I confess to a quirk. I have a few, it seems. But this one is really weird: every now and then I want to buy something. I thought getting too many winches would satisfy that latest manifestation of the urge but it was not to be. I am now looking at an old diesel engine.

This is a weird quirk, you see, because I generally hate shopping and really don’t want any more stuff. Honest. I am greatly relieved by the lesser amount of stuff in our lives right now and all that such stuff entails (buying, using, storing, cleaning, fixing, etc.). I really do not need more stuff.

But sometimes I weaken. I give in to my urges. It can get messy.

Which is OK, I guess. A little weakness now and then is only human. The worst that comes of it is that I have too many winches. How bad is that? What if it was wenches? OMYGAWD! (there but for the grace of an ‘e’ could have been ‘I’?)

But the problem is not just the urge to buy. The problem syndrome starts with general interest, focused curiosity and progresses to obsessive research and the resulting relentless hunt (often accompanied by heavy breathing at this stage). I am thinking that this so-called urge is really just the primal hunter-gatherer instinct writ modern and inappropriate. Getting on E-bay is like entering the forest. Craigslist is fishing the seas. AAARRRGGHH!!!! It is a ‘man-thing’. Kinda.

I gotta stop.

I have no idea how I got there but I found a 12 hp diesel with reduction gear for a good price. The pulse quickened. All senses went to high alert! I just have to trust the pictures, drive for a very long day, heave 500 pounds of dead weight into my utility trailer and then bring it back home to the logging road, beach, boat, haul-out (winches come in handy here!) and then store the damn thing until I build a boat.

“It’s like huntin’ moose, eh?”

Yeah. You read that right. I might build a boat.

It’s another urge. I could have a problem.

And Sal, poor thing, really does have a problem.