Staycation Report

All in all, the staycation has been restful, but it wasn’t long before we realized that despite our best efforts and planning, it never felt the same as a vacation away from home. The original plan called for us to spend several days and nights on the boat, but that turned into just a couple of day trips out on the boat. And that turned into a fiasco.

As you might recall, the boat was recently overhauled, so that it would be in perfect working order for the Summer. We spent Wednesday on the boat and everything worked fine, but the overall experience was lackluster and it inspired some lengthy discussions about our commitment to keeping the boat. The biggest single issue is our time. For example, when we bought the boat, I didn’t work on weekends; now I do. It has been increasingly difficult to justify the expense of the boat and the slip, considering how rarely we enjoy those things. Anyway, the discussions left us leaning heavily towards selling the boat at the end of the Summer. And then, to punctuate or protest our decision, the boat died while we were headed home after one of our day trips. Sigh. Fangdango strikes again. So, we had the boat towed to Grant’s shop.

The next morning, Grant called and said the boat was ready. The problem had been a minor wiring issue. We picked-up the boat and drove it back to our slip. And then, while maneuvering through the marina, with its rows of boats that cost more than our house, the engine died again. Kimberly was already in the back of the boat and I leapt to the front to see if we could keep our four-ton, out-of-control paperweight from hitting anything. Kimberly called for help and two gentlemen rushed to our aid. Between the four of us, we managed to walk the boat to our slip without incident. Still, I was apoplectic.

Today we will be taking all of our personal items off of the boat in preparation for its sale. Despite its poor dependability this week, it really is mostly an issue of lifestyle and time. I’ll admit that it is heartbreaking, because it is a beautiful boat. C’est la vie. I’ll probably post an extended for sale ad on this site and link to it from the blog (and craigslist, and eBay).

Enough about the boat. Let me tell you about the most fun day that we had on our staycation. Because we don’t go out often and we certainly don’t go shopping (ugh), Kimberly and I tend to accumulate gift cards. Sadly, many of them expire before we can use them (all part of the gift card scam, you know), but many of the better ones do not. So, on one day this week, we took a fist full of gift cards and spent the whole day running around for free. We saw The Dark Night using free movie passes and we even bought concessions with a whole sheet of “cinema bux” we had picked-up somewhere. Since I am in the middle class, I haven’t bought concessions since I was a kid! Sadly, I know that kids these days don’t buy them, because I worked it out and drugs are cheaper than theater concessions, so why would they? Seriously, who can afford to buy that stuff?

The Dark Night was awesome. Was it the best and most l33t movie EvAR!!!!111!!1one??? Um, no. But it was very good and it worked for me. And yes, Heath Ledger deserves a posthumous Academy Award nomination for his role as The Joker. An added bonus was seeing the trailer for the upcoming 007 flick Quantum of Solace and the trailer for The Watchmen. Now, I knew what The Watchmen was, but I had never actually read it. So, I borrowed a copy from Dave Farabee on Thursday and I have been reading it since. It’s wordy for a comical book, but I’m digging it. I also really liked the trailer over which played The Smashing Pumpkin’s The Beginning is the End is the Beginning, which I had never heard before. It’s a slowed-down version of The End is the Beginning is the End from Batman and Robin, but with modified lyrics. Did you get all that?

Afterwards, we went out to eat for free and then we went on a Barnes & Noble shopping spree where I picked-up the first two seasons of MI-5 (an outstanding BBC TV show called Spooks in the UK), almost completely for free. We have been watching episodes every night since then.

The grand unification experiment with the iPhone has gone very well. All of my major email accounts dump into the phone. Only my work email is left and I will take care of that this week…when I go back to work. Yes, it’s that time again – Sunday afternoon, when the mind invariably wanders towards work on Monday. Monday. Monday…

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