First watch back

 I'm back on the HQ now, and those last 2 weeks flew by.    Stepped right in on my first watch to finish topping off a load, and presently I'm just waiting for slack tide for our tugboat to come and move us to a lay berth to wait out our next ship to arrive at a local anchorage. 

          Sunday was probably the most fun I had in my time off. With my kid out for the day, during the afternoon I loaded up a tub of beers, champagne, water and soda, and cued up some music and Inappropriately Hot Foreign wife and I spent the next 6-7 hours in the pool, getting thoroughly soused and crisping up nicely. Well, she did. I had to take hourly breaks to put on SPF 1-million so that I wouldn't burst into flames. 

             It was nice that such hair as I still have hadn't yet been shaved off, which I usually do the day before leaving for work, which leaves me looking more like Lester Lightbulb than Kojak, sadly. 

Insert obscure Boston humor here. 

        Inappropriately Hot Foreign wife tried wearing an American-style bikini (Brazilians preferring less material; think 2 postage stamps, an eyepatch and some shoestring) but found it much too constricting after a second glass of champagne  ("I no like this. Eet feels like I wear a burka or how you say in english, paraqueta? (Parachute))."   Still, while the bikini stayed on, it was nice to be able to get SFW pictures together for once. 

 

To the Brazilian sensibility, these are giant nana thunderpants

      All in all it was a day to put the stresses and mostly unhappy nature of of the events of the past few weeks out of our mind. And not being kids, spending most of the day drinking and swimming (with a 30 min break for wings and ribs, which we ate sitting side by side on the pool stairs), by 8pm she was passed out on the couch and I got to start to watch 'Fallout' which is about the most creative thing I've seen on TV in years. Utterly insane and enjoyable. I gave up by 10pm though, after rehydrating, and scooped her up and carried her upstairs, pretending not to notice that that was a LOT harder to do than it was 5 years ago, last time I tried it. 

       

       Monday I got to meet with a GI doctor to schedule a colonoscopy, which will be my first as a middle-aged guy.  I think I'm going to binge on taco bell and chinese food the night before, though. Why should I be the only one in the room having a miserable experience? So that'll be the next time I go home.    I scheduled it for the day after crew change, because why not? I can be hungry on the plane and drink the explosive nasty ass cleaner when I get home, get the shitty day out of the way. 

 

I'm still not dead

 It's the weekend now, and for Inappropriately Hot Foreign Wife and I, that means we have a few days together. Between construction of the house in Brazil, an upcoming family wedding that we need to fly in for, and a sudden downturn in my mother-in-law's health, I'm throwing money in the air and it ain't coming back down. For this reason, there's more overtime in my future, and Inappropriately Hot Foreign Wife is up to around 85-90 hours a week at her own job, so of all the things we are doing, relaxing isn't one of them.  We're really getting our asses kicked.

         The shit with my mother-in-law is still fluid- it's a long story but I can tell already there ain't no happy ending coming this time. The bitterness there is that part of building the new house was to put her in it, since I'm only planning on spending 4-5 weeks a year in the house, and frankly, we really nailed the design when it comes to building a tranquil and fun compound that is ideal for visiting and with everything right there, plus it has been rebuilt with age in mind- no stairs except into storage areas, and no trip hazards, because I already know from experience that my feet at night have radar, and are able to find EVERY obstruction eventually, so that I can fall over them.  That would be nice for my MIL, as she's blind.

       Well, it's mid-afternoon already, and we're doing our best here. I've been doting on Inappropriately Hot Foreign Wife every chance I can and every moment together is one that we value. Last night, after cooking, I cracked open a serious bottle of wine that a friend carried back to us from the French countryside, and she drank off the bottle over the evening, pleasantly buzzed, while I consoled myself with a couple of glasses of Maker's Mark. Nothing exciting, and she was too tired to do what usually happens when she has a couple of glasses of wine- run out in the back yard naked and jump in the pool. I mean, I married a South American Indio woman. They spend half their lives naked, which is something I support entirely. But she was all demure and we spent the night on the couch just talking back and forth, mostly me letting her talk, letting out all the pressure from too much work, too much worry and a very ill mom 6,000 miles away. 

Romance-wise, it's been a fantastic 2 weeks. Relaxation-wise, not not at all.  There have been some great moments though. 

woops...

 I'm not dead. 

   I'm at home. 10 weeks at work was enough. 

 I've been home a week already. The days are flying by. 

    back to work next week. For another 10 I think. 

Another week down, another to go

 Hot damn, week 10 begins tomorrow here aboard  HAWSEPIPER's Afloat Global HQ/Dungeon of Dark Delights. 

       Last week? It definitely happened. And by It, I mean the last week.  It was neither fish nor fowl nor good red meat, just a week of Rise and Grind, and other than the heat and humidity, not particularly notable. I'm in the right frame of mind for where I am, no signs of Channel Fever, where guys start getting buggy and need to go home.  As I mentioned in my last post, The Office (Long may they rule, long may they shit light on the heads of the damned) took away B and kept him for an extra week on The Loaner, the punishment barge that nobody will work on board for less than time-and-a-half. B got a massive payout for spending 3 weeks there, God bless and save him from black lung, ringworm, Athlete's Foot, Athlete's Ass, and Athlete's All the Skin Between Foot and Ass... anyhow, B comes home tomorrow, and my latest fill in guy, a new, quiet, competent and thoughtful dude who is a jewel amongst the runny steaming dog turds, when compared to all the other new hires that are infecting our ranks.  Seriously, I like the guy, he has his shit together, and once he gets some more experience under his belt, he'll be an asset, and even now he's already decent as a mariner. 

    So, despite having had a lot of fill in guys, this past week went well, better than expected, and best of all, it's past, and that means just one week to go. B is coming back tomorrow, which means it will be my turn to rotate to take over the night watch, and it being August now, I am happy for it, as I have been baking my balls off for the past 3 weeks. 

       Yesterday we had a surprise visit from the Scupper Police, very unexpected, as another one of them (there being only 3) just did a Health and Safety walkthrough last week when we had the Coast Guard aboard for tea and crumpets the annual inspection and associated clusterfucks.  

         I know all of the Scupper Police to a degree. Of the 3 of them, yesterdays inspector is someone I've worked with, if briefly, and the senior among them, and also a guy who's pretty passionate about improving living and working conditions amongst the crews.  It's funny because the first time I met him when I relieved him down in the Caribbean, I didn't care for him at the time. These days I enjoy talking to him, and of course his walkaround didn't bear any fruit- he's the type of guy who, if he sees something that isn't right, talks to you about it and helps you set it right if possible, which is something that I wish all Office People did. 

     At any rate, the Scupper Police came and went, and we did well. The cargoes we've been getting have been steady and occasionally complex, enough so that I have had to use my head more, which has been nice. 

         And a week from tomorrow, I'll be going home, and that's a fine thing.