Sigh! The deal with my Mom was that I could use her garage (heated) in order to rush to complete the rebuild by Monday, my 43rd birthday. On Sunday night I moved the rebuild into her garage. She said she'd be around to open the garage when I got home inthe evening on Monday. Nope! She was outta town for two days. Harumph! Sooooo, I begged her to copy her key so I could come and go as I used to when I was her annoying teenaged son. She said she'd make a copy. Did she? Nope! Had something to do and forgot. Argh! Thursday I called to say I'd be there to work. She was gone AGAIN! Grrrrrrrrr! FRIDAY: I'm off for seven days so I head over to her place to start work figuring I couldn't possibly miss her so early in the morning. Oh My God! She left for the friggin' spa at 0800h and wouldn't be back until 1200h. $*(#$*)#&$@#$^# I showed up at her place at 1230h and finally caught her. I went to the biff while she talked through the door. She hastily explained to me that she just had to go to the store to buy some eggs and that she'd be back in a few minutes. I raced to get outta there when I realized she might hit my car backing out of her garage (parked sideways on the drive pad) but I missed her. Now I was seeing red, I had my chance to get into the garage and I blew it. So what did I do? I sat down and watched The Young and The Restless until she got back. I have to say, Victor is sure looking old these days. Hey wait, that means I'm...oh never mind!

So my Mom shows up and I ask for the keys. She smiles and says she left them for me just outside the bathroom door. Holy S#*t! Argh! Doh! Grrrr! I hastily grabbed the keys and got my sorry ass into the garage. I worked like a madman and sanded a few spots I missed earlier, then cut biaxial tape for joints and seams, mixed epoxy and got down to some serious gluing. I seal coated all panels under the hood, taped all joints and seams after filleting anything that needed filleting, coated any rough spots in the kevlar lined cockpit and touched up the bow shear joint I repaired earlier. I came back later on to glass the seat, glue the damaged parts of the back rest and fill gouges and breaks I found on the front hatch. The rear hatch survived the rapids intact so I have nothing to repair on it. I'll just give it a new weather-strip waterseal.

Tomorrow morning I'll be drinking Big Rock's McNally's Strong Ale while I sand the works then glass the deck. If my Mom disappears before I can get there I'll have to buy her a new door later on during the day, the old one will be bent up (Steel Door meets my 12-lb Sledge Hammer). With luck I'll have the rebuild officially launched Monday, no later than Tuesday. It will be a somewhat hasty launch since the rebuild will still need some work (fill coats to smooth finish and graphics) but it will be a launch, none-the-less. What a day that will be. I'll post pics of the original yak, the after-the-rapids shot and of the rebuild at launch time. Should be an interesting set of pics to see.

The picture I posted is me at Preacher's Point, the check-in point my wife and I agreed upon before I started my trip this year. You haven't seen this one before so I thought I'd throw it out to you since I have a scanner that works now.

Robert N Pruden