Good, bad and beautiful

This year has started out with mixed actions.

The bad: First, our boat engine was giving us trouble causing us to miss a wonderful New Years Day party at George and Ginger's place. My husband, after several attempts, finally managed to fix it yesterday and so we are back to being a 2-boat family.

The weather turned bad over the New Years celebration in that the wind picked up and the seas were rough for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Today, in spite of the fact that we could use the rain, it only rained slightly in the morning and now it is overcast and gray. Temperatures have fallen and it was rather chilly this morning when we arose. So much so that we had oatmeal and hot cocoa and I actually put socks on!

The beautiful: I made a cute pair of booties for the expected German baby and my husband found a baby Boa on our dock sunning itself.

The good: If you go to http://www.fotolog.com/feather61/45816911 you can see the photos of the snake and some nice shots of a Blue Heron.

The snake came along just in time as Annette had expressed a desire to have a Boa for a Christmas present (and not the feather kind). She wants one to put on her property to keep the mice and rats under control. She squealed with delight when I called her yesterday to tell her we had her Christmas present in hand!

The snake is young and only about 2 feet long but has beautiful coloring and I hope that he/she can survive long enough to grow into a sizable sized snake. Of course the islanders here are afraid of any snake and usually take a machete to it and ask questions later.

The beautiful and the bad: I encountered problems with a new crochet pattern and after two days' work on a lacy vest, I had to pull out all my work and will have to start over! The upside: I now know the pitfalls of the pattern, where the mistakes were made and, hopefully, it should go more smoothly. The pattern is quite attractive and this is why I am determined to complete it.

The bad: A dear friend of mine in Florida has been suffering with walking pneumonia for almost two weeks. She began medication about 6 days ago but has not improved sufficiently, at least in my opinion. I wrote her and told her to return to the doctor and try and get some Cipro. This was a wonder medicine for me when I had bronchitis and should put her back into good health quickly. I miss her sunshine messages, her humor and her sparkle. I just hope she can receive stronger medication and return to a healthier state! I guess the advantage of living here is that if we need a certain medicine we don't have to wait for a doctor to check us out (at a hefty price). We can get the medicine on the Cay at the Clinic or call the wonderful pharmacy on the Mainland and the requested items will be flown over post haste. I know, you will say that self-diagnosis can be dangerous and I agree. But, when one is sick to the point of nothing helping and we know of a medication that will help, we don't have to wait on a doctor or tests. Just so you will not think we misuse medications, we research the Internet thoroughly before using any new medication. With the limited assistance we have here, the Internet, in this regard, is a God send.

One more thing. I did manage to make two new dishes yesterday; one with leftover turkey (Mushroom Turkey Tetrazzini) and a great vegetable accompaniment, Green beans in Yellow Pepper Butter with ground pine nuts. Both were wonderful dishes and something I can add to my recipes. So the New Year has its good points!

Now we just have to train CocoNut not to jump the gate on the porch and to come when she is called - the challenge for the first part of this year!