By the time he got here, he'd weakened back into a tropical storm, so we didn't get much weather from him. It got pretty windy yesterday -- and it was coming from the East. You know the old saying, "An East wind blows ill." That's why. It got so strong, I had to bring in my flags. The rain got here sometime during the night, and it's been raining all day long.
So, what have I done while hurricane watching? I finished a charity hat,
and cast on another one.
I'm thinking about making this one a slouchy hat. I'm not using a pattern. I'm just going to make it up as I go along. That ought to be fun, huh? The yarn is some I picked up off the clearance aisle. It's Red Heart, and the colorway is Orchid. For Red Heart, it is really, really soft. The skein is big enough I ought to get at least two hats from it, maybe three if I stretch it.
I also took a few moments during the storm to write to my English pen pal. I thought it was a bit funny that she had mentioned she was jealous of the weather we get over here, because English weather is boring. Her words, not mine. And here I was writing her a letter with a hurricane raging outside.
Well, not a hurricane any more, and not so much raging, but still. It's weather!
While I was writing, I'd put on a YouTube playlist, just to have some music in the house.
By the way, did y'all know I have a YouTube Channel? And did you further know, I've got actual subscribers? I've got 21. Subscribers. I just recently noticed that, and I was blown away. Subscribers. I have subscribers! I can't figure out who to tell who they are, though. I suspect most of them subscribed back when Cody was in high school, and I was posting a bunch of band videos.
My YouTube Channel can be found here: CalKingOnyx, you know, if you want to subscribe or anything. Not that I post a lot of videos or anything, but it's there.
Back to my story.
The auto-play feature has really got me figured out, because once my early 90s country music playlist finished, it went right straight to playing songs by my white headed shanty men. I've got so many of their videos in my playlist that the ones at the bottom seldom get heard. Every once in a while, autoplay grabs one of those songs and plays it for me. This is one such song.
I was sitting there, writing, not really paying attention when one line of the song jumped right out at me. It goes, "We jolly sailor boys go skipping up aloft, while the land lubbers lie down below."
That one line reminded me of the time I was in the Navy, and almost fell off an antenna. I won't repeat the whole story here, because I've posted about it twice before. However, if you want to read it, you can find the post here: How I Almost Fell Off An Antenna When I Was In The Navy.
That reminded me of another time, when two of my shipmates put me into a climbing harness and hung me from a different antenna. Well, the hoist. One of them had brought a horror movie to watch on the MidWatch. I don't do horror, so I'd gone into another room and was working in there. I started fooling around with the climbing harness when Aubrey and Joe came in. They asked me what I was doing, so I lied. I said, "I'm trying to figure out how to put this on, in case I ever have to climb the microwave antenna."
Now, we had a couple of satellite antennas that we didn't wear climbing gear when we climbed it, but we did for the microwave antenna. Don't ask me any details, because I don't know. Whatever it is you're asking, I don't know. The only thing is, the microwave antenna looked a lot like your typical radio antenna: as in, very tall, and very slim. Truth is, I kind of wanted to climb it just to be climbing it, but I'm sure I'd have gotten into trouble for that.
Anyway...
Aubrey helped me put the climbing gear on correctly, then he tossed me over his shoulder and took off running to one of the satellite antennas. Those antennas had hoists on them, for when we needed to haul gear and stuff up to the upper levels, to work on them and all. Aubrey hooked the harness onto the hoist, while Joe ran up to the controls and hoisted me up about 6 or 7 feet into the air. And left me there. Swinging in the wind.
Now, me and my INTJ self wasn't really afraid or anything. I knew they'd have to get me down before the LTJG got there, and that was only about an hour away.
I was hanging there, wondering how long they were going to leave me, when the worst thing that could happen happened. I suddenly realized I needed to go to the bathroom. I couldn't get down. I couldn't even cross my legs because of the way the climbing harness was fitted. Fortunately, my shipmates only left me there for a few moments -- just long enough to go get the rest of the watch to come out and laugh at me.
Then they came and got me down, but the memories last a lifetime...Tell me, friends, does that story need to go into the book?
I think yes.
Do you?
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