This That and Everything Else

With so much going on in my life, you'd think that I'd have an endless list of topics about which to blog.

You'd be right. What I've lacked is time.

I thought, foolishly, that once Barktoberfest was over, I'd have hours and hours of time back at night to do lots of different things and catch up on stuff. Ha. I forgot that a week later I'd start a Coast Guard Auxiliary class on Boating Safety and Seamanship. Why, you ask?

Did I tell you that I bought a boat? I think so. I actually purchased the boat in late August but it sat out of the water at a marina for a couple of months while I waited for a boat lift to be installed at my house. To be absolutely correct, I waited for the permits to clear the different agencies so the work could be done. The installation only took two days. The permit approval took w-e-e-k-s. First through the Dept. of Environmental Protection, then the Army Corps of Engineers, then the city where I live. Normally these different departments take their own sweet time, but the regular process was further delayed by matters completely out of anyone's control.

The person at the Army Corps apparently came down with the swine flu the day before she would have completed and mailed out my permit.

The city inspectors couldn't get down my street to check out the plan because of the huge construction trucks installing the sewer infrastructure. (More on that later)

Finally, however, everything got done and my boat is now home, sitting on its lift where I can take it out whenever the opportunity rises.

I LOVE having my own boat. What fun.

I'll enjoy it even more when I've built up my experience, skills and knowledge. Hence the Coast Guard class.

Two classes a week. Two and a half hours each class. Three weeks. We covered safety equipment, chart plotting, navigation, weather, radio usage, rules of boating, signs/markers. Each chapter was at least 20 pages long and crammed with information. I studied like I haven't since college. (My father in Heaven might be rolling his eyes wishing I'd studied this hard IN college.)

I truly thought that the chapter on weather would do me in with the various types of clouds, the westerlies, the trade winds, the high and low pressure systems and everything else.

Happily, I passed the final exam, correctly answering 79 of 80 questions! I gained a boating license and, finally, more time at night.

More time at night, which I'll no doubt enjoy more now that the big weekend event at work is over. Oh, and I'm sure that I'll enjoy that extra time, once I'm done preparing for and working at Bark Bingo on Wednesday. After that, I really don't have much to do to prepare out booth for the City's 10th Anniversary event on Saturday.

Yes, surely, with all this extra free time I'll be 100% percent better at blogging on a more regular basis.

I promise!