Still Summer in October

Our neighbors George and Mary, John and Smiley returned from their vacation on the Pacific coast. The hurricane Marian was heading to Abreojos where they stay in their trailer at a camp ground. They wanted to be safe rather than sorry. As it turned out the hurricane fizzled out but it did bring rain to the coast. Mary had gathered up some dried seaweed, sand dollars and shells while she was there and gave some of them to me. It was awesome. I will have fun creating something out of them. I have already started making creatures since I have been back. Let’s see----I made another lizard, 2 fish, a hermit crab, a stingray and some others. I’m on a roll. I need to seal them with polyurethane and then they will be ready to sell. The gals want to have a small gathering before Christmas to sell some of their craft items for gifts. So I will have my creatures and some other things there also.

Just after Marian went away another hurricane was building south of Cabo San Lucas. It actually turned right and started heading up the Sea of Cortez. All the cruisers and us too were concerned. Dave kept a close eye on it and even gave reports to the cruisers that were anchored in the Bay of L.A. (Bahia de Los Angeles). Norman never traveled up the Sea and made landfall north of Mazatlan. Then it turned around and headed back the way it came and died out in the Pacific. We did have a little rain but nothing serious. The cruisers are getting ready to make their voyage south so they are very interested in keeping tabs on what the weather is doing. The cruisers that have been around while we were cruising know that Dave worked for Noah (Oops----I meant NOAA) and trust what he has to share. Dave looks at several different weather forecasts and goes with the ones that are known to be reliable. Hurricane season isn’t over until November and since it has been so hot the water is very warm and feeds the storms. Luckily the season is winding down. We are in Santa Rosalia checking on the boat. Actually she looks pretty good. The red danger tape I put on the spreaders are gone. The wind and heat probably got to them but it looks like they served the purpose of keeping the cormorants off the spreaders. It is hot and humid here and we are enjoying our air conditioner!!!! There are some cruisers here and some we have met before so it was good to talk to them. We arrived on Monday, and then Tuesday the cockpit got cleaned. The tarp we had covering our small solar panel for the start battery had been shredded and needed to be taken off. Dave did that and said it was really yucky underneath. There was a lot of dirt and some fish remains. He was going to power wash it. A quick job right? Well guess what!!!! It didn’t work! Dave ended up taking it apart and since he didn’t have the right tools with us this trip he will have to take it home to work on it. Hopefully he can get it to work. We hadn’t planned on spending $200 to buy a new one. That isn’t in the budget. The pressure washer does make light work of washing the boat, but we can still scrub it like we use to. Matter of fact that is what I did while Dave was taking the pressure washer apart. Now the boat is clean and we will buy another tarp to replace the one we took off. Because of the rain we have had plants are popping up all over the place. There is this one plant that has long white flowers. I have never seen it here before. It opens in the daytime and closes at night. It is nice to see flowers in this dry, for the most part, barren land. It has been like summer this month. We aren’t complaining but it is warm. I can remember last year it turning cold around the middle of the month. Comforters are too heavy and even sheets are too warm!!!! I know----those of you who are into the cold season wish you had such a problem eh?!!!!! The weather has changed all over so it is hard to predict what any given day or month is going to be like. That is alright. Just give me warm days, sunshine, and cool nights and I’m good!!! The water here is still warm and my neighbors have been swimming, kayaking and paddle boarding. I am back playing games with the girls. I played train for half a day and played Hand and Foot another day and won the money pot of $5 but of course that was with my dollar in there. We heard from our landlords, the man that came to look at the house is coming back next month and bringing his wife. Apparently she liked the pictures he took and how he described it. Dave and I are ready for it to be sold, but if not, we will talk to Larry and Lois about long term renting to own. When the boat sells we will be braking even so we won’t be getting any money from the sale, however we will be saving a bunch so things will be much better. My youngest son just got married on the 27th!!!!! Hooray!!! Susannah is a wonderful lady and they seem so very happy! They are expecting their first child (a boy) in January. I am very excited!!!! That will make 8 grandsons. I guess we weren’t meant to have any granddaughters. That’s o.k.!! Jon and Susannah went to the court house to get married and then this summer will have a reception or remarry in the church. Dave and I should be there for that!!! Here is some good news about the boat. Dave got an email from a man who lives in Loreto, south of Santa Rosalia where we moor the boat. He was heading north to the states and stopped at the marina to see if there were any boats for sale. He saw ours and liked it. He called the broker, but no one was there. It was about 4 o’clock in the afternoon and no one was there. He somehow got Dave’s email address and contacted him saying he is interested in seeing the boat. He was heading to Oregon for family business and wasn’t sure how long he would be but he would keep in touch. He asked Dave some questions which he answered and we shall see what happens. It sounds promising but we aren’t going to get too excited yet!!!! Things are starting to happen and I can see good coming to a long and frustrating wait!!!! God has a plan and I know it will be great when it comes together. It’s hard to wait though. In the meantime we have a great place to live and a beautiful view of the bay and mountains and the people are nice!!!! We definitely want to stay here in this area if we can but we shall see. Dave turned 65 today, Halloween!!!! Happy, Happy Day!!! May there be many more happy ones to come! Our friends Creela and Phil arrived from San Diego so we had them over for a pork roast dinner. It is good to have them back in the neighborhood!!!! Both guys are anxious to go fishing.