A great time and also Old Men Walking

 I am back on the HQ after a great but not restful 2 weeks home. With my wife's cousin and her family visiting for my 2nd week at home, plus my kid's 21st bday party, I was running all out. And it was all worth it. The visit went well, and it's nice to have young kids in my house, making noise and putting some life in the place. Using the pool, making a mess, and eating my cooking, which sounds like something negative  but certainly wasn't.    

    Inappropriately Hot Foreign  Wife and her cousin had a great visit. At times it was uncanny how much they mirror each other's mannerisms, and there was a LOT of laughter for this time. 

Cousins.

    My son's 21st was a successful party. God almighty we killed off a couple of bottles of cachaca, more than a few bottles of wine and craptons of beer. I think the old farts like us had more fun than the kids. My brother and sister were there the whole day to give me a little White People Time too, which I no longer need, but it's always better to have both sides of the family having fun together. 

  Sadly, it came to an end and my liver and I returned, debauched, to New York the other day and back to work for me. My first watch aboard proved to be VERY busy, and after 7 hours of sleep, I woke up to find us at our old lay berth in Red Hook, a place we used to go to quite a bit. but haven't seen much of for the past 3 years, and better, the other guys already rafted up to the pier included an old friend, and my partner B, who is working OT elsewhere- so between us and my other partner Big E on here, we all walked out to the store, about a mile deeper into Red Hook.
        5 years ago, we'd get to do this walk every week at a minimum. It's been a year at least since the last time we were tied up here with me aboard and able to go ashore. And our workload is so much higher than it ever was in the past that the quality of life of the tankermen in my company now is pretty awful compared to in the past... and so it was a true treat for the 4 of us to amble to the store. 

       In the 10+ years we've been working around NY, we've since gotten old, all of us. We're all between 50 and 60 and don't move as fast as we used to. We don't jump the 6-8 foot gap between barges to get to the dock like we used to. Joints ache a bit now. Things creak, lol. 

         I have few regrets about my career choices and I always knew that physically the long days and hard days come at a price of increased wear and tear... but it was good to be with people who understand and have also experienced this, so there's no false bravado, no turning away from an outstretched hand offered to help get off a ladder or to slow your jump or boost you up. There were a few groans and again, a lot of smiles. Being old together helps. 

    It's simple moments like this that make me yearn for the camaraderie of the past that is now gone forever, and without indulging in nostalgia, it's good to know that I'm not the only one troubled by my limits now.  I very much regret that morale among my shipmates is absolutely in the toilet and we no longer have a great job, merely a good one because of the apathy of those above us... but we've still got each other.