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Family Letter - March, 2006
It's been a while since we updated our letters. We finished our 15,000 mile cruise through Central America, the Caribbean, and around the Eastern United States, parts of Canada, and The Great American Loop. We began in November of 2003, and returned home in April of 2005. We've been home almost a year now! We are so anxious to go again. But, alas, our funds will not allow it at this time. I had expected to receive additional payments from the company I sold, but the German parent who purchased it decided not to continue obligated payments. Can you believe it? And it would cost too much in attorney's fees to try and make them. So, screwed again. Lynn is back working as a nurse, and I am struggling to get my commodities trading profitable. It is much harder than I expected it would be. Oh, well. We are healthy and enjoying our children and grandchildren. We are taking short cruises to Catalina Island, 30 miles away from our marina. This will be our cruising life until we can get a cruising kitty together again.
We are continuing with the refurbishment of our historic San Clemente home. We are in the process of applying for 'Historical Status' so we can save up to 70% in property taxes. And we need to sand, paint, and varnish our boat after the long voyage. So, with enjoying family, and the house and boat maintenance, we are keeping quite busy. We are just hoping to keep up with expenses so we won't have to sell the boat, (or maybe the house?).
I have turned to writing articles on cruising and adding them to our web site. We experienced so many different challenges on our voyage that were never chronicled in our studies, classes, or readings. I thought other cruisers might benefit from what we learned to improve their cruising experience. I actually always wanted to write a novel, but having problems with writing, spelling, and yes, creativity, has been a problem. So I am studying writing and dabbling with my articles for some measure of satisfaction.
Our lily pond in back was having so many problems with leaking water, mosquitoes, and raccoons eating the lilies, that we drained and pulled the lining out. We are going to fill it in, add some decorative rock and put a small fountain there. It will add some interest to the back yard without a lot of maintenance. The next renovation is plaster repair, paint and light fixture replacement in our bathroom. The house was built with the old style lath & plaster which makes repairs a little more difficult than with today's wall board. Since we have added 'period' lighting to the rest of the house, we are looking for the same for the bathroom. Our next project will be the outside plaster and paint.
As you can see, not much excitement at the moment for Lynn and I. Erin and Pete bought a bigger house with a pool for their extended family. Pete is traveling a lot with his new territory sales manager position in the alarm business. Hillary and Jerry are doing well. Jerry's custom sports car business is doing well and he is flying helicopters for news stations, just for fun. Cheryl changed from managing a department with Lenscrafters, and is now working for a private doctor as an optician, and office manager. Steve and Shauna are still in San Diego, and have purchased a cabin in Big Bear, in the San Bernardino mountains. They are renting it as an investment but access is available for family to enjoy. And we have. Simeon and Summer are still living in Ojai, California. A long way from us, :( , but she likes it up there. Nick and Traci have purchased a new condo in Costa Mesa, close to Newport Beach. That's about all that's new with family. Oh, my Dad has decided to sell his place in Barstow and move to Oklahoma! My step sister moved there and Francis wants to be near her daughter, so Dad said OK. I guess cold weather and tornadoes don't worry you when you reach 83.
There are new pictures of family on the site. Unfortunately, many of the older pictures were lost when we had a web host software problem. And my backup memory stick was lost at the same time. Murphy!? I have since changed to modifying all web pages on my home computer and uploading to the website, then backing up on a stick and disk. Live and learn.
Love, Les and Lynn