September 7. Things are moving slowly but at least they’re moving in the right direction. When we were here in Forked River in June we took the dogs for booster shots and physicals. It turned out both dogs had Lyme’s Disease. The treatment was for us to give them a months worth of antibiotics while we were away. When we got back they would be rechecked and if healthy they would be given inoculations to keep them from getting Lyme’s again.

The follow up trip to the vets proved that the antibiotics were successful and since the dogs were free of Lyme’s they could be inoculated against getting it again. During this physical it was discovered that Molly had a tumor on her stomach. After a series of x-rays it was determined that surgery would be necessary.

I walked her up to the vet on Friday morning and it proved to be a long day waiting until we could pick her up again on Friday evening. The operation went well and although she was completely out of it she appeared to be fine.

It was good that Molly was fine but sadly our sewing machine died. There was much sorrow. We’re in the middle of making dinghy chaps for our dinghy. Dinghy chaps are a tight fitting protective layer of sunbrella fabric pulled over the dinghies tubes. The fabric protects the tubes from the sun and can double the life expectancy of your dinghy.

The process involves pulling the dinghy up onto the dock and taping heavy paper to the tubes. Once the paper is completely covering the dinghy it is removed in sections and used as a pattern for the sunbrella material. Our pattern ended up yielding 5 large pieces of material which will have to be sewn together, but alas the sewing machine is dead.

We went to the nearest Wal-Mart and bought a Singer, brought it home to the boat and discovered that it’s a piece of shit. I got it all set up, got all the sewing crap out and laid out the pieces of fabric. I started to sew and discovered that the tension could not be adjusted because a small metal part was fractured. So it was broken right out of the box.

Just about that time the youngest girl child dropped in with her boyfriend for a short visit. Good, I needed the break as between yesterday and today the sewing machines were starting to get the best of me. But like I said, their visit was short and Christy and I were soon on our way back to Wal-Mart to return the defective machine. Then we headed over to Sears where we picked up a cheap Kenmore machine that had been highly rated on the internet..

I got about half of the sewing done this evening and the new Kenmore seems to be doing a pretty good job of it. I am getting the hang of sewing but if ever we meet and I offer to sew something for you, just say no, we’ll both be better off for it.

Boat Name of the Day: A sailboat named Jib’rish. I thought it was pretty clever.