Miss you Dad!

The recent celebration of President’s Day brings occasion to remember my
dear Father. He shared his birthday with Abraham Lincoln. Very fitting as they shared
similiar wonderful traits. My Dad enjoyed taking things apart and fixing them.
Growing up I did not realize that people bought new appliances such as
toasters. I never saw a new appliance come into our house. He fixed things and
made them work again. He loved to camp and to puttsy. I evidently inherited
this trait from him as I love to puttsy too. What is puttsy? It is hard to
explain to begin with, because puttsy is neither one thing nor another, but
something in between. It is not rest, not something that can be done with your
feet on an ottoman or as you recline in a barcolounger. But then neither is it
work, something that one toils at, sweats at, something one needs to take a
break from, for lunch or coffee. It is certainly is not something for which one
should ever be paid, and absolutely not something one does while watching the
clock. If one puttsies correctly, time just goes away, without regret on the
part of the puttsier, or even with any particular notice. One does not march
off to puttsy. One meanders. And even when one heads off to do it, one may not
go to puttsy right away, because one might have to loaf a little first. But
loafing is quite different from puttsying.
While puttsying, a zinc does not get changed nor distilled water added to
the battery. Such work is necessary, and the more necessary a task is, the
farther from puttsying it becomes. A Puttsier may use tools, but only small,
light ones and only on things that are not needed right away. Doing a load of
laundry is, of course, not puttsying. Organizing ones sock drawer by color and
fiber is. A Puttsier can rearrange line around a cleat after docking just to
change the look of the line. I puttsy as I rearrange books on shelves, go
through my galley drawers and realign the few photos I have attached with
velcro to the "wall" on the boat. I look through baskets that collect
magazines and pass them on to other readers. I thoroughly enjoy the time I
spend puttsying.
Thanks Dad for passing on to me the fine art of Puttsying! How I wish you
were here to enjoy puttsying on our boat.