Update on The Frantics

Here it is Monday night and I’m just finally getting myself together to update you on the life of the Frantics aka us.

Firstly I ended up taking Friday off work as well as Thursday and although I was feeling a bit better as the antibiotics kicked in I still wasn’t up to speed. First time in donkey’s years I can remember being off work sick for three days. I managed to get myself into the office to pick up supplies for today with the man of the hour as chauffeur while we ran the last minute errands of signing the deed at the lawyers, library books picked up (if you get a chance to read The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella it’s a great read – I managed to get through it in one evening), some groceries for lunches etc. By Saturday I was starting to come around a bit with the cough settling and by Sunday I was actually able to taste food, which I’d eaten. Enough whining though.

Saturday was more getting ready for lobstering and a delayed supper while we (myself, life partner, #1 son and his girlfriend) emptied the old house of the final furniture to be saved for offspring setting up housekeeping. The plan was to store it in one of our summer neighbour’s barn and that would sound pretty straightforward except for the fact that her new antitheft devices on the barn doors (padlocks which stuck and metal bars bolted into place with 9/16” nuts) meant that we even had trouble negotiating them. Anyone contemplating a B&E there had better have a couple of days to spare. We finally managed to get the doors opened (and resecured) with all the treasures safely stowed until the spring.

Sunday since I was much recovered I spent about 5 hours finally dragging the final remnants of the yard sale junk into the old barn from the old house so there are only refundables and some odds and ends of tools in the porch, on the veranda and the garden shed. Since the closing isn’t until Friday I just might make the deadline. I brought the cradle, which their father made for our four children over to store in our bedroom and put it at the foot of the bed. When I got up in the night to go the bathroom I saw two little faces looking back at me from the cradle and after my initial confusion of thinking I had twins, I realized the cats had taken up residence there. Whew.

Sunday was also the final push on for last minute getting ready for lobstering and thank goodness that the son of the house (for some unknown reason and we’re not questioning) has stepped up to the plate and made sure his father was ready to go. He’s smart with tools, not afraid of work and likes to tell people what to do so he naturally falls into the role of wannabe Capt when his father is otherwise occupied and…when it suits him. On Sunday afternoon with the boat loaded with almost a full load of traps it became stuck on sand near the wharf and required a real effort to free it. The adrenaline rush was not good for the old fellas nerves. That coupled with the memories of last years first day when he lost (and retrieved thankfully) the hired man overboard while putting traps off was enough to cause a sleepless night (for both of us due to the restlessness) in anticipation last night.

And apparently the Sunday grounding resulted in (according to a diver who had a look today because the wheel was acting up) damage to all four blades of the prop. So this had necessitated grounding the boat out tonight at 10 p.m. and a return trip at 4 a.m. to take the wheel off followed by a trip to Chester to have it repaired tomorrow. The weather forecast is rotten for tomorrow so that makes it the best day for necessary repairs. Not a great start to the season but not unusual either and at least the traps are in the water although it was a snotty day and the damage noted before it caused more problems. The season was delayed in District 34 so they’ll start on Thursday because of the poor weather forecast.

I was off to the district facility today but I ran out of steam (and enthusiasm for all the arguing and tension) by 1:30 p.m. and headed home early. It’s not often that I manage to actually shorten my day by an hour so I saw the chance and took it. I was relieved to find that a second trip (one of three scheduled this week) was cancelled for tomorrow so at least I can catch up on all my absence-induced work waiting for me in my own little office.

Speaking of being behind….If you’re looking to have a little holiday panic attack this is a cute website to check out:

http://mysite.verizon.net/vze201j5/countdown.htm