Sunday, 1 December 2024 - Susie and I finished watching "The Hallelujah Trail" on TV and strung up several strings of Christmas lights on her back porch and the fences on the back and one side of her house. Later we went to Dockside to dance even though it was blustery and cold, 71°F.

Monday, 2 December - Fitness class, then pickleball. I was surprised; it was what Keys people call cold, about 70°F. The fitness class was larger than usual but there were only two people on the pickleball court from our regular bunch, Sam Iverstine and I, even though there were about 12 players. I spent about an hour and a half defrosting the freezer. This afternoon I also spent several hours online trying to figure out the best app to read the images of my recent X-rays and MRIs. At about 10 years old my MacBook is getting to the point that the new apps won't load and run on it. Some of the images don't look as sharp as I had hoped. I hope the VA doctors can read everything they need to from them.

Tuesday, 3 December - After pickleball this morning I bought groceries at Publix and, later, met Susie at Dockside to listen to the JibSea Cowboys.

Wednesday, 4 December - Our instructor, Samantha, wasn't able to show up this morning for fitness class but several of us showed up and did the exercises she had sent to us by email. After that I played pickleball while trying to teach a "newbie" how to play. I've never seen anyone that totally uncoordinated; almost no hand to eye coordination at all. It's going to take awhile. This evening my "Low Battery" alarm came on. The batteries should have been charged by the full sun we had today. I had to start the engine to recharge the house batteries. I was surprised that the start battery was able to start the engine. It barely did, but barely counts. I realized that I had turned off the wind generator this morning so it wouldn't overcharge the batteries, but it shouldn't have been needed with all the sunshine. I turned it back on so it will run all night but the wind that has been blowing 20 mph for days has died off considerably so it won't do much good. I won't be surprised to see my batteries run down in the morning even though the alternators on the engine charged them up to 97% this evening at 10 PM. I think they are shot.

Thursday, 5 December - The Low Battery Alarm was, indeed, flashing this morning when I got up. I ignored it knowing that the solar panels would soon bring the voltage back up. We had about 9 pickleballers today and when that was over I returned to the boat to await the electrical technician to arrive. He certainly had good news for me. My $900 worth of batteries are not bad after all. The problem is with the Xantrex LinkPro monitor. Its voltage readings are off by about two Volts high on my "Start" battery and two Volts low on my "House" batteries. All I need to do is ignore it and read the information directly off the batteries with the VictronConnect monitor and controller app on my phone via Bluetooth. It doesn't have alarms, but is easy to read and keeps a history for 30 days.

Friday, 6 December - After fitness court and pickleball this morning I returned to the boat, caught up on some mail, then showered and went to the Race Track gas/food mart and got a pizza to take to the Friday Happy Hour. After eating way too much getting happy, I headed back to the boat and finished reading the 24th book in Alexander Kent's Bolitho series, "Second to None". After that I got things together to try to sell at tomorrow's nautical flea market at the marina's tiki hut and gathered things to take for an overnight stay in Key West to attend a concert by the Kingston Trio.

Saturday, 7 December - We had our nautical flea market and, for once, I bought a couple of things and came out on top by selling more than I spent. The flea market ended at about noon and Susie picked me up to head to Key West to see the Kingston Trio at the Key West Theater. When we arrived at the NYAH (Not Your Average Hotel) our reservation was all screwed up. We had paid $327 for a room that was now listed for about $160 and they wanted another $45, too. Not only that, but the room we had reserved was supposed to have a double bed but had two sets of bunk beds instead. Susie spent about an hour and a half trying to get it straightened out but finally gave up. We'll deal with it later. The Kingston Trio was great. The original members of the group have all passed away but one of their replacements was the son of one of the originals and the other two had been members that replaced the originals. They had the act down pat and their renditions of "Where Have All the Flowers Gone". "Hang Down Your Head Tom Dooley", "Green Back Dollar", "Tijuana Jail", "MTA", and others were great. Not only that but the seats that I thought I had reserved were, I thought, in the second row but turned out to be in the front row right below the Trio. We wore the first to arrive at the venue and the hostess and bar tender told us to just go up to the VIP bar and said that all the seats were not sold out so we could just fill a couple of the seats in the VIP section when the show started. We had a couple of drinks before the show and had middle seats in the front row of the balcony for the performance. NYAI has four swimming pools and we got out of the hottest one about midnight.

Sunday, 8 December - Upon checking out at NYAH, we walked over to the Key West Cemetery and walked around to see the grave stones. The oldest we saw was from 1864. The cemetery also has graves for most of the sailors that were killed when the USS Main blew up in Havana harbor in 1898 which started the Spanish American War. We headed home and later went to Dockside for the evening.

Monday, 9 December - Our fitness class has almost outgrown the fitness court. The court is only designed for two people to be doing the same exercise at one time. After pickleball this afternoon I defrosted the refrigeration and repaired one of my DVD players that had a copy of "Cat Ballou" stuck in it. The central clip that holds the disc in place had come loose and jammed it up.

Tuesday, 10 December - Susie and I both had appointments in Key West today. Hers was to get the brakes on her Toyota Sienna replaced. I couldn't believe it when she told me how much they charged...$800 for just the rear brakes. Yikes! Her trip made it easy for me to do three things, pick out glasses frames for new glasses, get a pair of hearing aids at the VA in Key West, and renew our passes at the Key West Naval Air Station so I can get into the Key West VA. All that took up almost all day, then we went to Dockside for dinner and dancing.

Wednesday, 11 December - We had about 14 pickleballers today and more people at the fitness class, too. I tried out my new hearing aids today at the pickleball court and I wasn't impressed. Yes, everything was louder but EVERYTHING was louder. I still couldn't hear most of the players announcing the score. It's loud on the court since we are right next to the Overseas Highway with trucks, motorcycles, ambulances and other loud vehicles plus we are right in the flight path for landings and takeoffs at the airport and only one block from the landing pad for life-flight at the hospital. Rarely do any of the players "announce" the score in a voice that is anything above conversational levels that their own partner might hear, much less the people on the other end of the court. I was told that these hearing aids have a manufacturer's suggested retail price of about $7,000, but I certainly wasn't impressed by their performance today. I had tried to read the manual for them but didn't get past the first 10 pages because I realized that this model is not covered by the manual that came with them. I called the manufacturer and the gentleman said he'd mail me the correct one. Since I don't believe I gave him a shipping address, I assumed that he meant that it would come by email since he had asked for that address. I haven't gotten anything from him yet.

Thursday, 12 December - The big event today was Roland Kok's 88th birthday party celebration at Dockside. At 2:45 I met Susie at Dockside to celebrate Roland Kok's 88th birthday with lots of others. Last year Susie and I were Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf as the band played Sam The Sham's hit song "Little Red Riding Hood". This year Susie organized a group of four ladies and me to emerge from back stage as Candace Widgeon played "Never Wear Panties To A Party". We were all wearing super short skirts with the backsides cut out so the rubber butts we were wearing would show. We all scooted in facing the audience and dancing until Candace came to the part of the song that actually said "Never Wear Panties to a Party" then we turned and showed our "butts" and flourished a pair of girls panties, which at the end of the song, we tossed at Roland. Well, all the girls did anyway. I tossed mine at another lady, Patty, who shares the same birthdate. She's much younger, only 78. Susie and Anne Mullet also danced to CCR's 1969 hit "Roland on a River" wearing hula hoop grass skirts and holding up life-size headshots of Roland in front of their own faces. Donnie and Four Sheets to the Wind, Rick Ara, Skinny White Boy (Steve), and Candace all entertained the group for three hours and it all made for a great party. Susie's a great organizer. It felt a little weird coming back to the boat at 7 o'clock, the time we usually show up at Dockside to spend the evening.

Friday, 13 December - The fitness class in getting too popular for the facility. There are four stations for some of the eight exercises but only two for others. We had enough participants for three at each position today which caused problems. Our pickleball group is drawing more people, too, mostly snowbirds that have come south for the winter. I'm going to quit promoting the fitness class on the VHF in the mornings.
                    At one o'clock today my primary care physician called for my 2 o'clock appointment to discuss the X-ray and MRI images that were recently made of my lower back and left shoulder. She said better early than never, which is true, but that meant that I wasn't totally prepared for the conversation. She informed me that I have almost no cushion between my lowest back lumbar vertebra and my sacrum, the bone just below it. That's what is causing my nighttime back pain. I wanted to ask why it hurts when I'm laying down and there is no pressure on the joint and not during the day when there is, but I didn't think of it. My shoulder MRI showed a minor tear in a muscle. She's going to arrange another appointment for me with a local orthopedic surgeon to discuss the problems and treatments with.

Saturday, 14 December - I defrosted the freezer this morning. The thermostat switch, which I tried to turn down, was very hard to turn. I think that, even though it is located in the next compartment, it may have been frozen. When it warmed up, I turned it down and off. When I turned it back on, it didn't come back on immediately. I thought I might have to replace it with an old, spare unit from my old system but it finally turned on. Next I replaced the left, lower arm on the toilet seat in the forward head with a backup new one. After that I sealed up a crack in my 52 qt. cooler that I use to temporarily hold the contents of my freezer when I defrost...and while I had out my glues, I applied Shoe Goo to the bottom of one of my pairs of Chaco sandals. Since I wear them almost exclusively, to play pickleball, dance, work, and almost everything else I do, the soles only last about a year before needing help. About the only thing I don't wear them for is climbing the mast. They are too wide for some the steps mounted on the mast.
                    The harbor's Christmas Boat Parade was this evening so Susie and I went to Dockside to watch the decorated boats go by this evening. The place was packed and I was barely able to get seats. I had to ask a couple that we hadn't met if we could share their table with them.

Sunday, 15 December - I must be getting old and wimpy. The fresh water in my holding tank has cooled down considerably with the cool weather we've had and twice this week I went ashore to shower with hot water instead of showering on the boat. This evening I met Susie and Patty and Jim at Dockside for the evening's entertainment.

Monday, 16 December - The group of exercisers did a quick vote today and decided to change the start time to 8:30 from 9AM. I'll have to get up in the dark to have breakfast to da that. I hate getting up in the dark. Oh well, the days start getting longer in about 4 or 5 days. I bought a deck waste fitting at the monthly flea market. It looked to be exactly what I had hoped to find until I got it back to the boat. The price of $15 was too good to pass up, but it doesn't fit. I would have thought they would be standardized. The one in my deck is slightly larger. I spent the afternoon trying to find one like this new one in the size that I need. All I need is the cap and I'd hoped that I could simply unscrew the cap I already have and screw in the new one. My old one jams up very tightly and the wrench used for it is a spanner with two small studs that fit into the cap's 1/8th inch holes and it has a very short handle. Sometimes it is very hard to get out. The new one I bought has a pop-up piece that any 3/8" or adjustable wrench can be used on. This would be ideal. Apparently, the only company that makes this type of cap has a patent on the style and they only make one size.

Tuesday, 17 December - About 22 showed up for pickleball this morning. I played until 11AM then went to the marina office and donated the last three books I've read to the Cruiser's Library, then returned to the boat, had a quick lunch, then made two trips to get 50 gallons of fresh water to put in my water tank each time. I've been hoping for rain to fill my tank and the weather man has been forecasting it, but it hasn't come. I'm sure it will now that I've hauled water to the boat. I met Susie at Dockside to dance a bit later.

Wednesday, 18 December - We had fitness class at 8:30 this morning to accommodate the instructor's, Samantha's, schedule. That made it such that I could join pickleball a half hour earlier than usual, too. I played until 11 AM then went directly to the marina office to help assemble bicycles for the needy kids of Marathon for Christmas. I joined a fellow that was assembling one by himself. It's easier with two since there are times that one needs to hold the bike while the other works on it. We finished the bike but I realized that the shifter on the front sprocket set wouldn't move the chain to the larges gear. The other fellow was all about speed, not necessarily getting it right. Instead of helping me figure out what was assembled wrong, he opened another box and started on another bike. I finally figured out that one piece of the mechanism had been mounted too high and the arm that moves the chain was hitting the sprocket guard. I relocated the piece by about 1/4 inch, but that threw other adjustments off. After about 15 minutes I got everything in tune and moved over to another fellow to work on another bike. In previous years when we have done this, pairs of assemblers assembled the bikes then tested the brakes, shifting, aired up the tires, and inspected the whole assembly for needed adjustments. Not this time, at least for most of the assemblers. Very few even aired up the tires. Once the bikes were assembled, about one o'clock, everyone left but me. I went through all the bikes that had gears, about 30 of them, and double checked everything except whether the gears were shifting properly and smoothly. That's a job for two, one to shift the gears and hold the bike while the other rotates the pedals and makes adjustments. I found almost every bike had problems; brakes that didn't stop the wheels, brake levers and shifters that were mounted wrong, brake pads that weren't aligned with the wheels, front, rear, or both reflectors that weren't aligned properly, handle bars that weren't aligned with the wheels, and only one or two that had 40 psi of air in the tires. Most had about 5 psi. I, also, found one whose front wheel is badly bent or warped. Its wheel rubs the brake pads several times and it rotates. That will have to be straightened by tightening and loosening the proper spokes, a time consuming job better left for another day. I finally made notes of what I'd done and quit at 4:30 tired of pumping up tires and bending over to work on the bikes, to return to my boat.

Thursday, 19 December - We had about 22 for pickleball this morning and I played till about 11, then headed to the marina for a Dr Pepper and to check the mail. I headed back to the boat and made a few phone calls. The most important was to Starkey Hearing Aids. After about 30 minutes we figured out why my hearing aid app was saying that only the left hearing aid was on even though both were. Something had apparently gone wrong with the app download and when I removed the app and reloaded it from the App Store, it fixed the problem. We don't get fog very often. It was about 75 degrees this morning when I got up and clear but while we were playing pickleball fog rolled in and the humidity jumped from about 85% to 105% and the sun was just warm enough to make everybody sweat like crazy.

Friday, 20 December - Susie and I both attended the fitness class this morning then I went to pickleball. We had about 20 players again. The mooring field is almost full now but I guess we won't see many more players until after the holidays. This evening the park had a celebration for Christmas with a showing of "Elf" at the amphitheater, a bounce house for the kids, free popcorn and cookies, and my favorite, "ice skating". Actually, it was an ice-like surface made of something similar to Starboard or a cutting board. The surface was pretty fast but hard to hold an edge on. Luckily, the skates they supplied were hockey style skates with good ankle support, much like the old K-2 single buckle plastic ski boots. The first two pair that I tried on hurt an ankle bone on both feet but I tried again and asked for a size larger. He handed me a pair of true hockey lace-up skated that were very comfortable. Unfortunately, I wasn't as good a skater as I thought I remembered. Maybe the 40 years since I last ice skated had something to do with it, I don't know.

Saturday, 21 December - I asked for volunteers on the Cruiser's Net this morning to join me at the marina community room to go through the bicycles that we assembled on Wednesday to check each of the bikes that have gears. We needed to check each one to make sure that the gear shifters actually made the chains move to each sprocket as intended. About eight people showed up and so did about six more bikes to assemble. Within two hours we had them all ready to go to some very lucky kids. The bikes range from little kids bikes with training wheels to really nice mountain bikes with front and rear shocks and 21 speeds, and also included two single speed, 26" beach cruisers with fat tires and coaster brakes.

Sunday, 22 December - I'm ready for the days to get longer and warmer already. I went to the marina for a hot shower again, today since the temperature is so cold, about 70°F. So is the fresh water in my tank. I went to Dockside at 5:45 this afternoon and met Susie and Leta and Roland Kok there. Roland is not feeling up to his usual spry self. He was using a walker to come in this evening and he a Leta only danced one slow dance, right at the table.

Monday, 23 December - I went to fitness class, then to the pickleball court for a couple of hours this morning. Back at the boat I tried to pay some property taxes online but discovered after filling everything out that I was going to be charged about $20 for the transaction. I closed the page and mailed a check for the price of a Forever Stamp that I bought several years ago. I also had to go to the grocery store. Of the five things I needed, they only had two, wrapping paper and bananas. This is the fourth time in a row that they were out of Pickapeppa Sauce...and they are almost always out of V8 in 64 oz. bottles, too. They didn't even have large cans of mixed nuts. 'Tis the season, I guess.

Tuesday, 24 December - Christmas Eve - We had about 30 people at pickleball today, many were just visitors for the holiday, but we had some good players. This afternoon I repaired an under-counter light that had ceased to work. I cleaned up all the terminals and checked all the voltages and resistance, but the thing that finally made it work was to put a few drops of WD40 into the switch. If I'd done that first I might have saved myself about an hour and a half of work. I met Susie at Dockside for Christmas Eve celebrations, music, and dancing.

Wednesday, 25 December - Christmas - I played pickleball it the morning then Susie picked me up at 3 PM and we went to her house for about an hour and exchanged gifts. She gave me a beautiful bracelet made from elements that Mel Fisher discovered on the Spanish treasure ship Nuestra Señora De Atocha that sank in 1622 near the Marquesas Keys here in Florida after searching for the ship for years. They found it with about 500 million dollars worth of gold, silver, copper and jewelry aboard. The bracelet has a leather band with silver findings surrounding a coin stamped with the date 1622, a real treasure. After that, we met Roland and Leta at the Key Colony Inn for Christmas dinner and then moved on to Havana Jacks to listen to the Lady A Band.

Thursday, 26 December - Again, pickleball from 9 AM till noon then back to the boat. In the evening Susie and I met Leta and Roland at Dockside to see Candace Mo Re (Widgeon) perform.

Friday, 27 December - I attended the fitness class then went to pickleball and played for another hour and a half.

Saturday, 28 December - I’d almost decided to purchase a new Xantrex Link Pro Battery Monitor because it is giving significantly wrong readouts of the voltage in both the house bank and starter batteries, but decided to check the connections on the system as best as I can before doing so. This morning I removed all the wires on the left side of the shunt and cleaned the surfaces, then reattached them. In the process, I moved the cable from the Start Battery from the lower left side of the shunt to the top left side, as indicated to be proper by the technician, Dan from OnBoard Rigging. He had come to look at the system recently. This did not cure the problem of the Link Pro giving low readings of the House Batteries, but I will clean all the connections on the right side of the shunt soon and see if that does.

Monday, 30 December - I played pickleball this morning then returned to the marina, paid my mooring ball fee for the coming month, then stuffed fifty Cruiser's Bags with 24 advertising flyers each to be handed out to boaters at the marina.

Tuesday, 31 December - New Year's Eve - About 22 pickleballers showed up this morning. Susie and I planned to go to Skipjack Resort for about an hour before going to Dockside for the New Year's Eve celebration but Donnie's band, Four Sheets to the Wind, had their play-time shortened by an hour by Skipjack's manager even before they played so a disk jockey could finish off the year, so we totally missed them. We spent the evening at Dockside.