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They said there were rules in our neighborhood against having a boat parked in front of your house and told Dad he had to move it to the back. The boat sat in the backyard for the whole summer because Dad was too busy and didn't have time to use it. Then, in the fall, one of Dad's coworkers told him he'd have to WINTERIZE the boat to protect it from the cold weather. Dad found out it would cost more to winterize the boat than it cost him to BUY it, so he decided he'd take his chances. And sure enough, two weeks later, when the temperature dropped below freezing, a big crack appeared in the hull.

他们说我们社区有规定不许把船停在家门口，让爸爸把船挪到后面去。 因为爸爸太忙了，没有时间去用，船在后院停了整整一个夏天。 到了秋天，爸爸的一位同事告诉他，他必须给船加温，以保护它不受寒冷天气的影响。 爸爸发现给船防寒的费用比他买船的费用还高，所以他决定碰碰运气。 果然，两周后，当温度降到冰点以下时，船体上出现了一条大裂缝。

When it started to snow, Dad rolled the boat under the back deck, and it sat there all winter. In the spring, Mom started using it to store all sorts of junk from the house. The next summer, Dad decided he was gonna fix the boat.

天开始下雪的时候，爸爸把船滚到后甲板下，整个冬天都停在那里。 到了春天，妈妈开始用它来存放家里的各种垃圾。 第二年夏天，爸爸决定把船修好。

But when he went to pull it out from under the deck, he discovered a family of raccoons living in our old washing machine. Dad called an exterminator to get rid of the raccoons, but when he heard how much THAT was gonna cost, he decided to take care of it himself. By then Manny had heard about the baby raccoons living in the washing machine, and Mom had to step in.

但当他从甲板下把它拉出来时，他发现了一个浣熊家庭住在我们的旧洗衣机里。 爸爸叫了一个灭虫人来消灭浣熊，但当他听说这要花多少钱时，他决定自己来处理。 那时曼尼已经听说了小浣熊住在洗衣机里的事，妈妈不得不介入。

The boat's been sitting there ever since. I haven't heard any scurrying sounds coming from under the deck for a while, so I'm guessing the raccoons moved out. Today, Mom told Dad he had the whole rest of the summer to get his boat out on the water, and he pretty much gave up after that. Mom said we were gonna leave first thing in the morning, so we needed to start packing for the trip. She told everyone to bring the "bare essentials" so we could fit everything in the minivan.

从那以后，船就一直停在那里。 我已经有一段时间没有听到甲板下面传来任何匆忙的声音了，所以我猜浣熊已经出去了。 今天，妈妈告诉爸爸，他有一整个夏天的时间把他的船开到水上，从那以后他就放弃了。 妈妈说我们明天一早就出发，所以我们得开始收拾行装了。 她告诉每个人带上“最基本的必需品”，这样我们就可以把所有东西都放进小货车里。

But by the time we got all our stuff out in the driveway, it was pretty clear we had a space problem. Mom started going through everything and sorting it into two piles—the things we needed and the things we didn't. Rodrick was pretty disappointed when some of his "essentials" didn't make the cut.

但当我们把所有的东西都搬到车道上时，很明显我们遇到了空间问题。 妈妈开始检查所有的东西，把它们分成两堆——我们需要的和不需要的。 当他的一些“必需品”没有被选中时，罗德里克非常失望。

Mom made me leave a bunch of small stuff behind, which seemed pretty ridiculous considering that Manny's plastic potty was coming along for the ride. Whenever we take a trip that's longer than fifteen minutes, Mom brings Manny's potty "just in case." But I get really uncomfortable whenever Manny uses it. PUSSSHHHH! Mom wouldn't let me and Rodrick take any electronics on the trip, even though they barely take up any space.

妈妈让我留下一堆小东西，考虑到曼尼的塑料便盆也要来，这看起来很荒谬。 每次我们旅行超过15分钟，妈妈都会带着曼尼的便盆“以防万一”。 但曼尼一用我就很不舒服。 PUSSSHHHH !妈妈不让我和罗德里克在旅途中带任何电子产品，尽管它们几乎不占任何空间。