Day 196, Year 8: Sharing the Wealth
Date: Saturday, May 18, 2013
Weather: Sunny, High Temp in the Low 60’s F
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
I love my daughter, but this is one time when it would have been nice if she hadn’t ‘shared the wealth.’ Of course, she had no choice, so I’m just being facetious. But I do now have a modified version of the flu she had a couple of days ago and Ollie was hit with it last night as well. Heather was truly violently ill with cold-like symptoms, laryngitis, and a stomach flu. Ollie spiked a temp last night and threw up and was then just tired. I woke up this morning with cold-like symptoms and a terribly achy body, but so far (and thankfully) no stomach flu symptoms. And Mark is feeling extremely tired today, but otherwise he is okay. So hopefully this will pass quickly and we’ll all be on the road to recovery by tomorrow. That might be wishful thinking, but I choose to be wishful. But we all forged on today acting like all was fine. The ‘boys’ (minus Oliver) went to an open house at the Coast Guard Station in Woods Hole while the ‘girls’ (plus Oliver) went to a local nursery to buy plants for Heather’s bee garden. Ollie fell asleep on the way to the nursery, so I stayed in the van with him while Heather shopped for perennials. She found most of what she wanted, but not the Shasta Daisies, Black-eyed Susan’s, and Bee Balm. So we stopped at another garden center and I went in to buy those. Perennials are located by their scientific names, so I had to get help to find them. Finally, with the help of three sales people, we finally found what Heather wanted. Heather and I then hurried home to get everything planted before the ‘boys’ got home. Ollie was still sleeping in the van so we parked the van near to us and left the windows open so we could listen for him while we planted about 18 different plants—Echinacea, Shasta Daisies, Cape Daisies, Black-eyed Susan’s, Mediterranean Heather, and a couple of others that I didn’t recognize. We planted all of these in what Heather calls her Bee Garden, just in front of her bee hive and bee hive to-be. She had already put in four Lavender plants late last week. So with some sun and rain, it should be a beautiful little garden this summer and for many summers to come. Just as we finished planting, Mark, Jed, Sam, and Jonah returned from their excursion to the Coast Guard Station. They had a good time but then switched gears and got excited about helping out with the bee garden. The next task was to put in a border, so the ‘boys’ completed that task. Finally Ollie work up and he joined in the fun.
When the garden was completed, Mark and I headed back to Windbird. We had expended as much energy as we had for today and we actually took afternoon naps in the cockpit. This is something I almost never do, but I needed it today and am actually feeling a bit better tonight. Heather, Jed, and company are headed to Boston tomorrow for a family gathering. Jed’s mother and her brother return from a trip to Iceland tonight and Jed’s cousin’s wife is celebrating getting her Masters from Brandeis. We will stay here tomorrow and have a low-key day and then Mark and I drive to Boston on Monday because I have an appointment for an assessment at Mass General’s spine center. The problem I have been having with a pinched nerve in my neck has been so much better, but I still want to get an assessment to find out what I should be doing to try and avoid that kind of pain again.
I totally forgot to mention in yesterday’s log that while I was cleaning the outside of the boat, Mark spent time checking out our steering system. Just when he, Lee, and Lynda were circling to wait for the Eel Pond Bridge to open, something happened that made it very hard to steer to the right. Thankfully it happened just as they got home. What Mark found yesterday was that the steering cables had come off the quadrant. That allowed them to still work, but just not quite right. So yesterday Mark got them back on the quadrant and hopefully all is well. We won’t know for sure until we take Windbird out again, but things should be fine.
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| 130518 Day 196 Cape Cod, USA–Bee Garden and Coast Guard Station Visit |
