Friday, December 26, 2008

A (fragile) window?

A glimmer of hope on the horizon -- though the forecast is 132 hours out, it looks like the weather I need to leave may finally materialize late next week. A low pressure system is forecast to blow through next Wednesday, followed by what looks to be at least 48 hours of light but Northerly wind (from the North, blowing to the South). Whooo! I hope it holds up...

Ok, on to more exciting things. This town seems to have a thing for climbing Santas, which, despite my love of Christmas, I had never seen before:



Thanks Joy for posting some pictures of what my departure will look like. A couple more are below:






I´ll also post some pictures of the Jesus statue that overlooks San Sebastian as soon as I can figure out how to get them off of my camera. You can almost see it at the top of the hill behind my boat in the first picture above.


Now, on to the more interesting stuff --

Robert, Marlene - I absolutely love the fact that they Yankees are spending money this off season, especially to pick up pitching. I wasn´t the least bit impressed with the Nick Swisher signing (highly overrated throughout baseball thanks to Moneyball, and he also killed my fantasy team two years ago). Sabathia was an average pitcher a couple of years ago, but seems to have found some magic recently. I hope it lasts. Not a huge fan of Burnett yet, but I can quickly be convinced if he steps up and wins some close games early on. I like Big Tex, but for some reason associate him with Hank Blalock, who has been spotty since getting lots of hype in 2004. With that said, it´d take a lot for him to be worse than Giambi who had a bigger contract. Can´t wait to go to a game in the new stadium. Frankly, I thought the old one was a dump, despite all the history there.

Joy - not sure what to make of your last picture. I´m pretty sure that was a close to life-sized cardboard stand-in for me that you all ate dinner with on Christmas Eve. Really weird.

Gary M - Port clearances here have been straight-forward but were complicated by issues that weren´t a fault of mine or of Antonio, the port captain in Tenerife. Would be happy to elaborate when I get to Antigua but should leave it at that for now.

LovelyLady - I never get Christmas carols out of my system. Seriously, no one should go 11 months without hearing Dominic the Donkey (Heee Haw, Heee Haw!). Haha...yeah, I did it.


Paul

10 comments:

Arqueck said...

non

Anonymous said...

for sure....may the good Lord bless you real good.
Gary

Anonymous said...

Merry, Merry Christmas!

Anonymous said...

Paul, I have something to admit to you. Don't tell Joy, but Christmas just wasn't the same without being flipped upside down. More importantly, Dad didn't even buy chocolate oranges. I think it would have caused all of us too much heartache to "whack and unwrap" the normal way. Get your knees and your broad shoulders back here safe and sound; we'll have those oranges waiting for you in Antigua, and I'll be sure to take motion sickness pills. Also, Joy wrapped Emily's present as an homage to your wonderful displays in the past, but it was just a few staples shy of the real deal. It's a day late, but Merry Christmas!

Unknown said...

yesss, dominic the donkey is one of the greatest, yet most unheralded, christmas songs of all! and this is from a true connoisseur of all things christmas music-y. your mythological stature has just increased that much more in my eyes, sir. hope you had a good christmas and that you can get the hell outta there soon. take care

Anonymous said...

Cute hat!! I thought you were rowing in your bday suit?? hee haw!

Unknown said...

Sweet hat. Also, Joy popped your collar in that Christmas table pic. I'm pretty sure back in the day at GA you had quite a few choice comments for popped collars. Haha...Merry xmas, thinking of you!

That Guy said...

dude, for lunch today i had a number 1 from mcdonalds, large fry big mac and a large orange drink.

Anonymous said...

While you are in port, fly a courtesy flag of Canary Islands...

Jess Padron said...

Hey Paul! I found out about what you're doing by pure coincidence! For work I had to look for local lodging near Colgate University and I found the article talking about you! Since then (Christmas Eve) I have not been able to stop reading your blogs!! I think it is absolutely amazing what you're doing! I can't wait for the Spanish Government to give you the Port Clearances soon so that you can embark in your jorney!!! I wish you all the best and I will keep checking in!!

PS: If you need help with your Spanish let me know! lol...I'm from Venezuela and speak it fluently :D