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HEY, HERE WE ARE AT QUESTER'S PAGE 6 OF THE PICTURE GALLERY
The Taoist thought of the day:
Humility. The more you learn, the more you realize there's still so much more to learn. This tends to make you humble. Arrogance and egotism come from ignorance - knowing a little bit and assuming you know a lot. The Taoist knows that artists are supreme individuals as well as supreme liars. Is this because the world is a verb and not a noun? An artist’s main objective is to impress his thought or vision upon those viewing his work. In the most miraculous fashion we are all given the gift of creating our own experiences.
While seeking a steel sailboat
we traveled from the tip of Florida all the way up the east coast pulling our Coleman camper. After finding the best steel sailboat for the money, we sold the camper. While waiting for Dave Folkes to finish it, we actually pitched a tent in Bellingham, Washington and even took our pickup into Canada to see his progress.
He actually put six inches of cement into the bow to firm up the front in case we hit a log or a whale!
The year 1987 was an event filled year. In the spring I had retired at about the same time we sold our eight units. We had moved into one of the two duplex apartments I owned sharing one side with my son. While our sailboat was being built, we had decided to fly over to Sarawak so I could meet Trudy's family. Her father had an export-import business pictured here behind the dragon-dancers.
While we were traveling up to Bellingham to check on the boat-building progress and driving back, Trudy's family tried to contact us in Tucson reporting that her father had died. We were back some days before my daughter got around to delivering the message. She flew off immediately to Malaysia. I left later after putting our newly purchased puppy dog back with the breeder and taking care of other things before leaving.
What is a Skipperkey? This was a special kind breed found on the canal boats in France called "Skipperkey". Supposedly they were easy to train to live on boats (with litterboxes).
It was interesting seeing the jungles of Sarawak on the island of Borneo
Trudy's mother was a professional in the art of bonsai (training little trees). She's shown here with three of her eight daughters.
We brought this Chinese dress over for sister Rosalind.
This was the young sister taking additional training in the capital of Malaysia. Sheila was good enough to put us up for the night even though her roommates didn't much care for strangers staying in their small quarters.
All flights away from Malaysia take off from K.L.
Kuala Lumpur is an exotic Muslim city.
Later that fall we took delivery of our new boat and named her the Rose of Jericho.
Why that name? Because there are rose bushes that grow around Jericho. During drought they pull up their roots and let the wind blow them to a more nourishing environment. Then they put down new roots.
Notice the difference a blue stripe makes. The broker saw us as soft touches. He charged us $150 for that single blue stripe. Over the years I repainted it several times. It took me perhaps 30 minutes each time with about $18 worth of paint!
Here you see our kitchen.
This was our toilet and shower.
Can you imagine the shock when people confused the Malaysian flag with the American? We only flew it at the dock way below the American flag half way up the mast.
We did use our boat around the bay and dozens of islands along this Washington state coast.
We also sailed up to Canada in order to make a landing in a foreign country. Eventually we would have the boat outfitted for the trip south. To get it in shape for blue-water sailing took much more money than I bargained for when buying a boat that was suppose to be seaworthy. Before I knew it the broker presented me with a bill for eleven thousand dollars over what was the original cost of the boat. I had spent all the cash I could gather for the builder and this extra charge took us by surprise. We could not leave south for San Francisco until I sold off one of our properties.
We talked another couple into helping us sail southward and finally we were off.
Did we have a rough time? Off the coast of Washington and Oregon were rough.
We stopped for fuel once half way down the coast. Did we get sea-sick? I was surprised that Trudy still worked in the kitchen
and actually kept us fed even though she had a shade of green
and was quite happy when we sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge.
It was a very remarkable trip and we made it without too much trouble. Were the waves high? Yes, some half as tall as the mast!
My best teaching friend and hunting buddy was Dana Smith.
He was the one who talked up sailing all through the years and loaned me dozens of books on sailing. He was going to also buy a boat and the two of us would travel in tandem sailing to exotic world locations. It didn't happen. He developed Alzheimer’s and when we took him out sailing was of very little help. Within a few years of this picture, he died.
I always loved it when my wife dressed in Malaysian clothes. We also had a chance to have my old house-guest Molly visit and sail the bay with us.
Sailing San Francisco Bay was good training since winds were usually 15 to 20 miles an hour. This is what I call a STIFF breeze!
The builder used the wrong primer coat when he painted our boat. The bottom was such a mess within one year that we had to haulout and have the boatyard sandblast the bottom down to bare steel and begin all over again. I quickly learned how to buy correct materials and apply them myself.
We used the same color bottom paint and when we were through it looked professionally done.
My early retirement included coming back to the school system and working seven weeks every September for seven years. It meant keeping an apartment open enough so we could have a place to stay.
Conveniently enough we could share our duplex with my son.
We just had to have a place to store our mattresses for our use whenever we were in town.
We took many trips out into the desert and Trudy loved it.
By the end of the year we wanted to celebrate Christmas around a real Christmas tree.
Thus we spent Christmas time back in Tucson.
When we were back in San Francisco, we found we enjoyed that city more than most. We got to know another couple who also had a steel sailboat. They had to take it up to Oregon to repair and sell. The crew they started with bailed out after the first day's sail. He was in trouble and I offered to help him get it to Oregon.
It was a rough trip and the sails were not useable. The motor was strong, but the drive-shaft parted from the motor and the wave and wind action was taking us rapidly into the rocky coast. We had no steering. The Coast Guard came out to rescue us. They towed us into a port and we made repairs.
When I finally took a bus back from Oregon, Trudy was more than happy to have me back.
We did love living in San Francisco Bay on our boat. Our marina was a good one in the middle of a lot of action.
About the time that California decided we owed them $3000 as a sales tax on our boat even though we bought it in Canada, we decided to do selling of books and toys at swap meets (fleamarkets) to raise the money for the state.
That November-December an old lover friend from Canada decided she would like to be a guest on our boat for some three weeks.
She was the one back in '77 who doubted a teacher would know how to have enough to ever retire. That made me angry enough to sign my name on as many mortgages as I could manage until I owed more than $250,000. Fortunately, that was during the Jimmy Carter years when we had something like 18% rate of inflation. Real estate holders love inflation. Now I get to enjoy my brashness during those years of buying and buying.
That September we went back to do our 7 weeks of work for the school district.
We visited a friend and Trudy decided to put on a gypsy dance that she use to do at her monastery to amuse the nuns.
When we got back to San Francisco it was time to do the bottom paint job again.
This time we did it in blue. I think tha I preferred that for ever after.
During this time I was still working on my book writing. I also did some poems around the edges and one of them won an award. A poetry convention was to take place in Las Vegas. We have always liked the atmosphere of that city.
Since I was to read my poem to the whole convention assembly I got a tuxedo for the event.
And here I am reading my poem.
When we got back to San Francisco we doubled our efforts to make money selling books and toys.
Trudy was a great book buyer and seller. One must admit we did put on a good showing of books.
Roseville, California was like the capital of swapmeets. One weekend we did $500 worth of bookselling. California did get their "blood money". I still don't think it was a legal tax. We got taken by California!
If I could bottle her personality I could make a fortune!
What? Another page bottom with the Quester?
Has he no shame?
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