Day 24 (7/8/12): Beach Day

What a luxurious morning I had to start my day off.  I slept in until 8:15 and was slightly awoken from my half-dozing state by Jillian scrambling out of bed a little late, having forgotten to set her alarm.  Mary had set out a loaf of her chocolate chip banana bread for breakfast, so I had that and a toasted pancake from yesterday with a glass of milk for breakfast.  Between eating and watching an episode of SNL, while doing nurikabe puzzles¹, I did a couple loads of laundry and hung them out to dry.  It would be a hot and sunny, but beautiful and comfortable day.  

After packing my lunch of leftover stir fry and potato salad, banana bread, and grapes, I began my trek into town choosing to take the longer and more scenic (and hilly) way to get to the library on Rte. 27.  Mary asked if I could research two-way radios for her so that she doesn’t have to scream across the farm to get her children’s attention.  If anyone has any suggestions for an affordable deal for a 3- or 4-pack of walkie-talkies, please let me know.  I picked at my lunch while doing that and catching up on my emails and messages.  

I got into the center of Belgrade Lakes just in time to miss the bi-weekly farmer’s market (Thursdays and Sunday), so I locked my bike on a tree and headed over to Day’s store to treat myself to an ice cream.  I spent the rest of the day swimming and sub-bathing on the rocks at Peninsula Park – I had a rather private setting, as I was surrounded by shrubbery behind me.  The sun was gentle all day, never too hot to handle, and I loved lounging on the big rocks, characteristic of Maine beaches.  I didn’t realize how weary I’d actually become after a week of working.  My skin is as bronzed as I’ve ever seen it (in a farmer’s fashion, of course), despite applying and reapplying sunscreen every day.  Thankfully, my wide-brimmed sun bonnet has been protecting the skin on my face.  My hands are weary from gripping, squeezing, and holding heavy objects.  My knees are creaky and stiff from squatting and kneeling on them.  I felt my wrist pulsating again, so maybe it’s not completely heeled.  There’s been a knot in the left dorsal muscle along my spine for the past 1½ weeks that I feel most often when I hoe-weed, so I’m thinking a day of rest can only do that good.   

As well as just relaxing (I’m pretty sure I napped), I caught up with friends that I hadn’t talked to in a while, and read my book Born To Run.  Although I’m not able to run right now, I supplement this with reading about running.  It’s inspiring to read of such amazing legends of running.  The book mainly follows a tribe, deep within the Copper Canyons of Mexico, of superathletes – the best ultramarathoners the world has ever seen.  These tribal folk, the Tarahumara, speak their own language, and have little to no contact with civilization, but they can beat the world’s premier trained athetes.  The book is a national best-seller. Check it out.  

I got back to the house a little after 7:30, just missing the start of dinner.  We have a couple of guests for the next few days.  Mary’s friend, Thea, and her long-haired son, Bing Bing, from Southwest Harbor in Maine, will be helping out on the farm and staying in a tent outside.  Thea generously brought many fruits and salads with her to share, and we had her homemade pesto with pasta and watermelon that she’d brought for dessert.  Thea doesn’t have a farm, but she has an extensive vegetable garden and even a hoop house.  She and her husband own a bike shop on their small island, which was just my luck, seeing as I haven’t been able to fix my bike.  At dinner, she told us about her spontaneous bike ride across the country at age 33.  After inspecting my bike, we determined that my front-left brake’s spring is broken, and I’ll need to take it to a bike shop to have that spring replaced or get new front brakes entirely.  After taking down my laundry, I hung out with Kenya for a while before heading to bed.

What a luxurious day.

¹ I love puzzles – puzzles of all kinds – and I always have.  I’ve gone through Sudoku phases, jigsaws, crosswords, logic matrices, ken ken, kakuro, light-up.  You name it, I’ve probably done it, except for a Rubix cube, but I’ll get to that eventually.  I also don’t usually like sitting still when I watch TV, so I often do puzzles online if I’m watching something on Hulu.  Nurikabe is my current favorite puzzle.  It is a binary determination puzzle named for an invisible wall in Japanese folklore that blocks roads and delays foot travel (thank you, Wikipedia).  Try it for yourself: http://www.puzzle-nurikabe.com/?size=0