September 9, 2021: A quiet day on shore, getting things done.
There isn’t much to report about our shore day in Port Austin because we didn’t do much. Honestly, there wasn’t much to do there. But it was a great place to get little things done and both Capt Paul and I took advantage of it.
Breakfast
This bakery was already closed for the season. I wonder how many other shops would be closed now that Labor Day had come and gone.
I was up at 6:30, which is remarkable considering how early I’d gone to bed and how much sleep I’d gotten the night before. I remembered a bakery in town that supposedly opened at 5 AM, so after visiting the bathroom, I kept walking about a block until I reached it. It was closed. Not just that day, but for the season.
This was a bad sign.
There was nothing going on around town at all at 7:00 AM. I stood at an intersection and took a panoramic photo of downtown. There weren’t even any cars parked alongside the road.
Downtown Port Austin, before dawn.
I went back to Nano. Capt Paul was stirring and I offered to make us breakfast. We had some veggies and eggs and even sausage on board and I thought I’d make one of my scrambles. Capt Paul was all for it, so I got to work cutting up veggies and getting them cooking. We only had four eggs left, but with the veggies and a cut up sausage, I figured they would be enough for all three of us. I broke the eggs into a bowl to scramble them.
Dianne woke up. I told her I was making a vegetable and eggs scramble and that there would be enough for three. She told me she’d rather make her own and to save some eggs for her. I pointed out the four eggs already broken into a bowl and told her that was all we had. There would be enough for all three of us, I assured her.
But when the eggs were done and ready to serve, Dianne didn’t want any. She went outside, slamming the door behind her, and sat out in the cockpit with her coffee (or whatever she was drinking). Capt Paul and I sat at the table, chatting and eating. (I have to admit that the eggs came out better than I expected.) When we were done, there was some left over. Capt Paul was just getting ready to put them into a leftovers container when Dianne came back in. Apparently, now that they were cold, she was ready to eat them.
The absurdity of the whole situation would make me laugh if it weren’t so sad.
In search of a quiet place that doesn’t move
I left the boat soon afterwards with my laptop, iPad, and phone. I was determined to make serious headway on the blog and I knew exactly where to do it: the local library.
But I got sidetracked. I turned on the wrong street and found myself in front of a business that combined a coffeeshop, internet cafe, and laundromat. Figuring that wifi with a hot beverage was better than wifi without — and also having terrible experiences with library wifi in the past — I went in.
The idea was great but the execution left a bit to be desired. The coffee shop with lounge area was up front with a door separating the laundromat from the rest of the place. The owner/barista was serving someone when I came in but they took theirs to go. I got a hot cocoa and a muffin, neither of which I really wanted but I had to buy something. Then I settled down at a table in the lounge area, opened my laptop, and went to work.
Or at least I tried to. The trouble is, he had two televisions on in the place. One played Fox News, with the sound turned up and the other played CNN with the sound turned down. When he finished making my coffee, the owner plopped himself down on the sofa in front of Fox News and began sucking down the hateful dribble that they feed their viewers.
I lasted about 30 minutes. In all honestly, I think I lost about 5 points off my IQ during that time — and I was actively trying not to listen. I packed up to go. As I left, I turned to him and said, “Be careful watching that stuff. It’ll rot your brain.” And then I closed the door before he could reply.
The library was a block away. There was only one person in there: the librarian. They had a mask policy, which I had no problem with except that I hadn’t brought a mask. (I know. Shame on me.) I asked if she had one and she opened a package and gave me one. Then she directed me to a table in the History section where I could sit and work.
Over the next three hours, I knocked out two and a half blog posts. I published posts for Day 27 and Day 28. Only three people came (and left) during that time. It was very quiet. Best of all, neither the table nor floor moved.
The Bank 1884 has a square toilet in one of its restrooms. I had never seen a square toilet before. And yes, even the seat was square.
By then, it was 1:30 PM, time to meet Paul and Dianne for lunch at The Bank 1884 — the same place we’d eaten the day before. This time, I had the French onion soup, along with a salad.
It was 3 PM by the time we finished lunch. I walked around town, visiting the shops I’d missed the day before. I bought gifts for the friend who is watching my pups. By then, it was 4 PM. The library was supposed to close at 5 PM, so it was really too late to go back. I went back to Nano instead.
Meanwhile, the high wind and rough “seas” out on the lake had subsided. It was calmer and a lot more pleasant at the marina. The boat didn’t rock quite as much where it was tied.
I should mention here that Capt Paul got a lot done that day, too. Before I left for the library, he installed a dual USB outlet at the helm (I held wires). While I was gone, he fixed the clock over the helm that kept losing time and changed the swing on the door out to the swim platform. So it was a productive day for him, too, made a bit easier by the proximity of a hardware store in that small town.
I spent some time on my bunk reading. It was nice to read someone else’s words instead of producing my own. I realized that with my blog posts averaging about 2,000 words each, I’d written close to 60,000 words in the past month. It was like the old days.
I helped Capt Paul add water to Nano’s fresh water tank. It’s a bit of a production and works best with two people, mostly because of the crazy expanding hose we use.
As Capt Paul settled into his spot in the cockpit with his iPad for his weekly Zoom meeting with friends, I settled into my usual spot at the table with my laptop, determined to finish the post I’d started before lunch. I wrote, pausing only to go out onto the dock and photograph yet another amazing sunset at Port Austin.
I think the four people standing on the sea wall watching the sun set really make this shot. As I posted on Twitter with this photo, “We are just spectator’s to mother nature’s show.”
Eventually, I got the Post for Day 29 finished and posted. By then, Capt Paul and Dianne had both gone to bed. I made one last trip to the bathroom, then changed into my pajamas and went to bed.
The dock, at night. I liked the way the lights selectively lit the posts.
