The Sun is Shining on You...May All Your Dreams Come True

The sun came out this morning to save me. (I'm sure that was it's motivation.)
It was just in the nick of time. The rain has had me in a funk.

This morning we went to the deli and had a plate of old fashioned... not at all good for you... biscuits and gravy. I don't think I've mentioned the deli before now. It's very laid back. We know the owners. The wife and I share a church and a priest. We come from the same block of time, though she was a heart-lander and I was a west city girl. The guys are both fix-it folk. So we go in, get our food and they come and sit down with us to chat. Friends, food and coffee. A good start to the day.

Then we headed down to the marina so he could smoke his stinkies. He smokes clove cigarettes. There was a time when I smoked clove cigarettes too, the kind without filters that smelled really good... and menthols. But I gave that up. Now his smell like stink to me. UGH. Funny how your tastes change like that. Anyway, he stunk, so I left him in the car and wandered the marina and took these photos. (Then I delivered him to his work as fast as possible.)

I really enjoyed what was happening in the photo with the guy hanging from the mast. I don't know if you can see it without clicking on it to enlarge it, but he's up there... hanging way up in the air on a thing that sways... steam cleaning his boat parts. It was interesting to watch. Later when we left he was scrubbing the side of his boat with long handled mops that were curious. I was going to stop and get a shot of that, but "the-killer-of-all-joyful-things" got sarcastic and snotty about my picture taking and I decided it was better to just go, get rid of him and save myself a murder charge. ("Yes judge, I'm guilty... I beat him to perdition for his mockeries.")

There are, as you can see, several boats in the marina, though it is a small one. In the background is our sternwheeler boat. It's here year-round now that it's under new management. It used to be we had a grand celebration when it would come home from it's wintering-in in P'land.

Last year was the last celebration and it was so typical of our little town. This company owns several boats of this type. They decided that since it was to be the last grand celebration that they would bring in another sternwheeler. The two dinosaurs of the river were to have a race! They advertised heavily and sure enough, if you race them they will come! People showed up from all over tarnation. You couldn't cross our main street, Wa Na Pa, for all the cars coming in for the event. (Going to the market was a nightmare journey for all the tourists.)

People were shoulder to shoulder on the banks of our great river. It was very festive with children and dogs weaving in and out of the crowd. Mothers and fathers looking around in a panic for the kids. Dog owners trying to keep kids from touching their all too petable looking animals. Then a cheer went up and the excitement hitched up several knots... we could see the boats a coming.

The plan was that they were supposed to bypass the old locks and come in around Thunder Island. (Oh god, remember that corny song?) But the new captain of the second boat got a bright idea... wouldn't it be something if he drove that beauty through the old locks... right there within feet of the cheering crowds? So he headed her in... and crashed. Talk about anti-climatic.
Just a grumbling of boat on stone. Then it stopped and sat there. There could be no race now. Everyone went home disappointed.

I wasnt. I'm sure it's not very nice, but I laughed my ass off. There is nothing like small town life. It has a humor and drama that you cannot make up.

For example... this Thunder Island is a man made island that housed the buildings and machineries for the old locks when the Coast Guard used to live there and run it. It's now a big empty island that is a favorite of the Canadian Geese that land here. They poop everywhere. Big green blobs of yuck. Yet, tourist who come here and fall in love with what they think they see come back and rent this island for their weddings. Can you imagine what the bottom of that wedding dress looks like after a walk through the geese poo? Yeah and they pay for that privlidge! Ha. It makes me laugh every time I see them setting up chairs down there. And no, they do not ever clean the geese poop away. You take your chances. :-)

I hope the sun is shining on you where ever you are and that all your dreams come true.