See the comments on our
cruising log at the start of Chapter 14
My comments to this letter
were made in June 2003.
LETTER 8
2697 Euclid Heights Blvd., #3
Cleveland, OH
44106-2828
March 24, 1994
Dear Families and Friends,
Well I guess this will be the last in our series of
letters. If you have been keeping count
you should have a total of eight counting this one.
When last you heard from us "Down Time" was at
Cooley's Landing in Ft. Lauderdale and we were job looking. The first of November we moved the boat to
West Palm Beach and put her up for sale.
By the middle of December she was sold and the deal closed. Those of you out there sailing should keep
your eyes open for her. We sold her to a
Frenchman who planned to sail her in the Caribbean this spring and then to sail
her across to the Med this summer. Her
new home will be the Cote D'Azur. A little up-market from Cleveland!
The last letter was written while Diane was away on an
interview trip. She has decided to go
into partnership with an old friend who has been in the library consulting
business for over 10 years. They assist
primarily public and small academic libraries automate their operations. Their's is truly a
telecommuting business as Diane works from our apartment here in Cleveland and
Sue (her partner) works from her house in Los Angeles.
Jim is still looking around and is doing some consulting
work for an old friend here in Cleveland.
Yes, I did say Cleveland.
After we sold the boat we decided we need a permanent home. After all, you can only live off the kindness
of friends so long! We debated many
alternatives and even bought the newest edition of Places Rated Almanac (both hardcopy and PC version). We finally decided on Cleveland based on the
cost of living; the fact that Jim knew it; and the prospect for some long term
consulting there for Jim. In case you
are curious, Cleveland ranks 14th out of the 343 cities in the Places Rated
Almanac.
Naturally, this would be one of the worse winters on record since
we decided to locate in a cold climate.
Cleveland set an all-time record low of -20oF in
mid-January. Actually, the cold weather
was kinda nice after three years of perpetual
summer. However, 20 below was a little
much.
The movers picked up our stored stuff and moved us here in
mid-January. We have a large (probably
about 1800 square feet) apartment in a 70 year old building near where Jim
lived in the 80's. We have gotten most
of our stuff unpacked and even have some of our pictures hung. We have three bedrooms, one of which we use
as an office and one of which is available to any who wish to visit.
Speaking of our office (or offices, I should say) we have
certainly gotten back in the high-tech world.
We have three telephone lines, a spiffy two-line answering machine and a
fax machine. Diane has a Macintosh
PowerBook and Jim is currently using a 386/20 but looking to upgrade to a 486
multimedia system. We also have a shared
HP 4ML laser printer. Quite a step up
from the old 286 laptop and Diconix printer we had on
the boat.
Wow, really
hot stuff!
We have retrieved our car form its long sleep and are seeing
if we can live as a one-car family. The
car has an interesting story which proves we are still living right. It is a 1987 Saab 900 which we stored at
Jim's parent's house in Mississippi. We
picked it up in October and first drove it 1000 miles to Miami. Then in November Jim set out for Cleveland
1500 miles away. Along the way he
stopped to visit sailing friends in Charlotte, NC. While out shopping, the clutch went out on
the car. Talk about luck -- not only
were we only about 1/4 mile from the only Saab dealer in God-knows how many
miles, but our friends had a relative who worked there. The next day Jim was on his way again. Right living triumphs! Or what is it? -- God takes care of fools,
drunks and sailors. I guess we still
qualify in at least the last category.
And we still
have the 1987 Saab as our only car.
Enough of all this.
We are here in Cleveland for the foreseeable future. Call, write, fax, send electronic mail,
visit, but let us hear from you. Here's
how you do all this:
Mail and visit to the address at the top of the letter.
Call 216-371-2415 or 216-397-9875.
Fax 216-932-4980.
Electronic mail to NYGW64A on Prodigy or DMAYO4545 on
America Online or to either through Internet.
The trip's over, now back to work.
Some of this
contact information is still good, but see the next and last chapter for
complete contact information.
Jim & Diane
Send comments to: jkbarrentine@earthlink.net
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This page last changed on: Monday, June 02, 2003