Day 48 Observations

Having been here for a while I've noticed some things.  

First, men around Newport have more facial hair than any place I've ever lived.  Beards, mustaches,  mutton chops on their cheeks, even Foo Manchu.  Either they have rebelled against the norms of society in this century, they see it as a fashion statement, they are single, or they just don't care.  Many are well maintained. Many are a mess.  Heck, we even saw Santa Claus on Fathers Day at the restaurant.

Second, their hair.  I've seen more long hair than I can remember.  Dirty, straggly, poorly cut--you name it--even mohawks and mullets.  I feel bad enough that most times I wash mine only every other day.  I never would have gone for that long in the past.  It was every day--no questions about it.  Having to leave the comfort of our boat to walk up the hill and shower instead of having one at your fingertips can change your habits.  Yes, I could take one in the boat, as we will do while on passages,  but the shower area is REALLY small.  Think of taking a shower in a telephone booth and then cut that space by 20%.  

The people are very friendly. I was raised in a small town and moved to a big town when I went to college.  I was hooked on big towns and have lived in them ever since.  I had forgotten the friendliness of the small town.  A few days ago while having lunch the man at the next table just started talking to us as though he had known us all his life.  

Their driving on the other hand is not the best.  For such a small town, hardly a day goes by that we don't hear sirens crossing the bridge on their way to another accident.  We've seen several accidents since we've been here.  People think nothing of just wandering into the opposing lanes of traffic as they drive down the highway.  

Time has lost much of its importance.  I have always loved watches.  My life revolved around time and its importance.  I have lots of wrist watches and pocket watches.  From my fathers Accutron from the early 60s to the Atomic watch that is accurate to the second every day.   Now I don't even wear one.  The Sun comes up and the Sun goes down.  That's what time has become.  Most of our lives revolve around what we do and when we do it.   That's how life is in the real world.  We've left that world for a different life.   

We are more concerned with the weather than the time.   Sunny days are more important.  With the Sun comes the ability to get more done and a much better feeling about what we are doing.  These past weeks have been full of stranger weather than I think either of us expected.  Other than the two days that hit 95, we haven't hit 60 in weeks.  I'm still wearing a coat just about every day.   Being in the 50s with the big winds we've had it really lowers the comfort of the day.  Each night we watch the weather just to see what is coming so we can make some kind of plan for the next day.

Today was back to the normal--at least what we have come to expect is normal for Newport.  Cloudy in the morning,  some Sun in the early afternoon, and then back to cloudy

 by mid-afternoon.  Sometimes a breeze and some times a howling wind.  Rarely calm.  When I woke up this morning--calm, I was struck by the quiet. It was deafening.  The winds came by 

lunch.  The high was as always--the mid 50s.  Will the 60s ever come?  

Today was another day of odd jobs.  The refrigeration tech that 

came to our boat when the system was having problems a few weeks ago told us that it would work better if I set up baffles around the air intake so that air would flow over the coils from the main cabin (there is a louvered panel in front of the unit) instead of from under the settee where the condenser is.  Cardboard and the ultimate fixer--duct tape. With some careful cutting and taping, all done.  Now it draws air from outside the box the unit is in.    Once that was done, Tracy went about defrosting the box.  That was the other suggestions that the tech had suggested.  We installed some racks in the bottom of the box so Tracy could reach the items down there.   It's a very deep box for lots of storage.  There is a shelf about half way down

to make storage easier but if it gets to the bottom, it isn't easy getting it out.  It's up and running now.  We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Later this afternoon, I replaced two of the electrical outlets. We'd seen some sparking when plugging in heaters and lamps.  The first store I went to had them on sale for .59 cents.  I wanted some of better quality.  Off to an electrical parts store and bought good quality 20 amps plugs.  This was something I was not about to scrimp on.  A stray spark at the wrong time could cause serious problems.  Out with the old and in with the new.  Problem fixed.