There has to be something better.
Do you ever sit around thinking that there has to be something better than this?
I find myself feeling this way lately. Especially today. I mean...I have a fairly successful business. We are not overloaded with work but we have had enough that I haven't had to lay anyone off. We're not getting rich but the bills are being paid and we have food on the table. Almost everyone else I know that does renovation or remodeling work, has gone out of business or has nothing to do since the housing bubble burst and the recession started. I've had people call be lately looking for work that I used to work for in the past.... with business's far larger and more established than mine.
But lately I am starting to wonder if it's all worth it.
My largest account called today and told me to pull off all of their jobs just because the owner was having a bad day. Nothing I had done wrong, just his bad hair day. I have went out of my way, far and above expectations, to please this company in the past. With the market flooded with people looking for work, I guess they just think that they can treat people anyway they want too. Which I guess they basically can. Loyalty and remembering everything we did for them in the past, all the binds that we pulled them out of, all of the freebies we gave them, none of it means anything in this job market and that is a reality that I am having to face. He called back after he had calmed down (which I knew he would) and said to start back on everything and he even sent me a check for a materials draw, but it made me realize just how easily everything can be lost.
It should have freaked me out.
It didn't.
I'm getting to the point that I don't care about stuff. This new attitude of mine will make it easier to sell everything and move onto a boat....which is what I want to do anyway. A part of me is glad that he called back, but another part of me wishes he hadn't... to give me an excuse to start now. I know that I am not financially ready at this point, but everything I read about people that have done this, is that if you wait until you have enough money, you will never end up going. I don't want to get stuck in that rut. I'm smart enough and have enough skills to find work doing what ever or where ever. I'm planning on taking a year or two off, but I know that I will have to work if I want to continue cruising after that point.
I know that I can't go yet, I have to wait until I have my cardiac surgery, which is coming up in the next few weeks but once it is over and I have recouped a little, all bets are off. I do have a power cruiser that I could move onto now and wait untill I learn how to sail and purchase a sailing vessel. It would probably be easier that way instead of having to commute to the marina for sailing lessons weekly. I pick up on things pretty fast and I love reading and leaning from books but that will only take me so far. I can learn more in one days hands on experience than I can from a stack of books.
I'm looking at a few boats now on Yachtworld...maybe I should just dive in head first and buy one.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Where do I start?
This is where I'm going to write about my love of boating....past, present, and future. I don't really know why i started this page. Maybe it's to get my ideas and my direction organized. Things always seem clearer when they are written down.
I would like to end up in a sailboat... cruising the Caribbean for a few years, in the near future. I will use this page to help me mark my progress towards this goal.
I've owned Jon boats, bass boats, ski boats, and a power cabin cruiser but I have never owned a sailboat before.
Right now I have a 16 1/2' Hydra sports bass boat with a 115 Mercury on it. It is small, easy to load and unload by myself,and it will haul butt. With me by myself, I can hit about 62 mph in it.
I also have a 28' Chaparral 278XL cabin cruiser. It sleeps 6, has a full galley, toilet and shower, hot water heater, and all the other goodies. I really like this boat but it gets expensive to fill up the 140 gallon fuel tank. the last time I filled it up gas was about $2.50 a gallon. That was about $350 a fill up. Gas at the marinas now is going about $3.00- $3.25 a gallon this year pushing a fill up to around $450. You might think that 140 gallons would last awhile , but it doesn't really. Don't get me wrong, at a typical cruising speed of 3000 rpms, it's turning a fairly quick 27 mph while it is burning about 8 gallons per hour. That comes out to about a little over 3 miles per gallon. That's the nautical equivalent of a Honda Accord for a boat of this size.
We carried the cruiser 300 miles down the Chattahoochee River and the inter coastal waterway to Panama City, Fl last year. I have a separate detailed blog for this trip with pictures. If you are interested, it is at http://downthehooch.blogspot.com
I like the power cruiser but the gas is expensive and to take an extended cruise of the islands for a couple of years, a person would have to be very well off financially. Unfortunately I'm not.
That is what got me started thinking about sailboats to begin with. I've read countless books, forums, and magazines on sailing and they have captured my imagination. I looked at a sailboat before I bought the cruiser. The guy selling the boat actually took me out on it for a few hours and it was great. It was an old fixxer upper and nothing really special but it was almost magical when he shut down the motor and lifted the sails and the boat began moving under the power of the wind alone. I have to tell you, I'm hooked. A sailboat is definitely in my future.
I would like to end up in a sailboat... cruising the Caribbean for a few years, in the near future. I will use this page to help me mark my progress towards this goal.
I've owned Jon boats, bass boats, ski boats, and a power cabin cruiser but I have never owned a sailboat before.
Right now I have a 16 1/2' Hydra sports bass boat with a 115 Mercury on it. It is small, easy to load and unload by myself,and it will haul butt. With me by myself, I can hit about 62 mph in it.
I also have a 28' Chaparral 278XL cabin cruiser. It sleeps 6, has a full galley, toilet and shower, hot water heater, and all the other goodies. I really like this boat but it gets expensive to fill up the 140 gallon fuel tank. the last time I filled it up gas was about $2.50 a gallon. That was about $350 a fill up. Gas at the marinas now is going about $3.00- $3.25 a gallon this year pushing a fill up to around $450. You might think that 140 gallons would last awhile , but it doesn't really. Don't get me wrong, at a typical cruising speed of 3000 rpms, it's turning a fairly quick 27 mph while it is burning about 8 gallons per hour. That comes out to about a little over 3 miles per gallon. That's the nautical equivalent of a Honda Accord for a boat of this size.
We carried the cruiser 300 miles down the Chattahoochee River and the inter coastal waterway to Panama City, Fl last year. I have a separate detailed blog for this trip with pictures. If you are interested, it is at http://downthehooch.blogspot.com
I like the power cruiser but the gas is expensive and to take an extended cruise of the islands for a couple of years, a person would have to be very well off financially. Unfortunately I'm not.
That is what got me started thinking about sailboats to begin with. I've read countless books, forums, and magazines on sailing and they have captured my imagination. I looked at a sailboat before I bought the cruiser. The guy selling the boat actually took me out on it for a few hours and it was great. It was an old fixxer upper and nothing really special but it was almost magical when he shut down the motor and lifted the sails and the boat began moving under the power of the wind alone. I have to tell you, I'm hooked. A sailboat is definitely in my future.
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