Sink or Sail: Healing My Heart, My Home ... And a Sailboat: illness

Sailboats to Illness to Grumpiness to Feeling Better

It has been 46 days since my last post (hey - that's a Phish song - I'm going to listen to it right now! You can too https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r35Ius6JPS8 - I was at this show).

I can't believe it has been so long since my last entry. Well I can - a lot has happened - not a lot to my sailboats or to my condo but in life I guess and too many horrible things around the country and the world.

How about just the headlines, highlights and pictures? I considered a haiku but there are more than 17 syllables to tell.

ENTERPRISE DINGHY CURRENTLY NAMED SLOOPY BACK ON MARCO ISLAND
Thanks to Karl and at least the third towing ball I have purchased for this trailer.

"No Facebook"

Tarp was shredded when we picked her up. New one on now.

ENTERPRISE DINGHY TODAY HAS LIABILITY INSURANCE TO SATISFY 'THE CLUB'

A LITTLE LOVE LIGHTS UP A ROOM

This was Quite a Kyle adventure - there are extra holes you can't see and a few marks from a thrown screwdriver

ASTHMA FINALLY CALMS DOWN AFTER LONG RUN WITH STEROIDS, NEW INHALER

THIRD ANTIBIOTIC PUTS SIBO AT EASE; FOSTER STILL ON WEIRD EATING REGIMEN

FOSTER STARTS RUNNING AGAIN AFTER SIX WEEKS OF ILLNESSES

VISIT TO NEW YORK, NEW JERSEY FOR WORK FRIENDS IS INSPIRING

And many more not pictured: Maeve, Evan, Kip, Annabel, Elizabeth, Sarah D., Lawrence, Johnny, Charlie, Coco, Robin, Jackie, Carol Ann, Trisha, Meghan H., Phoebe, Lizzie, Jon, Allison, John, Sonali, Frank, Meghan G., Rizal, Melodie, Erin, Damon, Edith, Kathy, Liz, Saldene, Jasmine, Megan, Melissa, Nick, Nicholas, and I'm sure I'm missing others. We had lovely skies, good runs, yoga, good food, good talks, lots of laughs - and oh some work and training too.

SHELLY, JIM, JESSE, JOSEPH AND PATRICK VISIT MARCO ISLAND, FUN ENSUES

AFTER 2 1/2 WEEKS APART, B-FOSTER REUNITED - HAPPY HAPPY GOOD TIMES
(Missed him).

KEY WEST TRIP, FIRST TRIP TOGETHER PROVES SUCCESSFUL, IS EPIC FUN
(Pictures lost on old phone that needed replacing but refused to upload anything beforehand but fun boat ride there and back, beautiful hotel on the water, nice catch up with B).

FOSTER CONTRACTS KIDNEY INFECTION TO FOLLOW UP OTHER ILLNESSES

FOSTER ON CIPRO - YOU KNOW, THAT ANTHRAX-KILLING DRUG?

FOSTER FEELING MUCH BETTER, WENT TO BEACH YOGA TODAY

FOSTER FEELING MUCH BETTER, MAY TRY A RUN TODAY, SEE FRIENDS, FISH

*In other good news, I'm working on a refinancing of my condo to try to sort the mess J helped create. (Send positive vibes and luck please).

*It's amazing what some essential oils, a few sun salutations, some big puffy beautiful sunrise clouds, a laugh with your favorite coffee shop owner, some purple flowers and a short walk will do to your mood. Or my mood anyway.

*It's amazing what a hug from your pulmonologist will do - no really, not in a creepy way - he cares and that's good when things in your lungs get scary.

*It's amazing what yoga can do to the mind, body, soul. From the people who are present, including me, to the sights and sounds, smells, smiles and words of wisdom and kindness. I am always humbly reminded to Think, speak and love myself and others lovingly and truthfully. Thank you, Debby.

Note to self:

More running, more yoga, more music, more fun, more laughing, more family, more positive energy, more coloring, more dancing, more sunsets and sunrises

More memories like these:

Kate and Franco bought a house since this! Yay them!

AND

Run like an antelope out of control! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6A-cJr4Kpw
(and yes, I was at this show too).

If You Don't Fail, You Aren't Trying? Let's Go With That

My mom calls mistakes "learning experiences." My sisters and I often use this phrase to describe daily events.

Among my latest learning experiences is the recent discovery that the trim I was so proud of installing in my powder room is neither square nor plumb and must be repeated - for a second time. I didn't even check or measure for squareness or plumbness - I was so focused on learning how to use my Brad nailer.

I'm not a builder or woodworker or craftswoman of any kind - as you know. A visit from electrician brother-in-law Brad uncovered the problem when he offered to cut the top piece for me. Brad, my sister Summer's husband, showed me how to cut a 45-degree angle and how to measure properly before I cut - not that I'm going to remember any of this now that it has been a few weeks.

Brad fit the top piece in between the two side pieces that as you may recall I nailed up there - twice since the nails I used first were too long and scratched the pocket door - oh vey! When Brad laid the top piece in, it was clear that everything around it was crooked!

My brother-in-law explained why and how to fix it. As Brad, Summer, kids and friend were on vacation, I didn't beg him to help me.

The crookedness remains:

Another Learning Experience

Weeks later, after a trip to Houston for the men's NCAA Final Four basketball tournament and a 3-day hospital stay with food poisoning when I returned to Florida, I tried to finish my coffee table. I apparently didn't understand what Steve at Ace had in mind when he sold me screws and washer - not until after I had drilled all the way through the sign I worked so hard to protect with poly acrylic, and after I went back to Ace for longer screws and nuts - why didn't you sell me nuts, I asked.

Richard made my mistake clear without realizing that's what he was doing. A light bulb went off as this fatherly figure talked through the process. I shook my head and hung it in embarrassment when I realized I was meant to put the small screws in from the back of the sign with the washers without going all the way through to connect the metal legs. "But it's too late, I drilled through the table, " I told Richard.

"That's ok," he said. "It can be fixed." He went on to explain "plastic wood" and that I can fill the holes with the plastic wood and then glue some thin wood pieces to the bottom and connect the legs through that wood instead of through the sign.

This big screw sticking out isn't the look I'm going for

So I have those mistakes to fix and projects to finish. Nothing is ever simple. That's OK - life isn't either. Mistakes are fixable almost no matter how bad they are - almost.

*A side note:
Illness is great way to to learn more about someone you are dating. And about yourself when that person is sick. B and I passed with big bright flying colors. While I was in the hospital, B was amazing and after I got out - even when he caught a stomach bug and we were stuck in my house together for 3 days trying our best to take care of one another.

We managed to get out to see the sunset on the third night. I managed to get to yoga with my muscleless muscles yesterday.

I was lucky my parents were still in town too - they are wonderful.

I was and am lucky for great friends - Kate who took me flying Friday night; Jess who made me gluten-free Chex mix and gave me all her unexpired gluten-free food and brought B and I Gatorade and sweet potatoes when we were sick; and Lisa who has great ideas about my other belly troubles and has encouraged this gluten-free, non-dairy eating (despite my grumping about it, it's a great idea and she's just trying to help me).