It ain't even my birthday

 Glorious and appreciated SECOND WATCH OFF IN A ROW! 

       My gratitude and sense of perspective has perhaps been properly recalibrated as we are the recipients of a surprise second watch free, courtesy of terminal congestion at I Missed Today's Tide terminal here in NY harbor. 

 The Catholic in me is feeling guilty for not suffering today in exchange for my munificent pay. As penance, after breakfast and a 30 minute sit in my sweatpants and slippers at the galley table, spent communing with the universe (read: playing solitaire on my phone), I kitted up and scraped the gunk out from under the generators and washed the area with mineral spirits. Since it's colder than all hell, we have reduced ventilation in the gen house in hopes of not freezing everything (the air compressor farts out about a half gallon of water a day, and draining it keeps it out of the deck air lines, which in turn keeps moist air from freezing up the starters on the cargo pumps), and the vapors were not to be despised as I orbited Venus. 

        There's plenty to do to keep me productive and humble, of course, but I also have the leeway to not work at lightspeed for once. I may even get to crack a book open should I need to do my business later on. We have a cargo fixed for loading tonight, and after that we'll be steady for a few days with another one following, which, in my line of work, is about as far ahead as one can plan.