It's Official, We're Those People...

So now we have this boat and to be honest, we don't have a plan.  The only thing that we know is that the rainy season is on its way and at the time of this writing, we have had two solid days of downpour.  And its only August!  Basically, we need a plan...and quick.

We're going to build a shelter for the boat.  This shelter needs to allow us to work; needs to keep the rain and debris out; needs to be versatile and let us stand up in the boat and move around easily; needs to not get in the way of the power line.  We're going to build a shelter this fall and we have a pretty good idea of what we want.  We talk about the fancy materials that we'll need and use words like "Visqueen polysheeting" and "ripstop".  It will have hinges and will fence the boat in while we work on it so that we don't have be, well, those people.  

We just need to build it.

This is not your standard blue-tarp situation.  And since I'm being honest here, we've never fancied ourselves blue-tarp people. You know what I mean.  The people who will use a blue tarp to solve any outdoor problem or eyesore; to be used as a car port, strung up with some twine as an awning or rain shelter (from above Seattle's backyards are dotted with blue tarps like pools in California), covering up the car that you'll get to someday, covering a pile of dirt, rocks, or a kiddie pool.  The big blue arrow pointing to the yard that says "I'll get to it!"

The blue-tarp lacks character and serves only to mock you, proclaiming to the whole neighborhood, to Sunday drivers, and to planes that fly overhead, that you'll never not need them (and the big box stores that sell them) for something.  It does nothing to camouflage your aspirations or your simple need for more time and/or money to finish what you started.

Last week I came home from a soccer game and John was stapling, yes - stapling, a big blue tarp to the boat.  In the rain.  In the wind.  In the dark.  And, what's worse?  I had to help while he was shouting orders over the noisy flapping and dodging the debris flying around, proclaiming excitedly "See, baby, this is what its going to be like when we go sailing!"

Right.  But couldn't we have at least gotten a brown one?