My timing couldn’t have been better as the phone rang as soon as I walked inside. It was the doctor’s office calling to confirm Elle’s appointment the next morning. For me it was more of a reminder of just how busy it was going to be for me. As we were getting ready for bed Elle got “cold feet“ about leaving the baby with Dolly even though we’d only be gone for about five hours. I was a bit upset when she called Marge, our next door neighbor. It was after 10pm and I couldn’t see any lights on in her unit. I was surprised when she told me that Marge was coming over.
I was still partially dressed but Elle was in her night time ”package“ with just a robe on. I expected her to put more on but she didn’t. When I answered the door I surely wasn’t expecting to see Marge dressed in a filmy type see through robe... and see through I could. She did have on a short top under the robe but I could clearly make out her panties under it and through the robe. As soon as Elle saw her she suggested that I go check on the baby. She knew just what I was looking at. Elle worked something out for Marge to find a couple of reasons to come over and visit Dolly when we were gone. I didn’t feel it was necessary as absolutely nothing had gone wrong since Dolly had started.
Elle’s check up went well. Her only complaint was that she was disappointed that her wetting hadn’t improved to what she’d been hoping for. I sat in on the meeting with the doctor and was glad I did. He asked if she was doing everything on the list he’d given her after the operation and she said she was. I’d read the list and knew she wasn’t. To stay as dry as she could she’d been using the toilet every 15 to 20 minutes and when I told the doctor about it he jumped all over her.
At this point in time the healing portion of the operation was doing as well as could be expected. What Elle wasn’t doing was strengthening her bladder sphincter muscles. He told her, point blank, that if she wanted to go back to where she’d been after her first procedure back when she was still in school it was up to her. He told her that it would be ”messy“ for a while. She was to wait until she could feel that she was wetting herself and then ”squeeze like hell“ to stop it. Then, she was to continue to try and stop right until her bladder was empty... every time. He called it ”muscle memory”. I could see Elle wasn’t all that happy in hearing that. I also knew it would be up to me to make sure she followed the doctor’s instructions.
I had to pick up Geoff, my sailing crew for the weekend, at the ferry at around 3pm. My plan was to go get the boat, with him, and take it to the sailing venue and get it set up for racing on Saturday. This was the place that was on an island and to get there you had to use a small ferry. It was the perfect time to do it as there was no one waiting. When we arrived the Friday races were just finishing up. I went to see how many boats were registered and was pleased to see JR and his father were there. I really liked them and thought that JR had the potential to be a top notch skipper. After Geoff and I set the mast we went to see how JR had done in the race. The fact that we saw him at the lift winch told me that he’d done well. When I caught up with his father he was excited. They’d won.
I’d always gotten along well with JR’s father even though he was quite a bit older than me. He was always asking me things about sailing but talking to me about what I did at work. I didn’t pay much attention to that part as he was the president of a bank and the work I did had nothing to do with banking. He’d also talked with me about colleges as JR was about to head off in September. When JR walked up to us I congratulated him and jokingly told him his winning was over now that I was there. Actually, I was only half kidding. I really wanted to win this event one more time.
On Saturday I was pleasantly surprised at how well Geoff performed especially since he’d only sailed in this type boat once and that was exactly a year earlier. He was well versed in the dynamics of sailing as his father had a 23 foot sailboat with a cabin that he raced. But his father had learned how to race in a small boat and wanted Geoff to do the same. He wanted to know why I did whatever it was that I did be it an adjustment to the sail, rigging or direction on the course. When I’d crewed for JR the previous season I had a hard time getting a dialog going and now I couldn't shut Geoff up. In any case, we managed to eke out a close win with JR right there on our transom as we crossed the finish line. The course for the afternoon race was posted during the lunch break which gave me the opportunity to discuss tactics with Geoff. I used the chart of the waters we were sailing in to illustrate what my plan was. I told him I was going to try and pull off something very daring during the race and if it paid off like I expected it would almost guaranty us the win. It did and we won... by the biggest margin I ever won a race by. It was by so much that the race committee refused to acknowledge us with the usual ceremonial cannon shot for the winner as we crossed the finish line thinking that we’d skipped a course marker. It took corroboration by a course patrol boat that we, indeed, had observed all the marks and had won legitimately.
Finishing as early as we did meant that I’d be able to race the car that night. When I dropped Geoff off at his grandparents I called Danny to let him know. Dolly was already with Elle but I needed him to bring her back to my parents house after the races. Up to this point it had been a great day.
I won’t bore you with the details but my great day continued that night. The preceding weeks of bad luck with the race car ended and I won my first feature event. I started first and led every lap. The perfect way to end the day. Now, all I had to do was win the sailboat race on Sunday and it would make for the perfect weekend.
To be continued...
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