Paint it Black

My 93rd Laser sailing day of the year last Tuesday was on an overcast, cold, cloudy, gray winter day in Bristol Harbor... even more dark than the Hazy Shade of Winter day. But hey, if I only sail on sunny days, I'll never make it to 100. I probably won't make it to 100 anyway but there's still an outside chance.

I've been sailing a lot in Bristol Harbor these last few weeks. It gives me a sense of security. Compared to some of the lonelier spots around Narragansett Bay where I sailed in the summer, it's quite urban. Even though there's very little other boating traffic at this time of year I figure that if I got into trouble somebody on land would probably spot the crazy old dude standing on the upturned Laser waving his arms about. Or even if they didn't see me I'd probably wash up at the bottom of the lawn of one of the Poppasquash Point mansions, or into some dock on the Bristol harbor front before too long.

If you had wanted to paint a picture of the harbor last Tuesday you would have needed a lot of gray paint. The sky was various shades of gray. The water was almost black. The buildings around the harbor all looked gray. Then after you had smeared gray paint all over your canvas you would have added a few tiny spots of green and red for the navigation buoys, a few tinier spots of gold for the lights coming on around the harbor, even at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. If you were painting it from the perspective of the crazy Laser guy you would need a smear of red for his vang line and a few touches of blue for the band round his mast which he had to put there to indicate which fleet he was sailing in at the US Masters back in June and which he has been too lazy to to remove since.

Where was I? Where am I? Oh yes. Bristol Harbor on a dark December day.

At least my hands weren't so cold as recently. I have a new pair of gloves. Like they always say, "When the going gets tough, the tough get.... latex." See Sticky Fingers for full explanation.

So my hands were dry and warm, but the spray blowing off the wave tops was making my hat wet. Hmmm. Do I need a latex hat as well?

So there I was blasting around on my Laser in the cold and dark at about 3:30 in the afternoon, watching all the cars on Hope Street with their lights on... and then it started to rain.

Life is good.

93 down. 7 to go. Brrrrr.

Yesterday my 3 year-old granddaughter Emily out of nowhere suddenly said, with much emphasis and emotion, "Grandad, I love you." (I seem to have progressed. In June she was saying I was her Best Friend.)

"That's great Emily. Why do you love me?" (Always fishing for a compliment, even from a 3-year-old.)

"Because you're wearing a green shirt, Grandad."

Hmmm.

Life is very good.