24 42.40 081 N 05.68 W
Yesterday, I announced on the Cruiser's Net that I had a Force 10, two burner stove to give away free. No takers. Today, I announced it a second time. The reaction today was very different.
Within minutes, a young man came by. He said that he and his wife were remodelling their boat and had no stove at all. I was glad to give it to him. As he and I were lowering it into his dinghy, a second man came by also looking for the stove. After they left, two more boats showed up looking for the stove. It was popular.
But that's not the end of the story. A while later, one of those men came back a second time. He said that the man who took the stove found that it was too big to fit in his galley. The second man wanted to know what was wrong with it. I said, the oven. "Darn," he said that's the part that interested me. So now, the stove was an orphan again. I had no way to contact the third and fourth boats, but it was no longer my problem, the man who took it away would have to dispose of it.
Still not the end of the story. Another hour passed, and I spotted our stove in a dinghy on the boat anchored next to us. The man on that boat is a year round resident, and we never met him. How he heard about the stove and how it got transferred so quickly, is a mystery to me. Perhaps the stove will continue on its own Odyssey throughout the harbor.
On a slightly related subject, one of the boaters told of a conversation he had with the Marathon city manager about the anchoring, and marina fee issues. He said that the city manager told him that it is not the business of the city to provide affordable housing and that the city does not want people to live year round in the harbor. If that's true, it confirms my most cynical suspicions. The real agenda is to drive away the lower class people. The rich people who own the waterfront properties don't want poor people as neighbors. Many of those poor people live on the fringe of self sufficiency. They have local jobs but they can not afford conventional housing. The practical consequence of those ordinances would be to force a number of those people into homelessness and unemployment. I think that is unconscionable, shameless, and deliberately callous. Where are the Occupy Wall Street people when you need them?
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The waterfront homeowners do not understand that diversity makes an interesting and vibrant community. Live and let live.
ReplyDeleteI don't think you would like the occupy wall street crowd. They are even more callous, shameless, selfish,lazy,than the waterfront property owners. They would want you to house and feed them. If you don't, they will take what they want, stink up your boat , trash up the marina. the city will blame you and raise fees even more and you'll still be fighting the "waterfront".
ReplyDeleteGet an expensive lawyer and run your own political slate.
Some of the so-called poor people actually have more money than the so-called rich people who dont want to live near them haha
ReplyDeleteI'm still amazed at impressions people have of the OWS crowd. I suppose the same impressions were around in the 60's too. I recall my Dad talking of the dirty hippies, and the crazy negroes (he used other words). Now, his opinion has changed, and he's proud of the OWS crowd for standing up for their rights, and beliefs, as he understands where we would be today if not for those dirty and crazy people in the 60's.
ReplyDelete