Stay of Execution

In which Scheherazade postpones the inevitable with tales of law and life....

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2006 Blog Party

  • Dawn

The Blog Party Starts Tomorrow

(But you can peek at who's already arrived, and the yummy food that's on the buffet table.)

Please, if you read this blog, send me a picture from your life, and join us at the party (more about the party here).  Let me know a name you'd like connected with the picture, and if you'd like I'd be pleased to include your URL. 

And if you want to bring a recipe, that's welcome, too.  If you send a picture of food, the recipe will go with the picture of the food; otherwise, the recipe will go with your picture....

Posted on November 30, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Things To Come

North_carolina_081Tomorrow I'll have a little time to write, I think, and maybe then I can tell you a little bit about what it's like here.  What it's like, of course, is mostly in my head, and mostly what is occupying my thoughts is what it's NOT like.  It's not much like Portland, Maine.   I'm thinking a lot about context, and how it feels to be out of context, and who I am away from the cozy little web I've spun for myself in my hometown, the nest I've made in a landscape and among people that I am so very, very used to.  Until then, here are some pictures to tide you over. 

Posted on November 20, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

Party Time

Let's have another blog party.  You're invited.  Help me think of ways to make it even more fun than last year's.  The party will get started on December 1st. 

Here's what I hope you'll do.  Send me a picture of you, between now and December 1.  I like pictures that show your face, but that's not necessary if you're shy.  It can be your family or your pet or a place, but it has to be a real picture from your life -- no cartoons or clip art or celebrity pictures.  If it's you, all the better.  Especially if it's you having fun. 

You can include your name or blog moniker if you want, and I'll put it, and a link of your choosing, in the caption of the photo.  If you don't want anyone to know who you are, that's okay, too.  I'll give you a number, so you can talk to other people at the party. 

What else can we do?  I was thinking about party games.  What if we made it a potluck, and everyone brought a dish (via photo) and I could post the recipes in the photo caption of the dishes?  Or you could bring something special, a virtual gift, and we could do a virtual yankee swap?  Or everyone sent a picture of the view out their front door, and we tried to guess whose front door was whose?  I dunno.

Post suggestions here for making the blog party fun, and email me your photo, with the nickname you'd prefer and a link, if you'd like.  Please put "blog party" somewhere in the subject line so that GMail can store them properly. 

Posted on November 07, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

The Pay Is Lousy, The Hours Are Long, But You Can't Beat The View

I guess I'm really a coach now, because I can't really enjoy these pictures.  In each one of the photos I notice and fixate on something that someone is doing wrong.  Except for the picture with boat 2 sailing alone, and the sun setting.  But even that: it's still light.  Why are they heading in already?  I see a missed opportunity for a few extra minutes of practice. 2006octpractice_0682006octpractice_0632006octpractice_0572006octpractice_0182006octpractice_0202006octpractice_051

Posted on October 26, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Self Portrait

Self_portrait_001My parents called me tonight.  They've been off cruising on the boat they bought this summer.  All my life my father, a sailmaker, has spent his summers sailing on his customers' boats.  It's great that they finally have a boat to head away on where there's no obligation to make sure other people are enjoying themselves.  Anyway, they called and said they were in Quahog Bay, just around the point from where we practice.  I jumped in the whaler after practice to meet them for a drink.  I found my digital camera and goofed around with it, taking pictures of myself while I drove there.  When I look at them I gasp a little bit with pleasure.  This is my office.  This is where I work every day.  How on earth did I get so lucky?  You can see all the pictures here. 

On the way home it was dark dark dark, and the sky was full of stars.  You forget, when you don't spend nights on the water, how many stars there really are.  I drove back slowly, letting my eyes adjust to the darkness.  The air was cold -- not quite frosty, but in the 40s, certainly.  Besides a few cottage lights on the shore and the blinking of an airplane going across the sky, it was just me and the stars and the pines, with the quiet breathing of the seaweed on the rocky shores.  Beautiful. 

Posted on September 12, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Stories I Could Tell

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There are a lot of stories to tell from this weekend.  Boats and boat people galore.  Cotuit is a bastion of preppiedom, but with quirky twists: a man walking a golden retriever beside a woman walking a pet goat; a groovy solar-powered granolahead house on the water with a composting toilet, where inside people talk about the Cabots and the Lowells without any sense of irony.  I could tell you about these mysterious and compelling boats, and how interesting and tricky they are to sail.  I could tell of fried clams and warm salt water, sandy beaches and bruises on the back of my leg from skiff sailing, candy-colored argyle socks and Nantucket red shorts, ice cream sundaes and a game of gin rummy in the gloaming. 

The biggest story, though, will have to be told when I have a bit more time.  I came out of the weekend completely smitten with a man.  He is my new boyfriend, and he is the Next Big Thing in my life. 
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Posted on August 27, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)

So Far, So Good

The rehearsal dinner in 517 and Neighbor's backyard went well.  It was my responsibility, so I clinked the glass and told everyone where to sit and where to wait, and in what order they would march down the aisle.  We did a read-through of some parts of the ceremony, although the vows and my words to the couple are still unread.  Turboglacier brought down the house with a straight-faced earnest reading of the lyrics to "I Want to Know What Love Is" by Foreigner.  People caught on at varying moments and invariably started to giggle, and pretty soon everyone, including the bride and groom, were laughing.  [The bride's parents, who have probably never heard pop music, smiled along with generous but bland smiles.]

The bride and groom gave all of us at the rehearsal dinner baseball caps with a heart on them and the word "STAFF", asking us for our logistical help for the weekend and our emotional support for the rest of their lives.  To the bridal party, they gave out Leatherman knives engraved with the words "Love S.W.A.T Team."  They passed out a "master plan" for the rest of the weekend [girls' day on the island today, including yoga and a walk and a lunch and an art project, boys on the mainland, playing golf, then a party and dancing tonight, then the ceremony tomorrow at noon followed by a meal].  I know the group from last night is already ready to walk through fire for the bride and groom, but I think the designation as "STAFF" and "S.W.A.T Team" made a difference.  By branding us as insiders, the bride and groom gave permission for people to take the initiative, and I think it worked.  I can't point to anything big, just the way one group moved their table to a flatter spot before dinner was served and the way everyone was collaborating to light the candles on the table and the way people programmed various phone numbers into their phones after looking at the master list, but it did feel like a team effort. 

I got a compliment when one guest said to me after our practice run, "I've been to more than 700 weddings.  You're really good."  She's a church organist, and when she got married herself three years ago she tallied up the number of ceremonies she's been to.  Yikes.  Her confidence in me is a nice boost.  I'll say my words into a mirror a couple more times, and then cross my fingers. 

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Posted on August 19, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Sudden Squall

Last night I did the Thursday Night casual race with my friend Mac Daddy on his cozy cruiser.  Ruby came too, with a girlfriend, so we decided to deem it ladies night on Mac Daddy's boat.  We insisted that he wear a temporary tattoo, and then at the weather mark we donned feather boas and gave him the pink wig to wear.  It was a slow and comfortable procession around Clapboard Island for the cruising boats, while the racers went up the bay towards Diamond Island.  Sunshine, a light but steady breeze, and we were sneaking up on our cruising nemesis and trying to hold off the fast racing boat that was sailing in the cruising division. 

And then the sky got black to the west.  Not black -- a thick, deep grey, and, scarier to me, a sort of eerie teal grey-green that you only see in serious thundersqualls.  We watched it a little bit and then I suggested that we furl the jib, take down the main, and head in.  We put away the boat pretty quickly.  Several other cruisers were doing the same, and we could see some of the racers across the bay dropping their sails. 

We were put away, sailcover on, and motoring in by the time it hit, but it hit fast and suddenly: a wall of water and instant whitecaps.  The wind instrument read 31 knots when I looked at it; that was a steady speed, and I expect the gusts were higher.  The rain was horizontal, and visibility was severely reduced.  I was worrying about my friends who were out, on the racers' course, in an Etchells -- no motor, no cover.  I called the skipper, but she didn't answer her phone.  I asked our skipper if we could motor out to them to check whether they needed assistance, and radioed the race committee that we were doing so.  He had abandoned the race and when I told him the location of the Etchells he drove the RC boat in that direction.  Another big cruiser who'd headed into the anchorage ahead of us turned around, presumably to rescue the smaller boats who hadn't taken their sails down before the squall hit. 

Our friends in the Etchells were being towed in by a J/110, we confirmed.  The Race Committee spotted an overturned vessel near Cow Island and was on the scene, summoning the Coast Guard and rendering assistance.  We notified them that we were standing by to aid anyone who needed it.  The small boats were limping in okay.  The wind dropped down to about 18 knots -- windy but manageable, and the rain softened.  We proceeded to our mooring and took cover.  I watched a lobster boat towing in a small sailboat.  A moored boat's roller furled jib had come loose and was flapping helplessly.  On the VHF radio a trimaran with a tiny outboard gave its location to the Race Committee boat to get a tow in. 

We sat on our mooring for a while as it got dark outside, below deck with the cabin lights on, eating cheese and crackers and listening to the rain falling on deck.   On the launch and the dock people were trading tales of near escapes.   One J/24 hadn't yet come in, but the skipper and crew are very experienced and I expect they headed south or took cover across the bay.  I don't know the details of the overturned vessel in Cow Island passage yet, but I think the rescue was well under control by the Coast Guard. 

It was a night that reminded me how fast things can turn on the water, and how important it is to have working equipment readily accessible -- lifejackets, radio, anchor, tow lines, flares.  It also reminded me of the capability and seamanship of the people in the area -- people were on hand to render assistance to boats who needed it.  I've never seen a storm come through so quickly.  The most casual sail can become an extreme situation in the space of a couple of minutes.

Before and after photos from the evening.
 

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Posted on August 11, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBack (0)

Pictures of Boats

I thought I might do a little photo essay for you of my trip, but I got derailed pretty quickly from that idea.  I'm not great with a camera and you would have had a disappointing array of pictures of grey-blue expanses, with distant green piney hills and some tiny triangles of white that all looked alike.  So I gave it up almost as soon as I got aboard my host's motorboat in Camden and headed across to the island. 

But here are some pictures of Camden Harbor, for anyone who hasn't been there.  I have complicated feelings about Camden, but one thing I really admire about the place is the variety and caliber of sailboats that come and go from there.  That's because it's a beautiful protected harbor, and it's an easy jumping-off point to East Penobscot Bay, which lots of people find the most wonderful and interesting sailing anywhere, and it is serviced by Wayfarer Marine, a marina with the capacity and the skill for very big projects.  And it's the seat of Maine's schooner fleet, which is a pretty interesting and special group of boats. 

Islesboro, the Fox Island Thoroughfare, Merchant's Row, the Barred Islands, and Jericho Bay are so gorgeous, and I gave up trying to take pictures of them.  Either I couldn't do it with my camera or I was busy sailing.  The smooth pink Stonington granite appears in East Penobscot Bay and it makes for a shoreline that tugs on you.  And there are so many islands and harbors, and something about the blue-green of the water and the way the sun hits the hills in the distance -- the Camden Hills and Blue Hill and Mount Desert Island -- and the way the fog rolls in, it's really the best place on earth.  But I didn't catch it on camera for you.  You'll have to come visit. 

Although the set of pictures is captioned Islesboro, there's only one picture of Islesboro -- my hosts' dock.  It's a special place.  We had a bald eagle living right nearby, who flew right over our heads as we drank wine and grilled dinner on the beach one night.

Posted on August 09, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

What I Did Last Night

Img_1469A soft summer night, breeze in my hair, a grassy park, kids going down the slides, teenagers running after a frisbee, a band playing on a gazebo to people in lawn chairs, a dear friend and her baby son, who felt the thrill of a swing for the first time. 

Posted on July 20, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

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