Can Controversy

Who knew?...  So we bought a few canned good staples... peeled off the labels... wrote the contents on the cans and stuffed them into the Port Settee hullside locker...  This sparked a rousing round of commentary on the Dos Libras Facebook page...

You just never know what's gonna set one of these things off!  But!  It got us thinking... we were reminded of things that helped us to clarify our thoughts about what and how to stockpile.

I will admit that in our life on land, I had a large pantry full of stuff that went in there to die.  I would buy an ingredient or a few cans of something and never see them again.  Now and then we would sort through and throw out the expired stuff... and there was a LOT of expired stuff!  This is something I vowed to work on once we moved aboard... and I would say that while not cured, I'm certainly recovering.

Yes... I know that there will be food everywhere we go... (at least I hope there will...).  But here's the thing.  I would like to ease into this and need to have a stock of staple ingredients on hand that I think will allow us to make familiar and easy meals, with the addition of a few fresh items purchased along the way.  We will be stocking a few of our "go to" meals for those times when we don't really have anything great to fix.  Bruce just can't live without canned chili.  Sometimes he just wants it!

I have a Sam's Club membership through my work that will expire at about the same time I quit my job.   I have found their stock limited but the few things they have that we DO use can be purchased in bulk for less than we would pay in a regular grocery store.  Especially with small town store prices like here in Port A.  So, we have made a couple of trips to Sam's... and will probably make one more run.

Cleaning the grime and mildew from the hull.

We are still learning to use our space.  Thus far, we have left many of the little cubbies and lockers alone.  The space in our galley has been sufficient for our needs.  But... we need to explore the storage options and this takes time.  I'm a clean freak and must first make sure that the proposed storage nook is clean, dry (mostly) and free of grime and mildew.  I cleaned the boat when we got her but have found that it is time to do it again...  This means we drag out stuff, find new places for it, go to work with the cleaning supplies and follow up with a spritz of Tea Tree oil & water to discourage future mildew growth.  Then it has to dry naturally.  Finally, I'm using that rubbery mesh stuff found in the shelf-paper aisle along the hull as a cushion to reduce noise and so that air can circulate between the cans and the hull.

We will be taking a stock of paper goods along as well.  I've purchased TP, tissue and paper towels but haven't decided where we will store them yet.  They'll probably go behind or beneath our bed in the aft cabin but I haven't found sturdy waterproof bags to store them in or devised a way to secure them yet.  We can't have them moving around in stormy seas and working their way over to the steering quadrant causing havoc...

And what's the deal with removing the labels from the cans?  I have done a lot of reading about storage issues while cruising.   One helpful hint that I picked up is that the cans can often move around causing their labels to come off.  If this happens, it's mystery meals for us!  I'm being proactive in removing the labels from cans stored in the less accessible lockers so that this doesn't happen to us.  Also, if the labels come off, they have to go somewhere... I'm thinking this would be a soggy mess to clean up in the bowels of the boat.  If the labels don't come off... they may become mildewy and nasty looking which is a turnoff to me.  I'd rather remove them from the onset than deal with possible future complications.


My next round of purchases will be things like powdered milk and eggs.  I just need to know they are there when I need them.  Rice, pasta and baking ingredients will need to be transferred from their original packaging to moisture proof containers.  I haven't decided what I will use for those things but will probably be using storage boxes to further protect them from moisture.  Those will most likely be stored in the v-berth when we don't have guests.

Lastly, there are some foods that we just love and are brand specific.  I will cruise the aisles of the HEB super store and load the basket with those things that make us happy.  I know that I will develop new loves in our travels... but it helps me to know that for a while, there will be at least SOME of the comforts of home....

Relieved! And Back On Track

To me, the offending blob looks just like the rest of the blobs!

I'm awake... I'm up from a deep sleep induced by my earlier ingestion of an anti-anxiety medicaition given to me to make it possible for me to go willingly to an appointment I had this morning.

It all started when I dutifully presented myself for my yearly mammogram... Dup de-du, no biggie.  I have no family history and no breasts to speak of anyway... how could I have a problem?

But wait... the nurse tells me there was an abnormality.  What?  I'm sent to the radiology place to have a second mammogram and possibly an ultrasound.  At this point, I'm still not frightened.  I hear all the time that the incidence of false positives is high... so the place just wants to generate some income to pay for that nice facility they have over there...  I'm not happy but OK...

I arrive to the facility on the day of my workup mammo and guess what?  They DO want to do the ultrasound.  I guessed that one... So I submit to the ultrasound, which was totally not painful, just weird... My mind flits from the indignity of it all, to wondering why the tech is making so many clicking sounds over on the machine, to just wanting to spring off the table and bolt for the door.  The tech finishes and I am asked to wait in my private cubicle while she shows the results to the radiologist.
Tick Tock, finally she comes back and says I'm free to go, but that she thinks they're going to want to re-do the test in 3 to 6 months.

Ok, so I'm not dying now...but in six months it could be a different story!?  Whoa there!  We have plans!  We are sailing off into the sunrise in four months.  I can't be having this!  I convince myself that its just another of those many false positives and I'm quite able to sleep at night with that!

The next week I have my scheduled visit with my Gyn.  She reviews the results but feels nothing in the exam.  I have no symptoms no pain, nothing!  I'm thinking I'm going to get away...  But she tells me that SINCE I'm leaving soon and will have no coverage for this type of thing... she wants me to get a second opinion.  She sends me to the surgeon who did my recent appendectomy.  I'm comfortable with him so I submit.

Another week goes by and my mind is working on me some... but I'm good at convincing myself that it's going to go my way... this is just a formality, an inconvenience to be endured...  I hear about a patient at work who gets scheduled for a needle biopsy but when she shows up and they do the ultrasound, there's no nodule so she goes free!  This will happen to me!

The surgeon does his exam and looks the films over... he says "we need to get something under a microscope" SCREEEECH  Stop!  There is NO NODULE!  Just a smudge!  I tell him the story about the case at work.  He tells me... "if they have measured it, they can biopsy it".  I have to be a big girl and swallow my needle phobia.  OK, I'll do it.  I guess I DO want to know if it IS nothing before we leave...

Another five horrible days go by... my mind is doing bad things to me.  I'm tense and snappy and closed off.  I'm like the lion with the thorn in it's paw.  I get through the weekend and make it through Monday with the help of a Xanax.  The call from the technician to give me my prep instructions throws me over the edge.  I'm a nutcase.  If it weren't for Xanax I don't know how I would have made it.

Morning dawns and I am quiet and sullen.  I'm not happy about this.  I pop a pill and begin showering and dressing to leave.  Bruce takes me to the facility where I present myself at the desk.  I'm mellow so no drama...  I'm soon called in and Bruce trails behind me.  He has instructions not to let me see any needles and to scratch my forehead while they're doing the extraction... you know, like we do to the cats at the vet to keep them from realizing that there's a thermometer in their booty?  Oh, yes and he's forbidden to make any "gasping" noises...

I undress and don the robe.  The girl tells me that the radiologist has reviewed the films and doesn't think he can do the biopsy because there is NO NODULE!!!!!!   What?  Did I hear her right.  Those bastards!

Into the room I go and stretch out on the exam table.  She does another ultrasound...  click click click.  She takes those out and returns with the radiologist.  He's very nice and puts his hand on my shin... it's warm and I feel a soothing influence wash over me.  He watches the technician do a few more views and he says "there's nothing there".  Nothing to biopsy.  It's NORMAL!  I can't stop the grin and they don't have to ask me twice to get out of there!

In the car, I start to shake and tears well up in my eyes, threatening to spill over.  I'm dressed like a bum and drugged up woozy but I call my assistant to tell her what is happening.  I'm a MESS!  She tells me to go home and sleep it off... so I do.  Days of tension left me drained and I slept all afternoon.

Now that my head is clearing... I'm struggling not to be mad that I've gone through all of this for nothing.  I'm grateful that it was nothing... but I can't help think of the expense and the worry for a mere "maybe".  I'm mad that with all the modern miracles at our disposal, patients are drug through all of this on the off chance that something might be wrong.

Maybe I shouldn't examine the reasons for this too closely... greed?  Surely.  Fear of malpractice suits?  Surely.  These things are driving the cost of medical care to dizzying heights.  If it weren't for the fact that I might sue someone if they don't find my problem and fix it... maybe I could have waited. Maybe medical care wouldn't be so expensive as to make it necessary for me to do this now because I won't be able to afford it later.

Yes, I'm glad it turned out alright and I feel much better knowing.  But, wouldn't it have been nice to have skipped about half of this little exercise and be in the same spot?  So now, I'm back to planning our escape!  With NO WORRIES!

I Dream In Motion

                                                                        Ocean Dream

The transition for me has been seamless... like slipping from waking to a dream.  Only now the dream is my reality.  

Nearly four months....  Such a short time really, and yet, it seems as if we've lived here in our little cocoon forever.  Maybe we didn't have as far to go as others... like those people who just decide one day that they're going to buy a boat and get on it.  Cold Turkey, total emersion.... No, for us, this has been the best part of our lives for a long time.  So when people ask us "how can you live in such a small space?", we've stopped trying to explain.

The time has passed so quickly.  Suddenly, Winter is coming to a close.  Perhaps moving aboard in Winter has helped us along.   The South Texas Winter hardly deserves to be called a season.  It is nothing like real winter...but it does often have us holed up inside.  Has it has really been unseasonably cold, wet and dreary this year, or are we just more keenly aware of the day to day changes, living out in it as we do?  Maybe a little of both... 

I do know that it has given us the time to bond with our new home.  We've fallen into step with the daily life.  When I say I'm going home... I mean Dos Libras.  I no longer dream  of life on land... I dream in motion.  

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This is my post for the Monthly Raft-Up series.  The topic for March is:  Moving Aboard.  Please click HERE to read my earlier post on the subject.

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