Mmm

That's what you'd say if you were here right now.  This afternoon I made the fruitcakes so

that they can soak up the boozy simple syrup for a few weeks until Christmas.  Man, it smells good.  It's Emeril Lagasse's Creole Fruitcake recipe and uses dried fruit rather than those odd, brightly colored cherries that are so sticky and weird.  You make simple syrup with lemon zest and juice, then steep the dried fruit in the hot syrup for a few minutes, then you drain it off, and save the syrup after loading it up with orange liqueur and bourbon.  That's in the fridge.  Once the little cakes were cool they each got wrapped in a layer of cheesecloth and they'll stand out a day or so to get a little stale.  In a few days I'll poke them with a toothpick and start slowly spooning on the boozy syrup until it's all gone.  I used blueberries, raisins, craisins, dates, and apricots.  Now I have to find eleven people to give it to.  I'll manage.



The sun shone again today for at least part of the day.  This little Downy Woodpecker came for a suet snack.  I know that the rat people are going to tell me that I have to stop feeding birds if I want the RAT to go away.  I know this but I don't wanna.  *wah*


This morning after folding clothes I worked through my three pages of notes on The Seaview.  Next I need to reread it (for the thousandth time) to find places to put references to Zeke the roofer and the roof repair.  I wrote the scene where she hires him but he needs to reappear from time to time.  I wonder how long the job will take.



I knitted up all of the variegated yarn for LC's hat ribbing and knitted the first round of Fairy Tale purplish pink.  It'll look great with her pink winter coat.

24 November--Barbara Malcolm, Spies Don't Retire. 

The next morning George picked Max up just after breakfast for their first dive.  They loaded Max’s gear in the back of the Rover next to George’s.

“Good, you brought two tanks each,” Max said.  “I was afraid we were only doing one.  Do you have weights for me too?”

“I do,” said George.  “Ten pounds, just like you said.”

The men got into the Rover and set out.  Max unfolded a map of Bonaire’s dive sites on his lap.  “Where to first?”

George had to smile; trust a Navy man to latch onto the first map he finds and want to plan an assault, he thought.  “We’re going to start at Windsock.”  He pointed with his left hand.  “Right there at the western end of the runway.  It’s got an easy sand entry and good parking.  Plus, once you get your weights set in the shallows, we can drop over the lip of the reef and hit one hundred plus feet if you’re of a mind to.”

Max broke into a big grin.  “Oh, I’ve a mind to all right.  I have been searching out this island on the Internet and I have a long list of sites I would like to dive.  Good thing we will be here a month.”

George laughed too, happy to have an old friend by his side.  “Good thing.  I am glad you are here to dive with, not that there is anything wrong with the chaps around here, but I know I don’t have to worry about you in the water.  I spend half of my dives lately counting heads making sure some joker hasn’t swum off into the deep.”

“Are they that inexperienced?”

“Not really.  A few of them like to brag they were Navy SEALS, and they might have been, but it is a good long time since then and I would wager they have not been keeping their skills sharp.  Plus it is too easy to forget to keep an eye on your gauges; there is too much to look at and the water is so clear it is easy to go too deep chasing a fish you want to take a picture of.”

Max nodded.  “Ah.”  He lifted his right hand.  “I solemnly promise to be a good little diver, sir.”

“Too right, you will.”

Then Max grinned at him and added, “At least when you are around.”

That brought a scowl before the older man laughed along with him.  In only five minutes George pulled off the road to the left and parked the vehicle on the gravel edge.  They were steps from the ocean, parked right near the sandy path through the shallow coral heads.

“This is all right,” Max said, getting quickly out striding down to the edge of the sea.  He stood with his hands on his hips surveying the lapping waves.  “Not much surf, is there?” he said over his shoulder.

George went around to open the back hatch so they could gear up for their dive.  “Not on this side of the island; it is the leeward side.  Later today we can drive around to the windward side; you will see plenty of surf there.”

After Max loaded the lead block weights into the pockets of his buoyancy compensator the two men geared up and waded into the blood-warm ocean.  They ducked under the surface, adjusted their gear, and swam off into the eternal blue.  After an hour’s dive they stowed their gear back in the truck, then sat in the shade sharing the bag of nuts and dried fruit George had brought and drinking water.

“What did you think?” George asked.

Max swallowed his mouthful of nuts and sipped from his water bottle.  “A good dive for a checkout dive, great visibility with lots of fish but nothing big.”

“Your research should have told you, you don’t dive Bonaire for big critters.  Bonaire is the place for macro, all the little fish and shrimp, things you have to hunt for to find.”

“What about boat dives?”

“All the boats go out to Klein Bonaire,” he said, pointing at the small uninhabited island a half mile offshore.  “You won’t see big fish out there either.  Maybe on the double reef south of here; it’s deeper, wilder and more swept by currents.”

Max stood, brushed the sand from his backside, and said, “Let’s go then.  No time to waste.”  They secured the back hatch of the Rover, then George turned the nose of the vehicle toward the south.  Their second dive, which needed to be shallower than the first, was at a site called The Lake.  The water was clear enough for them to see the outer reef although they didn’t cross to it because doing so would have taken them too deep, but they could see a school of nice sized barracuda patrolling on the outside where the reef plunged into the abyss.

When they got back to shore, Max said he would like to dive out there one day.

George said, “I’m too old for it anymore, but I know a couple of tech divers who would be happy to take you.”

Max was pleased at that.  As they drove back toward George’s place Max pulled an envelope out of his dry bag.  “I was supposed to give you this as soon as we arrived.  I thought it would be smarter to wait until we were alone.”

George eased up on the accelerator when he saw the manila envelope with a familiar seal in his friend’s hand.  “Damn.”  He slowed the Rover and pulled it onto the shoulder.  “Do you know what it says?”

“No, I don’t and I don’t want to.  It’s more than my pension is worth to get curious about something like that.”

Tomorrow I'll go to my broker's office to get a pumpkin pie but first I need to stop at Aldi for a canned ham (for $2.99) because this year they're collecting for a food pantry instead of just handing out pies.  I'm so glad that I found that inexpensive ham because I like to donate protein rather than pasta or veggies.  I woke up at 5:30am today.  I'm kind of fading.
--Barbara