Home and Missing the Boat!!

Here we are back in Hendersonville and living in a house.  The good parts include convenient washer and dryer, easy access to long, hot showers, a car to go to the grocery store when needed and the best is seeing some friends and sharing really good pizza.  But the bad parts come from leaving a house empty for a bit over 10 months.  Driving down the driveway and seeing weeds, no mulch where it used to always be and bushes desperate for trimming started the uneasy feelings.  Then walking into the house and seeing dead spiders and other exotic Tennessean bug critters all around heightened the worry.  But opening the closet downstairs where jackets and shoes are stored, all covered in a thick layer of mold sealed the deal!  Let's turn around and go back to the boat!!

This is the kitchen floor as seen by Erik when he came home in October.  He thought that sending me a picture of dead bugs on the floor would be helpful and I suppose it was good to know ahead of time just what I would be seeing!  But I was still shocked to see just how many thousands of the tiny beetles had infested our kitchen!  So we flew in on Saturday and I have done nothing but clean since arriving!  Every cupboard and drawer has been emptied in the kitchen and almost all food not in a can was pitched!  But as of today, only a few dead beetles exist in the kitchen.  Problem #1 managed!

And we do have a beautiful view of peaceful water from all the back windows in the house so that helps!  Yesterday was spent vacuuming bugs up in all the other rooms of the house so problem #2 is mostly contained.  

Had to look out again to enjoy the late afternoon view to keep from packing my bag and heading back to the boat!!  This morning was spent gratefully with my cleaning lady, wiping mold off every surface in the "racing room" where all of Al's gifts, awards and racing paraphernalia are nicely displayed in the open just to collect the mold that descended upon the room because we had turned off the dehumifier (didn't want a leak), turned down the air conditioning (didn't want to waste money on electricity) and didn't think to place "Damp Rid" refills where someone could refill the canisters.  Lesson learned the hard way.  Things will be different when we leave the house in a few weeks!  

So now I am remembering the losses so many endured because of hurricane Matthew and trying to count blessings and not feel sorry for myself that there is still much to do around this house.  This shot was taken as we passed Amelia Island in the Fernandina area.  Boats on shore that were once floating peacefully in the water!  We saw many boats washed ashore all along our way south through Georgia and northern Florida. 

We stopped for two nights just before flying home at this free marina that sits in front of the Jacksonville Jaguars stadium.  It is a lovely setting for fans to enjoy if they arrive to a football game by boat.  When there are no games, the marina is free to anyone to use and there is even electricity for a nominal charge.  Why can't Nashville improve its waterfront dockage?  So on Friday 11/11, we moved InSpeyered 2 from this marina into Lambs Marina further up the St. John's river in Jacksonville to have teak work done while we fly home for Thanksgiving. 

 Thanksgiving at home will be nice once all the work to get the house in order is finished! We are especially looking forward to having a week with Erik and hopefully some relaxing time!
Hope you all have a Happy and Peaceful Thanksgiving.  No more blogs until we get back to the boat.