Day 335, Year 9: Farewell to Summer 2014
Date: Sunday, September 21, 2014
Weather: Overcast with Rain in Late Afternoon, Warm and Humid
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, Massachusetts
All three Goldpebbles were up and at ‘em by 7 am this morning after having a good night’s sleep. That’s a little earlier than Mark and I prefer for a get-up time, but it’s much better than 6 am which was the get-up time earlier in the summer! The boys played chess with Granddad while I got breakfast ready and then we ate and ate. Actually Jonah, the light eater, ate the most for breakfast which tells me that the cold that Ollie, and now Sam, has is taking its toll. At 9:30 am it was time to take Mark to shore so he could go to work, so all of us went in to drop him off and then we headed across Quissett Harbor to the beach in the dinghy. At the beach we unloaded the construction equipment (big dump truck, loader, and cement mixer) and the three boys ran up and down the beach squealing with joy. There was a warm wind blowing and the water actually felt warm, so colds and all, all three boys fully enjoyed the water play. At one point they stopped long enough to wave goodbye to summer so I could get a photo. We talked about the fact that summer officially ends tomorrow evening but that this trip to the beach was probably our last of the 2014 season. We were all having so much fun that I didn’t notice a semi-submerged rock in the area where the boys were playing. Then I saw Ollie stop running to try and climb up the gentle slope of the rock covered with shells and little barnacles. I started toward him to remind him not to climb on wet rocks (one of our beach rules), but I was too late. He took one step on the rock and slid backwards. I thought his face was going to hit the rock, but thankfully that didn’t happen. Ollie screamed with pain and I scooped him out of the water and up to dry rock where I had a big beach towel. I could see that the inside of his right hand and the area around his wrist was bleeding profusely, so I just wrapped it in the towel so he wouldn’t have to see the blood. But I was shaken. That sick feeling you get in your gut when a little one is injured set in, but I tried to look brave and asked Sam and Jonah to fill up their little buckets of sea water to help clean the blood from his hand. Ollie was crying but stopped long enough to listen to a lady walking by who was trying to distract him. She told him how special having the big construction vehicles on the beach was and he stopped crying to listen. So I knew he was probably fine, just shook up by the fall. Sam helped me wash Ollie’s wrist and when he was calmed down, I started to get up with him. The towel opened and it was then that I saw all of the blood on his little feet. Again Sam and Jonah came to the rescue with fresh salt water and when we washed the blood off his feet we saw that the problem was a long cut on the downside of one of his big toes. The blood all over his feet just made it look worse than it was. But at that point I decided that we needed to get Ollie home to momma. I asked Sam and Jonah for their cooperation in getting things ready to do and they immediately flew into action. They cleaned the sand off all the construction vehicles and shovels and literally threw them into the dinghy. Since the tide was going out, the dinghy was sitting high and dry on the sand but Sam turned it so the bow of the dinghy was headed out into the water and he pulled like crazy to get it into the water. Without me saying a word, I got into the dinghy holding Ollie and both boys jumped in and Sam started paddling us away from shore. Once we were out of the shallow water, Ollie asked me to start the engine. I think he wanted to get across the harbor to the van as quickly as possible. Once we docked the dinghy, the boys got all of the beach gear out of the dinghy and started carrying to the van. They were such troopers. We got home and Ollie cuddled mommy while she soaked his foot and hand and arm in warm water. He was fine and I was very proud of the way Sam and Jonah took charge and helped me get everything from the beach to the dinghy dock and then to the van. They carried everything leaving me free to just deal Ollie and I hardly had to say a word to them. They just knew what needed to be done and they did it. The amount of blood from both Ollie’s hand wound and the slit on his big toe was enough to let us all know that Ollie’s needs came first and that we just needed to do what needed to be done to get him home. The big boys sang to him all the way home and he sang along. It was very sweet.
I spent the afternoon at Heather and Jed’s sanding Dorade boxes to prepare them for their first coat of varnish tomorrow. When I arrived with the boys, H & J had finished putting the second coat of paint on the walls of the den and by the end of the afternoon they had totally finished getting the new shelves in the living room ‘re-stocked’ with the stereo and video equipment that used to be housed in the den. They went to pick up a new table and chairs for the den that Heather had seen advertised on Craig’s List and they got that room ready to use once again. They have to wait for the new cabinets for the den and the new sofa for the living room, but they have both rooms looking great in the meantime. Jed leaves for Japan tomorrow and will be gone for ten days. I know Heather will be happier momma in his absence now that the renovation projects are completed and just waiting for furniture.
Our farewell to Summer 2014 was a bit more traumatic than I had hoped, but the rain held off so that we could have a great morning on the beach. Well, it was great minus Ollie’s mishap. In every other way, however, it was a perfect day for the end of summer celebration.
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| 140921 Day 335 Cape Cod, USA–Summer Farewell |
