Thursday, February 1, 2018

Hilton Head Island: risen

        I have moved up in the world.
        I am no longer sitting on the floor, but in a chair.  This is a bigger deal than I expected.  One of the great moments in civilization was moving from sitting on the ground to furniture.  Perspective changes, as well as temperature.  I will continue to sit on the floorboards on GANNET, but that is a completely different thing.  Boats are special.
        This chair is part of a six piece set of patio furniture, the others being a three piece sofa, a small glass topped coffee table and an ottoman.  Eventually we’ll use it outside, but for now it is in the living room.
        The set arrived late yesterday afternoon in three enormous boxes with the ominous ‘some assembly required’ warning.  Justly ominous.  What the manufacturer claimed would take an hour, took me more than four.   
        The problem wasn’t the assembly itself.  That was only tightening bolts.  It was trying to put together the parts of the puzzle and figure out which of numerous similar but with crucial minor differences pieces went together.  It would have been much easier had the manufacturer color coded or labelled, but they didn’t.
        Anyway it is all finally together and I am sitting in the single chair, facing the four glass doors from the living room to the terrace, my feet on the ottoman, an iced tumbler of Botanist within reach on the corner of the coffee table, and I have only to glance up to see Spanish moss swaying in the wind.
        Sunny.  62º/16.6ºC on February 1, which I remind those of you in the better hemisphere is winter here.
        What’s not to like?