Sail Cutthroat

April 15, 2010

Pflugerville, Texas

Lat 30.448.48 N Lon 97.608.35 W

Yes, that would be correct. We finally broke loose and made it out of Florida. We’ve been trying to make this trip (well, not this one particularly but some version of “Texas Travels”) since Christmas. Unfortunately, Mom Wag’s health wasn’t at all conducive to us leaving. She’s been in and out of the hospital since I returned from the Pacific Northwest last August. The good news is that she is doing better than she has in many months and hopefully she will remain so for awhile. It’s always so hit and miss with her, that we never know from one week to the next on what her status will be. Since we drove to Texas, we can be back in Englewood if necessary within 24 hours…can’t do much better than that.

So what have we been up to since our last blog posting in December…I must really be retired, since the time flies by but I don’t know what we’re really doing that’s keeping us so busy. I just know, WE ARE BUSY! We sure haven’t been travelling. Since that was one of our objectives for 2010, I guess we are achieving it. Some of the highlights include:

Elise – lots of sewing projects including quilts, holiday gear (runners, napkins, etc.), duffle bags, backpacks, tabletoppers…the list goes on. Who would of thunk!!! There’s always somebody coming over for dinner…local social events are plentiful as well. I’m also tutoring my nephew Paul in math, English and Biology…but mostly working on his writing skills and prepping him for the ACT.

Roger – is becoming the local photo-video expert. With his new camera, computer and updated software he has produced some amazing presentations. He’s done 80^th/95^th birthday parties (those are very popular here in Q-Tip land), a Dog Wedding (this requires its own blog entry which I’m not doing so use your imagination), and most recently a charity golf tournament for the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund. That was a neighborhood golf tournament event that raised close to $50K for our wounded Marines. Right now these are all freebies, but I can see some form of entrepreneurial enterprise in the near future…at least for the purposes of procuring additional camera/techie equipment.

Diego – is quickly becoming the center of our world. He will turn 1 in May and is growing into a wonderful dog and cherished member of the family. He had surgery a couple of weeks ago for “cherry eye.” It looks like a cherry was growing out of the corner of his eye. He recovered well and is running around as usual. Mom Wag is taking care of him while we’re away.

In February our good friends Bruce and Angie (cruising friends from Mexico and the Pacific Northwest) came for a week. Their boat is wintering in Portland, OR and they were much in need of a break from the winter storms and rain consistent with a Portland winter aboard and stuck in a marina. We had a great week and managed to see lots of places that we very infrequently visit while living here. A good time was had by all!

This is an old picture from last summer when both boats arrived in Olympic, WA. I didn’t have one from their visit on this computer…sorry!

While our time in Texas is always a joyous time filled with fun grand kid activities, this visit is focused on our youngest grandson (4 yrs old), Ryan who was recently diagnosed with a rare form of cancer that attacks soft muscle tissues – Rhabdomyosarcoma. Fortunately he was diagnosed early, the surgery was performed a couple of days later, and now he is undergoing 24 weeks of chemotherapy (he’s on week 10). Several of these treatments require an overnight trip to the hospital. This past Friday he was admitted for one of those. Roger and I arrived on Wednesday so we could shuffle the other two kids around as needed and be there for 1yr old Emma. We all ended up spending the afternoon at the hospital – he’s being treated at Dell Children’s Hospital in Austin – which is very convenient at least, and he’s getting first class care – even more important. Late in the afternoon, we took Emma home, got her fed, bathed and put to bed. Davianna (6 yrs) stayed with David, Mirjan and Ryan and participated in the many activities that are constantly available at the hospital. It’s an amazing facility that is very child friendly – for all the children in the family, not just the sick ones. Ryan tends to get very sick after the chemo – and this week was no exception. Mirjan stayed overnight with him and since he also needed to get a CT scan, they didn’t return home until mid-afternoon on Saturday. Needless to say, we spent a quiet weekend, but by Sunday Ryan’s energy returned along with some major mood swings. This coming Thursday he gets another MRI and his blood work will determine if he needs a transfusion. We’re all looking forward to the results of both of these tests…with some trepidation. Please keep Ryan in your prayers! David keeps an awesome journal of this and it can be found at:  http://davidmirjan.blogspot.com.  It’s called Ryan’s Journey. We expect Ryan to fully recover and provide his parents with lots of gray hair opportunities in the years to come. He will complete the chemo just in time to start Kindergarten.

The days here are somewhat chaotic. Mirjan is the chaos coordinator and she does it so well! Davi goes to school early but with Ryan and Emma at home, there’s all the noise and activity that we’re not really used to. Especially Pops! We’re giving him lots of house projects to keep him busy. Yesterday he cleared out a large patch of poison ivy and then took apart the KitchenAid Mix-Master…Mirjan broke one of the gears (she believes if a small hammer doesn’t work – use a bigger hammer). So Pops took it apart, id’d the broken gear and ordered the part online. Today he painted outside trim around the garage and back doors as well. The inside of the mix-master looks amazing like the inside of one of the winches on the boat! Gears and goop…go figure.

Speaking of the boat…it’s still in San Diego and still for sale. As a matter of fact, it should be making its way up to Newport Beach shortly for the boat show there this weekend. Wish us luck! I think I’ve emotionally broken free of our beloved Cutthroat…the sailing vessel…not the person Cutthroat – Roger. As the old saying goes, the two best days of boat ownership are the day you buy it and the day you sell it. I ‘m not there…but Roger is moving in that direction. Cutthroat needs to be out in the deep blue sea…cruising the seven seas, not stuck in the shallow waters of southwest Florida at some marina dodging hurricanes. What wonderful memories we’ve created however!

Well that pretty much captures our 2010 Adventures to date. Life continues to take twist and turns we don’t expect constantly reminding us that we’re not in charge. That’s the only thing that hasn’t been a surprise this year! We continue to count our blessing each day and are so very thankful for all we have.

Until our next update…

Elise and Roger

s/v Cutthroat