Wednesday, November 2, 2022

Hilton Head Island: stoop labor: the cows that swam through a hurricane; 65


Many years ago when Carol and I were spending a weekend with three other couples at the summer home of one of them, someone suggested going out to pick wild blackberries.  I demurred, saying, "I don't do stoop labor,"  a comment remembered with bemusement more than twenty years later by one then present.  Well, now I do stoop labor.  Yesterday I spent an hour and a half bent uncomfortably scraping paint from GANNET's bilge and then in the afternoon mopped the porch floor and on my hands and knees wiped it with paper towels.  This morning I painted the bilge, which is of course very small and required much less stooping than yesterday, and then came back to the condo and scrubbed the shower floor on my hands and knees.  Unfortunately I think there is more to come.  I am using a different paint on the bilge, one allegedly intended specifically for that purpose, and I think it is going to require a second coat.


In Apple News+ this morning I came across an interesting, entertaining, and very well written article, 'True Grit', about three feral cows who swam for hours to survive a hurricane on North Carolina's Outer Banks.  I knew of feral horses on the Outer Banks.  I have seen them.  But I did not know about feral cows.  Having spent twenty-six hours in the Atlantic once I can imagine what those indomitable cows went through.  Salt water in your eyes and mouth begins to feel like being stabbed with knives, and I survived solely because of the very same animal will that they did.

I believe you will find the article worth your time.

true-grit-cows-core-banks-hurricane-dorian-survival



A friend just celebrated his 65th birthday which caused me to wonder where I was on my 65th which was in 2006.  That long ago?  My word!  Carol and I moved to Evanston in March of that year, so I assumed I was there.  However when I checked this journal I found that I was on THE HAWKE OF TUONELA on her mooring off Opua, New Zealand.  Above is a self-portrait I took that day.  Haven't changed a bit and I still have that shirt.











3 comments:

kaimusailing said...

It is not that easy to derail a train

ZMK said...

Maybe it is just the photo quality Webb, but you appear to look healthier in recent photos compared to that age 65 photo despite one less eye and 15+ years! You might be able to star in any sequel to the Brad Pitt movie (I forget what it was called) where he ages backwards....

Webb said...

Thank both for the comments. They bring a smile.