THE LITTLE PILL

* Okay. Why has it taken me this long to get the post titles set up like this?

The sandboat has been found!



I've placed multiple "wanted" posts on Craigslist over the past few months asking for a small junker boat. I've even had a few responses with folks offering their non-sea-worthy vessels, but they've always been too big, usually around 14 feet long. I was perplexed as to why I never saw boats listed around 8-10 feet. And then I realized that it was actually a dinghy we were after.



Fortunately, I didn't know how to spell dinghy, so when I did my first search for a "dingy" I landed on a listing written by someone who also didn't know how to spell the word. And that's how we found our sweet, dingy dinghy for $25 and a drive down to Coburg in a borrowed pick-up truck last Saturday morning.



The dinghy used to belong to a doctor who owned a much larger boat for which this was the support vessel. The big boat was called the Right Prescription and the dinghy was named the Little Pill. It was kept in the family for 40 years, gradually decomposing, until we bought it. We chose not to tell the man (the doctor's son) what the boat was destined to become just in case it would have upset him that it wasn't going to be restored and put back in the water. But, I don't know, he'd probably like that it was going have a second life as a sandbox. And truly, it's in such a state of disrepair that I don't think it could be brought back. Replicated? Yes, but not restored. Too many broken bones.



So here it is. I dug out a hole in which it can rest, balanced and secure. We'll track down some good sand and fill it to just below the seats, and fabricate some sort of tarp to protect it from the rain and all the cats. We're looking forward to hours of fun occupied by the sandboat and all the imagination and good times it will surely bring.