Wifey B: I think comments that they mean more to you if you do the work yourself is crap. I didn't build my house, but I sure love it. However, they are about the memories and if the memories you value are working on the boat then that's fine. I value the memories of our time on the boat just as much as you value your time spent working on it. However, selling the boat doesn't take those memories away.
My first was the 25' Cobalt hubby owned when we got married. It was the first boat I ever got out on the lake and enjoyed time in, first boat I ever made love in. But none of those memories were lost when we traded for a 30' Cobalt. Then it was the first we ever bought together. When we moved to FL and sold it, the memories were all our years on Lake Norman, the wonderful times on the water. There was a loss, that we wouldn't be doing that anymore and we have rented and gotten out on the lake a couple of times since. But it was on to new things. I do have the same thoughts as you who work on them wondering if the next owners are enjoying them and treating them right, but every memory can be carried with me.
I know we'll trade the ones we have now. Some have the memories of larger numbers of people and then the Baby Riva, as I call it, of just the two of us going places on romantic overnights or short trips. I joke about we can trade anything but just not my baby, but then I know one day I'll see some small hot boat that interests me.
Hubby commented on the bad one being the last one. I see it that way a little but not too much. When we can't get out on the water with friends then we can still have them over on land. They are the memories. We can still talk about everything we did together. I am sure we'll mourn a bit the loss of the ability to get out on the water, but that more than a specific boat. I'm guessing there will be that time of facing the reality we've lost so much physically and have less time remaining to live. I don't know how that will feel. I really dreaded aging. I know I'm young compared to most here but I'm old compared to what I once was and now we have a generation around us younger than me. I have a bazillion memories though. The older you get, the more memories you have. That's what is so awful about Alzheimer's as it robs you of the best part of life, the memories.
I decided, we decided, along the way, never to complain or mourn what we don't have. We've had far more than enough. I refuse to ever get angry over not being as young as I was, having to give up any material possession, even health, even the health of my hubby. I've already had a life I never dreamed of. Love i never dreamed of. I hope to never complain or mourn that I no longer have. I just feel like that would be wrong of me.
Keep your boat logs forever, make copies. We've kept a journal, diary or whatever you want to call it of every day of our lives together. We decided when we married and even went back and documented each day to that point. Sounds like a lot of work I know, but so marvelous to be able to look back and remember. If either of us ever gets Alzheimer's we'll have it and value it. I'd encourage any of you to do something similar while you can. Maybe not to the degree of ours, but save your memories for the times you may not be able to remember. If what you are going to feel a loss of is all the work you did on the boat, journal it in some way so you never have to lose it. Write about the time you drilled right through to your finger and cursed a blue streak cause it hurt like all heck but you got that new gauge installed and it worked perfectly. For us, it's the things with each other and family/friends. We even went back and recorded how we individually felt throughout the weekend we first met. See, it's not the hotel that's important, it's our feelings. I think I remember everything so vividly, but then I look back and think, omg, I forgot about that. I made the whole family record all the feelings on the day our niece, Aurora was born. She'll have that. How we each felt the first time we held her. I whispered to her telling her I was going to spoil her beyond anyone's imagination.
So, if you don't want to lose when you sell the boat, save all the memories and written is better. For those who blog, that's what they're doing. Don't write for others, do it for yourselves. We've shared some with those closest to us and I'm sure it's surprising to no one that some of the things we've done get a reaction like "Omg, you what? You really did that?" And my answer is "Yes."
So put the wonderful times on the boats in writing or photos, the tough jobs, and then write down the feelings you have on the last day you see it. You can preserve the memories and they will make you want to a little but mostly
Now, we're out in the Baby Riva with just us and Tabitha today. Recording today because we know as she finishes grad school, starts to work, meets someone, starts a family of her own, oh the things we can remember. Like with Aurora, we do have preserved the night we first met her mom, our sister, Tiffany and then meeting our parents (they weren't yet but soon were) the next day and the daring thing we talked them into doing later that week.
Every day is a new page in our lives. It's as good as we make it.
My first was the 25' Cobalt hubby owned when we got married. It was the first boat I ever got out on the lake and enjoyed time in, first boat I ever made love in. But none of those memories were lost when we traded for a 30' Cobalt. Then it was the first we ever bought together. When we moved to FL and sold it, the memories were all our years on Lake Norman, the wonderful times on the water. There was a loss, that we wouldn't be doing that anymore and we have rented and gotten out on the lake a couple of times since. But it was on to new things. I do have the same thoughts as you who work on them wondering if the next owners are enjoying them and treating them right, but every memory can be carried with me.
I know we'll trade the ones we have now. Some have the memories of larger numbers of people and then the Baby Riva, as I call it, of just the two of us going places on romantic overnights or short trips. I joke about we can trade anything but just not my baby, but then I know one day I'll see some small hot boat that interests me.
Hubby commented on the bad one being the last one. I see it that way a little but not too much. When we can't get out on the water with friends then we can still have them over on land. They are the memories. We can still talk about everything we did together. I am sure we'll mourn a bit the loss of the ability to get out on the water, but that more than a specific boat. I'm guessing there will be that time of facing the reality we've lost so much physically and have less time remaining to live. I don't know how that will feel. I really dreaded aging. I know I'm young compared to most here but I'm old compared to what I once was and now we have a generation around us younger than me. I have a bazillion memories though. The older you get, the more memories you have. That's what is so awful about Alzheimer's as it robs you of the best part of life, the memories.
I decided, we decided, along the way, never to complain or mourn what we don't have. We've had far more than enough. I refuse to ever get angry over not being as young as I was, having to give up any material possession, even health, even the health of my hubby. I've already had a life I never dreamed of. Love i never dreamed of. I hope to never complain or mourn that I no longer have. I just feel like that would be wrong of me.
Keep your boat logs forever, make copies. We've kept a journal, diary or whatever you want to call it of every day of our lives together. We decided when we married and even went back and documented each day to that point. Sounds like a lot of work I know, but so marvelous to be able to look back and remember. If either of us ever gets Alzheimer's we'll have it and value it. I'd encourage any of you to do something similar while you can. Maybe not to the degree of ours, but save your memories for the times you may not be able to remember. If what you are going to feel a loss of is all the work you did on the boat, journal it in some way so you never have to lose it. Write about the time you drilled right through to your finger and cursed a blue streak cause it hurt like all heck but you got that new gauge installed and it worked perfectly. For us, it's the things with each other and family/friends. We even went back and recorded how we individually felt throughout the weekend we first met. See, it's not the hotel that's important, it's our feelings. I think I remember everything so vividly, but then I look back and think, omg, I forgot about that. I made the whole family record all the feelings on the day our niece, Aurora was born. She'll have that. How we each felt the first time we held her. I whispered to her telling her I was going to spoil her beyond anyone's imagination.
So, if you don't want to lose when you sell the boat, save all the memories and written is better. For those who blog, that's what they're doing. Don't write for others, do it for yourselves. We've shared some with those closest to us and I'm sure it's surprising to no one that some of the things we've done get a reaction like "Omg, you what? You really did that?" And my answer is "Yes."
So put the wonderful times on the boats in writing or photos, the tough jobs, and then write down the feelings you have on the last day you see it. You can preserve the memories and they will make you want to a little but mostly
Now, we're out in the Baby Riva with just us and Tabitha today. Recording today because we know as she finishes grad school, starts to work, meets someone, starts a family of her own, oh the things we can remember. Like with Aurora, we do have preserved the night we first met her mom, our sister, Tiffany and then meeting our parents (they weren't yet but soon were) the next day and the daring thing we talked them into doing later that week.
Every day is a new page in our lives. It's as good as we make it.