Phil has left Burmuda

Sunday, June 27
Weather: raining (Thurderstorm warning) and 83F, 76%humidity, Dew Point 75.
Worse of thunderstorm going south of Grand River, OH

Phil called me from Burmuda about 1pm (2pm his time) They were getting ready to leave about an hour after his call. He got down there ok, is doing ok, and has the starboard berth with a lee cloth, so is happy that he got the same berth as last year. Captain Dave and his son will share the aft cabin and the rest is divided between the remaining 2 crew members. The watch scheduled is 2 hours on and 6 hours off, the crew is experienced, so this will be more cushy then other transports that he has done. That's good. I hope he can get a chance to relax and destress a little.

Because they are returning from the Newport to Burmuda race, there is a web sight (Burmudarace.com) that we can use to track where they are. You can track them to by clicking on their boat name Attitude. If this link doesn't work click on Burmudarace.com and click on Race Tracking - the link is in red on the left of the web page. Then click on "Track yachts returning from Burmuda" and then select Attitude as the boat. It's great because it tells how fast they are traveling and the coordinates of where they are and there is a link to see it on Google Maps. We used this last year and I really liked being able to tell this information! Phil is expecting that they will get to Cape Cod by Thursday and home on Friday for July 4th weekend if everything goes well.. The weather is the best they've had in a number of years, so that's good too. I have that Monday off, so we'll see if we can cruise to Ashtabula or not. If we can, will be the only long weekend before we leave.

Katie and I went to the Chardon Home for the last time. Lee Booth and Jack Pavlesich said that I should go back and get the 501 Singer sewing machine (Lee & Jack are trying to get me in trouble, inside joke) air tank and the few items in the workshop that I wanted to keep. We then went to Kay's house and put the wooden chairs in the loft area and the rest in the horse stall. I also took some of the food stored there and have it in the horizontal dock box. Katie and I went to Walmart to pick up the 2 crates I needed (thanks for reminding me Katie) and we got lunch there also. While we were inside Walmart - there was a heavy rain storm - could really hear it on the roof. Lucky for us, it was sunny when we had to go outside again.

George and Pat are back from their cruise - too bad they weren't able to eat at Molly and OJ's as there was a family wedding, so it was closed. We had a nice time chatting with them after their return.

With the rain that came, GRYC has emptied out - only the live-aboards and Lee and Betty Booth remain and they are staying the night tonight as it's closer for where she works in the summer. I'll be going to get my shower soon and then start cooking supper. We got some black rice (Forbidden Rice from China) that Katie's interested in having, boneless chicken thighs and some corn on the cob we got from a roadside stand. I also got 2 med zucchini squash and some new baby red skin potatoes that we can grill/cook for supper tomorrow.

On Changes 2 weeks 2 days

Saturday, June 26 - current temp 74F
Weather today was hot and humid -

Katie, Phil and I have been living on Changes for over 2 weeks now. Overall it's working ok. Last Friday and Saturday, we had our moving sale. It went pretty good, and I'm thankful that my sister-in-law, Kathleen was there. She was very soothing for me - helping me to emotionally let go of some of the belongings. Phil had NO problem letting go :) I guess we're at different stages in our lives that way. The last week has been spent with me going to work - for the Mentor Alt home Central team this time (actually I'm going to be split between alt home East and Central) and Phil working with the person who use to clean my house - in cleaning out the rest of the belongings and cleaning the house. It's been quite a week with it's up and down moments. I guess that's to be expected. The Up moments were dinner at Capps, signing the papers at the clubhouse on Thursday, and me working. The down moments was realizing again and again at the most inopportune times - in the middle of the night - while driving in the car - that once again, I forgot to save something that I wanted and it's gone forever. Some tears were in order on my part on and off. It's one thing to choose to let something go - and something else when something is gone because it didn't get put in the van or the trailer to be put in storage. Sigh! I guess it's just a part of letting go. Phil and I have both been stressed - me by wanting to save what I can - and Phil by just wanting to get rid of everything else and to be done with it. I guess it's a guy/girl thing. I hope that I'll be able to look on this period with some humor looking back. I just remember that it's a process, this too shall pass and we'll get on the other side. We are both looking forward to it being July!!! when this stage will be over.

This morning Phil left on US Airways to fly to Burmuda to help Captain Dave Block, his son Michael David, and 2 other gentlemen, transport a Benateau 42'sailboat to Cape Cod. Hopefully, everything will go smoothly and they'll leave tomorrow morning and make landfall in 4-5 days. Then they'll drive home. I'm hoping that I'll hear something from Louisa, Cpt. Dave's girlfriend at some point in the trip. If I do, I'll post the results.

Another slight down, was that the Buyers didn't sign the papers on Thursday as they had originally planned to do. One of the Mother-in-Laws fell and broke her leg so the plan is for them to sign on Monday. Hope it doesn't postpone the closing. They also would like to start moving their belongings in on Monday before title transfer. On the way back from the airport - I stopped off at the Chardon home, to sign the paper and drop it off at the Realtor's office. They will assume responsibility if anything happens to the house. I also took a look through the house and am glad that I did, as the wooden chairs that Phil had wanted to save were in the basement. I put them in the van. Another down is I found that the shower and window curtains and the curtain rods in the bathroom were taken down and are gone permanently. Very upsetting as they were to have been with the house. The rest of the valences are still there. Why they didn't leave those, I'll never know. We had a few text message back and forth between me and the cleaner with me being told that the helpers didn't see the curtains in the first place. They're gone and the buyers will have to put something in immediately. Too bad.

Once I returned to the boat, I decided to take advantage of our friends George and Pat Schlauch being gone making what they call their sailing "Dinner Tour" to empty the horizontal dock box on their dock site and try to organize it. I took everything out - put in the shelf that Phil made - and after buying a couple crates, put it back in again a little more organized. I could still use a couple crates and may get them tomorrow at Walmart. I also worked on getting the belongings I had stored in the back of the van (knew that this would be handy) and put on the deck in preparation of getting items in Chardon, off the deck. Almost done, understanding that's a relative term. After relaxing a little, Katie and I had lunch/supper at Sammy's in Grand River.

After we came back, I took a nap since we woke at about 315am today. Then Katie and I went to see the new Karate Kid movie at the new and renovated Great Lakes Mall movie theater. Actually it was pretty good - filmed in China so had some beautiful scenery. We couldn't pass up an opportunity, so we went to Great Lakes Mall buying 2 swimsuits and capris for me and getting a couple tops and a pair of capris for Katie. Hey - I saved money! Saved $159 on the items I purchased. Of course whenever I tell Phil I've saved money, he says but I spent money.

I met some guests that are docking here for the weekend - Pat and Charlie Browning on a Beneteau 34' - Sailaway. They were kind enough to show me down below. I'm jealous as Pat has an aft head and a slightly bigger galley. She has a great whole cloth quilt in her V-berth - I love the quilting on it - so may change my mind about what I quilt on my new V-berth quilt. It's vertical rows of stitching and then the outline of different sea shells spaced evenly.

My posting wouldn't be complete without some pictures so below is Katie in her favorite non-school activity - reading!!
Tomorrow I need to take the wood chairs in my van to Kay's house and some other items so that I can get our outdoor living space decluttered before my understanding fellow yacht club members are tired of being understanding and think they'll be living with hill billies the entire summer.

Our dock mates, Lee and Betty Booth are down for the weekend and have their new toy fox terrier puppy "Boo" with them. He's so cute and is now starting to get acclimated. It was funny how we was biting my jean pant leg and pulling - and you couldn't hardly feel it. He definately friskier and I understand he has a mind of his own. When he wants something, he is very focused on getting it. but here he looks cute.

Boo last weekend in his favorite place - the cubby for the winch handles.

Me holding Boo at last Friday's Potluck.