Life as a wage slave

It has been about three weeks since I first pulled into my slip here at Pete's Harbor. I am coming up on the end of the second week of my new job. What do I think?

Well, first the working world. I can sum it up by saying that I have returned to being a wage slave. When I was working before, I knew that work ate up a lot of my life - even though I enjoyed my work. Once again I like my work but it consumes most of my life. I wake up at 6:30 and hurry to get off to work. The commute is between 45 minutes and an hour depending on traffic. Then there is eight hours of work plus whatever lunch break - usually about 45 minutes. Then drive home - again 40 minutes to an hour. If I do nothing else, I am home just a few minutes after 7 PM. By the time I make dinner, eat it and clean up it is shower time and bed time. I need eight hours of sleep to survive when I am working.

If I didn't have nine months of retirement to compare it to, it wouldn't be quite so grim - but I do. Two weeks down - fifty to go.

And then there is Pete's Harbor. I liked Sausalito better. Sausalito was bright, Pacific blue. The water was everywhere. I could see Alcatraz and the Oakland/San Francisco Bay Bridge. When I backed out of my slip, I was five minutes away from great sailing.


Pete's Harbor is brown. See the pictures to the right. It is surrounded by marshes. To go sailing, I have to be careful to time my sailing by the tides lest I run aground in the narrow channel formed by Redwood Creek. Once out into the bay, the sailing room is limited. There is a relatively narrow channel running north/south along the bay. There is a lot of water that is less than six feet deep at low tide once out of the channel.

The best news is that tomorrow is payday. It will be good to have some money again and to feel like I am making some progress toward living out my dream. If things work out well, I will pick up the jib I left with Pineapple Sails for repairs and I will get to go sailing this weekend. It will be the first time in three weeks. I am ready! The rest of the weekend will be boatkeeping (the nautical version of housekeeping) and perhaps I will be able to start on some of the fixup stuff I need to do before I sail away.

Onward!