This morning a woman I met yesterday is sleeping in Scout’s room. She is a sailor.
Last night, I was up late with my Vietnam vet handyman who goes only by "Kramer," having a sailboat’s table, torn apart in a storm Wednesday night, repaired in my kitchen.
This morning my to-do list includes shopping at Costco (an adventure in itself), creating an e-mail and voice mail messages warning clients that if they have an emergency they need to hire another writer and buying some extra strength OFF!—I think it should be called FUCK OFF!—to deal with the biting flies that, I understand, will chase all 400 sailboats the length of Lake Michigan in the Race to Mackinac, from tomorrow through Tuesday, from Chicago to Mackinac Island.
I’m crewing on one of the boats, the Sail la Vie, for a story for Lake Magazine.
The bus won’t bring me back until Wednesday, so you won’t hear from me until late next week. I wonder what state I’ll be in by then.
That mystery is worth this anxiety.
Well, at the very least we will be expecting some great stories/posts on your return.
Have a great time!
P.S. I hope you will have time to walk around Mackinac Island – one of the nicest, most picturesque places I have been. I love that they don’t allow cars on the island.
Thanks for that tip, Kristen. I’ve never been there. Forecast calls for not enough wind, all in the wrong direction, and tons of storms. If I get to Mackinac at all I’ll wander around like a new employee in heaven.
David:
If you die, please know that I loved you.
If you don’t die, delete this comment from the record and forget I ever wrote it.
Steve C.
SAIL LA VIE! Damn! Wish I’d thought of that!
David, what an adventure. Do you have a way to post pics on your website? (Not that you’ll have time to take pics, between avoiding drowning and trying not to get knocked unconscious by a boom or something.)
I echo Steve’s sentiments, EXCEPT I don’t want the record deleted if you live. You’re one of my bright spots and I’ll be forlorn until you’re back writing to us again.
Have a blast!
PS: I have a theory about weather predictions. (I have a theory, and it is mine, this theory, and my theory is this…)
My theory is that meteorologists have learned always to predict bad weather, because if they predict good weather and then it’s bad, then people hate them; but if they predict bad weather and then it’s good, people just think they’re stupid; and they’d rather be considered dunderheads than to be the target of hate crimes. So you may have exactly the seas (lakes?) and winds you need after all.
You can test this theory that is mine.
Bon voyage!
I just got back from four days and three nights as a middle school camp counselor for my son’s youth group camp out. In a tent. In the high desert of Oregon atop the Cascade Mountains where it got down in the ’30s at night. With middle school girls. In a tent (did I already say that?)With a flock of mosquitos at my heels at all times. So you might have to go shopping for sympathy from some other sister, David:)