It wasn't in the 100s yesterday! And today it is only supposed to get to the upper 80s! Wow! Cool front! We got a bit of rain the other night. It was so nice to wake up during the night and hear it on the roof and then to awaken in the morning and see a wet ground.
This week! What a week it has been.
Last Friday we put stamps on hundreds of postcards and even had to address about 200 more. But with help we got it all done before lunch.
On Saturday I went out for the first time this year to do lit drops. :) It was rather fun! We finished by 11:00 and before it got too hot.
There were babies at church Sunday! My Princess was there and so was Sweetheart and J-J! Princess took a nap in my arms after lunch. :) I love holding sleeping babies.
Monday. Hmm. Do any of you get restless the day before something big? I do. I went and voted absentee after lunch, then got to see Doodle Bug and Sis-in-Law. That evening was rather crazy trying to remember everything I needed to pack for the day.
Tuesday morning started at 4:10. (Actually it started at midnight like it always does, but I got up at 4:10 :) ) Mom got up to take me to my polling place at 5:15. Helped set things up and then got to work. We had a line of people waiting to vote at 6:00. The morning passed quite quickly with only a few times where we didn't have anyone in there to vote. We took turns going into the cafeteria to eat our lunch. The afternoon always seems to drag by on slow feet that don't want to move. However, about 3:00, the lines came, and they stayed. We had a constant supply of voters for about an hour, got a five minute break and then they started again. That continued until we closed the polls at 7:00. Packing up went very well and the other supervisor and I headed to the courthouse to take the ballots. I didn't get home until 9:00 and didn't get to bed until 10:00. But— Ed Emery won his race!!! And so did Todd Akin! (Thank you for voting for Akin, those of my readers who live in MO.)
We went to Connie's for the first time in a month on Wednesday. I was quite tired that day and didn't do a whole lot.
Yesterday I spent several hours in the morning working on scanning illustrations in for my book. :) It was so much fun! I can't wait to do the rest of them! If you want to see the picture for the cover, you can go take a look on my Reading Books blog. I also got another letter posted on Priscilla's Travel blog.
Today I clean house and see what else I can work on. :)
I've gotten a bit of writing done, but not much. As you can see, I was busy. But here is the next part of last Friday's story. I hope you enjoy it.
Alone - Part 2
“I’m an explorer,” I murmured to myself and set off once again.
Rounding the bend I discoverd that the cliffs sloped gently down to another beach. This beach was much wider than the one I had found myself on earlier. “Why it’s large enough to have a hot dog stand!” I exclaimed before I thought. “Oh, bother, Ty. Why do you keep thinking about hot dog stands? Did you used to work at one? Were you eating a hot dog before all this happened?”
“No more hot dogs, Rone,” I promised myself. “At least not if I can help it. But if we should come across one . . .” I couldn’t help grinning at the thought.
Striding along, I set up a merry whistling as I swung my still wet shoes trying to dry them quickly. After a time I began to wish I had a hat, for the sun showed me no mercy and beat upon my head with no clouds to take pity on me. “I’ll have to be careful or I’ll end up with a sunburn, or a sunstroke,” I lectured myself aloud.
“What you need is a hat, Rone.”
“Where am I going to get a hat, Ty?” I asked myself. “There haven’t been any signs for any store that I’ve seen.”
“Make one.”
“Ha!” I scoffed. “Me make a hat?”
Ty retorted quickly, “You see anyone else to make it for you?”
I had a good point there. Or rather, Ty did. I knew I couldn’t make it out of sand and the shells I’d seen were much too small, so I trudged over to the trees, bushes and vines which lined the private beach. There, after a little looking, I discovered a tree with rather large leaves. I tried to pick one, but it was too tough, so I pulled out my knife and cut a leaf. The only problem was, it wouldn’t stay on my head.
Refusing to give up the idea of making myself a hat of some sort, I shut one eye and squinted at the leaf out of the other. Aha! Quickly I cut three other leaves and then started looking around.
“If only I can find— Ouch! The very thing!”
My hand had bumped into a thorny tree. Pulling out my knife, I careful cut a few of the thorns off and using them as a seamstress would pins, I pinned the leaves together with the stems all meeting in a little point in the middle. This seemed to work fairly well though it needed a little improvement for it was light and kept blowing off with the breeze off the sea. Finding a shell, I tucked the stems into the hole and once again placed it on my head. It stayed! The shell made it heavy enough to stay still. Of course I couldn’t make any sudden move, but at least I could walk in comparative shade now.
“Rone, you’re a genius!”
“Thanks Ty.”
Walking along the sandy shore was pleasant enough, but I was getting thirsty. That raised a new question. What was I to drink? I couldn’t get a coke from the non existent hot dog stand and I hadn’t seen any drinking fountains anywhere.
“A snowcone vender would be real nice right about now, don’t you agree, Ty?”
“Sure do, Rone,” and I looked about and sighed. There wasn’t much I could do except continue walking and hope I’d find a stream or even an old pump would do, or I could sit down there in the sand and brood over my strange situation. I chose the former.
After walking on the sand for another thirty minutes or so (I couldn’t tell how long it had been for, as I mentioned before, my watch no longer worked), I came to a part of the shore that was more rocky. Large rocks, small rocks and middle sized rocks formed the edge of land and some extra large rocks jutted out from the water which looked quite deep though it was very clear. I could see what I took to be small sharks swimming about and decided that sitting with my feet dangling in the water might not be a good idea. Crossing those rocks was rather difficult, for my feet were tender and some of the stones sharp. Eventually I resorted to slipping my still damp shoes on to save my feet.
By the time I was fairly across, I was almost ready to drink the salty sea water just for something liquid. I looked at the bananas in my pockets and wondered if I could make banana juice to drink. As I was trying to decide what to do, I glanced ahead and saw some dark, round objects ahead just lying on the ground. Could those be what I hoped?
Dashing forward, I tripped over my untied shoelaces and fell flat on my face in the sand. My hat went flying and I was treated to a mouthful of gritty stuff. Getting slowly up, I spit out the sand, brushed myself off, took off the shoes and found my hat. It hadn’t been damaged and I replaced it on my head.
“What’s the rush, Rone?” I growled to myself, still tasting sand. “We’ve got all day to get where we’re going. You don’t have any other appointments, you know.”
So saying I advanced more slowly and before long reached the round objects. They were what I thought: coconuts. Now I could have something refreshing to drink!
Pulling out my knife I attempted to cut through the thick outer shell but in vain. Either my knife was too dull or the shell was too hard. “Bother,” I muttered. “That’s not the way to do it.” Quickly I took the laces out of one of my shoes and tied it tightly around the nut, then holding the string tightly, I tapped my knife handle sharply on the string. Behold, the coconut split in two and I feasted on the white fruit inside, savoring the little bit of milk that was there.
I wondered how I had known that way of opening the coconut. Had I done it before? Did someone show me how or had I perhaps read it in a book?
What kind of a hat would you have made?
How did he know how to open a coconut?
Glad your primaries went well!! Ours are this week :)
ReplyDeleteDid you have fun writing this story? :)