Throwing away mood....

For those of you who have not heard, I will be moving onto a boat in October. When I tell people this, they ask me, "what are you going to do with your stuff?" My response, "sell it all." In order to do that, I have to go through everything. Throw away the junk, list the better stuff on Craigslist, and the rest will go in an estate sale. Today, I started the "going through stuff".

I have two filing cabinets... full of stuff I haven't used or looked at in years. Today was the day to tackle that.

It was a trip down memory lane. My best, and most exciting find, was finding the Quickbooks disk I have been looking for... for a few years now!

How many of you remember these? And, don't forget the floppy disk. Yes, they all went in the trash.

I found a lot of items like this. Not sure why they weren't trashed a long time ago.

This process is a little harder than I thought it would be. It's like letting go of the old, and starting a new life. A friend told me that at her last move, she had an open door sale, and that it was very freeing. I'm thinking that it will be the same for me. I have the memories, don't have to hang onto the tangible items that go along with them. It's unfortunate my memory is so bad!

NON-SKID

There are several different ways to create a non-skid surface on your deck. I liked the non-skid that Charlie Jones has on Traveler, so that's what I used on TARDIS. It was easy to apply, using a 1/8 inch roller. I am very pleased with the results.

To tape off the area, I went to O'Reilly Auto Parts and bought 1/4 inch pin stripe. It goes on easy and lays flat in the turns. Then I used the blue painter's tape too.

All the varnishing is completed now.

The sail kit has been ordered.

This week will be used for gathering hardware, and looking for a trailer. This build is coming to an end, THANK GOD!!!!

It has been fun, but I'm ready to get on the water. The next chapter of my life will start on the day I splash TARDIS! When will that be, you ask? I'm shooting for September 8th.

MY 5-YEAR PLAN

Last year, when my life was going through it's changes, I decided on a 5-year plan. In 5 years, I would have me a sailboat, and move onto it. Well, my 5-year plan turned into a 1-year plan.

My friends, currently living on s/v Flatulence, will leave it behind and go cruising on their other boat. I went to see her yesterday, and it just felt right... I will buy her and move onto her in October. I'm so excited! Then it hit me... I have a 4 bedroom home full of "stuff". I do not want to rent storage, so it has to go. I have two months to decide what I can't live without.

This is a big life changing event for me. CHANGE has been the theme of my life for the past year. It has been good for me though. I have grown as a person, and asked myself many times... "why not".

I adopted the motto: "Be bold and courageous. When you look back on your life, you will regret the things you didn't do, more than the ones you did. " #19 on the 21 SUGGESTIONS FOR SUCCESS by H. Jackson Brown, Jr. This was a poster that hung on my wall for 9 years, but #19 jumped out at me one day... about a year ago.

Before that day, I would always tell myself, "you can't do that". Now, when I have that thought, I ask myself, "why not?" If I don't come up with a good excuse, I do it. This is one of those times, I couldn't think of a reason to NOT live on a boat, but a lot of reasons why I should.

Getting rid of all this "stuff" around me, will be a little hard at first. I, in the past, was a collector. I would tell myself that I might need that, and stuff it in the attic. Of course, most of it was never disturbed again until I had to move. That is when I would purge. It is time to purge once more. This time, instead of looking for things to throw out, I will be looking for things to keep. I will ask myself, "how long has it been since you used this?" In a way, it will be "freeing". I have met a few people recently that have that gypsy spirit, minimalist type people. I am gravitating to that mind-set.

My Paradox boat, TARDIS, will be completed soon. I hope to splash her this month. That, along with my move on the water, will be the beginning of a new way of life for me. I will spend most of my free time... on the water. I've been asked what my plans are for TARDIS. My plans are to sail her a lot. I plan to take her to Key West, where my daughter moved. Sail her to the Bahamas next year ( from the Florida coast). There will be many weekend trips in her, and you can read about them all here. But first, I need to finish her. This weekend will be filled with varnish, bending a bronze rod, a little epoxy, a little paint, finding more lead, buying hardware.... and the list goes on. Hummm, where did I put that wine glass.....