False Starts

March 28, Friday

My alarm woke me up at 6 this morning. As usual, Julia was already in the bathroom. And as usual, I waited until I heard the click-POH-SHEW-crrrr of the annoyingly ostentatious bathroom door before throwing back my sleeping-bag-comforter. What was unexpected, and incidentally what kept my covers on me longer than usual, was the muffled conversation in the hallway between Bruno and Julia. Equally unexcited about being awake as about hearing what “new rule” he had just informed her of, I waited in my bed.

“Good morning,” Julia offered as she crept back into the room.
“Good morning. You can turn on the light.” I say that every morning. Today I added, “What was that about?”
“It’s raining.” She didn’t turn on the light. “We aren’t going out. We have to be up at 8.”

Thrilled, I went back to sleep. Until I get out from under my sleeping bag in the mornings, I am content to skip another early morning on the fishery boat. If I had gotten up, out of my warm bed, then I would have been disappointed. As it was, I fell right back to sleep after resetting my alarm.

When it rang again two hours later, I was more tired than before.

Julia and I worked in lab just long enough to finish the photo ID spreadsheet after breakfast. Then we went with Andrea to the big market up the road. For these trips, we each take along backpacks or duffels to haul groceries back. It takes us 20 minutes getting to the market with empty bags, and 20 minutes to get back with olive oil bottles, 20 bags of pasta, sugar by the kilo and non-refrigerated boxes of milk.

Our real start for the morning lab work began once the groceries were in the kitchen. I practiced using ArcView again, the GIS software that allows you to apply layers of selected data to a map for a visual interpretation. I did this a few weeks ago with different data, but I needed a refresher run now that we are ready to use the latest photo ID data (from that spreadsheet we just finished).

Julia made pasta with mushrooms for lunch. I picked up the sponge to do the dishes, but there was no time - we were suddenly in a rush to get to the harbor. False start #3 of the day. The rain had stopped before we went to the market, so we needed to make this a research day whenever possible. Bruno, Julia and I speed-walked to the harbor. The fishery boat wasn’t there. Bruno paused, looked around the harbor as if the boat might have been misplaced. Julia and I were happy not to still be nearly running with the pasta rocks in our stomachs. I briefly thought that we weren’t going out after all. Nope – just another false start. Now it was time to run around the breadth of the harbor and ferry port to Pontone. The lost boat was found, loading fish pellets.

The weather treated us well. The calm seas allowed for a long sighting of Whitespot and Mare Tre as they hunted around the fishery and the surround nets. Our shift ended with that of the fishery. Andrea was working on the Spartana when we arrived back at the harbor. Julia and I hung around the harbor while the two of them fiddled with the two boats. I took some pictures – and finally got one of the old men that sit around the harbor for hours, talking and embellishing the same stories they told last week. Or so I chose to imagine. On the way back to the house, we stopped at RoRo’s for gelato. Since Luna had been on the Spartana with Andrea (or, rather, on the sub beside the Spartana), we took the beach route back so she could run without a leash. The day still shone beautifully – the stroll was calm and amicable.

No one hurried to get back into lab. When it finally did happen, we only had one hour for transcription. Then Julia and I were off again – this time to a particular store that we have been window-shopping for two months. It finally opened today. I only bought two little fish key ornaments (sound weird, but they are quite cute), but I must go back later for something for Douglas that I saw. On the slim chance that the devil’s wearing mittens, swine have taken to the sky and he is reading this, I won’t say what it is. But I must get it before I leave!

Andrea had barely started dinner when we got back, which gives us more free time now but less internet time later. We had Chahan – a Chinese fried-rice dish that (despite this) is nothing to write home about. I did get time online tonight – even with a connection stable enough to post pictures! Then it was back to typing while everyone else showered. So after my cold one, I got back to typing. Click click click. It sounds like reindeer when I get going!