-cross the Chesapeake. Now, let's see if it actually works out that way.
Olivia: We were ready to trade you Possum Cops for Dock Boy... |
