My hero.
This is THE reason I eat (semi) right, exercise hard and work like a maniac…so I can live like this man (who I personally know and just adore) when I get to be an old lady…
“People said I was crazy, I was too old,” said the 79-year-old as he put the finishing touches on his wooden boat. “I don’t like to lose.”
Almost every day for the past 18 months, Dorr has been on the docks at Beacon Marine Basin, building his own motorboat, all 24 feet long and 8 feet wide of it. His hands are weathered, his heart is full, and he is ready to launch the boat Saturday.
“I built every [expletive] bit of it,” he said. “Some days, I wish to Christ I never started.”
“It’s more than what I bargained for,” he added. “I’m happy I built it, but I would never do it again.”
The boat is named Dog Star, another name for Sirius, the brightest star and a useful navigation tool. There is a 150-horsepower engine and the bow has a Ram’s head from an old Dodge truck that died 15 years ago.
Dorr started with blueprints from a boat designer in Maine, but he grew frustrated with the design and stopped using the plans after two months.
“I like things rugged,” he said, banging on the boat to demonstrate its strength.
He could have been explaining himself.
“There’s no toilet,” he said. “Just a 5-gallon bucket.”
Dorr wears ratty jeans, work boots, and a green flannel shirt, a pack of Marlboro mediums in his front pocket. He has a stern handshake, crusty hands, and curses like, well, a sailor.
Yep…he’s one of those men who thinks nothing of scratching his privates in full view of the world around him. He swears like I do, drinks beer, laughs at himself and appreciates life. He doesn’t need fancy fittings around him to feel complete or to enjoy life. The 5 gallon shit bucket is just as efficient and probably more so than any flushing toilet…esp on the high seas!
The perception of “Old age” is a chosen lifestyle- to him and to people like me. I know too many people his age who get excited about going out once a month to play…golf. Or who moap about dwelling upon their every ill and ache.
Screw that shit.
The Double-A is my hero because he has shown me that one can do anything they want- his life long dream is about to become his reality and if he can do it, ANYONE can. How cool is that, to live on a boat and traverse the eastern coast, at age 80?? I will be doing similar things when I hit that number.
Guaranteed.