Saturday, October 1, 2022

Change in seasons

 I work outside a lot, and always have preferred to. Oh, every rainy day I lament that I work outside, don't get me wrong, but I prefer to work in the open air and be a little more in sync with my environment. The change in seasons is always important to me, of course, as we go from the misery of summer to the misery of winter- those few weeks of relative comfort sure are nice though. 

    The northeast doesn't have much of an interregnum between hot and cold weather, but such as it is, we're in it now. And of course the changes bring instability. Hurricane season down south, and nor'easters up north. We're in the first nor'easter right now, riding it out at anchor, God be praised, in between jobs, so I don't have to be outside wearing 20lbs of foul weather gear and cursing the day I decided I wanted to work outside as part of my career. 


 There's not much fetch to my northeast from our anchorage here- not much open water for the wind to catch traction on the sea's surface and stir up waves, so we're getting a chop that is making us vibrate up and down a few inches, bouncing lightly, and it is not unpleasant. The occasional 'bong' noise of a wave slapping the stern causes a different vibration, and the two occasionally resonate, making metal objects in the house buzz a bit. There's also a waddling motion as we yaw from the odd reflective wave bouncing off the far side of the harbor- the chop here is confused. 

     So the past two weeks has been that time of year where every day is a fashion show requiring multiple changes of outfits as the temperatures swing widely.  Really, it's that time of year when I'm wearing jorts and a hooded sweatshirt, as being the most comfortable for the longest part of the day. Unless I'm wearing coveralls like a company man, I dress rather shabby on board. Sort of a far cry from when I'm home, where I don't like leaving the house without a collared shirt on. 


 Yes I said jorts. Jean shorts. Nothing fits and feels so comfortably in warmer weather, and my wife will throw them out if I had them at home. Apparently they're a fashion faux pas to even joke about, let alone wear, but until they rot away to the point where my parts are peeking out, I'm down to just one pair, and I plan to enjoy them. 

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 We've all seen Hurricane Ian and what it did to the western part of south Florida. It's horrific. I hate saying "I dodged a bullet" because the hurricane missed me, and in so doing, it hurt a bunch of other people instead. So I'll just say that I'm grateful my area was spared but mindful that a lot of people are  in a bad way just on the other side of the swamp from my hometown. Looking over my own supplies, I can see where I need to make a few changes to be able to weather such events at home should we suffer a direct hit. I'll be addressing that in the coming days. I feel like I was a bit lax this year, with the last two years having been relatively peaceful during hurricane season in my area. 


 


2 comments:

sdharms said...

you mean "Ian" not Ike. Ike hit Houston with the same force in 2008(?).

Rob said...

"Grateful that my area was spared" is a good way to say that.