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Another viewpoint.
My house and cars are all paid off, as is my daughters college education. My job seemed to be going really good. I had sold my Hunter 27 in 1983 so we could buy the house. I missed my boat everyday for 25 years. I've got subscriptions to 5 sailing magazines.
I had bought a basket case Catalina 22 and worked on it for 5 years, then had to sell it before putting it in the water when I lost my previous job. It seemed like a good time to look at getting another boat. We took a great vacation to the Florida Keys and I started watching boat ads. A CD comes due and out of the blue my wife gives me the money and tells me to buy a boat.
That was in March of 2008. I bought the boat. She virtually hasn't spoken to me since! She sleeps on the couch downstairs. Was that a test? Did I fail?
After 2 raises the boss offered me a new position managing our shop. I bought the boat. Months went by as he found excuse after excuse not to pull the trigger on the deal. At the end of the year I got a pay cut. I rationalized that we had a bad year. He cut my pay again at the end of this year. Most of my work has been given away to outside contractors. The boss talks about how slow things are while the guy in the next office that does the same jobs I do is working tons of overtime. I figure maybe two weeks to a month before they let me go.
The boat turned into a project boat, with pay cuts, that I can no longer afford. My wife gets even more angry every time I work on it. If I don't put it all back together I will get totally hammered if I try to sell it.
How can things turn around that quickly? I am seriously thinking about going cruising, alone.
Gary H. Lucas
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