Day 368, Year 6: Get Ready for a Good Laugh
Date: Thursday, October 27, 2011
Weather: Rain with Temps in the Low 50’s, 40’s Overnight
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Paul Simon needs to rewrite his song, “She’s Got Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes.” It needs to read, “She’s Got No Soles on the Bottom of Her Shoes.” Here’s the picture. It’s our anniversary. Heather and Jed give us a gift certificate for dinner out at the Landfall Restaurant here in Woods Hole. They had asked us our choice and we really wanted to be able to walk to the restaurant. I guess this is our version of “eat locally.” We figured we should look ‘decent’ so we dug clothes out of the closet that we haven’t worn for a couple of years. Well, actually Mark had worn nice clothes when he went to his conference this week, but I hadn’t worn these clothes since we arrived in New Zealand in 2006. I put on hose (which I hope I never have to do again as long as I live), a nice pair of slacks, a sweater and a jacket. I then donned my favorite pair of walking shoes that I haven’t worn since New Zealand in 2006. They are Ecco’s–not cheap–but if you have to wear shoes, they aren’t a bad alternative. Then we headed out into the pouring rain. I got to the street and all of a sudden I am walking on a slant. I look down and realize that the soles of my shoes are literally disintegrating as I walk. I guess the rubber in the shoe soles was not meant to be stored on a boat in tropical climates. When we got to the restaurant I asked Mark to walk behind me to pick up any offending pieces when they fell off. We made it in just fine, but when we walked out a couple of hours later, I left a trail of black rubber. By the time we got back to the boat, there were no soles left and I was wearing ballet slippers. I either have to invest in a new pair of dress shoes or not go where I need such an item. I like the latter alternative, but I think I will probably have to give in and buy a pair of dress shoes.
If we disregard the shoe event, our anniversary dinner was just perfect. We had oysters on the half shell as appetizers and they were delicious. We then had lobster for dinner. I had a version of stuffed lobster with extra lobster added and Mark had lobster pie. Both were absolutely delicious. Instead of wine, we had Cape Cod Pale Ale to drink and it also tasted great. So Heather and Jed, we can’t thank you enough for the gift certificate. We’re not big on going out to dinner because of the expense, but it was a wonderfully enjoyable evening . . . even if I didn’t really have shoes on! The pouring rain abated while we walked to the Landfall and then we sat inside watching the heavens fall during dinner. We were really dreading the short walk home, but all of a sudden the rain stopped. We left the restaurant immediately and as soon as we got back on the boat the rain commenced once again. We have been having some rotten luck lately, but tonight the rain gods were on our side.
The shoe event tonight was the second shoe experience of the day. When we got up this morning and looked outside, the world looked uninviting. It was raining and the temperature was much cooler than yesterday. Our attire these days is jeans, long sleeve shirts, and polar fleece vests. But up until today, we have continued to wear our Teva sandals with Smart Wool socks. But the weather today seemed to demand something more substantial than sandals, so we dug out our version of winter sneakers. These are cross between sneakers and hiking boots. We had hoped to delay wearing them until winter arrives, but maybe that was today. When I went to pick the kids up from school, the first thing Jonah said to me was, “What’s that.” He was looking at my shoes. I guess they didn’t fit his vision of what I should be wearing, but he quickly adapted. I now have the cold that both kids have, but today we were all feeling a bit better. Despite the ugly weather and their colds, both Sam and Jonah were delightful today. They are all excited about Halloween. Sam is going to be Superman and Jonah is going to be ladybug.
The case of the missing bag from yesterday continues. We searched everywhere today, but there was no bag. So evidently the bag was stolen as it is nowhere to be found. And after I sent the log last night, I looked at the hard drive that had been recovered by Cape Coastal Computers. There was almost nothing on the recovered drive that had been on the original. So that went back to the shop today. The really good news of the day, however, was that our anniversary present, the new Freedom SW 2000 Sine Wave Inverter/Charger arrived and is now installed and working beautifully. Mark was able to install it using the same connections as the previous inverter/charger which tells us that the connections were fine. We were never 100 per cent sure whether our problem was the old inverter/charger or the electrical connections, but now we know. The old Freedom 2000 had just seen better days. The next step is to get the reverse-cycle heater/air conditioner working. We’re waiting on a relay that starts the compressor motor. In the meantime we are heating with a DeLonghi SafeHeat oil-encased radiator heater. It heats slowly, but safely, and is keeping us plenty toasty with outside temps getting no lower than the 40’s. But soon the water temperature will begin to drop and the nighttime temps will be lower, so we will need the reverse-cycle heater.
