GO GIANTS!

The title "Go Giants" is just a diversion from the fact that we are still not living on the boat. And a tip of the ballcap to the Giants for winning in our presence at Marlins Park in Miami yesterday. They used the dome, and the PA system was much worse than the PA systems in public schools. State of the art structure with inexcusably poor sound. To the game (Rabid Giants fans already know this, so go to the next paragraph): Matt Cain walked 3, but the rest of his performance was pretty good -- good enough to win, relying on the bat of Melky Cabrera (4 for 4, again). Art kept suggesting I not stand and cheer every Giants high point in the middle of a sea of Marlin fans. Fortunately, there weren't that many highlights in this 3-2 nail biter. The Marlins have adopted the worst promotions of every other team: a "race" between weirdly dressed people (seahorse, etc) around the perimeter of the field; shooting T shirts into the crowd; dance cam; kissing cam. But the one thing you really wanted, the replay of great offensive and defensive plays, was missing. Go figure.

As you know, this is not a tour of ball parks or a worshipful "follow the Giants" journey (a la the Deadheads). We're here to see a man about getting our boat shipshape and getting the heck out of Florida. Not everything was completed Friday, and we found more things that need work -- yes, it's very much like buying a "used" house and finding things that need repair, after the sellers are long gone. Let's see, the port engine is not connecting with the battery that it is supposed to be charging. Need a new alternator? Need to fix a loose wire? We hope to find out tomorrow. We can't read the gas gauges that are on the the auxiliary fuel tanks -- do they have fuel? How much? And here's a new one to me: The auxiliary fuel tanks are literally under our bed in the master cabin. So we have to lift the springs and mattress and bedboard to get to them. What a comfort knowing I'm sleeping directly on top of 2 large containers of highly flammable fuel.

Saturday and today we "pretended" we were living on the boat, as we boarded it where it is tied to the Apex Marine dock. We get to feel the motion of the waves in the New River every time a boat goes up or down the river. We feel the breezes coming off the river. We wave at other boaters. We sit on the sun deck and eat crackers and cheese. We sit up on the flybridge and look out at a whole world of boating. We turn on the boat radio -- well, one of two works. Another item to check on, along with Garmin, which we couldn't turn on. And we throw things away, which is really the "feel good" part of the day. Like a metal fish sculpture that is found in the dictionary next to "cheap" and/or "ugly". We also opened some of the boxes we had sent to Ft. Lauderdale. It was particularly amusing to see Art take out his heavy navy blazer and not one, but three ties. I believe he actually had packed 2 blazers. For the first time, he appeared to have packed something that is not "essential". Allow me one moment to, well, gloat.

Okay. Have I mentioned West Marine? If we do not move on to our boat soon, we will move into West Marine in Ft. Lauderdale, the largest West Marine in the world. We could live there for days without being detected. Thank you, thank you, thank you, my colleagues, for getting us the West Marine gift card. It helps us afford their prices. Everything is top of the line, and apparently they have no competition in the boating market, so they charge whatever rich yacht owners are willing to pay. The rest of us boat people, who have spent most of our money to buy the boat, watch for the rare "sale" items. I got a wonderful lavender PFD on sale (which for West Marine means $20 off). PFD is an addition to my vocabulary -- life saver is what I used to call it.

About the new date for moving on to the boat, I hope not to jinx this, but we think we can move on to the boat tomorrow, May 29. That's assuming that the list of still to be done repairs is checked off and Slow Motion is washed down. If we had named the boat "STAT" or "Fast Start" -- nah, it's not the name, it's the "surprises" we encounter every time we visit the boat repair yard. I swear that Slow Motion was gliding down the New River smoothly and effortlessly when we moved it April 4 from the Yacht Seller's marina to the Boat Repairer's marina. Bottom line: we want to be safe and we want to leave this port of Ft. Lauderdale knowing we made every effort to prepare Slow Motion for the journey she's taking us on.

One final note: Last night as we dined at Anthony's, which is supposed to make the best pizza in Ft. Lauderdale, a couple sat down at the table next to us. Shortly after they arrived, it started pouring outside and the man turned to me (his companion was on a smart phone) and commented on the change of weather. I gave some sort of vanilla response. We smiled. Then our food came -- it is one of the better pizzas in the world. Art and I had a conversation. The woman at the table next to us stayed on the phone. The man looked somewhat wistfully at us. When it was time to pay the bill, the waitress said: "It's been taken care of." Art asked for a repeat, and she said "It's been taken care of." He shrugged, like this is an every day occurrence for him. He headed to the SUV to drive it to the door (sweet!), and I left a tip and turned to the man at the next table and thanked him. He said: "You're welcome. You're a beautiful couple." Art says we probably looked so down on our luck that the man, who was well dressed and well coifed, felt sorry for us. But that's not what he said, so I went to bed thinking that I am half of a beautiful couple.Soon to be a beautiful boating couple. As Pat would say, Yay!