Aboard Lady

Ice storm damage

(View of our side yard)

On Sunday the falling rain started freezing on the trees and power lines.  We were feeling pretty smug; the local electric utility AEP/PSO spent a great deal of time an money last summer moving all the lines in our area underground.  In previous ice-storms, it seemed as though we frequently lost service in our urban forest neighborhood.

Our friend Tom Golden, whose wife Beverly was away, lost power, so he came over to dinner and we kept him warm for a while.  In bed that night, as the rain kept up, and the temperature stayed just below freezing about every couple of minutes we heard a loud snap, followed by the crackles of falling ice and a tree limb hitting the ground, or getting stuck up in other tree limbs.

(View of deck from living room)

Monday morning we too had no electricity.  The house was dark, and getting colder every minute.  We quickly got dressed, made sure Sooty the cat was indoors  out of the rain and headed to Charlie's office, which still had power.

A lunch-time visit to the house revealed that during the morning may more limbs had fallen; by then it seemed as though every twenty seconds another one came down.  We briefly walked though our back yard, but it seemed foolish to stay out there under trees that might fall any time.

(Another view of our side yard, that's out garage door on the right)

The radio reported that over quarter of a million AEP/PSO customers are without power in the Tulsa area.  IV and Olivia also have no power; likewise Charlie's brothers.  Today's (Wednesday) newspaper reports that the President of the USA has declared Oklahoma a disaster area.

Although we have a lot to clean up, and the house is dark and cold, we are all safe, and AEP/PSO reports that our power should be restored by 11:49 am on December 18th!

(View of our back deck from the kitchen door, looking towards Marcy and Bernard's house)

Annual Family and Friends Missive

We had a lovely Christmas last year, afloat on Lady, joined by our Tulsa neighbors, Marcy and Bernard Robinowitz. Although the weather was cold, and the north wind had blown a lot of water out of Galveston Bay, we were comfortable resting on the silt bottom in our slip (6 ft draft, 5 ½ ft. water!) The galley produced Christmas dinner, and we had the marina to ourselves.

Besides playing bridge, the four of visited the art museum in Houston on Boxing Day, and also the rainforest exhibit at Moody Gardens in Galveston, so we did not let the poor weather slow us down.

By the time the New Year came around, the Robinowitzes had returned to Tulsa, to be replaced by NeMar and Tom Noulles, who joined us for our 36th wedding anniversary on the 28th, and their own wedding anniversary on New Years Eve. The sun came out enough for us to go sailing on Galveston Bay during the afternoon of the 31st.

Our trip to Texas was cut short by news that Charlie’s mother, Mary Louise was ill and had been admitted to hospital. Sadly, her condition did not improve, and she died January 20. By early March, Charlie and his brothers has settled her affairs enough that we could spend another week aboard Lady although by then the weather had turned into typical spring-time thunderstorms…and that pattern seemed to keep up most of the year. We joked that Houston had great weather until the first week each month that we were there. We have been able to cruise down the Gulf coast a few times, and

Karen and Tom Nally stayed with us in July; two of their children came for a sail on a day with no wind. We have also made some good dock friends at Waterford Marina in Kemah. We now have Lady equipped with all safety equipment, including life raft and EPIRB, extra propane tank, spare parts for engine and generator, upgraded the chart plotter and radar. This past month we purchased a 10 ft RIB dingy and 15hp motor for it. We have cockpit see-thru enclosures and sunshades on order. Perhaps it is no surprise that we have decided to retire from work at the end of the year, and head off cruising as soon as the weather is suitable in January Tentative plans are this winter in Florida, north to Maine by summer and back to Florida by winter 2008???

Besides our trips to Houston, for my birthday we went to a Jimmy Buffet concert in Dallas with Jean and Gary Farris and we went to Colorado in July to visit Mary Louise’s best friend and her family.

I have also been to England twice to visit my mother, and she is doing well; she still lives on her own in a rural cottage on the Isle of Wight.

Thanksgiving at Grand

We had a great Thanksgiving at Mary Kevin and Steve McNamara's house on Grand Lake, Oklahoma.  My sister-in-law and I get along very well, and when I suggested that I bring dinner for Wednesday evening, and a tenderloin to go with Thursday's feast, she readily accepted. 

We picked up Mary Kevin's sister, Beth Mahan, on Wednesday afternoon, and arrived at Vintage around 5:00 pm.  Steve and Mary Kevin were already there, as was Libby, their daughter (my birthday buddy), who was enjoying a break from her first teaching job.

I had purchased five pounds of colossal shrimp from one of the fish markets in Seabrook the last time we were there, and frozen them to bring home.  As I assembled all the other ingredients for a wonderful dish my friend NeMar Noulles showed me how to make, paella, Libby and Beth kept asking if the could help, so I suggested that they work on thawing the shrimp, and then cleaning them.  They did a great job. Libby had cooked shrimp with me before, but this was her fist time to clean them.  By the time the boys arrived, after numerous hilarious phone calls, Steve Jr. and Kevin coming from Tulsa, Patrick coming from Kansas, dinner was ready...lovely saffron-infused rice with tomatoes, onion, garlic, with Italian sausage, artichokes, the shrimp, scallops and two different kinds of mussels. 

Thanksgiving Day was cold!  In fact it was below freezing!  However, it was bright sun, and not too much wind, and after everyone had talked about going for a walk for quite a while, Libby and I got tired of waiting for them, and went on with Rudy their Golden retriever, and Brooks, their Lab.  The dogs did not seem to care about the cold much, and stopped at the pond for a swim.  By the time we got back to the house, others had gone on without us; we eventually caught up, and all did another lap together.  Libby's appetizers were great, Mary Kevin's turkey was magnificent, as were her potatoes and sweet potatoes (another NeMar recipe), the big boys Charlie and Steve did a wonderful job with the tenderloin, Steve Jr. did rolls.  Steve's girlfriend Ashley arrived by the time we were through with dessert (Patrick's pumpkin pie).  Kevin did a great job cleaning the kitchen.  We divided into teams to play a new game that Mary Kevin had found for us, Taboo.  Girls against boys, and it ended up being a tied score.

Friday we packed up our stuff, and headed to Arrowhead, stopping at Cahoots on the way to purchase antifreeze.  Quintessence looked good, despite having been used so little this year since we have been with Lady so much.  Charlie made sure that all the thru-hulls were properly set, he poured anti-freeze down the sink, and we started the engine, and pumped antifreeze through it.  We removed the bimini, and pulled all the sails from the sail locker, and put them in the cabin.  We bid her farewell for the year.