Cold and Windy

That was today in a nutshell.  It never got above 32 degrees and the wind was fierce.  I had a 9am oil change appointment and it was freezing in the waiting area.  I tried to knit but my fingers felt like ice.  I was cold all day even with a wool sweater on over another sweater.  I feel like if I'm this cold now when it isn't even winter what is going to be happening when it's really cold.  I'll be an icicle.  Either that or I'll wear my coat, hat, and mittens in the house.

The only bird I saw today was this Downy Woodpecker that came to have a drink at the birdbath.  It occurred to me today that maybe one of my neighbors has better birdseed because I haven't had Sparrows or Juncos around for at least a week.

I texted with DS today to figure out when it will be convenient for me to visit at the brewery.  I'm going tomorrow but then he texted that OJ is missing the "animals in the red tray." Could they come visit at their house?  Of course they can visit.  That request warmed my heart.  Not my fingers but my heart.  I've got them all bagged and ready to go.

 

One of the Christmas cactus flowers is fully open and another one isn't far behind.  And one bud fell off.  This thing is very particular about its conditions.

I managed a few rounds on Cast Sock 5 at the garage this morning and a few more after supper.  It's hard to knit when your fingers are frozen.

 

 

30 November--Barbara Malcolm, The Seaview. 

Chapter 17

It was hard but no one teased the Mr. Gomez about the cat incident.  I felt sorry for him, I really did.  He was a low-level government official on a tiny island where everyone knew everyone else and he had to know that most people held him up to ridicule for doing his job so rigorously.  It didn't help that he was bucking generations of people making a living by wrecking or salvaging cargoes that had washed up on these shores over the centuries.

Jim and I had sat in Johnno's a time or two on our trips listening to Old Reynaldo tell of his grandfathers rowing out in their small boats when freighters had been driven by storms or bad navigation onto the shallow reefs around the island so they could gather up what flotsam they could find.  The light in the old man's eyes when he told the tales of shipwrecks and storms, salvage and survivors showed me how deeply rooted the tradition was in the island culture.  Survival is more than just subsistence on an island like Anguilla; it depends on the cooperation and coordination of the entire society.

In a place as tightly tied together as this small island where one person or family's success in their business directly affects their neighbors, a person like Mr. Hernando Gomez with his rigid adherence to rules most of the people see as arbitrary is fortunate to just be thought of as ridiculous.  He was lucky not to be waylaid on a dark curve on his way home from levying a steep duty or confiscating a bit of contraband and left beaten in a ditch.  I liked Mr. Gomez but he was a bit of a trial.  Iggy had endless patience with his strict adherence to the laws and tended to be able to tease and cajole him into a better mood more readily than anyone.

I made it my job over the next few days to go out of my way to treat Mr. Gomez like a friend, making sure he had enough cold water, didn't stand out in the sun too long, I even took to bringing lunch for what I came to think of as my crew a couple days a week just so we could sit around in the back garden in the shade and become a team.

Today's toss was a jade peach I bought for Mom on some Caribbean island.  I don't know why I bought it or why I kept it but it's off to Goodwill to find a new home.  I'm having difficulty finding something to toss lately.  Not that my house is stripped to the bare necessities but I've lost a little steam.

Writing was okay today.  It was the last day of NaNoWriMo and I didn't make 50,000 words.  I only got to 48,362 but I'm fine with that.  I was looking for the discipline rather than expecting a novel to come from it.  I'm glad I did it and I'm glad it's over.

--Barbara