Barter's Island

Might as well continue to the present.

I arrived on the island much later than was originally intended, around 4pm. Greeted by our crazy dog. He smiles, I tried to take a picture but the bastard thrashes around too much and they never come out. You'd think all the heavy handed training my sister did with him and he'd know how to pose for a picture. The cats sat in the window and eyed me suspiciously. A brother and sister, they were identical at birth almost, all black with white paws. Only way to tell them apart was the boy had a diamond white spot on his nose, the girl had an hourglass. I drove my sister to the animal shelter in 2002 before I moved away for good so she could rescue them. Now the girl is tiny and can climb anything, even walls. The boy is enormous and lazy, an easy 20-pounder.

I walked around the house to survey what needed to be done. Figure if I bust my ass I can do the house in ten or twelve days, the garage in four or so. Then I'll either find some other stuff to do or head back to California early. We'll see how that all goes. Went for a run around the island. There is a road that circles the main island that all the houses are on. It is 4.2 miles long. I did a lap in 42 minutes. Now I work on getting that time down, hopefully to a half hour. Ambitious :) It is easier to run here than in the valley, nice breeze off the ocean, 60 degrees, quiet and beautiful. Northridge is not beautiful. It rains though, this is what I love most about California. No rain. But in Northridge you don't have to be careful of coyotes.

Got back to the house and took an amazing shower after the trip from hell. Lay down on the couch and watched Michigan upset Notre Dame with Dad and the dog and the giant cat. I'm not a big college football fan but it was a great game. Looking forward to starting working on the house tomorrow. My cousin got in touch with me to make plans to do NFL Sundays at his house so I'll probably start that in a week. It was during a public facebook conversation so two friends from high school I haven't seen in ten years or so were immediately in too. My predictions often come true, I'm suspecting a superpower #3. Eerily prescient. It is rapidly turning into my own version of Beautiful Girls. If I start writing about some hot 13-year old I've met who I have a great connection with, someone shoot me. I shouldn't be anyone's Pooh Bear.

Of course as soon as I leave town both roommates called and needed me to do work for them. I respectfully declined.

This is going to be a revelatory three weeks.