I got a call from Rapid today- the Crazy Ex Landlady has agreed to settle on our terms!

Apparently as late as last week, the C.X.L's attorney Clement W. Pyles was still labouring under the absurd misconception that he could somehow talk us into settling for $223, a sum which is over five hundred dollars less than the original judgment- a judgment, I remind you, that I had ALREADY WON. Possibly he came to this amount through a defect in arithmetic skills, I don't know, but it certainly illustrates how far he's fallen from those heady days when he was threatening countersuits and demanding I abandon my victorious judgment.

Much of this change in attitude, I suspect, came about when Rapid shared with Mr Pyles the contents of my Evidence Shoebox. That same mass of cancelled checks, lease copies, chinese take-out menus and whatnot which had first convinced myself, next the Honorable Antonio Paat, and then Rapid of the righteousness of my cause had a similiar effect on Mr Pyles himself, and faced with this unassailable mass of documentary evidence, Mr Pyles must have glumly come to the conclusion that for his client to still be protesting her innocence, she must be as crazy batshit insane as everybody keeps saying she is. (I kind of like to picture Clement W. Pyles, Attorney-at-Law (whom I've never met) as sporting an impressive snow-white handlebar mustache, looking like Wilford Brimley maybe, if Wilford Brimley sported an impressive snow-white handlebar mustache. Also I'm pretty sure he wears a hat)

From recent conversations with Rapid, I got the idea that Mr. Pyles had been hinting to Rapid lately that he (Mr Pyles) fully realized that their threatened counter-suit was patently ridiculous, and now that he was faced with incontrovertible evidence that Isabella had failed to refund my deposit as required by law and common decency, he probably didn't relish the idea of standing before a judge and having to think up something to say that didn't sound too pathetic. In fact I got the idea that the only thing stopping Mr Pyles from accepting whatever terms we should choose to offer on the spot was that he was obliged to get his client's consent first and to do that meant that he'd have to hammer at least a glimpse of reality through Isabella's Armour of Insanity. No wonder he was so glum!

With court slated for next Wednesday, he only just came in under the wire. Not that I really expect to receive a check in the mail anytime soon- I'm sure my C.X.L. still has untapped reserves of idiocy to bring to bear- but in theory, at any rate, they have accepted our terms.

Our terms are the amount of the original judgment.

What with my being male and all, I sometimes find that I exhibit some of the cartoonish stereotypes frequently attributed to males by those who prefer their humor simplistic. For example: I often start "hey let's build something" type projects- and don't get around to finishing them!

Just considering the boat, the Active File contains (at least) the following projects in various stages of incompletion:

-The new and rebuilt 'fridge. (which has reached the satisfactory stage in which the ice-box is now well enough insulated to keep ice for three days or more, although on the other hand anything you put into the ice-box comes out tasting like epoxy)

-An Ingenious Sea-going Rack for the Stowage and Preservation of Wineglasses

-Redoing and Varnishing the Cabin Sole

-Rewiring the Mast (technically complete, although the wires aren't actually hooked up to anything)

-Constructing a Canvas Sun-Awning

-And Much More!

This list excludes, of course, all the myriad bits of splicing or sewing or rope-work that I've sort of been meaning to finish up if only it wasn't such a pain in the ass to do so, and also those more lofty projects which remain in the Planning Stage, where- in some cases- they've been germinating for years.

I mention all of this, not because it is the least bit interesting, but because I wish you to realize what a momentous thing it is that I can report that I have actually finished a project. Yes! The swimming-ladder is complete! And a beautiful article it is, too, all shining stainless and gleaming varnished oak! You can hook it up to the side of the boat through these clever connectors of my own design, and you can climb up and, if you like, climb back down again.

Or at least you could have, until Saturday. I was showing my swimming-ladder to Dave, and the blasted thing slipped right from my hands and with a soggy "Sploop!" sank from sight, lost in the lake for ever!!

I shall have to make a new one.

Ah well, I needed a new project anyway.