…..or so said one of Sal’s women-friends last year when she said goodbye to us both after staying with us for a few days (90% of the time sitting on the couch drinking coffee and yapping until it was time for wine and dinner). “Thank you, Sally. You were wonderful and (turning to me)….well, David, you were…..well….adequate.”

In the moment, it seemed a smidge ungracious but well, over time, I am forced to agree with her. In fact, when it specifically comes to f’glassing, I am barely even misandry-level adequate. Sub adequate in f’glassing I most assuredly am but, perhaps, a bit extra good when it comes to cooking steak (or so said another of Sal’s woman friends who also later came to stay mostly on the couch with coffee and then wine while she awaited her cooked-to-order steak dinner). So, it all may balance out to be a generalist’s adequacy. Or, in the eyes of the hard-put-upon fairer sex, barely tolerable male inadequacy. Our bar is set pretty low these days (whew!).

My excuse? That’s right! I am a generalist! I try to be able to do everything somewhat adequately well altho, admittedly, the desire to do any of it GREAT is just not there anymore. Adequate is just fine now that I think about it. And so I describe my new roof-in-the-making for the new boat………

It is adequate. Mission accomplished! It will do the job for as long as I navigate this mortal coil. I think it is good. It is almost complete in it’s components but it has yet to be fitted-in-place and, when that happens, we’ll know just how adequate I was.

The thing about boat building/altering/repairing (for me) is that nothing is square, everything is ‘formed’, it has to be strong and sea-worthy and, hopefully, adequately pleasing to the eye. But none of that can be done in situ down at the dock (no power there and all my tools are 200 yards uphill away). Plus I am a wood butcher who seems to do everything for the first time. A boat roof is a daunting challenge.

This roof is only 36 sft or 3 sq meters? I ‘sandwiched’ and glued doorskins to get the curve. I salvaged old wood to make the frame. I used galvanized plumbing tubes for supports. And then I f’glassed the roof once the shape was formed. I later sanded and filled for a bit until I thought, “Well, that should be adequate.”

Next in the progression is painting. I will put on one coat and then sand. Then I will put on the second coat and, no matter what, call it adequate. Adequate is a standard to which I am becoming more than comfortable. Whatever possessed me to try to do better?

Speaking of comfort, I currently do not have any. Nor does anyone else out here. It is 91F at our place today. It was 91F yesterday. 33C! That is hot! Some neighbours inland ‘up the hill’ hit over 100+ yesterday. They are pushing past that today! Mind you, the silver lining is that any f’glass work has definitely kicked off.

And so might I if it gets any hotter!

This is really hot for me but the pooches sport black, curly hair. A lot of tongue is showing. A lot of panting is heard. A whole lot of water is being drunk. They are still puppies (8 months old) and somewhat leery of the ocean unless coaxed. They will eventually learn. But, so far, they have not. This kind of weather is just not typical of what it has been in the past but I suspect that it is going to be more and more like this as the years go by. We, as a species, didn’t learn either.

Climate change….geez, who knew? Well, OK, there were the many reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that has been screaming warnings for over 30 years (first one in 1990) but who listens to scientists these days, eh, when you can get the abbreviated (and distorted) version from FOX News? No reading, thinking or even considering real news. I wonder what Tucker (annual salary $6M) and Sean (annual salary of $25M) have to say about it all?

Anyway, I will, like millions of SE Asians, Northeastern ‘Mericans, Sou’western ‘Mericans, Europeans…well, you get the point….. just carry on carrying on and hope it passes soon. I’ll get my adequate roof on the modest boat soon and then I will no longer cook while going in it….the very definition of a mediocre man adequately adapting and quietly denying the obvious truth all at the same time.