"I'mmmmmm OFF to be a Pirate! A Wonderful Pirate of OZZZZZZZZZ!!"

~or "We watch as Capt. Tur sails off into the sunset... and lives happily ever after."

In EVE we fly spaceships... virtual amazing incredible stunning mind blowing spaceships... Wee itty bitty wittle spaceships and GINORMOUS MONSTROUS DREADNAUGHT TITAN SPACESHIPS... and everything in-between that the twisted mental imaginations of some of the most interesting (IMHO) devs and game designers and just plain ol' GAMERS could think of, and ALL of it swirled around and built from the raw ore to the fully finished and outfitted weapons of mass virtual death by us... by the players... and ALL of it, everything player made in the game is targetable and destroyable...
Loss is REAL in EVE.

Pirates are real...
Arrakis is real...
The Harkonnen are... wait, crap... sorry...

Pirates are real...
Anoikis is real...
The Harkonnen are really incredibly ebil fictional characters in the highly acclaimed Dune series by Frank Herbert, and if you don't know, you should be ashamed... 'nough said, K? so...

I used to fly in EVE. Used to. I stopped or actually ran out of gas... or POS fuel... or interest... I died of apathy. Turns out we aren't immortal, we can die... of boredom. I did. or... did I die? or did I just get interested in something else?

Those of you, the few, the weird, you band of red-headed-step-children-of-BOB, you know the changes wrought upon me during the death throes of my EVE days.

- Divorce;
+ Sailing;
+ My Amazing New Lady CJ;
Job Changes (both stressful bad and stressful good);
- walked away from a four year FT position;
+ five months later, landed a much better contract position;

add to these the ones you knew not of...
- broke a tooth, could not afford repair;
- three weeks into new job, company announced outsourcing my dept.;
  (my last day... Apr 30, 2019)
- Jeep needs new engine, is parked again;
+/- Buy very used Rogue cheap from aforementioned My Amazing New Lady CJ;
- broke another tooth, no choice but to repair;

add to these the new one I just found out about...
- Rogue in shop, needs work, something to the tune of four digits... sheesh

OK... I've had A LOT GOING ON ok??

But the main part, the things that really matter? My kids are doing great. All of them, the three step kids I don't see so much now after the divorce but they are all in their 30s and all have full busy successful lives. My teens are doing well, ok to very good in high school and no signs or portents of any of the real evils that teens are most at risk to. If we can just get them safely into their mid twenties they have a real shot at avoiding the Big Three Life Changing Mistakes of youth... drugs, alcohol and unplanned (yes I said it because it's the right word) pregnancy.

Other than that... Sailing and CJ ease all ills and make all problems as naught. Broke down cars be damned, broken teeth be damned and job and money issue be damned. We'll figure it out and make it better, all it takes is the will to accept that you yourself can make it better. Believe it and act out that belief and so far, it's working. We have several options we can work on and we are applying ourselves to each as we can and broken things are getting fixed and there are many options for making scratch. As long as I have CJ by my side and I can muster up a full working set of arms, legs, hands, feet and an at least semi-operable brain... I have all it takes to make it all better than it has ever been. And it's working.

S/V Luna Blu

Better you say? Yes, better says I! In EVE we fly... IRL I sail! I and CJ have been crewing on a number of boats in the Southern Chesapeake Bay Regattas over the last 2 years, most of all on S/V Luna Blu, a '66 Bristol 39 yawl rigged true, blue-water open ocean cruiser/racing yacht. I have devoted myself to crewing on her every race she's entered in, and CJ will crew with us from mid June through early August... and this year, we take her back to the waters she was built for...      open ocean racing.

That's CJ, up on the foredeck...

She is entered to take part in the 69th annual, 120 NM  "Down the Bay Race" (Annapolis MD to Hampton VA from May 25th to May 26th) and "Southern Bay Race Week" a regatta of three races, The Macolm Davis Race, The Casemate Classic Race and The Old Point / Blackbeard Race (a race each day from May 31st to June 2nd) and then the one I cannot believe we are going to get to crew on... The 37th bi-annual, 473 NM, "Annapolis to Newport Race" (Annapolis MD to Newport RI, June 7th to June 11th).

Heading out for the Hot Buttered Rum Race 2018!

So.. in EVE we fly our pixel spaceships through 7,500 star systems across uncounted light years of space... In real life I, and my lady CJ, will sail across more than 1000 Nautical Miles of  the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean in just these races alone this season... I miss EVE, I do... I miss my friends and my enemies and all the rest... but out here, in the real... I sail the blue waters and the open sky and the wind and the waves... I am with my skipper and crewmates...
and I am free,
and I am happy.

S/V Luna Blu Crew, the "Lunatics" (what else?)...  That's me, on the far right...

Fly safe my good friends, and maybe one day I'll see you out on the Blue...  =/|)= 

Your always affable host...

PS - Has anyone ever noticed that thing I always stick at the end of the end?
The  "=/|)=" thing?
Did you ever notice how it looks like wind and sails...   =]

PSS -  I believe this may be my last post. I will keep the blog up and possibly, just possibly I might add to it now and again. But all in all I had a good run in EVE... I "officially" take my leave with almost 8 years of amazing memories and experiences, and in the end, when we all really do finally 'shuffle off' as they say... what will we have left to us, what do we take with us, but our memories hmm?  Pack carefully, I am.

=/|)=