Going back to catch you up I have to begin with the girls day we planned to the local island in our harbour. We
arranged for the prodigal son to take us over in the mossing punt aka tour boat and started out with a warm, calm day as you can see here on the left as we are starting out in front of the house. It was a great trip with lots of hiking, laughi
ng and good food. The western end of the island seen here on the right is a bit rougher and we were glad to have covered that in the morning while the sun was still shining. We experienced many different weather conditions in our day there as we had sun, showers, cloud and fog. We saw lots of sheep (of course) a few deer and evidence of rabbits but we were the only 
humans there all day. Here on the left we are enjoying our lunch buffet of pork sandwiches - homemade bread, mayo, lettuce, tomatoes - wine, fruit, yogurt, cookies and tea. Yum. Needed sustenance for all that trekking. And as
you can see on the right the weather closed in as we made our way around the other end of the island and it was foggy and cool when the boy came looking for us at the agreed upon time. We weren't able to make it back to the beach as the tide had risen making two islands and he had to steer by compass to find our way home. We were all glad for a warm shower, supper and bed when we got home and glad it was a day trip and not the originally contemplated camping adventure we'd talked of. In thinking of all things island...I am pasting this link to a blog about another offshore island in our area:
http://novascotiaisland.blogspot.com
The next evening saw us all invited out to a friend's for a farewell to some summer neighbours BBQ. Great to have someone else cook for you especially when it's planked sea trout and salmon, yummy salads and more. Ahhhh. Helped ease the pain of heading in early the next morning for the first of three 12 hour day shifts and they turned out to be humdingers to boot.
One day off and then two long nights. In between all these shifts somewhere one of the neighbours passed away and I was asked to do the eulogy for him. This required a few hours sleep in the morning, a trip to the funeral home for visitation to do some research, a stop by the grocery store to pick up my donation for the Fireman's Breakfast and some ingredients for supper and home in time to entertain one of our summer neighbours. It was a sad anniversary as it had been one year ago that her husband passed away - a toast in his honor was in order. Had a simple supper of barbecued hamburgers and corn with purchased cake and brownies she brought. The wine with supper caused me to nod off in my chair about 9 p.m. but other than that the evening went well. Up early to make sandwiches for the funeral reception, walk the dog and write the eulogy. Over to the funeral home in Florida like heat and the funeral home was packed with people standing in other rooms. The eulogy was well received and several of my coworkers who attended advised I'm nominated as the professional eulogy speaker from now on - we used to have a local woman who attended funerals for everyone to the point that a former coworker said she knew there'd be at least two people at her funeral her husband and Clarice. I told them just to call me Clarice now as they were making my head swell as in the following quote:
Delusions of grandeur make me feel a lot better about myself. Jane Wagner
There were a large group of truckers who attended the service for their fellow truck driver and they did a parade of trucks after the service which was quite moving as a farewell. The reception at the hall was wall to wall and so was the food. The temperatures were still 30+ when we left for home at 5 p.m. in time for me to get ready for work. Needless to say the night was a struggle after the events of the day.
I have enjoyed my day and a half off and the tropical weather that we have been enjoying with the temperatures only dipping to 18 c at night even. And speaking of tropical, we have had a few days of rough surf from Hurricane Danielle and are now awaiting Hurricane Earl which (at this time) is forecast to make landfall here on Friday night/Saturday morning. This has caused the shore captain to state that he'll be up all night chasing boats so doing a night shift as well as myself when Earl arrives.
I received an email from Amazon making it look like my Kindle has been shipped so in anticipation I downloaded the instruction manual and at 165 pages I have to say that it is not for the faint of heart....or my husband as he is more in tune with the 3 pages of the Kobo on how to get started. No sign of it in my mailbox yet but I'm getting pumped.
We also received an email from western friends who have managed (after a couple of years) to sell their place here. With the real estate and economy the way it is locally this was no small feat. Congrats!
I've spent some of my days off time getting my application in for the Rural Nursing Program which is a distance program beginning in January. This requires an application, cover letter, resume, copies of licenses etc. and a reference from the employer. Would be a nice certification to have if I do decide to run away from home for other parts.
Speaking of travels I've booked my airfare for the western jaunt next month and am listening to the Beach Boys sing Kokomo with the fan whirring to get into the mood. And no, we're not heading out in two days for England, Scotland and Wales as friends of ours are but that sure would be nice! As I prepare to head in for a day shift tomorrow and it's getting late so I must hit the sack - I'm going to remember the quote of the day to gird my loins.
I didn't say it was your fault. I said I was going to blame you.
