2020 Life Logs, Day 254: September 11th
Date: Friday, September 11, 2020
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Cool North Wind; High 72, Low 54 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, Falmouth, MA
Since the events of September 11, 2001, this day has become a time of reflection for all Americans. Then on September 11, 2016, the day we lost Mark, this date became my most unfavorite day of the year. But I do try to stay positive and honor his life on this day by thinking of the wonderful, happy times we had together. On this particular September 11th, however, staying positive was particularly difficult because of all of the other things going on around us. Our inability as a country to deal effectively with the coronavirus seems to become more evident every day. All of the issues associated with the presidential election, any one of which is enough to give anyone sleepless nights. Then we have the wildfires in California and Oregon. Jed’s brother Toby and his significant other Stephanie were going to stop by here to visit this weekend on their way home to Portland, Oregon. But Toby talked to Jed early today to say that they have decided to extend their stay in Maine until the fires in Oregon are under control. Scary news seems to be around every corner.
I arrived at Heather and Jed’s around noon to find that the boys were determined to spend the day lazing about the house. Jonah was interested in helping me with the basement organization and we did work on that. Sam and Ollie also pitched in a bit, but there is more to do tomorrow.
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19 Clark’s Anemonefish (Amphiprion clarkii)
06 Closer Look at Male Slingjaw Wrasse (Epibulus insidiator)
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23 Octopus cyanea Climbing Up
27 Octopus cyanea Going, Going
00 Octopus Trying Hard to Look Like Surroundings
At the end of the day, I headed home to spend time with Shadow and to look back on my years with Mark. The first year after Mark’s death, we all went out to dinner at the Flying Bridge on Falmouth Harbor to celebrate Mark’s life. The next year I was in Philadelphia with Kevin and Claire and we went out to dinner in Philly’s historic district. Last year Heather was in Boston, but on the next evening on her way home she met us all at the Chart Room at Kingman Marina for a celebration of life dinner. I have not been out to dinner since March and don’t plan to go out until this pandemic is over, so instead of going out tonight, I came home and started researching what Mark and I had done on September 11 in past years. When I got back to 2010, I found the memory I wanted to relive in honor of Mark’s life for this anniversary. We were in Madagascar on September 11, 2010, and we had one of the most spectacular snorkeling adventures of our entire trip around the world. We were snorkeling in the Nosy (island) Tanikely Marine Reserve. The corals, the sponges, and the fish were spectacular—purple sponges, a school of Silver Monos, Clark’s anemonefish, Slingshaw and various bird wrasses, a young black and white snapper. I could go on and on, but I won’t. I’ll just share our very favorite of the day which was watching an octopus. He was curled up at the base of a coral, hard to see as he was camouflaged. When he sensed us, however, he instantly turned maroon and went down through a hole. When he came out the other side, he had turned white to blend in the white sand. Amazing to watch. That’s my happy memory with Mark on this day in 2010. Beautiful memories.
