You don't want to see pictures...

O my Bloggies and O my Friends! The weather here sucks. You can stop feeling jealous right now. All yesterday and last night the wind howled, blowing things over with a crash and rattling this old wooden house. The sea is brown and filled with all of the moss and detritus of the flooded Orinocco Delta and the Caroni River: Floating "Islands" of Water hyacinths, mangrove pens, branches, clumps of moss, garbage and whole trees with confused and agitated anacondas wrapped around them are floating around, and the Gulf tastes almost fresh with river water. (um, I licked my underwater camera to see if it needed rinsing off.) (Olympus Stylus 790 SW, Shock and Waterproof and Boy Proof. Indestructable. I recommend.) The waves are big and choppy, splooshing up through the jetty and making everything clammy. There isn't a dry towel in the house.

And the Happy Hooker has BROKEN DOWN! Sean and Mikael took the boys tarpon fishing yesterday evening, and they were towed back. Drive shaft problem. Sean and Chas spent the whole morning today with their heads down in the engine, tossing on the choppy water, inhaling gas fumes. They are feeling sad and blue (and a little green) at not being able to fix it immediately, but Sean is getting a tow to the mainland for parts as we speak.

The kids have been indoors mostly, playing Connect Four and cards and Scrabble, painting, snacking, and admiring Theresa's baby girl who is Totally Gorgeous! She is cool with being surrounded by noisy admirers and passed from Auntie to Auntie. She smiles all day and never cries, just makes a Complaining Noise when necessary. What a sweet baby! One of those chubby, curly-haired, long-eyelashed, happy-gurgly types that makes you think "Aww... I gotta get me one of those!" And your ovaries start to percolate furiously and you have to keep your husband at arm's length until the next new moon.

The neighbourhood Dog has been hanging out with us, keeping warm and dry in the house. I wrote about him last year, I think, back in July. We call him Scuba Dog or Ghost Dog, but apparently his real name is Danger. He is part Lab, so of course I love him. He eats the kids' bait when they are fishing, and jumps on to the kayak and stands in front like a ... What do you call those things? He thinks he is a mermaid, and he hasn't got a brain cell to his name. But he puts his head on your feet and says "Humph" just right.

I haven't been keeping up with reading my favorite Blogs, I am sorry to say! With eight kids and real live friends here, life has been pretty busy. Huge vats of stew don't cook themselves, y'know. So don't y'all do anything interesting that I might not want to miss out on! I will catch up soon.

We are all hoping for better weather once this system has passed. Come on sunshine! We have to get these boys out of the house! Is anyone having a nice sunshiny time? I bet you are. We are keeping a close eye on the hurricane reports and have everything ship-shape here just in case. But the sun will shine tomorrow! It will! It will!


EDITED: it is! It is! It's so beeooteeful!