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Part 1: Being..........

It’s mid-September and I am here at last with my hubby enjoying 10 whole days of vacay time here at 10 Cuttin Sage. I have been planning and longing for this trip for most of the year.  Of course, when you plan and long for something for such a long period of time, you tend to build it up to impossible heights of the imagination, heights unreachable by human effort and maintained by human ability.  So, as I imagined lazy afternoons on the beach, drinking wine and eating shrimp salad and grapes by sunset, kayaking into Autumn-touched marshland laden with herons and egrets who take off in a whoosh as we meander by, getting up at sunrise to run 3 miles every day as I train for the Thanksgiving Drumstick Dash to raise money for our local homeless shelter, and reading spiritually uplifting books on the sunny dock each morning as I drink my coffee (after my run, of course), here’s the reality:

The weather is crap.
Day 6 of 10 days and we have still not been to the beach.
The kayaks are still in storage under the house.
The wind is wicked and the rain is now a monsoon.
No clearing in sight from the weather report.
We have had exactly 1 beautiful sunset and that was Day 1.
The dock chairs have been soaking wet every morning.
I am COVERED with mosquito bites because of the rain.
The Doer is doing nothing but Doing. He has fixed every part of this piece of property that has ever needed fixing, including the leaky toilet (what a WASTE of money to have water leaking) which has taken 3 days to do, hung and painted a new screen door for the Boat House, cleaned out clogged gutters, fixed screens, repaired one loose board under the dock (without falling in the canal), changed all the filters, swept out the outdoor shower and hung a new shower curtain in it, and made multiple trips to the hardware store, grocery store, and village dump.  Again, he’s having the time of his life. I’m so very glad one of us is like that!  It can be lonely for me, but look at the accomplishments!

There is always an upside, though.  I really try to look at all the positives in a situation, though that can be hard for me at times.  We have eaten at some wonderful restaurants this week; eaten ice cream and homemade banana bread and cookies (MUST get back to running soon); we have 2 bikes upon which we have ridden many miles during the breaks from rain, done quite a bit of walking (and even running) early in the week when the weather was a bit better. We’ve watched some good Netflix movies, shopped at some of the fantastic local artisan shops (even bought a couple of Christmas gifts) and just sat comatose on the screened porch watching the rise and fall of the water level in the canal and the currents and the rain. I’ve taken numerous naps without guilt and fed some seagulls.  We’ve met some new people on our restaurant expeditions, which is one of my favorite things to do, and had time to simply...... be.

Right now, I hear someone in a Fish Camp cabin practicing the drums in the distance.  I wonder if he has a gig somewhere here on the island?

Tomorrow, we’re getting company and we are preparing for an Ocracoke memory that we will never forget. Stay tuned.......




The trip over by ferry. It was a lovely ride.





Sunset on the harbor at the Jolly Roger Restaurant the first night here. It was beautiful. Jolly Roger is a great place to see the sunset.




This was back on our dock the same evening. So very peaceful here......




So glad to be here even though the weather is not what I had ordered!!!

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