The days before

Well, the plan is to rent a small truck (cheaper than an suv), load up a months worth of clothes, tools, fishing gear, nautical charts, laptop, and food staples and head out for Jacksonville, Florida on Saturday Dec. 19, 2009. Dad seems to be comfortable in his temporary residence at Remington Park (If you want to check on him his cell phone number is 832-514-0960). The newspaper has successfully been forwarded to him. The mail is another story. We assume it will work itself out eventually. I'll reserve a comment about the US Postal Service. On Monday, if the weather holds, we will proceed with the survey (an inspection by a professional marine inspector), sea trials, and out-of-the-water inspection. If no major defect is found we will close the deal and become the proud owners of the "Gracious Lady" (Yike!). Almost immediately we will change the name to "Confetti". The name has a provenance because we previously owned two vessels with the same name, both shrimp boats. Dick