It all started when My Captain was flinging grass seed in the rain up a very muddy hill. He is an aggressive grass seed slinger, apparently, the mud was slick, and bada bing, bada boom, he was ass-over-teakettle down the hill.
I didn’t actually see it happen, but by the way he limped into the house, still clutching his 50 pound bag of seed in a vise-like grip, with mud on his body from stem to stern, I could easily re-play the scenario in my head. He hit the deck. And by hit the deck, I mean HIT THE DECK.
And very likely ripped something in his shoulder.
This was unfortunate for a multitude of reasons, as you can imagine. 1) He’s a firefighter/paramedic. He does USE those long, beautifully muscular arms of his quite a bit. 2) He was planning to begin digging the pits for the concrete bases to the posts (that will hold up the new roof for our future patio) the next day. A bum shoulder cannot dig through Maryland clay.
Enter Connor.
A new high school graduate, Connor is also an EMT and budding firefighter, and is always willing to work. So we hired him the next day to do the hard, shoulder-wrenching digging while My Captain built the concrete forms.
We love Connor.
But Connor isn’t always upfront about his personal life and we found out later in the morning that he had agreed to work with My Captain on what turned out to be his 18th BIRTHDAY! How did we find out? Facebook. Unbelievable. The kid couldn’t just mention it. Nope. I have to find out via his Mama on Facebook. It’s a strange new world, this Facebook.
We all decided that the sailing expedition we had planned on the following day would be something Connor might enjoy as a special treat. It also made sense to bring him along to save My Captain from further wrenching his shoulder by pulling lines and raising Jibs.
So he came along to Annapolis to meet our dear friend, and fellow firefighter/paramedic, Cupcake.
His first time on a sailboat, Connor took to it like a fish to, er, water. He watched Varmint, a veteran student of the Cupcake School of Sailing, at the helm…
while Cupcake (who honestly is an international sailboat regatta champion) …
gave him the low-down on how things work on his boat.
And Connor learned that regatta champions love to sail FAST and Crooked.
(IE, heeling.)
They LIKE to have their boats blowing sideways in the wind so everyone has to hang off the opposite side. Like this.
And this.
Despite this, we convinced Connor to try the helm while Cupcake instructed. Although to be honest, in this picture, Cupcake looks like he is teaching how to play Air Guitar.
Connor was a little hesitant, as might be expected,
…but soon he got used to the feel of the rudder.
We introduced him to an entirely new world today. All because My Captain is an Aggressive Grass Seed Slinger. Crazy connections in this world. Crazy.
And My Captain? The one with what may likely be a torn rotator cuff?
Pouted.
Mama Boe 