The old girl is gone

I just told Roger I was posting to the blog.  He asked what I was going to post about today.  I told him the boat.  He came up with the subject above, "the old girl is gone".  And no, he's NOT talking about me.  We met with the potential buyer of our boat today.  This was this guy's third time to the boat, second time on it.  He brought with him a friend.  Roger, Mel (the buyer) and I sat on the back deck of the boat while his friend walked around the boat.  Checked all the bedrooms, bathrooms, motor rooms, etc. 

Mel told us he has been looking at our boat and another Hatteras in Tennessee somewhere.  As we chatted away, he finally said he didn't want to insult us but was prepared to make an offer.  I acted as Roger's voice.  Mel was having a hard time hearing Roger's faint whisper of a voice.  Mel made his offer, we countered and we all finally arrived at a number happy to all. Roger and Mel shook hands and then I stuck out my hand to shake Mel's hand and instead was scooped into his arms for a bear hug.  I asked Roger if this was some special "boat" sale ritual.  He informed me "no, he was going for a free feel".    Nice.  I would have pushed the price higher had I known a squeeze was going to be part of the deal.  I mean REALLY. 

We will take our possessions off the boat over the next 1-2 weeks.  Then will do the infamous "sea trial" and then...hand over the keys. 

And just like that we'll say good bye to a symbol of our former carefree life.  Again we know, its just material "stuff" and really who cares about "stuff".  We still have all the memories of all the fun.  All the memories of friends and family.  And, we still have each other.  THAT'S all that truly matters.

So, the old girl will be gone soon. She is figuratively "gone" at this point.  Its a sad happy day and a happy sad day.  I think I've been more melancholy than Roger for the majority of the day.  This evening was the first time he expressed a little emotion.  I imagine the closer we get to handing over the keys, the more emotional it will be.  I will say Roger has had a huge sense of relief.  His shoulders seemed to come down from around his ears a little. 

Physically, Roger is feeling same ol same ol.  Exhausted, tired.  Unpredictable pain after eating.  The newest thing, is he thinks he might have pulled something in his foot or maybe has a stress line fracture from tripping on a step.  He didn't fall, just stumbled a little.  I've been icing it down and we've wrapped it.  No bruising or real swelling so my guess is a strained muscle. This guy was invincible until cancer attacked him and robbed him of his health and his confidence.  As he hobbled around and finally sat down to rub his foot, he quietly muttered, "it sucks to die".  I quietly muttered back, "I know.  Living sucks a lot too".  Now, mind you we aren't all depressed all the time and nor are we all woe is us.  We've settled in as much as you can settle in and look for a laughter whenever we possibly can and are still (as I mentioned in the prior post) ....we are still squeezing out ever drop of life we can.  Just sometimes you gotta say this stuff SUCKS. 

Along the lines of squeezing out every drop of life possible, we have seen loads of friends over the last week or so.  Couples have dropped by to say hello, maybe share a glass of wine, or break bread and generally just chatted it up with us.  Its nice to have the silence around the house broken with chatter and laughter.  Roger agreed.  Even though his participation was limited to laughter, shaking of his head, or often me being his microphone it was still nice to be engaged.  This weekend will be more of the same.  Roger has a lot of family coming to town.  We look forward to visiting with them.  I'm thinking about buying a Mr. Microphone or a kid's karaoke machine....then Roger's voice should be amplified enough to maybe talk on his own.  Of course there will be NO singing.  He can't sing (nor can I).   No point in damaging any one's eardrums!

That's the scoop as we know it.  Our (Roger's ) list of things To-Do gets one more item crossed off it.  If nothing else, there is a sense of accomplishment with checking something off the list.

xxooxx, a & r