01/27/2005: "Broken Hearted Me"

I got a notice yesterday that the Harbor Board is trying to get a rate hike passed that will basically triple slip fees over the next 5 years. I pay $600 a year for my 24' slip in the Douglas Harbor, my new fee would be $1,800 a year! There's no way in hell I can afford that, which means I'll have to sell Rozinante, the love of my life.

This will cause a lot of people to sell their boats, including students who live on them to save $ on rent, so they'll be a glut on the market and no one to buy them. Considering that there are people without homes, without enough to eat, with no heath insurance etc. it's hard to feel sorry for myself for having to sell my sailboat, but it has brought me *so* much joy over the years and the idea of selling her is breaking my heart.

On a happier note, a shipment of canvases came in from Dick Blick tonight. I've decided that I'm going to do a couple larger sized pieces for the April show, I bought 3 canvases 30"x40". They are actually bigger than I thought they'd be. I'm pretty excited to get started on them. It's been awhile since I've painted on anything over 24"x36".

Something else cool happened today...a *really* good friend of mine from college left me a comment in my guestbook (Hi Chris). I hadn't heard from him since he visited me while I was in Hawaii for grad school. It's one of the benefits of having a website (and an unusal name) people can always find you if they feel like it.

Replies: 2 Comments

on Saturday, January 29th, lunachele@yahoo.com">Chele said

Just a thought, but maybe something to ask your accountant... Is there any way you can use the boat for your art business (onboard studio? hang a show on it? i dunno...) and maybe be able to deduct some or all of the expense? Maybe enough so you could keep your lovely boat?

on Saturday, January 29th, Elise said

Hmmm, that's an interesting idea. You know, I do use it to go to non-road acessible areas of Alaska for shooting photographs that I then use as source materials for my paintings.

However, I think that in order to write something off as a business expense it has to be used exclusively for the business. I'm not sure, I can ask my accountant though. Thanks for the suggestion.