Maria and Tim went out of town for the holidays and I stayed on after the Japanese dinner to take care of Sadie and pace the floors as I continued to deal with the boat problem. There were days full of activity, then days when nothing happened at all which was almost more worrisome. A local guy, Phil, was recommended by the local government agency as someone to trust. Not having any other options, I went along with Phil’s plan. He pumped the water out daily, then floated the boat enough to get it out to his mooring. The patches he put on the holes didn’t hold very well and daily pumping continued. Phil wanted to buy the boat himself and told me he’d get one of his friends to invest. However, nothing ever panned out.

I continued to court potential buyers by email and phone. Some anonymous person posted a ridiculous message on Craigslist with a picture of our boat saying federal agents were about to seize the boat as part of a $1 million bankruptcy and fraud case. I filed a harassment complaint and it was removed within 24 hours. Interestingly, at that point, Phil stopped communicating with me despite daily phone calls, voicemail messages, and emails from me. Darn, now what?

On a positive note, I was also maintaining intermittent contact with Chad from Maui. He really wanted the boat but had limited funds to work with. On Dec 22, he told me his mom, Bonnie, offered to help him if he would take her see all the islands when the boat was restored. Now we were moving forward. Was there a bit of light now at the end of the tunnel?

On Dec 23, I had a deposit in the bank, booked a (very expensive last-minute) ticket to Kauai, found a good place for Sadie (Maria’s daughter Leslie to the rescue), emailed Maria in Ixtapa Mexico, and contacted my good friend Pat in Lihue (yes, I could stay with her).

Poor Sadie, I’m not a good dog-sitter and she let me know in her own special doggy way.

Adrienne came up one day/night for a visit and we went out for dinner in Nevada City and this is the only picture I took. Me not taking pictures? Sheesh, my head is not on straight right now.

The staff at Atria El Camino Gardens did a great job of hosting all the families of residents.

After dinner, a local Girl Scout troop sang Christmas carols.

Today Mom turned 95. Definitely time to celebrate!

Odin discovered a toy not found in his toy box at home. Wonder Woman, who’s that?

This game is called Whack an Uncle.

I have been dealing nonstop with the boat problems for 7 days now. For about 12 hours each day, I’ve fielded about 25 phone calls, received or sent even more emails, dealt with all manner of people interested in buying the boat at a rock-bottom price and others of questionable character. I put an ad on craigslist on Dec 3 and was inundated with all manner of inquiries. To keep everything organized, I also took copious notes. Essentially I don’t know who to trust or which way to turn. Darn stressful. My mantra: head down, plowing forward.

Maria invited me to Penn Valley for some TLC. I could pace her floor just as easily as my own. I could lay awake at night and fret in her guest room just as well.

By Saturday the temperatures had fallen, a storm came through, and wa-lah – snow! A rare event in these parts.

Today, a high of 41 degrees, a low of 17, snow showers. To keep all this severe cold weather in perspective, I also checked the weather in Regina SK: a high of  -14, but with a 12 mph wind it felt like -38, a low of -21, sunny. It’s all relative, eh?

I laughed when Maria climbed a ladder to clean a few spots on her kitchen window. “This isn’t really me. It’s my mother Billie.”

So where was Tim? Oh he had some important business to take care of in his Las Vegas office. Just look at how hard he worked:

As we sat down to dinner at Thais & Lenin’s, I got a phone call. A storm had blown through Kauai and our catamaran had broken loose from its mooring in the harbor. The wind pushed it up the Huleia Stream. It scraped the inner rock jetty creating 3 small holes in the port hull and  came to rest on a sandbar and filled up with water  waist- to chest-deep.

A Good Samaritan, Jude and his wife, stepped in to try to save the boat.  These are the pictures he took.

He put a temporary patch on but it still leaked.

And rented a big pump from Home Depot.  His actions were heroic to me and I was very grateful, but eventually he had to step back and out of the picture. It was important to keep the local government officials happy and they didn’t know him.

As many of you have already realized, I’m way behind when writing this blog.(Maybe a good new year’s resolution for 2014 to post in a more timely fashion?) So, I’m actually composing this on Dec 17. Let me tell you! The last 19 days have been a nightmarish stressful roller coaster ride. And there’s no clear resolution yet. There will be a final report … soon I hope … please.

Once again, our instructor was Dick’s cousin Merrilyn.  She and husband Bob had already squeezed the juice – a big messy outside job. The juice must sit still for at least 24 hours to allow the sediment to settle.

Fresh-squeezed lemon juice waiting on the windowsill.

Phyl measured sugar.

I measured juice.

All ingredients combined and boiled, time to fill jars.

I tried to capture the beautiful garnet color in finished jars. This picture is not enough.

To celebrate our success, Merrilyn brought out a brownie torte. Yum!

What a great way to spend a Sunday morning! A new skill, good friends, 6 jars of pomegranate jelly, and a great dessert. Merrilyn, thank you once again.