Time Warp

I went through a time warp this afternoon.  I left home around 4:15 to go walk in the Y pool.  When I got into the pool I glanced at the clock only to discover that it was 3:35 there, so I'd arrived at the pool 50 minutes before I left home.  Mind=blown... until I realized that they hadn't changed the pool clocks.  It also never occurred to me that without football games families would be at the Open Swim time at the pool.  So I spent the first 15 minutes dodging kids and dads and balls until I noticed that one of the lap lanes was empty so I checked with the lifeguard that it was okay and went to walk over there where all I had to dodge was an errant ball that one dad and son were throwing back and forth.

(BTW, I ended yesterday's blog post with a reminder to turn your clocks back.  No, Barbara, no, it's Spring forward and Fall back, and I knew that, so for anyone who was worried, I was not two hours off this morning, I had just mis-typed.)

This morning the sun peeked through the clouds on the back side of the house so I know that the seasons are changing even though the wind was sharp today.  It was warm-ish but the wind blustered and was still cold.




A lone bunny stopped for a short snack but took off like a shot when I took its picture.





 


Today at Arti Gras was much quieter than yesterday.  A few people came by, mostly to admire the knits on display, but a few people took brochures and said they'd consider coming to check us out.  I finished my March Preemie Hat #1...



and I bought a monster at the booth next door.  It's name is LeLe and was made by a potter in Appleton.  If money was no object I'd have bought every monster she had.  Some were hung from a branch and their legs dangled like wind chimes, one had a ball of yarn in it, and a bunch were various size vases or containers.  Each one was distinctive.  I haven't decided if mine is a boy or a girl.




My doorbell rang after I got home and look what arrived.  A bag of Girl Scout cookies.  So good, so tempting, and so easy to eat too many.  But for a good cause.




 
When I closed the shade tonight I looked out and there was a crescent moon just waiting to have its picture taken.  So I obliged.  I see the moon...






10 March--Tropical Obsession. 

Diego glared at the top of the wall surrounding the rented villa. In the ten days since he and Sharon had arrived wooden forms had grown above the wall, cement was poured and now workmen stood on scaffolding able to look down on them and the pool deck. Somehow the knowledge of those eyes watching took away his feeling of relaxation, made him feel self-conscious, like he should be working with them, like a pretender. From the time he was a little boy growing up on this island, he had promised himself that he would live in one of these villas. He spent nights awake in the cramped little house in the kunuku he shared with his parents and eight brothers and sisters planning how he would grow up and get a job off island that would enable him to come back one day to show everyone what he really was. Not that he suffered, there was no shame in being poor or from a big family where things were tight, but Diego felt it. His parents worked hard and did their best but he wanted more, he wanted ease, and he wanted to be admired not just tolerated. Getting Maria pregnant had not been in his plans at all. They had worked at one of the big resorts. He was a bartender, known among the other young men for charming the lonely middle-aged ladies who stayed there out of bigger tips, and she was on the housekeeping staff. Someone threw a party one weekend for someone’s marriage, one thing led to another and Maria was pregnant. Being a daddy just when his future was beginning was not in his plans. He quit his job the day after she told him about the baby, left the island, and hadn’t been back since.

Even though my bathroom smells like chlorine and I kind of do too I'm glad I went out to the pool today.  It makes me feel good, physically and about myself.  I made a decision today.  I'm not going to get "The Seaview" finished to my satisfaction in time for the writers' conference in Madison in April, that story hole is just too big to fill quickly and I need more thinking time.  So tomorrow I'm going to cancel my pitch appointments and go down to listen to speakers, network, and have a good time surrounded by writers.  Next year...
--Barbara