Holy smokes, it's hot here! Jealous? I thought you might be. We're sweating like crazy, but we're still glad to be here. And hot days make the cold showers much easier to take. (The showers aren't always cold; there's a 50/50 shot at a hot one any given day.)
Played softball Sunday. I don't really remember much about it. It was totally overshadowed by Tuesday's game, which was in turn overshadowed by today's game. Tuesday we managed to talk Trevor into playing. Did you know he never really played ball? Well, you couldn't tell it watching him. He didn't have a power throw (I don't either), but he caught a whole lot of foul balls playing catcher, even got a couple of guys out. Go Trevor! We were all pretty impressed. I played first base. When I was younger, I always wanted to play first because that's where all the action is. I didn't realize until I was much older that I always played third because I had a super throw and was one of the few girls who could throw from third to first. I was awesome when I was a kid. But I did well at first during warm-ups, so they put me there for the game. Eh, I did alright. I think the guys on my team were afraid to throw to me because they kept throwing it in the dirt. Can I catch a ball in the dirt? Nope. I even knocked my knee on the ground trying to get one. Ugly bruise now. Dad and Trevor ended up on the team opposite mine. And they strummed us. The score was something like 20 to 6. It was ridiculous. But we were all in good spirits in spite of it.
Now today's game. They're still letting me play by girls' rules (if I hit a grounder in the infield, they can't throw me out at first), but I'm not sure that'll hold on Sunday. Not to brag, but I was awesome today. Okay, that was totally bragging. I spectacularly caught a couple of fly balls out in left field. I even hit the ball well. The guys backed up to the fence for my last at-bat. Naturally, I took full advantage of the girl rule and hit a light ground ball in the infield. It felt really great to play well. I don't think I'll be able to repeat a performance like that, but it was nice to at least get one game that good. Go me!
After the game, went grocery shopping. We bought way more stuff than we intended to. But things were on sale! And we needed to start stocking up for the impending Bahamas trip. Grocery prices are easily 50% higher over there, so we're hoping to buy as little as we can while we're there. We had the bikes loaded up!
But life isn't all softball and grocery shopping (there's also eating out). Yesterday, we went to look at a dinghy for sale (we need to get our own when we separate from Mom and Dad). It wasn't what we were looking for, but we'll find one! After that, we took our boat down to Marathon Diesel Repair to get our alternator replaced. The old one wasn't charging batteries anymore, and that's a bad thing! About 11:30, we got the call that they could take us at their dock. I told him we'd be there in half an hour. So Trevor untied all the lines (quite a task), and off we headed. The marina is at the end of a narrow (and crowded) canal. But I put on my captain hat and expertly piloted the boat to the dock in that tiny maneuvering space. Seriously, it was awesome. I was proud of myself. Then we waited on the guys to get back from lunch. Did I mention it's hot down here? And it was less breezy in the canal. Almost three hours later, our new alternator was installed and working like a dream. They had to fabricate the mounting bracket and the adjusting arm (the welder was there that day, which is why Luis brought us to the dock for the work). They did an excellent job, except the welder tried to kill our engine/alternator two times. Hey, he's a welder, not a mechanic.
After the work was done and Trevor went up to pay, I started the engine to let it warm up a little bit. I looked over the side, and do you know what I saw? A manatee! A huge one! I was so excited. The mechanic walked by about that time, and I pointed it out to him. He just kinda shrugged it off; I guess they see a lot of them there. Then he got the water hose out and sprayed the manatee. What a happy sea cow. It drank and turned on its back and drank some more. When he stopped spraying, it came up to our exhaust and started drinking that water. Silly manatee, that's nasty water! But it didn't care. When Trevor came back and we were ready to go, another guy sprayed the hose away from the boat to lure the manatee away. I didn't want to leave when it was so close to us; it showed quite a few propeller scars already. Poor thing. But how exciting! A manatee!
I forgot to bring my camera, so I might edit this post later and add pictures.
So that's life here at Boot Key Harbor. Not too exciting to read about. But we'll start taking the boat out again one day. Now that our engine is really fixed (I really really hope this is the last thing), we have the confidence to take it out again. Tomorrow is looking a little breezy, but Saturday looks promising. Maybe some snorkeling out on Sombrero Key Reef is in order!
It's a tough life, but somebody's gotta live it. And we are living it up.
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