Day 161, Year 7: Summer Preview
Date: Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Weather: Beautiful Day, Temp in the Low 80’s
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, N Falmouth, MA
Today was another great preview of summer. The temperature was in the 80’s
and the sun shone brightly all day. But tonight the thermometer will dip
into the upper 30’s and tomorrow will be much more seasonal, probably temps
in the 60’s. We have enjoyed the two days of summer, but the very hot
weather has made work on the deck almost unbearable. With the sun beating
through the plastic, the temperature on deck is around 100 degrees. Just
sitting and watching someone else work is an exhausting task at that
temperature. This morning we had a change of plans. Mark was not feeling
good enough to go to work at West Marine, so I called Heather and asked her
to come over with Oliver so we could give a go at caulking. Since Mark was
going to be here, he could hold Oliver while we worked. We worked for about
two hours and made great progress, but a quarter of the starboard deck that
is still waiting to be caulked. Heather and I both think that one person
can do the job–albeit slowly, but surely. So I will get up early in the
morning and see what I can do by myself. I often sing a song with Sam and
Jonah called The Garden Song. It was written by someone named Dave Mallett,
but the song was sung by Peter, Paul, and Mary, Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie,
John Denver, and many others. It goes like this, “Inch by inch, row by row,
gonna make this garden grow.” I’m going to write a new song that goes like
this, “Inch by inch, row by row, we’re gonna get this caulkin’ done.”
When I went to pick up Sam and Jonah at school in Woods Hole, Mark went with
Heather and Oliver to Heather and Jed’s. We spent the afternoon there
cleaning up after a bit of a demolition disaster. When Jed left Windbird
yesterday at noon, he went home to continue working on the final removal of
part of the kitchen wall. He used Mark’s Fein tool, not knowing that it
produces a “fein” dust that covers everything. I loaned him the tool
without the warning, so feeling a bit responsible for the dust covered
kitchen and dining room, I pitched in with Heather this afternoon and we
cleaned the kitchen and dining room top to bottom. After Sam and Jonah got
up from nap, they also helped by washing down the dining room chairs on the
deck. By the end of the afternoon, they had on no clothes and were
gleefully sloshing about in water. But we did get the kitchen clean and
dining room clean. Tomorrow morning Mark is going to try to go to work at
West Marine and Heather and I will continue the cleaning process.
