October ‘95

*Additional notes may appear in italics after my mom’s initial journal entries.
A ladybug means you should check the comments at the bottom of the page to see what Mom has chimed in on after reading these!

October 1, Sunday

I called my friend Kathy for her Birthday today.

October 3, Tuesday

O.J. Simpson- NOT GUILTY.
Half of the office was gathered around the TV for the verdict. The phone at the front desk never rang once in that 15 minutes leading up to the reading of the verdict. Like the whole nation was watching.

*Ah, yes, the court case that rocked the world and changed news as we knew it. Mom was absolutely right, the whole nation was watching. There was a great docuseries that used to be on Netflix, but I can’t seem to find the video I’m thinking of. Anyway, one episode pointed out how, prior to this event, there was maybe a handful of news channels, but otherwise there was more like a few hours of the nightly news. But the way the Simpson trial captivated the country was insane and changed everything. I absolutely remember the adults being huddled around the TV at times or checking in throughout the day to see if there were any updates. CNN’s ratings were off the charts - news channels realized they could captivate people with the right story (or headline) and so began the crawl towards regularly sensationalized news as we know it today, where more often than not, ratings take precedence over fact. 🫤 The whole thing was a most unfortunate event in more ways than one.

October 6, Friday

Peg came over after school again and stayed the weekend.
Shine came over Sat. and stayed for dinner. He got a puppy- black lab- named her Spur.
Last weekend John painted the garage- looks nice. This weekend he’s helping the neighbor, Mike, on his house again.

 *At some point in the fall, I chopped off all my hair for the first time. Mom had chopped hers off earlier that year and I believe this particular style I chose was based on my cousin Ariann’s haircut that I liked. Eventually, this practice would become a trend in my adulthood. Grow, chop! Grow, chop!

October 8, Sunday

We went out to dinner with John and Maryann at Charlie Clark’s.

October 9, Monday

Happy B-day Jo.

I stayed home today, not feeling too well.
Samie finished Goon’s cross stitch turtle for her birthday. She also finished the  sail boat for Rane. She does a real good job!!

October 11, Wednesday

Happy Birthday #17- Goon I’m so glad we were able to spend the summer together. I will miss the nightly phone calls.

October 12, Thursday

Yesterday Gary and Liz took us to lunch. Today Theresa, Carolyn and Marian took me to lunch, really nice.
Peggy and Billy and Shine came over. Shine started a new job making the rows for a tree farm out behind the paper mill. His 1st day and he stepped on a nail.
Said goodbye to the kids for awhile again.
Samie stayed at Sam and Rane’s. She had planned a big surprise birthday party for Rane, her B-day is the 14th.

October 13, Friday

Last day of work- again! Leaving this time was so different than a year ago. This time around we know what is waiting for us and are very anxious to get back home.
Mexico and our boat are home to us now- Lakeside is just a cooler place to spend the summer. We were lucky to have had the time to spent with the kids although I wish we could have seen more of the older girls and of course Schyler.
4:01 pm and we picked up Samie and are on our way! We got to Steve and Brenda’s about 8:30 pm and stayed there for the night.

October 14, Saturday

Danielle and Chelle and Schyler came over to Brenda’s- John and Alice also, for lunch. Schyler has grown so much in the last month, he is quite the chubby little chunk!
On the freeway just 5 miles or so from Mom’s we got rear-ended. Danielle was in her blazer in front of us and she pulled over too. The guy following us didn’t see traffic stopped ahead, slammed on his breaks and squealed into us doing about 15 mph. Thank goodness he got stopped that much. No one was hurt just greatly shook up and the trunk on our car is about 2 feet shorter on the driver’s side. It had to be towed to Mom’s- where they and Andy’s family were all waiting to have dinner- sorry Mom, I feel like I’m gonna puke!
We were gonna keep Schyler overnight, but I’m too shaken, darn.

October 15, Sunday

John cut away the part of the fender that was pushed up and rubbing on the tire, so now it’s drivable, we just have to tie the trunk down and there are a few extra noises but all is ok.
Faron, Chelle, Schyler and Danielle all came over to Mom’s before we left at noon and headed for John and Maryann’s.

October 16, Monday

We got an estimate to fix the car- ha! $2500 – it’s totalled – we turned in a claim with the other guy’s agent and will take care of it next year when we go back to the states.
Got our VISAS and car tag and are home at last about 3:30 pm.
Move all the stowed goodies from below to on deck. We went into San Carlos and found Nanamuk  and had some dinner.

October 17, Tuesday

Generator and cell phone no good – John says they are his curse. He does figure out the gen-set though, it just needed the fuel line bled and presto, she fires up.
I’ve got everything put away but I’ll wait till after we haul out to go through and wipe everything down real good.

October 18, Wednesday

John had a guy clean the bottom on the boat, he said it wasn’t too bad.
Oh when we put the sails back on we got the jib on upside down – woops!

October 19, Thursday

It sure is nice to have a car here for the running back and forth to San Carlos. We have gone out to dinner every night since  we are hauling out and won’t have a fridge.
I tried to start school, but it’s gonna take some effort to get back into that routine.

October 20, Friday

We motored over to Marina San Carlos, which was wonferful in spite of being real rolly due to the wind blowing 20 knots all afternoon and night.
They have quite a rig for hauling the boats out. They pull you up on the trailer and hold you in place with hydraulic “arms” and pull it all with a tractor up the yard.
John sprayed her off and we scraped the little barnacles.
Joe from Wind Gypsy who we met in Ensenada is here, we hadn’t seen or heard about him since last Nov.
Renegade is here in the yard- but no Arne or Janice yet.

October 21, Saturday

Happy B-day Janice!

John put 2 coats of paint on today, via roller. She has some small bubbles in last year’s paint along the water line due to the paint being put on too thin. Next year we will haul her out and leave in dry storage for the summer while we are in the States, allowing the bottom to dry out completely, sand her down and repaint.
Samie and I spent the afternoon at the pool and while I was laying in the sun I started laughing! Just a week ago I was living in the cold and having to go to work- those poor souls we left behind! How lucky we are!
We went to a phone and called Mom, no one home, just left a message. But she had been on the ham net looking for us. Chelle wasn’t home either, they were in Lakeside.
Well, Janice you were supposed to be here by today- where are you?

October 22, Sunday

John finished the painting- he put on an extra coat at the water line. Spent the rest of the day at the pool. Joe went out to eat with us tonight.

October 23, Monday

Back in the water this morning by 9 am- Hurray!!
Samie and I rode in the boat on the trailer that pulled us back to the water, not as bad as I figured. We motored back around to Marina Real and got the dust and dirt washed off and vacuumed out.
I went through the food bins and re-sorted. Had to throw out the big bag of rice - bugs.
John went into Guaymas and got the phone re-connected. Called Mom and Chelle, they are still in Lakeside.
Sat down to dinner and wow- Peg called, just like through the summer.

October 24, Tuesday

Worked on this and that on the boat- John dinghied in fuel to fill the tanks.
Bought some fresh quail from Alejandro. I fried them up for dinner.

October 25, Wednesday

I’m starting to get back into the school routine.
Started not feeling too good this afternoon. Had a dock dinner party for Arne’s 50th B-day on Maiden Voyage - also Ananda and Miss Teak II.

October 26, Thursday

I slept most of the day, not feeling good at all.

October 27, Friday

Talked to Steve P. on the ham radio- still feel like shit.
Ananda and Maiden Voyage left today around noon to cross over to the Baja side.

October 28, Saturday

Still not feeling great, but managed to do some school.
John went into town and brought back Renegade! Arne and Janice finally made it last night! They spent the afternoon here with us. At 5 pm we went to Bill and Trish’s house for a bit and then to meet Arne and Janice for dinner.

*It took me a minute to catch it, but I remembered 3 nights before Mom saying we had celebrated Arne’s birthday - but he wasn’t even there yet?! I love that we celebrated him, regardless, but funny that we didn’t just wait a couple days? 🤷‍♀️

October 29, Sunday

Happy B-day Ruby & Russ

We, along with Northern Sky motored out on Nanamuk to Martini Cove and spent 1.2 of the day on the beach for Alan’s 9th Birthday. It was a wonderful feeling to be on a beach again. Later we had pizza with Arne and Janice.
We called Mom and the kids - all is well.

October 30, Monday

We had planned to leave this morning for Ballandra Bay on Isla Carmen, but we woke up to rain, stormy clouds and 15 knots of westerly winds- so it’s off for today.
We had Arne and Janice over and BBQed some great steaks.

October  31, Tuesday

Happy Halloween

Well, this morning we woke up to rain (rained most of the night) and very dark, stormy clouds again. Reports from the other side have had strong winds and rain also through the night- so it is off again.
Did a few more jobs on the boat.
Tonight we had Nanamuk over for dinner and the kids dressed for Halloween. Samie decorated the boat and trick-or-treated on the dock, taking everyone treats. Ed and Randi on Abientot had made her a caterpillar out of shells- cutest thing, it’s about 9 inches long. Rob had carved a watermelon jack-o-lantern, cute idea!