How close to the $100,000 are we?

Well, in late August I would have been able to tell you that we only had $97,177 to go. Pretty awesome, right? That's a combination of raffle ticket sales (thanks to our largest buyer, Pops!) and the adjustments we'd made in our lifestyle habits.

And then work slowed down for Jer-Bear. And then the economy fell apart and all Jer-Bear's work went away. Now even my day job is being cut back 20% as of January, with who knows what on the horizon.

So now we are back to the starting point. Which is okay, because in these times–especially when you factor in that Olympic Boat Centers have closed–I'm sure the price of a Bayliner 300 is less than $100,000.

Right Bayliner? Bayliner? Hello?

raffle, boating, Bayliner

This could be an exciting time!

Here is an excerpt from a great letter written by a hedge fund manager closing up shop:

"Capitalism worked for two hundred years, but times change, and systems become corrupt. George Soros, a man of staggering wealth, has stated that he would like to be remembered as a philosopher. My suggestion is that this great man start and sponsor a forum for great minds to come together to create a new system of government that truly represents the common man’s interest, while at the same time creating rewards great enough to attract the best and brightest minds to serve in government roles without having to rely on corruption to further their interests or lifestyles. This forum could be similar to the one used to create the operating system, Linux, which competes with Microsoft’s near monopoly."

My own highlights are in blue. Sometimes things get so bad it's time to start over. What an exciting opportunity outlined above for the U.S. and perhaps the world–an opportunity to start over the right way, with the right focus.

Here is a link to the full letter.

Sorry to take the boat blog into politics, but then again I'm not :)

Bionic Eyes

Most people, no matter how inept they may be at most of life’s things, are really good at SOMETHING. Like Jer-Bear. Now I haven’t found anything that Jer-Bear is inept at, unlike myself, but he’s a guy that can figure things out, like how to fix things. And not just how to fix things half-assed, like the way I would fix things because I don’t really know how to fix things, I just think you can wrap it, join it or cover it with duct tape and it’s all good. But he fixes things the right way, so that if that Mike Holmes guy came over and looked at it, he’d say “Now that’s the right way to fix that.”

Some people are good at style. Like Dara has a knack for knowing how to put an outfit together. That might not sound like much, but I will never buy a clothing item now without taking her shopping with me. She’s a thousand times better than the sales people at picking the right colour, right style and right accompanying garment (because you can’t go into a dressing room without a complete outfit.) I love her to death, but most of the time as soon as she hangs up the phone she’s pretty much forgotten everything whoever was on the other end told her–unless it’s her friend Jayme. But I digress into the bottomless land that is teen world.

I’m okay at a lot of things, but the one thing I have a knack for is finding stuff with my eyes. Not finding the roll of toilet paper I JUST had in my hand two minutes ago (found in the living room) or those papers I was supposed to bring to work (left them in fridge–still can’t figure THAT one out), but little things, like once when I was little I was out riding my bike and I found a ten dollar bill laying on the ground in the gravel. And last week I found a crumpled up five dollar bill lying around in Wal-Mart. And once, when we were grouse hunting with Jer-Bear’s dad, I spotted one of the little fellers on a stump in the bush. I won’t tell you about how he took so long to shoot at it that it flew farther into the bush, and he tramped after it for about 15-20 minutes with no luck but a lot of swear words. I’ll just tell you the part how he was really impressed with my BIONIC EYESIGHT (Ok, “bionic eyesight” are my words, but I bet if someone had asked right there “How did she even SEE that?!” he would have said “I dunno – she must have bionic eyesight or SOMEthing.” I’m pretty sure that’s how it would have gone.)

So yesterday, when we were on our way to drop Jer-Bear’s kids off to their mom, we stopped by to see “our” boat. Sadly, they were closed and they had our baby locked up with the other lonely boats, not allowing anyone to coo and fawn over them and make love to them with our eyes from a shorter distance then the while wrought iron fence.

But while we were there, Jeremy found a penny. A CANADIAN penny. At the boat store. Is that not fate?! Then this morning, and I don’t know how this can get any more amazing, Jer-Bear finds a dime at the corner store.

He picks it up and gets into the truck and says “A penny yesterday, a dime today! That’s 11 cents for doing nothing!”

And I’m thinking “Hey, you can’t steal my magic power.” And now, if he finds one more thing with his eyes, I may cut him.

raffle, boating, Bayliner

Intoxicating wenches!

I’m back to drinking caff coffee. For many years I didn’t drink caffeine because it was a part of my eating lifestyle plan. No caffeine, no sugar, but I did use cream. It was all about eating real and natural stuff. Don’t even bring up that I use sweetener. I’m not goddamned perfect, okay?

But part of our savings plan is to eliminate unnecessary spending. We’ve cut waaayyyy back on Starbucks–Jer-Bear never goes any more, and I only go occasionally with friends at work (decaf Americano, in case you were curious.)

So now we perk coffee at home. And for simplicity’s sake, because we both want a coffee shot in the morning, we make one pot and it’s caffeinated. And the other morning, after we’d each filled up our mugs, he says to me “I’m proud of you.” And I say “For what?” and he says “For drinking caffeinated coffee.” And I say “Thanks.” But inside I’m wondering does anyone congratulate a heroin addict when they pick up the spoon and cotton ball again?

And just so you know, right now as I re-read that last paragraph, I’m smiling in a smug way at my wit and sipping from my coffee mug as I polish off my third post in 5 minutes. Ahhhhh, Caffeine, you full-bosomed, intoxicating wench!

raffle, boating, Bayliner

Shoe Box Hero

Earlier this week we walked into an actual bank with this:



We felt a tad bit embarrassed, but then we heard the Bayliner chant in our hearts (it's really just the word "Bayliner" over and over again, not an organized saying or anything) and any discomfort disappeared.

We are now the proud owners of a GIC. That's a guaranteed interest certificate. Based on our investment, we'll be pocketing a cool $2.35 a month! Holey mokey, someone better get us our captain's hat!

P.S. Baretrap shoes are the bomb–and I'm not just trying to suck up for corporate sponsorship. Although, dammit, that's a great idea.