January 12, 2009.

I spent the morning jugging some water back to the boat. Then we went down to the local pub so I could watch the Giants throw the season away. It wasn’t as disappointing as I thought it might be, and now I have next Sunday open. Stupid football.

As I’m sure you know, we do an awful lot of reading here on the boat. I’ve been reading “A Short History of Nearly Everything” by Bill Bryson. The eldest girlchild gave it to me for Christmas and I’ve just gotten to it. The title sounded interesting so I was looking forward to it. It turns out that by the History of Everything the guy is talking about the freaking universe, including our planet, the stars, galaxies and all the space in between. Don’t let me get started on quarks and the fabric of time. It’s a damn science book that’s evidently been written by the king of the nerds.

The first thirty pages of this book almost killed me. It might be the driest, dullest thing I’ve ever attempted to read. It’s as painful to read as if I had sand in my eyes. By the time I got to page 60 I was hoping for an aneurism.

Then a funny thing happened, I can’t put it down. No, I didn’t have a stroke. It’s actually been pretty thought provoking. It’s the first book that I’ve ever read that I’ve stopped reading to interrupt Christy in whatever she’s doing and said “Did you know…….?” It’s turning out to be a great book and I highly recommend it. You’ll love it, as long as you don’t kill yourself trying to get through the first few chapters.

On a much lighter note. There’s a guy down at the far end of the anchorage that rows his dinghy back and forth every day. Today there was a light breeze from a favorable direction so he popped open an umbrella. He used one of his oars as a rudder and sailed the length of the anchorage with surprising speed. Kinda Mary Poppins goes cruising.