Crocodile and Hippos

Lewis and I packed up our kibble and food dish and took off mid week for an overnight at dad's. I had blipped a photo from the ferry that I quite liked, also a photo of dad walking Lewis in the woods that was nice but this silly photo won despite being out of focus and dull. It is, as one can plainly see, a stony crocodile revealed, as the tide goes out, sneaking up on two gravelly hippos gamboling in the salty inlet.

I had harbored some vague not fully formed hope that I might, as I age, become less me and more mature in my outlook on the world but this has all been dashed by my father announcing that there was an crocodile in the canal lurking just under the water and his snout and eyes would become visible soon. I moved my chair to better my vantage point and waited. And waited. Sure enough, slooowly there grew small ripples on the water surface, silent stones rising among the unsuspecting baby coots, 2 hooded eyes and a pair of bumped-up nostrils carefully sculpted, their placement crafted by wind and current. I noticed 2 baked potato shaped mounds further out in the channel and inquired as to what those might be? Hippos, my father replied, mother and baby. I couldn't watch after that. I've seen enough National Geographic specials to know what happens next!

So we went to the hardware store for a few things I needed and then to wander the docks at the marina, kicking boat tires as it were. There resides a boat, The Clementine, that is for sale. It's adorable! (The mark of a true sailor is how soon in the boat description the word 'adorable' is bandied about, you can tell I'm a real salt). It's a Willard Boat Works, Vega 30 Voyager and it really does look like great fun. Not so large that you couldn't handle it alone (though I ran aground on the Thames and later fell in) and it has a rounded stern just aft of the salon that screams linen hats and tea. Well not screams exactly, that would be unseemly but let's say it would not recoil at the suggestion, would pat the cushion gently to invite the idea. Anyway, we'll see what the future holds :)

Dad went and introduced himself to the Fire Department and signed up for their helicopter insurance ($79.00 per year) should he need to be airlifted to a hospital in an emergency from Port Ludlow. He can land at a Seattle trauma hospital in 18 minutes--I can't even get there that fast and I am only about 8 miles away! Next week he's finding a personal trainer and getting settled into his water aerobics classes which he began in California while on vacation for a few weeks last month.

My life is being seriously curtailed by this earning a living thing I seem to insist upon engaging in! I am on spring break this week and thus far have spent 11 hours on Mon/Tues working on the Evaluation that will not die. Hmmm...something's amiss.

Happy weekend all!