Tuesday, November 26 – Still in Beaufort:

            Woke up to rain, but, of course, the sun started coming out after we decided to wait out the weather and pay for another day at the marina.   But we borrowed the car again and drove back into town.

            When we were packing the boat for this trip, we found an antenna in a drawer that we had no idea what it was used for so we took it off the boat as we have satellite TV from DirecTV.  But along about the middle of North Carolina, we lost all our “local” channels (ABC, NBC, Public Television, etc.).  So we called DirecTV to find out what was going on as we thought all our home channels would follow us, and DirecTV informed us that due to FCC regulations, they are not allowed to beam our local channels to us.  Well, we pay an astronomical sum of money to watch TV, and that made us very unhappy even though DirecTV said it made them unhappy, too.   Well, when we were in Dowry Creek, someone there told us we needed something akin to the old-fashioned  “rabbit ears,” and that might solve our problem.    So today, we borrowed the courtesy car and headed to Radio Shack, but the nice lady there told us that in this area, these antennas don’t work too well, and, then we discovered that we needed that digital box thingy to go along with it, and all of this would cost us about $120.00.  So even though the only stations we get are CNN (acceptable), Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, lots of “murder story” channels, Surviorman (actually, I learned a lot from his shipwreck episode), etc., we decided to skip the antenna route, and go have lunch instead.

            Now let’s go back to the “ocean” story.  It seems that Bob’s sister (you will recall she is my witness) e-mailed Bob to find out exactly what “going out in the ocean” meant (because she is very concerned about my welfare), and he e-mailed her back some story about how we’re really not going out in the ocean.

            Bob’s exact words to me were, “Well, we have to go out in the ocean.”

            I don’t care how far out in the ocean.  I don’t care if it’s only one foot – the key phrase is “going out in the ocean.”  …and you know I can’t anger the Sea Gods or Mother Nature anymore!

            Well, I have cabin fever.  We’ve been here three days, and I want to get going, but I don’t want to go out in iffy weather, but I still want to get going.

            And besides that, I am being driven irreversibly insane by the incessant snapping and crackling of the boat-eating shrimp.  There is a movie here, I’m telling you – I just have to talk to some people…

            It’s time to fix dinner, watch the election returns, and contemplate facing the elements tomorrow.  Sorry I didn't have anything more exciting to write about.