Day 309, Year 6: Life After Storm
Date: Monday, August 29, 2011
Weather: Beautiful Day; Day Temp 70’s-Night Temp Low 60’s
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Tonight we are back on Windbird and we were so happy to get here to confirm that tropical storm Irene did no damage here. I took Mark to work at 8 am and headed straight to Woods Hole to do another visual check of Windbird from shore and to scrape the barnacles off the bottom of our dinghy. What a mess that was! I stopped at Walmart and bought a wide, metal paint scraper, a package of three plastic paint scrapers, lots of vinegar, and a pair of rubber gloves. When I got to Woods Hole I untied the dinghy from the tree where we left it for the storm and tried to drag it across the grass to the water’s edge. The tree where it was tied is in a grassy picnic area outside WHOI’s Redfield Research Building. People who work there eat their lunch out under the trees so I didn’t want to leave piles of barnacles in the grass. The dinghy had deflated some over the weekend and that made pulling it and turning it over very difficult. As I was struggling to do this, a young man came by and offered to help. I happily took him up on his offer and we were able to quickly flip the dinghy on its bottom so it was easier to pull and then flip it back when we got to the water’s edge. I then started scraping and scraping and scraping. An hour later, all the barnacles were scraped off. It was not a perfect job, but good enough for today. I then headed back to Heather and Jed’s to help them get ready for their week’s vacation in Maine. Heather had a doctor’s appointment, so I was able to take her to that while Jed continued to get the van packed. By noon they were on their way north and I spent the afternoon at their house answering emails. Many friends had written to wish us luck in dealing with Hurricane Irene so I returned their emails to let them know all is well.
While Heather and Jed are off to Maine, Justin, Jo, and Ziggy are in Nevada at Burning Man. Yesterday they were passing through Reno, and it just so happens that our good friends Alan and Helaine Kanegsberg are in Reno visiting with their son Philip, his wife Denise, and their seven year-old son, Torston. They decided to invite JJ&Z to stop by for dinner and showers since the only water at Burning Man will be that brought in by those attending the music festival. Evidently Torston did a great job of entertaining Ziggy-such a good job that Ziggy wants to move to Reno. Philip sent photos from the visit which include a tour of Justin and Jo’s “bus” and we will be posting those at the end of this log. A great big thank you to Alan, Helaine, Philip, Denise, and Torston.
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110829 Day 309a JJ&Z Visit Kanegsberg's in Reno |
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110829 Day 309b Cape Cod, USA–Day After Irene |