So Dreary

Today couldn't have been more different than yesterday.  Today's high temp--66 degrees--came at 1AM, things went downhill from there.  It never really got light and the automatic night light in the bathroom glowed all day.  Then it started to rain.  It rained and rained and rained.  Then thunder and lightning came by, now I think the rain has stopped but the wind picked up and is roaring.  We're being punished for those five glorious 70 degree days leading up to today.  The weatherman said tonight that we probably won't see 70 degrees again until April or May.  Isn't that a cheerful thought?  Ugh.

Today was also the first day of this bout of Investment Cooking.  I made Hoisin-Glazed Mini Turkey Meat Loaves in a big muffin tin.  They smelled so good that it was difficult not to gobble one up right away but I held firm and got them all into individual containers, just the right size too, and got them right into the freezer to remove temptation.

When I went through the rest of the recipes I realized that I forgot to get one ingredient.  Dammit.  Of course that's the one I planned to make tomorrow so I got out my raincoat and went to the store (for the second day in a row, it felt very daring).  I returned the pair of jeans and picked out a pair the next size down.  I haven't been brave enough to try them on yet but I have faith that I'll fit into them eventually and maybe not all that far down the line.  I'll try them on when I undress for bed.

This evening was a Bay Lakes Knitting Guild Zoom social knit.  Not too many members came but we had a nice time with the few of us.  I knitted on my latest toe sock, cast sock, whatever, and got to the toe decreases.  I'll finish it tomorrow and cast on another one.

 

 

10 November--Barbara Malcolm, The Seaview. 

Chapter 10

The work was going well.  The next evening I offered to buy the boys a beer at Johnno’s on the way home.  I popped for a couple orders of conch fritters for us to share too.  They came hot and fresh from the fryer with a little dish of homemade sauce to dip them in.

“Mm, these are wonderful, Johnno,” I said as he wiped down the bar next to me.  “What’s in this sauce?”

He slid a finger alongside his nose.  “It is a secret recipe, but it has tomatoes and lime juice fresh from the trees.”

“I can taste them and a bit of mango too?”

He clapped his fist to his chest as if I had stabbed him.  “Oh, Rosie, you wound me.  You have discovered my secret and I will be ruined.”

I couldn’t help but giggle at his dramatic reaction.  “No, Johnno, no, I would never divulge your secret.  One day I might have a secret that you discover and I’m confident that you’ll keep my secret as I’ll keep yours.”

He held out his pinkie and I grasped it with mine.

“Pinkie swear,” I said, “it’s been years... no, decades since I’ve made a pinkie swear.”

“It is binding,” Johnno said with a twinkle in his eyes.  “My granddaughter assures me that it is the strongest bond there is.”

We both chuckled at that but our faces mirrored serious agreement as we shook our linked pinkies up and down, and then released them.

I felt as if we had just sworn a blood oath.  “Johnno, tell me about Iggy.  I hear he is the black sheep of the family.”

He finished wiping out a glass and flipped his towel over his shoulder.  “Silas was talking, it seems.”  When I nodded he went on.  “My brother Ignatius, Iggy, has always been the serious one, the studious one.  Our parents owned a bar in Blowing Point where the Ferryboat Inn stands now, and so we were all always there helping out, doing our homework, getting into trouble with our friends.  Not Iggy.  He was nose-deep in his books and if he was not studying, he was tinkering with wires and batteries.  Our dad, he sent Iggy to school to learn about electricity so he could have a good job.  The rest of us learned about hospitality and entertainment, but not Iggy, he was the smart one, the one always learning and seldom getting into trouble.”

I leaned across the bar to make sure I was heard over the juke box.  “Iggy has a license to do electrical work?”

Johnno nodded vigorously.  “Sure he does.  Do you think I would send him to you if he did not?  He has his journeyman’s card and all; he carries it like it is a winning ticket to the lotto.”  His mouth turned down at the corners.  “I would not send you an amateur after you told Silas and me that you want to have a professional check out the wiring at the Seaview.  I am not like that.”

I reached across and squeezed his forearm.  “I’m sorry, Johnno, I didn’t mean to offend you.  I’m still a bit rattled by discovering someone broke in and built that fire.  Didn’t they know that they could have burned the whole place down with them in it?”  I knew I was worrying the break-in like a dog with a meaty bone but I just couldn’t move beyond it yet.  “I mean, I have insurance, sure, liability insurance to cover the workmen and me if any accidents happen while the renovations are going on, but I don’t know if I have full coverage for something like a fire, especially one that was deliberately set, even if it wasn’t arson, only drunken stupidity.”

He looked off toward the horizon, obviously thinking about something.  “You know who it was?”

I shook my head.  “No, not for sure.  I asked Silas if he thought it could have been Bo or Shaggy and he said he did but that isn’t proof.”

Johnno looked me right in the eyes.  “They did it.  They broke in and lit the fire when they were drunk.  I heard them talking.  They never thought that the fire would be so hot and so strong.”

“Must have been all the layers of paint on the wood,” I said.

“Yes, that was probably it, the paint.  They think they are big men; they flout the rules that bind the rest of us.  They drink too much and use drugs.  They attached themselves to Edward because he is too innocent to understand what bad men they are.  Edward is a hard worker and not smart enough to be dishonest.  You do not need to worry about Edward.”

By then I was feeling the sweat and dirt of the day that had dried on my skin.  My one after-work drink had stretched into two.  It was time to go back to my studio and take a shower.  I stood looking at the bay, thinking that what I should do is go get my swimming suit on and take my usual evening swim, but I was tired and hungry and a tiny bit tipsy.  Not the best condition to be in when you’re going for a solitary swim, so I took a walk.

Today's toss was a shoe box filled with blank notebooks that I am never going to write in.

Writing was hard today.  I ended up imagining a phone conversation and just writing down the dialogue.  I'm hoping for better luck tomorrow.  And speaking of tomorrow, not only is it Veteran's Day but it's also DS's birthday!  He'll be 42 which boggles my mind even though I know that's right.  After all I was there at the beginning of his journey through life.

--Barbara