Doing the Blog Again, Still Swamped, and Sailing???

It's been a few weeks since my last blog post...and there's some reason for that. One of them is the fact I've been literally swamped at my full-time job and dealing with headaches, depression, fatigue, breakdowns, etc. Need I share more?

In a way, I could...especially about my 21-speed mountain bike being STOLEN on Easter Sunday when I was visiting my maternal grandmother. That's another post and I've never had anything stolen from me before. Wait! A camera of mine did get stolen in Europe when I loaned the camera to a friend who was backpacking in Germany, France, etc. in the summer of 2002.

(Luckily, I was able to sell my bike rack - which was for the stolen bicycle - as well as a small utility trailer on CraigsList within a few days after the bike was stolen! That indeed was a praise and the proceeds are to replace the bike. No new bike yet, though.)

There also are good things too...such as my maternal grandmother's 93rd birthday on April 6th. Grandma Thelma is doing very well for her age and the family is greatly blessed that she is still around with us. She doesn't drive anymore since the day after her 92nd birthday in 2007 when she had a wreck in her car going to a wedding at her church. I think my Mom and Uncle sort of got very concerned about Grandma driving and knew she wasn't quite as responsive as she used to be even though Grandma seems to be better off than some people twenty or thirty years her junior!!!

I do sort of believe my Mom has the capacity to live in her 90's since her own mother is 93 and her maternal grandmother (Grandma Thelma's mom) lived a couple weeks shy of her 98th birthday. But, who knows if my Mom will live that long? To be honest with you, I thought my Dad had a fighting chance. His mother lived to be 88 and his father lived to be 90. The cancer took my Dad at age 61.

Anyway, aside from being busy at work and dealing with certain things which have tried me (but kept me focused on a BETTER PURPOSE and calling), I have had time to try to have some fun in this life which isn't OVER yet....one of which is sailing. I'm not an expert sailor nor have I taken any classes. (I haven't taken any photography classes, but I do think I've had my share of practice even though I don't get paid for it like I think I should!)

Today (April 12th), I went sailing for the third time since July of 2006 at Oriental, NC with some friends of mine. These friends have taken classes and do sail frequently even though they do reside in the Raleigh area as I do....despite my desires to move to the middle to lower Florida Keys in order to get away from it all. (Yeah, right.)

One of my friends (Steve) has a sailing blog which he kept updated last year during his sailing excursions and other adventures. Here is his blog address: [http://dawntreading-nc.blogspot.com/]. Hopefully, when I get my pictures all done, he'll post some of them on his blog...and likewise with my own blog.

As for the sailing trip itself, it was indeed good. After leaving the Raleigh area at 8:30 AM, we arrived at Oriental at 10:45 AM and were out on the water shortly after. We could tell it was going to a good day judging by the white caps on the water.

The winds were a constant 25 to 30 knots with the sails not fully out. The weather was great and the day was sunny in spite of poor weather forecasts! The boat did well and was heeling tremendously all day with the rail in the water. There was some good action going on out there and we didn't see many other boats on the water. My friends and I guess that the other boaters probably were concerned??? :-)

Oh, I did get a chance to see a dolphin about thirty yards from the bow the time I was hanging out there catching in the fresh air and getting my feet wet. When it first surfaced, I didn't know what it was and thought it was a tank. But, then I saw the blowhole. Sorry, I didn't have my camera ready at the time and I only saw that dolphin once....and there weren't any more dolphin-sightings.

We didn't have lunch even though we probably should've....so we went to dock around 5 PM in slightly rough waters and got ready to eat at one of the local restaurants - M&M's Cafe [http://www.pamlico-nc.com/restaurants/mandms.htm] and feasted down on some good food. I had the fried oysters, fresh veggies, red-skin potatoes, and roll along with sweet tea and "loving spoonful" chocolate cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Good! After eating only a banana and some snacky food on board all day, I was ready for a meal...and it was worth it!

I did enjoy the day and to Steve, Scott, Tim, and Zack...thanks for another great day sailing! I can't wait to go again. (Now, I've got to get my taxes done as well as try to catch up on emails as well as photography! Whew!)