Day 309, Year 7: Normal
Date: Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Weather: Gorgeous September Day
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Exactly what is normal? Heather and I were talking today about schedules
and how crazy our days seem to be. There seems to be no ‘normal.’ Is there
ever? No two days ever seem to be the same and it is really hard to keep
track of who goes where when. Jed has one work schedule. Heather has
another. Sam’s kindergarten schedule is regular, but then he had a dentist
appointment today and we had to pick him up early. Jonah is on a new
schedule at the Woods Hole DayCare. And Oliver has decided that while he is
teething he is not going to be on any schedule at all! And then there is
Mark’s work schedule which is different every week. Add in all of Mark’s
medical appointments and Jed’s travel schedule and you have a maze of
activity that is almost impossible to track. Jed is leaving on Friday for a
conference in Maine and Heather will be at home alone with all three kids
until Monday night or Tuesday. I am the only one of us that has no set
commitments, so at least I can be flexible with my time. But that means
that I end up spending most of my time helping out here and there, so I
don’t get a lot of things ticked off my list of things to do. But that’s
okay. I’m doing what I love to do. However, there are some maintenance
issues on Windbird that need attention. In the next few days, I have
decided that I HAVE to do some varnishing. I usually varnish the cockpit
coaming and Dorade boxes every six months or so. But the last time I did
this was in March of 2011 while in Grenada, so I am WAY overdue.
Thankfully, everything is still okay and all I will have to do is a light
sanding followed by two or three coats of varnish. More would be nice, but
if I get on three coats I’ll be happy. The last time we polished stainless
was in April of 2011 in St. Martin. That is when we put up the safety
netting for grandchildren. We applied a product from Australia that was
supposed to keep the stainless from rusting and it has done that, but at the
same time, it has given the stainless a dull appearance that we don’t like.
It would be nice to get some stainless polishing done, but that can always
be done once we head south for the winter. So tomorrow, I will take down
the canvas over the cockpit so that I can remove the hardware that supports
the canvas and properly sand and varnish the coaming. And if I have the
energy and time left, I’ll start on the Dorade boxes. By mid-afternoon, I
will head to Heather’s to watch Jonah and Oliver while Heather goes to pick
Sam up from school. That pick-up time is right in the middle of Jonah’s nap
time and he gets really grumpy when you wake him up early. Heather had to
do that yesterday and ended up with a crying three year-old that caused the
baby to cry while on her way to pick Sam up from school. She is looking for
a momma’s helper to come in on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons when Jonah is
home so she won’t have to wake him to go get Sam. In the meantime, I’ll be
that momma’s helper.
