Dear Sir or Madam, will you read my book?
It took me years to write, will you take a look?
It’s based on a novel by a man named Dave
And he needs a job
So he’s gonna be a tabletop maker…….table top maker….
Tabletop maker is a sawdust story of a sawdust man
And his brilliant wife who doesn’t understand
He had a job working for the rats
It’s was a steady job but he’d had enough of that
He wants to be a tabletop maker….
Tabletop maker
I cobbled up a table from that ‘patchwork quilt’ of wood bits yesterday. It looks good. I am no fine-carpenter but it would look ‘at home’ in any remote Siberian village or, perhaps, some inbred, poor section of Appalachia. My aesthetics are crude, my skills are lacking and my standards are a smidge low, I have to admit to all that.
On the other hand, I am now almost done with the obvious, trip-over-it projects still sprinkled willy-nilly about the place – for this year, anyway. There are no more in the workshop (save for saw-blade sharpening). I have a couple more shelves to do for the new shed. And I still have 18 lengths of logs to pull up and stack. Plus a boat roof to f’glass soon. Plus, plus, plus….but…..
Every year there are plus-plus-plus projects that do not get done. They get ‘held over’. They will be amongst the list of things to do when the weather/season improves. I have a five month reprieve before the pressure starts to build again (such as it is) and that means more like 6 months before anything actually gets done. Still, Thanksgiving is generally regarded as a seasonal shutdown date. Give or take a week, depending on the weather.
Last night we had the all-out, fantastic and traditional Thanksgiving turkey dinner with our older neighbours. She’s hampered by a gibbled hip and he is 81. Still, they came for dinner, enjoyed yet another Sally feast and, after the evening had carried on socially for awhile, they got ready to leave. But it was a-howlin’ outside. Black, dark, rain-a-pelting down they trudged back to the dock in full-weather gear and set out in their 17 foot boat. It was blowing maybe 25. I left the outside lights of our house on because they provide a reference point for a boater when you can barely see in the dark. We watched them disappear into the night as the wind cried Mary.
In and of it self no big deal……but….consider the facts. A limping Septuagenarian and her Octogenarian husband trekking through the woods in a storm to get to their boat so that, through the pelting rain they could slowly buck and plunge their way home through the ice-cold seas.
Oooooh, c’mon….ya don’t get that kinda fun in the cul de sac!
And the wind screams, “Mary”
Will the wind ever remember
The names it has blown in the past?
And with this crutch, its old age and its wisdom
It whispers, “No, this will be the last”
And the wind cries, “Mary” (Jimmy Hendrix)
Our Off the Grid Home 
Never mind “Mary”
Let’s sing “Scary”.
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Yeah! Beats the cul de sac, eh? And yes, it was a smidge scary. But they are intrepid and know what they are doing. They are fine.
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It really beats the cul de sac!. As it happens, we also had dinner saturday evening (we were invited at their house – after not having seen each other for nearly 2 years because of Covid). So after dinner we talked and talked, untill very late we said goodbye…..to walk 2 meters to our car, turn on the heating (even heated seats) and drive home over well lit and empty streets….ain’t that a difference! And it shows again how different life is OTG! But I would gladly switch places with them 😉 and take a boat ride in pitch darkness with a strong wind blowing! I don’t see any people doing that at that age here in the cul de ac. OTG really brings out the best in people!
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Give it to us anyday – we can’t wait for these small challenges….
All character building – although my family cringe at the concept whenever I mention character building.
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“Character building” is what Sal says when she falls in or has to trek upstream for the water system. I consider doing dishes character building. It’s all in the eye of the beholder.
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Good for your guests. Our Thanksgiving dinner yesterday was at 3:30 because our guests, moved to town last year out of necessity, won’t drive home in the dark. We live 25 minutes from grid on a lake in the bush off grid. The night eyes seem to go first. Perhaps operating a boat is not as onerous for the eyes, but in howling rain? Wow! Good for them.
Steve
Kamloops Lake
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We all make moves to stay safe (wet weather gear, VHF radio, PFDs, etc) but going home in a small boat at night in a storm is ‘part of the deal’ out here. No other way to travel than by boat. Dinner parties end in the evening and, well, this is the wet coast and the weather somewhat unpredictable. It’s different. But it’s the snow that requires courage from the intrepid. In the snow, you are literally blind.
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Too many Scotch/wine does that to me too.
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I said when we arrived that it had better be a great dinner and great company to justify battling the elements. It was well worth it. Fabulous turkey dinner Sally, and good wine and scotch. Although it was a very black and wet night negotiating our way home. Luckily we had left a light in the window and there was reflective tape on our dock. But the motor didn’t konk out, we didn’t have to swim to shore and our cabin was warm when we returned.
Thanks for a great Thanksgiving dinner.
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