Subscribe to RSS FeedSo the wind blows grey and wet today. That's not all bad because you need these sessions as a foil to all the shiny bright of summer. You know what I mean. Too much harry and excess, and you forget how good a cold beer tastes, you overlook the wonder of eight cylinders running in counter-balanced harmony, you miss out on your hull carving through that ugly curler . . . you start getting dulled. And life is all too short a tack for that kind of nonsense.
A job will dull you like nothing else. No doubt there. So can a hundred of other things from family crises to business successes and from failures to money troubles. And so, my friends, by way of salty elixir I recommend a dose of boat maintenance. It's quick-acting and there's nothing like it to focus the mind. No, I'm not jesting. I'm a big supporter of the marine trades, but this year pick one boat project and give it a whirl. Pick something tangible that come August, you can lift a hatch, look at and think: "Huh. I did that myself and it looks pretty good." Paint the bilge, rewire an electrical panel, or varnish some brightwork. It's not the project, it's the process of doing the project yourself. Of scraping your knuckles, of sitting in a meeting with a rime of bottom paint around your cuticles, of reminding yourself that boating is not all about turning the key and going.
Sure, this blog entry runs the risk of grounding upon the shoals of self-help. Those are a nasty bit of rock and I'm trying to give them plenty of clearance. But if your ear hears a breaking surf, just read some other post and remember this entry as nothing more than an author's gridiron struggle at keeping life shiny bright.
Underway and making way.
--- JKF
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