There always seems to be more to do

We've been at our summer dock for just two weeks and there are lots of things to put away or decide that we can get rid of. Dishes and silverware for eight? Don't think so. Let's lighten the load.

It's now almost the first of June and there are still a lot of empty slips. We hope that isn't something that will continue. We love it when the marina is full.

After a good breakfast on Sunday and a deep dip into the Sunday New York Times, we were ready to take the inflatable off the front deck where it spent the winter, and pull it around to the swim platform where we could pull it up on the davits.

This thing is awkward and it isn't easy for one person to pick it up and slide it down over the bow rails into the water.

To get this done, we asked dockmate John T to give us a hand. John knows what he's doing and is about the only person that we'd trust running our boat (something that he has done many times in the past.) We humped the old inflatable over the railing, slid it into the water and walked it around to the stern. Once there, we got it into the davits and hauled it up. Then, all Frances and I had to do was tie it down.

Air conditioning isn't cold enough

Frances called from the boat this week to say that the AC wasn't working to its full capacity. She took the opportunity to call the manufacturer, Marine Air, in Florida, and found a local service company. (We're skipping all the calls needed to get that information.) Finally, she made contact with Quox Corporation, in nearby Stonington. We were told the someone would be at our boat at 2 p.m. on Sunday.

Matt Snyder, who owns Quox Corp, was a little late but really knew what he was doing. He showed us how to vacuum the cat hair out from the AC unit and, in fact, got most of it out while we watched.

There's more to Matt that we hope to cover over the summer. He's a really interesting guy and one who plays the mandolin. 

His bill for about two hours on our boat was something like $175. Given the complexity of the AC unit, we think that was a bargain.

Why, Frances asked, was his company called Quox? He suggested that we look at "The Wonderful World of Oz.

Although Quox is young, by dragon standards, he is very large. At the time of his encounter with Betsy Bobbin and company he was a mere three thousand fifty-five years old. His body is a lovely sky-blue color and thickly set with glittering silver scales, each as big as a serving tray. His head and face are not especially ugly for a dragon, but his eyes are so large that it takes a long time to wink. Whenever he smiles he shows sharp, terrible teeth. His nostrils are large and wide, and his breath smells of brimstone. His voice is a little gruff, but not unpleasant. An electric light is attached to the end of his tail. (We copied this from The Wonderful World of Oz.)

Matt Snyder will continue to be our go-to guy for AC problems. He doesn't really have an electric light attached to the end of his tail.

We took a short walk around the marina on Sunday. Not a lot of boats for the beginning of June but we suppose some more will arrive in the next few weeks. We had to include the dock damaged by last winter's ice. You rarely see pilings leaning that far over.