The Anecdotal Life Part. 76

I am a flu-ridden person. A walking, flu-ridden person, but all the same, the flu is in there, crawling around inside my head upsetting the mental furniture and thus, my equilibrium. When your equilibrium gets upset, it affects your stomach and so on down the line... as it were. Today, I can't even think inside the box , though the word box is not appropriate since my head feels like a large musty trunk in the back of the attic that everybody's scared to open. Admittedly, sometimes I even look o.k., but not today. When I get over the current dizzy spell I will limp to the shower so I can stand myself.
Elsewhere in my life," Things are not improving" either. I finally got the Citizen's Bank of Rhode Island to understand that, though I realize they have a busy schedule chasing bankruptcies, and since it is a New year, could they possibly consider sending me a 1098 for the boat loan and interest? They had sent one to my old address and I was taking a paranoid trip about identity thieves getting it. The flu, at least, levels one's thinking. If identity thieves want my loan, they can have it. For that matter, they can have my identity while they are at it. It hasn't been doing me a heck of a lot of good. I feel like this quote may well have been one some Trekkie made up as he or she entered a Star Trek convention." who am I? where am I? who are all these funny looking people ( particularly the big furry one with the pointy ears and red eyes )? and why am I wearing these funny looking clothes?" I think it was a play on a line by Spock or should have been. My father went through a two-year Spock period after my mother died. Flu has this effect. I haven't had the flu since 1966, so I shouldn't complain over just a few lost days.
I had , a few days ago, in another country it seems, gone up to the boat to find out when my boat would be launched so that I could relay this info to the Captain I had hired to do the job. But oh golly, I had the wrong date in my head. What again this year?! They won't be launching it until May 1st. That meant I'd have to find a new captain to do the deed i.e., move the boat to a new marina near the Bay Bridge, because Captain Jeff will be off in the Bahamas or something. As I slowly made a weak pass at sorting out my thinking and climbed into the front seat of my car, the first dizzy spell of flu hit. If I kept my face straight ahead, I could make it home and knew it, but it was slow going and I began running out of gas in North Baltimore. That gas station probably thought they had an early morning, military type, drunk on their hands. I kept making abrupt right and left turns to keep from turning my head. But! I made it home with only one lurch into the side door of my car when I got out into my parking lot. Apparently, there is a great deal of flu going around for all to partake of this wonderfully, leveling experience. So be careful and here's to better days....and nights darn it. The electricity went off for five hours last night. That was really riveting when I thought of "my condition" and depositing two rowdy, spring-driven cats somewhere. But as I said, "better days".
Copyright: February 20, 2008

The Anecdotal Life Part. 75

Aha! The diamond anniversary of my blog. I celebrated by zipping off from collage class on the Eastern shore and driving north to my boat, hoping the light would hold, while I emptied the scuppers. "How bad could they be?" I mused. "I am out in the open, trees must be forty feet away." Nevertheless, I felt uneasy and uneasy lies the head that owns a boat. A better, more complete quote by Kipling applies ," Oh rash and inexperienced traveler." I think, but am not certain, that the snake said that to the elephant's child. (I will have to ask the "Professor", my big sister, Diane, she knows everything.)
Walking up to the boat, everything looked copacetic. I ambled around to the rear to peak into the scuppers. Mmmm, very dark in there... very dark. I poked my finger in it. OOOg! Large, large, error. No hope for it. I would have to swipe a ladder out from under a boat I just past and throw myself up over the side again this year. The trouble with swiping ladders that have been left out is that they suck. They are rickety and belong to some guy who is at least six-foot-five and so the fact that the ladder is somewhat short "makes no nevermind"to the owner.
What it means for me is a wobbly climb to the top, standing on tiptoe on the top step, hanging on like blue blazes to the boat handle and trying to figure how to swing my leg up over another foot and a half and not lose hold of the said handle. If I shove off the ladder too hard, I may toss it to the ground. Then I would be marooned and have to yell for help and I was so tired of doing that. But I made it without too many bruises. I wore a lot of padding on purpose.
The cockpit was full of crappy surprises. The big plastic bucket had blown over and dumped a sponge and some wierd twine into the enormous pile of burrballs that were all backed up waiting to jam the scuppers further. The leaves had been first up in the lineup for that task. It was awful and cruddy and I had to go into the cabin for a broom and towels. But I got it clean just before dark. I threw myself back over the side and made it down not missing the bottom step like I did last year. That manuever killed my left big toe. Furthermore, when at last I got home and turned on the tv, the weather report was dismal for the next week or so in terms of snow and ice. I smiled. I had saved my boat from drowning while on dry land, which is what backed up scuppers can do if the cockpit fills with water and inundates the cabin and engines. Learned my lesson and barely in time. Next year I will get there sooner and oftener. This year I had some sort of rather elegant excuse. I had forgotten the scuppers midst the flurry surrounding the birth of my new grandson, Logan, and had flown to Santa Monica. I wonder if he will think his grandmother is a bit different? Well, who needs a boring grandmother anyway?
Copyright: February 12, 2008