Boats and Babies

I've been fortunate enough to have been pretty busy lately, unlike so many people who would love nothing better than to get out of the house and go to work. I truly hope that everyone who has a business or a job will be able to go back to it soon and start earning a living, the way  God designed it to be. Even though I've had an enormous amount of work to do on the boat this year, I don't get paid to do it. But if I don't do it, I won't have a boat to fish from. On second thought, I didn't have any more work than I ever have when I haul the boat out. Power wash the hull, sand, scrape, patch, caulk, paint and mend the various parts that need it, but it was so much harder to do this year than in years past. So much of the work is done under the boat, and it's not a place that I can stand up, so I'm on my knees for as much time as I can endure at a stretch, and then have to go at it again. I had to take two showers a day- one in the morning so I could move and one at the end of the day to remove all the dust and paint chips. Frankly, the work is grueling. To make matters worse, when I launched the boat the other day I noticed a steady trickle of water coming down the inside by the shaft log. All my work seemed to be in vain. I'm hoping that the wood will swell up and shut off the flow so that I don't have to haul it out again. You might be wondering what a boat has in common to a baby. Well frankly, they're both a lot of work. A friend delivered a new baby girl last month back in New York. She was fortunate enough to have the child before the hospital quarantined them. However the baby was born with one kidney and the last time I talked to my friend she wasn't getting any sleep because the baby had colic and was awake most of the night, every night. Babies, like boats need so much attention. Fortunately you don't have to paint them or sand their bottoms, but you do have to feed and change them and endure sleepless nights and worries about the future. They both need lots of TLC. When I bought the Bonnie J thirty years ago, I knew it was going to be a lot of work. I didn't want a wooden boat for that very reason, but it was all I could afford at the time,and she had a fairly new engine in her, so that's what I ended up with. Of course I would hope that most parents wouldn't look at having a child and think- "oh man, that's going to be a lot of work, to say nothing of the expense." If that were the case, the world would be a lot less populated, but it would also be a much sadder place. Who knows who might not have been born if finances or hardship were the determining factor for having a family. There is never really a good time to have a child. There will always be an expense involved, plans that will change, world events that will seem insurmountable. Sometimes lust has more to do with whether or not a family is started. No need to think, just act naturally. Like Jan has said before, there is no good time to have a child. If you wait until the time is just right, you'll go childless. If I had waited until I could have afforded a fiberglass boat, I still wouldn't have one, and though I didn't want a wood boat, I've enjoyed countless hours in it, most of them great. Of course I've been in rough seas with it and spent much more money than I'll ever get out of it, and there are times when I'm laying on the ground looking up at the garbard seam  trying to stop a leak and wondering what the heck was I thinking, it's been a good experience overall. My oldest daughter Jennifer turned 46 the other day. I don't remember if she had colic growing up or if she cried a lot or if there were sleepless nights. I do have fond memories of watching her grow and become a woman though. The same with my other six kids. One day I won't have the strength and the energy to deal with the boat any more. I'm going to be 68 in a short while and the Bonnie J is going to be 78. I don't know the exact date it was built, I just know it was 1942, but I'm going to give it a launch date the same as my birthday. I suppose that one day I'll walk away from the boat and just enjoy the memories. Unlike the boat, I'll never walk away from the kids; I'll always be their dad and God willing, I'll always have the memories of our time together until the day I die.