Day 278, Year 7: More Frustrations with Weather Forecasts
Date: Sunday, August 12, 2012
Weather: Mix of Rain, Clouds, and Sunshine
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Our morning started with pouring rain. Jed and I were the first adults up
with Oliver. We checked the weather forecast and it was bleak. It looked
like it would be a totally overcast day with lots of rain. What happened in
reality is that the rain ended early and we had long periods of mostly sunny
weather mixed with periods of overcast skies throughout the day. We made
our decision to not go sailing based on the morning forecast, but by
afternoon it was obvious that we should have just gone for it. We didn’t,
but we still had a good time. And the rain ended in time for the Falmouth
Road Race to get underway with just a 20 minute delay. This was the 40th
year of this race and I was amazed this year as last that 12,000 people can
descend on a little village early on a Sunday morning, run their race, and
by early afternoon, the village looks just like it did before they came.
Mark and I stayed onboard with Oliver while Heather, Jed, Sam, and Jonah
went ashore to enjoy the race. After the last runners had left Woods Hole,
they went to the aquarium. We all had lunch on Windbird and then Jed took
the big boys to the park to run and play while Mark and I did our daily
walk. After naps, everyone but Oliver and I piled into the dinghy and went
out into Great Harbor to a little island with a beach. Sam had really
wanted to go snorkeling, but it was late in the day and cooler than he had
hoped, so he got in the water, but it was Heather who ended up doing the
snorkeling. She was amazed at the life she saw in the shallows. There was
a juvenile flounder, green crabs, and a number of fish she couldn’t
immediately identify. It’s not a coral reef, but it sure sounds interesting
to me. I’m going to try and get out there while the kids are in Maine to
see what I can see, and when they return, we’ll give it another go earlier
on a sunny day.
When everyone went on the dinghy ride out into Great Harbor to snorkel, I
stayed behind with Oliver. It was time to fix dinner, so I was trying to
juggle entertaining Oliver with cooking. It was Happy Hour and I was having
an Amstel Light. Ollie was fixated on the bottle each time I took a drink,
so I decided to see what would happen if I gave him his own clean and empty
bottle. Bingo. He loved it. He held it and sucked on the bottle neck as
if drinking out of it. It gave me just the time I needed to get dinner
underway. When his parents returned, I shared our little secret with them.
They laughed and said that Sam had the same fascination with beer bottles
when he was a baby. It might not be the safest baby toy in the world, but
it sure keeps their attention.
