Monday, November 29, 2010

We're still alive!

Birdy toes in the snow and a local quail (Lave's photo)
It has been a long time since we’ve last posted on this blog, but I have been writing like crazy. So crazy, in fact, that I’m proud to announce that I completed the novel I wrote for National Novel Writing Month, which means I won because I wrote a minimum of fifty-thousand words between November 1 and November 30. Actually, I completed the book the day after Thanksgiving at 4:47 p.m. and will pick it back up in a week or two, because it needs extensive polishing. Its working title is Finding Irene, but that will change. It’s about a woman who finds her birthmother, and it’s narrated by her younger sister who died at birth. 
   Why did I do this? 
   Because the hardest part about writing a book is the fanny time, the actual sitting down and writing of the book. I knew I was going to have to write it sooner or later because it had been knocking on the side of my head for months, waking me in the middle of the night, and dictating portions of itself to me. When I heard about the contest, I thought: I can do this, but I’ll need to negotiate this with David first. After all, having a novelist in the house is not that easy. You ask her how her day has been, and she tells you what’s currently happening in her book, because that’s the world in which she’s living. You want to ask her a question, and she’s got her door shut so you know she wants you to wait and tell her later. But, David, being the fabulous husband that he is, agreed. So I wrote like crazy, often three thousand words a day, and got done early, because frankly, I don’t know if I’d be totally thrilled if the tables were turned.
   Still, a lot has happened since we last wrote about our coast-to-coast-to-coast road trip. We had guests the weekend of October 23, it has snowed a lot, we went to Friday Harbor to be with our club friends on their cruise, and we got to go inside the IMR (Installation/inspection, maintenance and repair vessel for deep water oil rigs) Cade Candies that was built here in Anacortes. We did other stuff too, but I can’t quite remember because, as I hinted before, I was lost in my story world.

L2R: Joanne, Marily, Lin, Dan, David, Lave
Company’s Coming!
   In August, after working around two couples’ ultra busy schedules, we finally settled on a date for right after our road trip for them both to visit. Bless the angels, everything worked out. On the brisk Saturday morning of Oct. 23, Lin and Lave Gustafson (she’s been a friend of mine since 1985) and Marilyn and Dan Wilshin (Dan is David’s brother) drove up from Issaquah to spend the weekend.
   We had a wonderful time touring Fidalgo Island, driving up to its best scenic spots, where Lave captured some super shots of the area’s geography.
   The pictures on your left were taken on Mt. ErieThe top photograph looks south to Whidbey Island, while the bottom shot focuses on one of Fidalgo Island’s many lakes, this one being Lake Campbell. Honest to Pete, the skies up here can take your breath away, and as you will see in other photographs Lave took, the sky’s reflection in the Sound magnifies this beauty. It reminds me of Wallace Steven’s poem, “Sea Surface Full of Clouds.”
   The top-right picture was taken atop Cap Sante overlooking one of the town’s marinas on the island’s north-east corner. Just looking at it makes me drool for the day Always sells and we can purchase a power boat. Then the fun begins!! The bottom two pictures shows a house in town that totally intrigues me. A couple owns a warehouse next to the house, in which they manufacture everything for the home. The luxury of time.

   The time just flew during their visit. I thought for sure we’d be able to get in a little bowling at San Juan Lanes, but alas, our stomachs growled for dinner. Then I thought there’d be time for some Balderdash, because with such a witty crew captured in our house, there’d be sure to have some hysterical bluffs. But we just kept talking and talking and enjoying the heck out of ourselves, that bedtime seemed to arrive way too early.
   Next time!
   The photographs to your upper left are more taken by Lave. Aren’t they something!!! The bottom one is of the Deception Pass Bridge, which Marilyn requested we cross. The water really is that color! The bridge, built in the thirties by the Conservation Corps, connects Fidalgo and Whidbey Islands, and provided Whidbey Islanders an alternative to taking the ferry to reach the mainland. After the bridge was built, agriculture on Whidbey Island flourished, for the farmers now had an easier access to their markets. The water under the bridge is always aboil, like the Potato Patch between Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa Islands off California’s Santa Barbara Channel.
Boo!
   Halloween was the next weekend, and while we did nothing to celebrate it, we enjoyed how the townspeople decorated the kids’ bus stops. Actually, this one changes its décor monthly. When they get it all ready for Christmas, I post another picture. The town, by the way, has an annual Halloween party in the wharf’s big warehouse. Next year!
   October and November provided us glorious fall days and trees sumptious to behold. The middle photo captures the maple that grows by our kitchen in its fall dress. Reminds me of sherbet ice cream.
Cade Candies
   Last weekend on a shivering cold Sunday, Dakota Creek Industries held an open house to show off the completion of one of its most recent projects, the IMR Cade Candies. Naturally we were intrigued by such a huge vessel having such a sweet name, until we realized that it was built for Otto Candies LLC, which provides transportation and towing for marine industries. We took two cars so I could take a peek before getting back to my writing, and David could stick around as long as he wanted, which was a very long time, made longer by the fact that they served enormous cookies at deck level.
   Of course David was in seventh heaven with the whole ship and the harbor and the marine hardware store in the background, which happens to be the oldest marine hardware store on the west coast if local myths are to be believed, but I too found delight. For one thing, in the moon pool, the dark oblong swimming pool kind of thing amidships, floats a couple of rubber duckies (middle picture, left), which seemed both fitting, and not. On the dock, there rested a superstructure (top picture right), minus the rest of the ship, kind of like a bust of a ship. And of course there were the other boats being built, like the tug boat which is a million times larger than David, who can be seen between the witch’s hats. (Here's somebody else's great blog entry about the vessel.)

   The 309’ Cade Candies, for those of you who are interested, runs on a roomfuls of yellow Caterpillar engines and generators and is stabilized Schottel electric azimuthing (anti-rudder) thrusters. It’s set to head off to the Gulf Coast for, you guessed it, supporting offshore drilling operations.
Brrrr.
   The next day, and for days after, it snowed! When the snow level hit an inch, David decided we better get the van down to street level, because we have a very steep driveway. It was fun being inside, nice and warm, watching David back down the driveway, his foot on the brake, the wheels not turning an inch, and the van slowly sliding down to the street. He did survive that, but he almost did not survive what happened next.
   Because it really wasn’t supposed to snow that much, “just flurries” is what the weatherman had on the menu for the day, David did not put on the chains. But, because he had a very important letter that had to be mailed in a post box, he had to drive to where one was. Not far in route, he realized that if he wanted to stay alive and not slip over a cliff, he needed to put on his chains. So he spread out his tarp, got the chains out, and began the arduous task of attaching the chains to the rear tires first, before realizing the van is a front-wheel-drive vehicle, and then taking them off to put them on the front tires.
   During all this, a woman in another van, one similar to ours, arrived to where David was at the same time a large truck also reached that location. She could not stop, so, without even aiming, she skidded into our van, which then moved forward approximately fifteen feet. The MOST fortunate thing about this, of course, is that David was graced with seeing all this coming, and he got out from under the van before it could either run over him or drag him down the highway. Egad. Praise the fates! All is well. And we’re both a little smarter.
   Because of the week's snow and the new snowstorm that passed through Thanksgiving Day morning, we most regretfully had to give up any attempt to make it to Clinton, on the southern tip of Whidbey Island to feast with the entertaining Sandi and Hank Siebert and their also very entertaining tribe. Instead, we had the great fortune of being invited to Carl and Linda's home in Skyline and sharing a very fun day with their family and the Yorks.
Boatless in Seattle
   As previously mentioned, we are still boatless, in that Always is still on the block in Long Beach, California. So we own a boat, but cannot sail her. That will change, of course. In the meantime, we had to take the ferry to Friday Harbor in order to meet up with our yacht club buddies who were there on a weekend cruise and had lots to do, including a treasure hunt and a visit to the local historic museum

  

2 comments:

  1. Whew! You have been busy, girl!

    I am so proud of you for writing that novel all the way through. Let me know when the book launch is:)

    Talk to you soon. I miss you.

    Marcia

    ReplyDelete
  2. You are amazing!
    Looking forward to reading more, especially the new book.
    Love,
    Diana

    ReplyDelete