Definitely Warmer

Fowler and the girls took a ride down the Itchetucknee River this afternoon.

Drawing Is Hard!

           As part of our homeschool curriculum, the girls have each chosen a subject to teach to the family. Thia has been teaching us Spanish, and Janele chose to teach art. Having taken Spanish in high school, I find Thia’s lessons easier, though they are interesting and she likes to add a bit of fun. Janele’s lessons are a different beast all together, for me.

Janele is a good instructor. She is careful to explain what she is teaching, having practiced the skills herself in her preparations, and offers a lot of positive reinforcement. This is good, because I find the practice downright frustrating. Janele is taking us through the basics of drawing, started right at the beginning with the different hand positions, and how pencil leads of varying softness produce different effects on the paper. I did not know any of this, and even trying to use the proper hand positions is frustrating. It turns out my fine motor control is great, I can add detail like a maniac, but the gross motor is another story, trying to make fluid, sweeping lines, using my whole arm is just not happening. My lines all end up wobbly and shaky, not at all in the shape I mean them to be. Also, shading? Ugh! I have a very hard time seeing the actual shape of the shadows, instead of what I think they are. Does that make any sense? Maybe not, if you have never tried to do this.  I am thinking this is like everything else I never tried to learn until I reached adulthood, VERY HARD!

An example: today’s lesson was to draw a bowl of fruit, below is what I did.

 

 

 

I am interested to know what fruit you think is in that bowl. It is not in color, so it may be difficult, but what do the shapes tell you? Also, ignore the fact that I seemed to be holding my paper at the angle appropriate for cursive writing, this must be a habit leftover from my grade-school days. “Old Dog” here.

I have made progress, and my teacher says I am doing pretty well. However, I have to remind myself not to compare my work with that of Thia, who has been doodling since she could hold a chunky crayon between her fingers, and Fowler, who has always enjoyed drawing and painting, even taken a few classes. In comparison, my work is woefully below standard. I have always preferred a different form of artistic expression. Is there a dance-floor in the house?

Anyway, I keep reminding myself that is okay, but this is very frustrating when I can’t put onto the paper what I see. It is a good reminder to me, though, of what it is like for each of the girls when we are going over their other subjects and they don’t understand the work. Stop, take a deep breath, maybe walk around a bit, we will get there.

If you are interested, here is the photo of what I was attempting to draw. Those are grapes, a couple of limequats, and a pomegranate, sitting on a flat table, not at 25 degree angle.

Living Small

While wandering around a local antiques store here in High Springs, FL, I was talking to Thia about what sorts of things we'd like to put in our home, after we settle. I was mentioning different rooms, and her comment went something like, "Wow, that's like 5 rooms."

I suppose all of this time we have been "living smaller" has had an effect on her perspective. Compared to what we've had in the past, and to that of many of our friends and family, 5 rooms do not make a very big living space.

Tallahassee Fun

We started our day at the Tallahassee Veteran's Day Parade, and followed it with an afternoon at Wakulla Springs State Park. There, we got to see a lot of manatee, and alligators, and birds. Thia caught a tiny fish in her water bottle (let it go), and Janele swam in the springs. We topped it off with an ice cream!

Road Trip!

                In the early years after we moved to New York, I found a neighbor who shared my frustrations in the spring when the weather got “warmer”. I put that in quotes, because if I am still wearing fleece layers, I do not believe “warm” should in any way be used to describe the temperature. People seem to think 40°F, after a winter far below that, is perfect weather for the shorts and t-shirt that had shifted to the back of the drawer. They are wrong, every year, but they keep at it. This is the definition of optimism in upstate NY. It does not work for me. I need to bake in the sun.

                So my new friend and I were commiserating about the cold, and contemplating our children’s upcoming spring break. We didn’t have any plans at that point, and perhaps we had a few too many cups of coffee, but out of this conversation, arose a plan for our Spring Break Road Trip! And we were excited! We were going to get warm, whatever it took!

                The plan was simple: drive. We were ready to pile our four kids, sunscreen, snacks, etc. into my minivan, and drive south. If we had to go to Key West to get warm, were ready! We mapped a rough route, noting who we knew along the way (family in Long Island, and the Carolinas, friends in Georgia and Florida, all the way down the coast) that we could visit, to break up the driving, stretch our legs and rest our heads. We had notes, and left each other, ready to fill in our significant others, and start contacting our kin. We were going on a Road Trip for Spring Break!

                I think it took a couple of days, or perhaps for me it was just the look on Fowler’s face when I shared it with him, for me to realize the gaping flaw in this plan: time, or the lack of time. Spring Break is a week, and with all we had planned, it was very likely that we would get to a beach somewhere in South Florida with precisely enough time to dip our toes in the water, while basking for a minute in that warm sun, before piling back into the van, to make the long drive home. It was exciting to plan, but that would have been crazy. At some point, we came to our senses, and toughed it out until the weather warmed. Eventually, I shed the fleece layers, and we had summer in NY. Though we didn’t make that trip, Susan and I, with our four kids, have made a number of road trips in that van, and I will always remember that time of fevered planning with a smile.

Then yesterday, somewhere on I-85, driving through the Carolinas in our newly leased Subaru, loaded to the hilt (but not with snacks. This is a new car, no eating in the car…yet.)  I realized I am now on that trip. Only this time, I get to bask in the sun for a while, before we begin the trip back north again. But for now, as we drive, I am getting warmer.

Another Point of View

Way back when we decided to go cruising, we went to Boston for a weekend, and instead of staying in a traditional hotel or B&B, we stayed on someone's boat. I never knew you could do that, but I should have. Anywhere anyone lives, people have been known to rent. That was the first time I think I spent a night on anything that was smaller than a cruise ship (and even that was only once). I grew up on the coast around boats, but they were power boats, used on the weekends. It was nice.

We spent time walking the docks, looking at all of the boats around, there was every kind. One in particular was about 35 feet, a sailboat with a very friendly couple living aboard. They invited us onboard to chat. We talked about living aboard, and our newly hatched plans. We traded information, and have kept in touch some since then.

From that conversation, I was introduced to the National Women's Sailing Association, a group based in Marblehead, MA of women who are passionate about the sport, and cruising. For each of the last 4 years, I have attended their annual conference in Marblehead in June, and met some amazing people there: women who have raced sailboats, singlehanded across the Pacific Ocean; who have circumnavigated the globe; who race in their local yachting club; as well as those who live aboard. I have met women working in every facet of sailing: instruction, reporting, competing, and the all important installation, maintenance, and repairs of the countless systems onboard boats. These are women who love the sport of sailing, and want to share it with as many others as they can. They are a great resource, and have been some of the first people I call when figuring out what I need to do next.

In Marblehead last June, I ended up meeting Elaine Lembo, with Cruising World Magazine. She gets to report on all the big races, as well as what is going on in the world of cruisers. We talked for a while. I told her about our plans to set sail, and confided how frustratingly slow our preparations were going at the time. I had remembered some of the articles she had written. We stayed in touch, and agreed to meet up again at the Annapolis Boat show, this time we would be there on FORTUITOUS.

Elaine had said she might like to write something about what we were doing: how we had prepared, managing all of the transitions, adjusting to boating life, so when we met in Annapolis, and I told her how our plans had changed, she was clearly surprised, but she still wanted to write about us. She asked Thia and I about what we were doing, and what led us to where we are. The following link is her take on our story: Cruising World: A Dream On Hold?

I think she got there in the end.

Working for Her Supper

We're getting the boat ready for winter storage, and fixing up some of the woodwork. I think some of it hasn't been touched in 30 years. When Thia saw me heating and scraping, she asked if she could take a turn. Sure!

Turns out, after the first 10 minutes, the job loses its luster. She's hanging in there, though.