ADAPTING... hanging on (Part 97b)


I was still asleep when Elle poked me to tell me that she had changed her mind about taking the kids and all their things to her mother that day. Not having to leave until Monday afternoon she wanted to spend most of Monday with the kids, especially the baby. It was probably the fact that I was still half asleep that I ”snapped”. That and all the other little changes that she’d interjected during the week. In any case I sat up and let her have it “big time“. Basically I told her that I didn’t care. I told her that the two facts that she needed to know from me was that, one: I was leaving to go race the sailboat at 11am and would be home around 6pm and, two: I’d be going to work on Monday at 7:45am and would be home to take her to the hospital before 5pm. If she wanted my help in getting the kids and all their things to her mother I could do it then or I could do it after I got home from sailing. If that didn’t fit her plans she was free to do it any way she could... and I took my clothes and walked out of the room.

My yelling had woken the kids but I walked right past their room. I got dressed and went outside for a walk to ”cool off”. I’m pretty sure that was the first time I’d ever “unloaded” on her like that and I felt a bit remorseful about it. But, I’d just plain had it with her inability to make a decision and to stick with it. I came back within the hour (about 8am) and dressed the older two kids and fed them breakfast. Elle was in our bedroom and feeding the baby. One part of me wanted to go down and apologize but the other part said to stand my ground and to let her tell me what she wanted to do. She didn’t. I left to go race without her or the kids.

Since I’d fully expected to be bringing the kids and their belongings I’d told Norma that it would save time if she’d meet me at my parents house. When I made the turn into the driveway I saw a group of people, including Norma, standing in the neighbor’s driveway. She was with not only her son but also her aunt (Ali) and they were talking to Jeanette and Karen (the Summer neighbors to my parents). I went over to join them and was told that both of them actually knew Ali. I couldn’t believe it. Their mother had been a customer of the store that Ali now owned and remembered seeing Ali there when they were younger. Ali piped up that Jeanette was one of her current customers and pointed out that the outfit her son had on had come from her store... and promptly “pushed” me to bring my family in as well. Typical Ali!

When Norma and I headed for the sailing club she told me that she had brought her son down to play with Jeannette’s son. They had gotten together during the week and played well with each other. Ali had tagged along to, what else, do a selling job on Jeanette, not knowing of the existing connection. I’m sure I made some sort of comment about Ali’s propensity for “selling”.

I could see Norma was excited (and nervous) about sailing that day. When she heard that there had been races the previous day she apologized. I told her I wasn’t able to either and for some reason I felt I needed to tell her that Elle was having an operation on Tuesday and that I had been making preparations for her stay in the hospital. As soon as I started I was afraid she would ask what Elle’s problem was but we were turning into the parking lot at the club so cut the conversation short.

It didn’t take long to discover that the “discussion” concerning adding the new class sailboat (Windmill) was continuing. There were now three of them on the beach and their proponents were very vocal. The dissidents (people who sailed the same class boat as I did) were in the process of readying their boats to race but were shooting “zingers” at the others. The father of JR (the young lad who had done so well in his first year of racing the previous Summer) spoke up and called everyone together. He was the president of a local bank and was well respected. Basically he called for a “truce“ reminding everyone that the purpose of the sailing club was to promote sailing and not one class of boat over another. That pretty much ended the discussion.

Norma didn’t have a clue as to what had been going on. On our way out to the starting area I proceeded to enlighten her pointing out some of what I thought were negatives points on a Windmill sailboat. It didn’t matter to her though. We had a nice moderate breeze for the first race and although we didn’t finish all that well I was pleased with how she handled her duties. The wind was ”freshening“ (getting stronger) between races and I spent some time working with Norma on how to get her feet and ankles under the hiking straps properly when we changed direction. It was imperative that she do it properly because if she missed it could cause us to tip over.

One of the things I’d pointed out to Norma about the Windmill was that the deck was a lot narrower that the one on our boat. That meant that when the boat was heeling (tipping) the waves could wash right into the cockpit. We’d rounded the course for the first time and then I saw this large dark green object floating just ahead of us. It was one of the new Windmill sailboats, turned turtle (totally up side down). Fortunately, the boats that follow the racers around the race course had picked up the two sailors who had been in the boat. I don’t remember just what i said to Norma at that time but I do know that my attitude was definitely in the ”I told you so“ mode.

I shouldn’t have been so smug because it was shortly after that when I had to take an evasive action to avoid hitting a competitor who had the right of way (Very strict rules in sailing!). We had to change direction and to do so Norma had to change sides. Because it was so fast and she was so new to the boat she didn’t get her feet connected to the strap properly. I distinctly remember seeing her feet fly by my eyes as she flipped overboard.

To be co