How things have changed

Some things you just don’t pass up when cruising.  Free water, a hot shower and a real bathroom.  So, I’m going to take advantage of the wifi today and post twice.  I think I’m a little behind.

new wallet $4.99

I used to carry a purse.  Now I carry a backpack.  I used to have a crazy wallet full of discount cards for everywhere and receipts dating back 18 months.  I now have a small wallet that only carries the essentials.  Credit cards, debit card, driver’s license and cash.  (Lynn, you would be proud of me)
For anyone that knows me you know my purse.  Always heavy, constantly overflowing.  If you need it, I have it.  Advil, hairbrush, half a dozen pens, 8 lip glosses, glasses, hand sanitizer, Tic Tacs, gum, notepad, yada, yada, yada.


new high tech waterproof Iphone case
 

In my backpack I have my little wallet, a raincoat, lights for the dinghy in case we get back after dark, a camera, ONE Chapstick and quite often a beer.  You never know when you’ll get invited to someone’s boat to socialize.
Coffee.  I think I took my drip coffee maker for granted.  The coffee maker takes too much power so we use a percolator on the gas stove.  I think I have the heat, the timing and the amount of coffee down pat.  I take a regular basket filter, cut a little hole in the middle and use it in the percolator basket.  Then I put the coffee in and fold the edges down.  I hate grounds in the last mouthful of coffee.  Start to finish is about 30 minutes.  A Keurig? Coffee in less than a minute?  That would be heaven some days. 
When living in a house, or even at the dock I didn’t really pay attention to how much electricity I was using.  Now, once the sun has gone down we rarely have more than one LED light on and quite often sit in the cockpit with candles.  I am conditioned to look at the volt meter every time I turn something on.  The toaster in another no no.  I don’t have toast when I feel like it, I have toast when the generator is running. 
Unlimited hot water?  Showers on the boat are timed to after the engine or generator are running and I can be in and out in about 3 minutes.  That goes for the amount of water too.  The two of us can go nearly a week on 85 gallons.  That’s probably less than what I would use just to do laundry at home.
I don’t dry my hair.  The wind does it for me and sometimes on a particularly gusty day the effects are a little scary.
I don’t wear shoes.  I wear flip flops.  It’s embarrassing when you climb out of the dinghy and realize you have to go bare foot because you forgot to bring your flip flops. 
We take our rain coats everywhere because our dinghy is like a convertible.  No roof.  If it rains, we get wet.  We often suffer from soggy butts because the seats are wet or we hit a wave at the wrong angle.
We used to have 4 cars between us.  Now we have none.  We have 2 fold up mountain bikes and our feet.  Wow!  It’s amazing how much you can carry in a backpack and a milk crate.  The last trip we had 24 beers, 2 jugs of juice, a package of steaks, a loaf of bread, a stalk of brocolli, 3 tomatoes, 3 big cans of iced tea mix, 24 water filters and a partridge in a pear tree.  Well, you get the idea.
TV.  None.  Well, Brian is getting his TV fix while I do this. 

Blue Moose tip:  I would get a big bunch of DVD’s to fill in the nights when you need a little TV.  I should have scrounged garage sales.