Things my parents do to make me crazy

You've probably noticed, that the midwest has been getting some pretty wicked weather the past few weeks.

What was drought last year is flooding this year.  Another EF-5 tornado came along, reminding all of us who live here to take the warnings seriously.

And then, there are my parents....

I'm an only child, it has its pros and cons.  But mainly, as an adult, I don't have a sibling to call and say "CAN YOU BELIEVE WHAT THEY DID NOW?"

So, this past week, while in Florida I make my weekly check in call.  Mainly because while having dinner, the Weather Channel was on and lo and behold, they are all losing their minds about EXACTLY where my parents live.

So I call.  And we are talking.

Me:  Are you in the basement yet?
Parents:  No, it's actually sunny here, but you can see it getting dark to the west.
Me: Yeah, it's ALL OVER the weather channel, just one county over.
Mom:  WOW.  That was close.
Me: What?
Mom: BIG bolt of lightning.
Me: Really? Perhaps you should go.. inside.
Dad: We will soon.
Mom:  WOW, there's another one.
Dad:  So, anyway, I have this funny story to tell you, the other day your uncle..............(dead air)
Me: Hello? Hello? HELLO?

I call back a few times to nothing but a busy signal.

Now, both my parents were on the his and hers cordless house phones. They both have his and hers cell phones.

So, power goes out, no house phone.  But, do they have their cell phones on? Ever? NO!!!!

So, I check the radar and here's what I see:

Click to enlarge.  Parents are marked, triangles are tornadic vortices.

Needless to say, I was less than a happy camper with them.  However, since I didn't read about their town on CNN, or hear a story about two idiots on a porch drinking beer getting zorked by lightning--it was a happy ending.

After talking to my parents when I got back, I found out my dad merrily was telling me his funny story for a good five minutes after the power went out. 

And if you follow this blog, you'll now realize that my insanity is entirely inherited.

Trip to Marathon, and a full storage locker...

We got ourselves up to Marthon, luckily dodging the majority of the thunderstorms and showers (a few sprinkles, nothing major).

We got tied off and the boat sprayed off just as a torrential downpour hit.  We scrubbed ourselves off and headed over for dinner and drinks.  Tired from the 8 hour head on slog to Marathon, but happy it was done without any major difficulties. 

After a good night's sleep, we showed the boat to a couple of potential buyers and got it pulled.  We were thrilled that the bottom was in pristine shape. 

We were even more thrilled that we were ready to head back to Key West 3 hours ahead of what we planned.  YAY!

5 x 5 locker, with room to spare!

Happy we got our work done.

Enjoying time out during the 'working' trip

Even though a lot of our trip was packing and purging the boat, we did manage to call time out by 5 or 6pm each day.

One night we went out on sunset cruise, was pretty good, small crowd.  The poor captain got heckled after a failed docking attempt---something you should never do in front of the Schooner Wharf bar.

Tim volunteered to be deck hand.  And we not only got to see a great sunset, but a beautiful full moon rise.

Raising a gaff rigged main isn't as easy as they are making it look.

Pretty, pretty sunset.

Turn around, and voila, pretty, pretty moon.

No, this really is the MOON.

We also took a nice day sail on our boat, at which point Tim decides to take a phone call from our broker just as we were entering the channel, so I had to putter around until he was done.  My crew partner has yet to learn that he doesn't have to go tearing down below every time the phone rings. ;-)

We saw quite a few porpoise this trip, a couple of times playing in our bow wake.  Never get tired of that!

One of the bars on the Historic Seaport is working on re-inventing itself (new ownership) and one of things they've added is a Ceviche Bar.  It is very good.  You can order it from the table or actually sit at the six person bar where he makes the ceviche.  We always opt for the bar, we do enjoy harassing the staff at restaurants.  We got to enjoy another sunset in the process.

Chef was a little camera shy, but made great stuff!

This is one of the six they offer, the sauces are the best part.  Yes, that it popcorn to cleans your pallet.

Another Key West sunset.

Nautical Tetris, or how much crap you can fit on a boat

We are down in Key West getting Hemi D ready for not only hurricane season but to get her sold.

After three years of having her as our floating vacation home, I am simply amazed on how much crap I've managed to pack on her.  Now we are moving some stuff to storage and getting some things home, hopefully.

The spouse is currently working while I systematically trash the boat. Five minutes after I took the pic, he turned around and said, "Where the hell did this all come from?"