Wash it for luck

So....the question begs to be asked "if you wash a rabbit's foot....is it still lucky?" And for those animal activists out there I am sorry but rural folks snare and eat rabbits and occasionally give a dry rabbit foot to the cats to play with. Excuse us for our redneck ways but Klyde (our Himalayan of the previous bad haircut) is particularly fond of a rabbit foot. He carries it around, plays soccer with it and loses it under the furniture so the cleaning lady finds it for him when she visits (which she did yesterday) and just generally enjoys it. This morning when I dumped the load of wet laundry into the basket to take to the line a very clean and damp rabbit foot fell out. Hmmm, not lucky for the rabbit but does it remove the good luck charm...

Main road to the camp

I am on the second of my five days off and very pleased to find the sun shining this morning as we have been the target of major precipitation and flooding in this end of the province. The water levels in the local rivers have caused evacuations and taken out bridges, making us glad we leave on the coast. The plan for the shore captain and his hunting buddy was to head to camp but with the state of emergency, roads closed as you can see here on the left and major flooding in that area it remains unclear as to whether that will take place. At any rate the buddy "needs to get away" so has arrived until Monday and I am doing a great job as innkeeper apparently as he has settled in nicely. 

Yesterday after two hours of sleep following a night shift due to the cleaning lady only being able to come Wednesday morning, making brown bread, a run to get $350 worth of groceries in the rain, baking brownies, putting away the trunk load of groceries, cooking supper and attempting to change the spare bed...I hit the wall when I realized that the 'guest pillows' were missing. The ones which are stored in the hall closet and thus not subjected to cats butts or other indignities and saved for visitors. The only plausible explanation is a shopping expedition by a non resident offspring perhaps on the last unsupervised visit? After a frantic search I phoned the shore captain (as it was after all his friend coming to stay and play) to pick up a pair of pillows (I shuddered to think of the cost) as he was getting his truck repaired in the local village. He arrives and I check the bag on the table to find.....ONE PILLOW!! Now I ask you - who would buy one pillow for a double bed???? The answer is apparently a man who has one friend coming to visit. My next project will be to match it. And yes, I admit that in my sleep deprived state I lost it and yelled and had to deal with the hurt look on his face! I think if I had used a weapon that a female judge would have understood.

Delivery to Iqaluit

Iqaluit November 2010

When the friend arrived last evening to catch up on the news with the shore captain I absented myself to check email and chatted online with a former coworker who has headed to Iqaluit and is currently undergoing northern cultural immersion. He has posted some great photos which I have borrowed from Facebook that remind me of my time in Labrador three decades ago. Apparently it was - 7 c and snowing last night, he'd just enjoyed wings at the Legion and was planning a hike today with the camera. I mentioned that the last two months of the Canadian Nurse journal had advertisements for RNs to work for Princess Cruises and he noted that 'the ads made him think of me'. In this spirit I offer the following link to life at sea:

http://landahoyliz.blogspot.com/2010/11/crew-members-cabin-life.html

And if you're simply thinking of travel and not work a couple of neat links from my surfing of a few days ago:

http://beersandbeans.com/2010/11/07/travel-with-friends-vs-traveling-solo
 
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1miVL5/everything-everywhere.com/2010/11/08/my-11-most-memorable-hotel-stays

Today as I was starting out with the fur daughter for a walk my friend pulled up as she had been out for a drive/walk/photo shoot and I convinced her that she could walk again with us. So we had a breezy but sunny trot and yak with a very frisky dog as she hadn't been on the leash since Wednesday due to the monsoons. We checked on the summer neighbours places which were both fine and so they should be as they've survived for many years and many rains. The solar gain from the windows, mild temperatures outside and infloor heating on have required the opening of the garden door to the veranda much to the delight of the felines this afternoon. Speaking of gardens here is a link to the friend of a friend's blog:

http://heidiinthegarden.blogspot.com/

Well, enough catching up, it is time to unwind the clothes from the line and bring them in before I begin supper preparations for one shore captain who will obviously be home at a reasonable time as he has a guest to entertain, one house guest when he returns from a walk in the woods, and hopefully one wannabe captain who has finally finished painting the last of 500 lobster buoys and is off to transport some traps.