March 25, 2006

Embracing Garage Boating

It is officially Spring: famous local TV celebrity Meteorologist Cindy Fitzgibbon even said so. You can smell it in the air - and sorry, but sometimes cliches are just so boringly true: there are indeed birds chirping. There are also lively squirrels making an early-season go at destroying your lawn, but in general you can feel the tedium of late winter beginning to lift.

So you've stowed the snow shovels, and, HEY! Your favorite tree is beginning to show buds! That must mean boating season is here right? It has to be! Immediately you run for the lake and notice that it's still half covered in ice, and quickly remember your low tolerance for pain and the fact that you won't get any of your friends in the 60 degree water. So you once again look into buying a drysuit on eBay. 60 degrees isn't that cold is it? Yes. Yes it is. And by the time you make this realization, you have arrived at that in-limbo destination and associated desire to be in your boat so badly but knowing that it is too cold still to truly enjoy it.

Spring Garage Boating Fever has set in. You start modifying your weekend plans so that you can be near the boat and start to ready it and yourself for the upcoming season. But realistically you have also come to the conclusion that you'll be spending a solid month Garage Boating. But it doesn't matter, as you want to smell the stale gasoline and those amazingly evocative notes of mold - that you for some reason have grown to love. So you remove the cover, climb in and reminisce about just being out there. Whether it is making your first run on a gorgeous Saturday morning, or just cruising around. It is also time to make the list of must-do's and nice to have's. And I bet you can hardly wait to make the final decision to postpone the auto-ballast system that you promised to yourself that you'd finally commit to creating.

Your short attention span and innate tendency to procrastinate are both going to be tested, but stay the course. Now is the time to decide what is going to give you the best return. No matter how long your Garage Boating season lasts you will never, ever, have time to complete every project that you've said to yourself "How awesome would THAT be!" So start slow, and enjoy it. Hook up the trickle charger, grab a beer and just enjoy it. If all you do is clean the bilge out again, the Sun will still rise and set just like it always has and you'll be out on the water in a matter of weeks (technically, that is true).

Posted by erik