免费日韩片_欧美成人精品一区二区男人小说_国产乱码一区二区三区四区_国产精品国产三级国产aⅴ入口_成人看的污污超级黄网站免费_欧美一级在线免费观看_成人午夜免费无码福利片_国产乱人伦偷精品视频色欲_aaa少妇高潮大片免费看_国产精品1234_亚洲精品国产suv一区88_中文字字幕在线中文无码_精品亚洲区_午夜九九九_国产av国片精品jk制服丝袜_色综合亚洲_亚洲成av人片无码bt种子下载_欧美色就色_精品少妇的一区二区三区四区_男人用嘴添女人下身免费视频

Download

This summer, more than 200,000 Americans, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, are on the water - in their homes.

That's right, their homes: flat-bottomed watercraft called houseboats. Many live-aboards, as full-time houseboaters refer to themselves, stay there year 'round.
  
"360-degree waterfront view, and no grass to cut!" a live-aboard named Jim Garrard in Louisville, Kentucky, told us. His wife Linda added, "It's like being on vacation every day."

Many houseboats include a kitchen, a head - as mariners call a bathroom, a microwave oven and a television set attached to an outside satellite dish. One's bedroom is often a fold-out couch or a 3-meter-long bunk.

Taking it easy is a houseboating art form. There are the chores of any boat - swabbing the deck, polishing fixtures, draining waste-water tanks, tinkering with the engine, and - once every few years - pulling the boat out of the water to remove freshwater mussels that affix themselves to the hull.

And a houseboat's close quarters, relative lack of privacy and ever-present, faint odor of gasoline aren't for everyone. It's all too easy to fall and break an arm or leg on a slippery deck. And a serious storm can take an unattended houseboat that's lashed to a dock and smash it to bits.

But even houseboaters who work elsewhere and have a bad day can come home, sit at the back, or stern, watch the sunset over the water, and relax. Live-aboards admit they don't have all the comforts of home. But they say that serenity and sanity more than make up for what's missing.

swab: 打掃，擦拭

fixture: (房屋等的)固定裝置，配件，設備

tinker: 粗修，修補

mussel: 珠蚌，河蚌

stern: 船尾

Related stories:

Don't worry, we're happy

Deferred Happiness Syndrome

生活如同為自己打造的工程

Life is about choices 幸福可以選擇

Boat marks 1,400 years of relations with Japan

(Source: VOA 英語點津編輯）