3 September - (2017 - POST # 19) - LABOR DAY

. . .  an'ya's 70th birthday . . .

Got her a new laptop to begin her retirement with, and will reduce the two big tower desktops and all of the old CD, SD chips and thumb drives up into the cloud, now that we don't need them for the newspaper or websites anymore (only this and the whazammo.com will carry on).

This frees up our limited desk space, simplifies a lot, and modernizes-reduces for the boat, there is very little left to "boatize" now, the upcoming rainy winter months will finish processing the three Tupperware tubs of music, scrap book, poetry, recipe, and computer pieces-parts into nothing . . .  and only the memories will be left from the old life ashore.

Headed into our fifth month here in Florence (11th month aboard), our second day of the local area wildfires using the riverway as smoke exit route, choking us every bit as bad as being back in the forests . . . only because our wind has shifted from the normally southbound to being westbound and bringing the smoke directly from the two Mapleton and the Dunes City fires right past us.

Neither of us ever had problems with smoke before, but, neither of us were ever this old either... sort of a chest pressure feeling, forehead based headache, and (for me)... a feeling of light headedness and unable to get my breath, aligns you for a near panic attack if you do more than just "sit". terrible feeling of suffocation.

The bright spot is that we have only had 73 degrees for our daily highs, and the past two nights we have had to run two (2) heaters 0200 AM on....

The dark spot here is due to the very layout of this facility, the office is aligned for the campground/marina, with a no harbor view, so, there is no awareness of the main harbors pulse, making this a campground/small boat (outboard) Marina first . . .  and a remote (inboard) boat harbor second (as in 'last'), plus, no one in control has "EVER" spent a full day "on" the docks to witness the events or to enforce the rules (as in 'no knowledge, means deniability').

Still, Florence is the "best" of the small harbors on the Oregon Coast, and we still plan on permanently staying right here at A-10 very long term... the other harbors enforce their rules so stringently, and with such vigor as to create almost military rules.

Believing that some basic rules must be applied and followed for safety and control (like when driving your car, playing baseball, or staying in a campground) . . .  We simply have determined that we must do workarounds for ineptness,  however, bringing to their attention any inaction is a ticket outta here as retribution for whistle blowing or complaining, (or even appearing as an expert).

Another one of the live-on-the-water vs. live ashore curiosities that this blog has addressed in the past 11 months . . . ever have a neighbor with portable outdoor speakers who likes country music ? LOUD country or Mexican or Chinese music. how about the hydroplane or dragster owning  neighbor with his blown injected Hemi, dogs dumping and scattering your garbage can, the three vans parked in front of your house for "Party-time", the ATV in the campground doing high speed passes and wheelies non-stop all day long,  but, there is no land-equal to a high speed boat wake rocking and rolling at the dock, dumping dishes and tools, paint out of cabinets (and you out of bed).

Boat anarchy, no-wake zones are equal to school 20 MPH zones, they are common courtesy, and safety reasons for both, the outboard motor thing looms large . . . the trailerable boat thing looms large . . . the wanna-be / weekender / hobbyist / fish-hunter identity looms REALLY large. I posit that this harbor should be divided with the east basin designated as a strict "NO outboards" zone.