Day 82, Year 9: Snow and Drizzle
Date: Friday, January 10, 2014
Weather: Snow Overnight, Overcast with Drizzle All Day, Temp in the 30’s F
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, North Falmouth, Massachusetts
We had a little snow overnight, just enough to make everything look white and pretty, but it melted away as the day progressed. We continued and still continue to have a drizzle of precipitation. The temperature reached the upper 30’s F today and will remain in the 30’s tonight, warming more tomorrow. But no matter how much the air temperature rises, the water temperature is currently 34 degrees F and a boat sitting in water that cold is hard to heat. We turn the heat down a bit during the day which means that when we return home in the evening the inside temp is around 60 degrees F—not warm. Every evening we turn on the oven and leave the door open to help heat the main cabin and we also turn up the heaters, but sitting around in the evening is a ‘cool’ experience. We’ll endure, but this is not my idea of fun! But we did have fun today. Mark started his day by taking Ollie outside to sweep the snow off the walkway. Ollie loves ‘no’ and he loves sweeping, so he was a happy little boy. Then I took him to the public library for storytime with other little ones his age. He is a serious little participant, listening intently to the teacher and doing everything she asks. He loves the music and the today there was lots of drumming which he really got into. It amazes me how children in the 15 month to 3 year range manage to ignore each other. The sit side-by-side, but not one child there interacted with another. But they did watch each other and by the time they are 3 they will become social butterflies. Oliver’s favorite time at the library is after the organized storytime. He loves going out into the play area in the Children’s Room to play with the doll house with miniature dolls. He likes to put them in their beds and tells them to nap. There are little cloth quilts and he always covers them carefully. He also likes to play with the wooden trains. Today he built a circular track, sat right in the middle, and ran a little engine around and around himself.
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| 140110 Day 82 Cape Cod, USA–Ollie Sweeping the Snow |
Mark went to the doctor this afternoon, at my insistence, to make sure he doesn’t have pneumonia. This cough of his has persisted for weeks now, but his lungs are clear and the doctor isn’t worried. I guess lots of people have post-nasal drip and a cough all winter long. I have had the post-nasal drip without the cough for as long as he has. I think our bodies are just not acclimated to this northern winter weather anymore. Mark is convinced that swimming in warm salt water in Puerto Rico in February will cure all our ills. Let’s hope he is right.
While Mark was at the doctor this afternoon, Ollie and I walked to school to pick up Sam. Sam has a spelling test every Friday, and the words this week were particularly challenging. He has 20 words each week. Twelve of the words are his basic spelling words and the other eight are sight words that he needs to be able to read. He came home with a 100% on this week’s test and he was so very proud. One of the hardest words for him this week was pretty (he wanted to spell it as ‘pritty’), but he got that right as well as ‘anything’ and ‘everything’ and a host of other difficult words. At the end of the week, the students that have had good behavior get a little token prize. This week he chose a plastic hammer so he could give to Oliver. Oliver LOVES ‘hammoos’ and he was a very happy little brother. And Mark and I were very pleased that Sam was so thoughtful. That’s not always the case, but you celebrate the positive when it happens.
