Another uneventful day in the sun ....

Our posts up to now have been about boat improvements, plans for improvements, and taking to the water. It's worthwhile pointing out that part of the fun is just pottering about, going nowhere, achieving little - but visibly relaxing, away from work, away from computers, away from the home phone.

So I went to see Patience kitted out with lengths of hose to fill her water tank, a broken hasp that needed replacement from the chandelry, and a plan to sand and paint the front doors.
However while the hose was long enough, I'd forgotten the connectors, and while contemplating moving her up to an empty berth near the tap another resident told me a scary story of a narrow boat colliding with a cruiser to catastrophic effect. Hence the empty berth. I opted not to move. 
Sanding down proved effective as well as sociable as several owners paused for a chat, but unfortunately revealed a woodwork mosaic of brown and white patches - white where the original brown stain had vanished. Now I knew that I had to stain the wood first before I could apply my varnish, putting back the job by a few days.
In an attempt to save the day I drove to the chandelry for a new hasp (the original broken in a struggle to beat our way off a mooring against the wind) and saw success turn to failure when the apparently good fit was about 4mm off - I could bolt through two holes but not all four.
So, why an uneventful day in the sun? Because instead of cussing about three successive failures I just retreated to the aft deck with my sandwich and a custard tart and read Bill Bryson's "Thunderbolt Kid" until my smile muscles ached.
And isn't that why I have Patience? She helps me switch off, just messing about on the river. And the next day I returned to work refreshed. Thanks to Patience.