There are times when you make decisions and the results make you ask “What if?” Those “What Ifs?” can drive you crazy. One such decision for me happened nearly 25 years ago, when my twin left on a drive back to San Diego, headed back to school. This is the first time I am writing [...]
Two symbols of commitment—the wedding band that Gee gave me and the turkshead bracelet I made for Ellie. I wear them both to honor the memories of these two amazing women and to show the life-long commitment I made to each of them. Last summer, before I realized the extent of Ellie’s addictions, I promised [...]
The Serenity Prayer or Neibhur’s Prayer starts with an almost universally recongized: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. My friend Grant wrote that being a twin isn’t always easy, but he wouldn’t trade it [...]
I will show you fear in a handful of dust —The Waste Land, T.S. Eliot I don’t think that most people actually fear death, I think we fear that no one will notice our absence—that we will disappear without a trace. Ellie need never fear this, because she will always be missed by me. Though [...]
Etta James, probably best known for her song At Last, just passed away. It’s sad to hear for me because Etta and At Last were what Gee and I picked for our wedding 12 years ago. We didn’t even have to discuss it…it was the first choice for both of us. Even today, over a [...]
Today, I had cheese stuffed tortellini for the first time in over a decade. It is strange, but I didn’t realize that I hadn’t bought or made this type of pasta in over ten years, even though it was always one of my favorites. It was also a dish that I cooked a lot for [...]
A little over ten-and-a-half years ago, Gee came home for the last time. It was Thursday, June 7th, 2001. She had been released from the hospital, where she had been since May 28th, Memorial Day, for home hospice care. As I carried her into the house, what she said to me was bittersweet. She said, [...]
When I first heard One More Day, I was driving Gee’s little Saturn, and nearly drove off the road because of the tears that made seeing the road almost impossible. It sums up what I felt after she died better than any words I could express myself. This is one of my favorite songs…I believe [...]
Happy Anniversary Gee. I wish you were still here. It is hard to believe that you’ve been gone for over ten years now…and that it has been 11 years since I was lucky enough to marry you. It is even harder to realize that you’ve been gone for more than five times as long as [...]
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
I am really disgusted by how little the wedding vows mean to so many people today. Apparently, the idea of making and keeping a commitment to someone when you say your vows is an unusual concept. Just look at Woods, Weiner, Schwarznegger, Edwards, and so many others. The list goes on and on. What part [...]
Much of what I have written here on Adrift At Sea is sailing-related, though the blog was not originally started for that purpose, despite the nautically themed name. I have written a fair number of technical articles related to the systems on sailboats. While writing these, I’ve tried to keep the writing accessible for novices, [...]
Over the past few days, I’ve realized a few things about Ellie that I had not thought of before talking with several friends of mine. The conversations I’ve had with them about Ellie and what she has come to mean to me have been very enlightening—bringing up insights that probably would have taken me months [...]
I have been working on a book about what Gee and I went through in the short 23 months and one day we were together. However, I haven’t really been able to write the book and couldn’t understand why until this week. This week I finally realized what had been keeping me from really working on the book. The problem was I did not know the how the book would end. This week, I think I finally figured it out—but the ending has yet to be written.
The other day I was in West Marine, picking up some supplies for s/v Pretty Gee. There was a bucket of assorted candies at the register, so I dug through it to find the miniature Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. The cashier commented that those seemed to the be most popular candy they had in the [...]
Memorial Day has some significance to me because of My Life with Gee. Here is a short excerpt from the book I’m writing about what Gee and I went through in our short time together. I find it hard to believe that it has already been ten years since the events I wrote about happened. It [...]
Recently, I encountered something that is quite upsetting. One of my neighbors has been very aggressively requesting donations for the American Cancer Society. While I am a huge fan of the American Cancer Society and all the good work they do, I think that the behavior of Carolyn Burke is way over the line. She [...]
I just wanted to wish all my readers, my friends and my family a very Happy New Year. I hope that 2010 brings good fortune, fair winds and following seas to all my friends, both personally and professionally. I particularly want to wish Jen and Adam Thomson a happy new year, since it is their [...]
Patrick Swayze recently died of pancreatic cancer. This is the same disease that Gee had fought the last fourteen months of her life. It is a very poorly understood cancer and one that is very difficult to diagnose. This is mostly due to a lack of specific symptoms in many cases. Also, many of the [...]
As usual, I’d like to wish all my readers a Happy Valentine’s Day. I’d also like to wish Gee a happy birthday, and remember the very special woman I married on this day. I still think that Woo, Gee’s best friend, said it best: Yet we get to know her and love her and be [...]
Happy Anniversary Gee… I miss you still. Today is Election Day 2008, and would have been our eighth anniversary. Almost eight years ago, Gee and I walked to the local elementary school and cast our votes in the 2000 election. This morning, I did much the same thing, but at a different elementary school. It [...]
Right now, my thoughts are with an online friend, Mike, and his family. Mike is a fellow sailor, and I know him through one of the sailing forums I participate on. While I’ve never met Courtney, or her family, I have spoken and corresponded with them over the past year. His daughter Courtney is a [...]
Seven years, seven months and seven days ago was one of the happiest days of my life. It was November 4, 2000, and I married the most amazing woman I’ve ever met. I knew I was going to marry her the very first time I heard her voice. It is difficult to believe that today, [...]
Today is always a day of mixed memories for me. Twenty years ago today, my identical twin brother, David, was killed by a drunken driver just outside of Nashville, Tennesee. The drunk driver only got 90 days suspended due to the incompetence of the police department that handled the accident investigation. It took the police [...]
Well, I am an uncle again. Earlier this month, my new niece was born. Abigail Kim Morrissey is the first grandchild in my in-laws family, and I am very happy to be an uncle again. She was born on August 1, 2007 and weighed six pounds and 13 ounces. Her mother is my sister-in-law, Michele. [...]
I’d like to wish two very special people a Happy Father’s Day today. They are my father and my father-in-law, Gee’s father. These are two of the most important people in my life, and I don’t believe that I tell them this enough. My father-in-law honored my in a way that I had never expected. [...]
Six years ago today, I was cast Adrift At Sea. The amazing woman who had agreed to marry me in September 1999 finally lost her fight with pancreatic cancer. Gee passed away at 11:00 am, six years ago today, exactly seven months and seven days from the start of our wedding. Even today, I find [...]
This morning, I awoke to find another Valentine’s Day card from Gee. The world outside my window was blanketed in a fresh New England snowstorm. I guess it is her way of wishing me a Happy Valentine’s Day, and reminding me that not only is today Valentine’s Day, but also her birthday. She would have [...]
One of my favorite blogs to read is 37 Days, by Patti Digh. A recent post of her talks about the movie “March of the Penguins”, and talks about a young woman named Meta. The story really hit home for me, since Meta was about the same age as my identical twin and, like him, [...]