Mel Joins the Merry Tribe of Ignored Sailing Philosophers by Coming to Yet Another Bizarre Conclusion About Life

Dear readers, things are looking up for the Burnetts!  Just one day after Mel whined to the universe about their unfortunate mishaps with international shipping, they learned that all of the disputed items would be here on Monday, the 13th.  In fact, a shipment to The Amazing Marvin from South Africa is currently sitting right next to a shipment to The Amazing Marvin from the USA, on the same flight!

Learning this, Mel rapidly came to a conclusion about said universe: “If you want misfortune to change, it doesn’t matter who you complain to, just as long as you complain.”

For the moment, Mel is trying to suppress the urge to test her hypothesis by doing the thought experiment of applying her rule to all of mankind throughout time.  She did it a little bit; it wasn’t pretty; she had to stop.  An easier, more modern test of a philosophy is to imagine it as a viral meme on the internet.  Unfortunately, Mel can only picture her words hovering around Grumpy Cat. 

She has no idea how to interpret that.  But this has worked for the Burnetts on that one day, so she might as well put it out there for people to chew on, right?  Surely, the 34 emails Greg sends off daily has nothing to do with their eventual success.

Of course, if Mel was as scientific as she claims, she would have been discouraged by the events of the next day.  Our antifouling bottom paint, Seahawk Biocop-TF, was just applied in June and was still looking really good.  It’s really nice bottom paint.  Greg had therefore only ordered enough to cover the wounds from The Disaster, three gallons, and he was struggling to get it shipped over here.  Imagine his dismay when, after the paint was finally on its way, he arrived at the boat only to find that, for inexplicable reasons, the work crew had stripped every bit of the antifouling off of the boat.  This necessitated another order of four more gallons.  This problem was diagnosed as resulting from the breakdown of communication that can happen when there is a language barrier.  Mel really should add this to her data: complaining to the universe did not prevent more misfortune from happening.  Explain that, Grumpy Cat!

In the meantime, the family has nicknamed Tommy, “Bug Eyes”, because of his uncanny ability to spot cockroaches and giant spiders, even in the dark.  Tonight alone, Tommy’s count is 6 cockroaches and 1 spider.  This is a higher count than usual, and we think it has to do with the warm Calima wind blowing off of the Sahara, basking the Canaries with unusual 85-degree weather, a bit of dust, and extra bugs.  It’s the Burnetts’ fault; they left a window eight feet off the ground slightly ajar.  If you just pictured what that means about the capability of two-inch long insects with giant wings, then you should be really grossed out right now.  Sigh.  Another lesson learned.

Allie and Mel took advantage of the warmth by having a “beach day” for the first time in a while, and Mel got to wear her first tank top in four months, watching the slow reactivation of her upper-arm freckles with fascination.  In two days we will be back down to the low 60’s, and so her newly-birthed freckles will have to garner their patience and wait a little while before they can fully bloom.  Just like the Burnetts.

If all goes well, the engines are going in on Monday, and Marvin should be in the water by Saturday!

It took some prodding, but “Bug Eyes” has finally completed his assignment to draw a lobster, and so we now have another installment of The Mystery of the Flor do Mar: Chapter 4: The Scene of the Crime.

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