Day 306, Year 8: Quick Trip to Raymarine in NH
Date: Thursday, September 5, 2013
Weather: Overcast and Cool, High in the Upper 60’s F
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Today’s plans were set early. I got a call from Heather saying that Jonah spiked a fever during the night and that she needed me to help out with childcare if possible. At the same time, Geoff and Chris got in contact with the folks at Raymarine and their suggestion was to drive the faulty radar unit to Nashua today, probably to get a rebuilt circuit board installed. We waited until Jed arrived at work in Woods Hole in the van, and I drove that to Heather’s so she would have a car and Mark, Geoff, and Chris took off in the Taurus. Raymarine headquarters is in Nashua, New Hampshire, so by 1 o’clock they were there and by 3 pm they were on their way home. It was a two and a half hour drive each way, but hopefully the problem is solved in one day. Of course, we’ll have to wait until Geoff gets the unit reinstalled and then wait until it is in use for a few hours before we’ll know if it is really fixed. The problem was that it simply shut down after so many hours of use. Since they are headed to Nova Scotia where there can be lots of fog this time of year, having radar would be a very good thing.
I spent my day with Jonah. He spiked a fever during the night and then a couple of hours later the fever broke. You couldn’t really tell that he was sick by the time I got there, but when I took him for a walk, he did start coughing. I brought him some raspberries, one of his favorite foods, and he had great fun eating the whole container by putting a raspberry on each finger and playing a math subtraction game as he ate. Hopefully he will be able to go back to preschool tomorrow. Ollie went to daycare for the first time in a week and a half today, and he made it just fine. And Sam was finally able to go to his first day of first grade. I went to pick him up this afternoon and he was so happy and animated. He loves his teacher, Mrs. Baker. I asked if she was young and he said, “Oh, yeah. And she knows so much. Young teachers are like that.” I got a chuckle out of that! Once we got home, Heather took off with Sam and Jonah to go pick up Ollie and Jed. Heather called me a bit later to see if I was still at her house or if I had taken the bus home. I was still at Heather’s as Mark had called to say he would be home in time to pick me up. Heather and Jed had just picked up a huge chunk of fresh-off-the boat yellowfin tuna and lemon sole from their Thursday afternoon fish share pick-up and she was glad I was still there so I could take some of the fish home. I put on some sushi rice and by the time Heather and Jed got home, Heather had decided it would be easiest if we just fixed dinner for everyone at her house. So we did and we had a feast. The tuna was delicious, as was sole. Chris had bought some chocolate pumpkin bread at the bakery where they had lunch today, so we added that for dessert. Sam and Jonah were interested in meeting friends from Australia, and since Heather went to college in Australia, she had lots of things to talk to Chris and Geoff about. They asked her if she swam with the potato cod (a huge grouper) when she was working at Lizard Island and she said yes. Jonah and Sam looked at me in amazement. We watched a video about coral reefs a few weeks ago and the divers swam with potato cod. I think the boys were awestruck that their momma had done that as well. What a fun evening.
Mark goes to work at West Marine tomorrow and tomorrow afternoon I head to Heather and Jed’s to babysit all three boys. Tomorrow is Heather and Jed’s tenth anniversary so they are going to do a late afternoon tour of the Falmouth Art Center and then go out to dinner in downtown Falmouth at The Glass Onion. Mark will join Sam, Jonah, Ollie, and I after work and we’ll do pizza dinner with a trip to Smitty’s, the local ice cream shop, for dessert. Earlier in the day I hope to have time to spend with Chris and Geoff in Woods Hole. They are trying to figure out where and how to check out of this country before they head out to Nova Scotia or possibly Newfoundland—to be decided. Mark has an appointment with his urologist at Mass General in Boston on Monday, and that might be the best place to check-out. The winds next week are forecast to be coming from the SW quadrant, so that should give them a good sail. Unfortunately, thunderstorms and fog are also in the forecast. We’ll hope that part of the forecast is wrong.
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| 130905 Day 306 Cape Cod, USA–Jonah the Raspberry Man; Sam's First Day of First Grade |
