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 [...]
Originally, my plans for the Fourth of July were to go and anchor out in Buzzards Bay, just outside the New Bedford Hurricane Barrier, and watch the fireworks over Fort Phoenix. I changed those plans because there was supposed to be a 70% chance of thunderstorms and the New Bedford Hurricane Barrier was going [...]
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 [...]
My friend Alex was stuck up in New Hampshire for work. He lives in Portugal, but occasionally visits New England because of his job. Since I had some boat hardware for his boat, I went by his hotel yesterday to drop it off. Alex looked miserable, sailing withdrawal… Since my boat isn’t [...]
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 over five [...]
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.
Congratulations [...]
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, [...]
In the last week I’ve had some friends and family visit Boston and the surrounding area. My friend Cindy, who lives in New Mexico, was in town for a training last week. One aunt and uncle came here from Honduras to celebrate my mother’s birthday. Another friend, Alex from Portugal, has been working [...]
The 2007 Sailing Season has finally arrived. It really seemed that winter would be hanging on for a few more weeks, but it has gone out with a bang. My friends Norm and Elizabeth delivered their new boat, Averisera from Connecticut up to Boston, with only a short delay due to the Nor’Easter [...]
While I’m no longer a big fan of this time of year, I would like to wish my readers, friends, and family a Happy Easter or Passover, as appropriate.
One of my favorite photos of this season is this one:
Today is my nephew Nicholas’s sixth birthday. He is very excited to be six. My sister had a massive party with tons of his friends. I avoided the party… that many five and six-year-olds are way too noisy for me.
It is also the forty-something birthday of one of my best friends, [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
As many of my blog readers also read Tillerman’s Proper Course blog, I thought I’d share an interesting discovery. I am indirectly connected to him, and his family. I just got a comment, as did he, from his daughter-in-law, Anne. Anne just realized that I am Debbi’s little brother.
Debbi and Kathy, Anne’s older [...]
Well, blogging is probably going to suffer as I hunker down and get settled into NaNoWriMo 2006.
Brian and Carol Anne are already off and running. Tammy, Brad and I are a bit behind them. This is my first time participating in the organized insanity called NaNoWriMo, and it’ll be interesting to see [...]
There’s nothing better than the weather we’ve had this past two weeks for good autumn sailing. The wind has been pretty solid, between 15 and 25 knots most of the time, and the temperatures, relatively reasonable, at least in that we haven’t had any snow. It’s been really hard to be stuck ashore [...]
I signed up for NaNoWriMo today. For those of you who don’t know what NaNoWriMo is, it is the National Novel Writing Month event that takes every November. My friend, Brian Howe, challenged me to participate this year. I intend on using it as a incubator for the book I am writing about [...]
I’m back home from the hospital. I’ve got to go back next week, and get the staples out. but I’m finally on the road to recovery. It’s been a long two weeks, and it is good to be home. I guess I should be more careful what I wish for in the [...]
Be Careful About What You Wish For,
or How God Has a Twisted Sense of Humor
As some of you may know, I am working on a book, “No Greater Love”. The book is about the almost two-years of my life I generally refer to as My Life with Gee. It started on July 10, [...]
Blogging has been light because I was in the hospital for eight days…stories and posts to come later…
Saturday, October 7, 2006, I went out for what will now be my last sail of the season. Even though, I would personally prefer to be sailing until the snow falls, it turns out that life has had other plans for me this year.
Eric is one of the people I’ve been talking to about [...]
Today’s quote of the day was from Kahlil Gibran. Kahlil Gibran wrote:
“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.”
Some days I wonder about that. There are days, when I look back at what I’ve been through and wonder what effect it has had on who [...]
I just got back from a week down at the marina, where I was staying aboard the Pretty Gee. I went down Sunday for several reasons. The first was to get some more sailing in, as the end of the New England sailing season rapidly approaches. I also had some projects I wanted to get [...]
I finally got down to the marina again. I haven’t been able to get down here for a whole bunch of reasons, and it was good to be back on the Pretty Gee again.
Friday, I spent a good part of the day getting her ready to be put back in the water. Most of [...]
I got up this morning at about 5:00 a.m. I had an 8:10 flight to catch back up to Beantown. After getting dressed and packed, I walked down to the hotel lobby. I asked the front desk to call a cab for me, to take me to the Newport News airport. [...]
This weekend, I headed down to Newport News, Virginia. Getting to Newport News was a challenge, but not all that bad, except the nine-and-a-half hour day spent in Logan International Airport.
Flying down to Virginia, while tropical storm Ernesto is sitting over the state is not really my idea of fun, but I had made a [...]
Today, I’m writing this post from my hotel room, down in Newport News, Virginia. I flew down this evening for a wedding tomorrow. I’m due to fly back on Sunday morning. The problem with air travel, aside from the security issues, is that trying to do so during the hurricane season can [...]
A year or so ago, I started watching the Showtime TV series, Dead Like Me. I recently got the DVD set of the series. It is about Georgia, an eighteen year-old woman, who is killed by a falling piece of the Mir Space Station, and then becomes a grim reaper.
In the TV show, [...]
Since this is a sailing blog, at least to some degree… I should probably write about sailing at some point. As part of my plan for long-distance passage making, I was taking a Macro Cruising Course over at the Boston Sailing Center. I’ve also posted some photos, per Tillerman’s request. I hope [...]
There’s a post on a blog I read called Fear of Death. The post is about the fear of death, and of dying that was caused by her friend’s diagnosis with a particularly nasty form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
The author writes:
“And it was only then, maybe ten minutes before they arrived, that I finally recognized [...]