Becoming Real

 


I got a brewery tour this morning.  It's becoming real.  This week the brewing equipment arrived and is in place.  Not hooked up yet but there it stands, all shiny and silver, ready to be making beer.  Woohoo!

I had an assistant today.  LC and I went on her birthday shop to Barnes & Nobel and she managed to spend all but two cents of her birthday gift card. (I paid the tax)  She's a good shopper.  Then we picked up picnic food for lunch and spread out on the living room floor because it was too cold and windy to even think of eating outside.  After lunch we did some reading and then we retrieved her adventure notebook and drew the bookstore and wrote a little story of our shopping trip.  A fun time was had by all.


We were supposed to get a bunch of snow but the storm swung south of us so we only got a dusting last night and nothing so far today.  Good thing because there's a football game here tomorrow and it would have been a trick to shovel out the stadium in the morning so people could sit in there.  In yesterday's newspaper they put out a call for 700 people to shovel if we got the 8" they initially predicted.  We got a trace.  Whew.

11 January--Barbara Malcolm, Spies Don't Retire.

The moment that the sun sank below the horizon George got a feeling of inevitability.  They weren’t going home that night.

Bunny came up to George as he stood colossus-like on the bow glaring at the horizon.  “Mr. George?”  “Yes, Bunny, what is it?”  The young Rasta shuffled his feet and kept his eyes down.  “Mister George, the boat she no go no matter what me and Gomez try.  The radio is mashed too.  I am thinking we having to stay here on Arawak for the night.  Someone will be wondering where we got to and they’ll come out in the morning.”

George was nodding agreement.  “I think you’re right, son, we’re going to have to sleep out here.”  The snorkeling group had broken up into a few clusters of men, some silent, some talking among themselves.

Dimitri came up and said, “So, what did Bunny have to say?”

George raised his voice so it carried to all the men.  “As you’ve probably guessed the boat’s motor can’t be fixed and the radio is either shorted out or just plain broken.  Looks like we’ll be spending the night here.”

“Here?  On this boat?” one of the men said.

“If anyone’s interested they can sleep on Arawak, but remember you’ll be mostly wet when you get there.  The only way to get to the island is to wade from the dinghy.”

Jeremy said, “I saw some driftwood on the windward side to make a fire with.  I’d like to go ashore for the night; I’ve got a few things in my bag.”

A voice came out of the darkness.  “You got any hootch in there, Jere?”

Everyone laughed, and Jeremy shook his head.  “Sorry, Mike no hootch, but I’ve got some power bars and energy drink powder.  Never leave home without it.”

Rod and Don who had been sitting on the coolers were on their knees sorting through the remains of their lunch.  “There’s plenty of buns and salad stuff, not more than one hot dog apiece, though,” said Rod.

George said, “Anything to drink left?”

Don shook his head.  “Not unless you want to drink melted ice.”

Bunny stepped out of the cabin hatch where he had been listening.  “We keeps a case of bottled water in the hold for selling to the ferry passengers.  Maybe two might be down there.”

Are you watching the Jeopardy! championship shows?  Those guys are amazing and I'm pleased that I know some of the answers, not a lot, but some, which is better than none.  I spent this evening undecorating the Christmas tree and boxing up all of the ornaments.  I think this might be the last time I put up the tree.  It's a lot of work for just me to look at.  Maybe I'll feel differently when it rolls around next time.  I'm tired and still coughing.  G'night.
--Barbara