2025 January: Library Free Concerts

 13 January 2025

Today, being the Monday after the Celtic Festival, we relaxed to recover from all the work we put into putting it up and tearing it down. Clark walked up and took advantage of nice weather and the marina pool, but I basically sat on the boat and stared at the walls. I had no energy to even put on my swimsuit and walk up to the pool. 

14 January 2025

Tuesdays the library provides art instruction, which I attended today. The instructor insists on having all instruction somehow revolve around watercolor painting. I have no talent in the area and no interest in improving. Consequently, I brought my own colored pencils to class in case I wanted to do my own "thing". Today was surprisingly interesting as we learned how to draw stick figures!

Action Stick Figures 

Ev's Watercolor Stick Figures

After class, I did not want to walk back to the boat because I planned to attend the Resin Jewelry class in the afternoon. In between the two sessions at the library, I sat in a friend's car with her and chatted.  We had both brought some food to eat, so we snacked and talked for the 90 minutes between classes. It hardly makes sense to walk back to the boat as, by the time I get back, I need to turn around and walk back to the library again. Talking with my art friend, Pat, was a fun way to pass the time. 

Resin Class is crazy. Most of the tubes of resin, that I get a hold of anyway, appear to be empty. No one seems to want to throw them away, so it is very frustrating. I had decided to make leaf earrings and wanted green. I ended up using a mix of colors just to have enough resin to fill the mold. Regardless of the frustrations, I was happy with my end results. 

The class is 45 minutes long, so I had to work fast with the materials I could get my hands on. I did okay. It is free, so I should not complain too loudly or really at all!

Gold glitter in center of green leaves
plus a few more bits of resin jewelry I made

Today turned out to be a full day of activity. I had hoped to return a novel to my friend, Deanne, at art class, but I did not see her there. So, I biked to Banana Bay Marina (with Clark) to give her back her heavy, 650-page book. Clark and I had decided to bike to Winn Dixie for a few food items, so it was basically on the way. While there, she reminded me that the MTOA meeting was this evening at 5:00. I had completely forgotten about it. At least Clark had remembered. 

I had a relatively short list of needs from the food store, so by 4:00 we were back on the boat and preparing to go to the MTOA gathering at 5:00 at the city park across the street. MTOA is the Marine Trawler Owners Assoc. We never seem to be in the right place at the right time to attend most of their gatherings up and down the east coast. However, it is quite convenient to walk across to the park here in Marathon.

Mid-December I decided to wordsmith my "Anchor Abandoned Ship" blog story and submit it as an article for the "Turtle Times" MTOA newsletter. I had been asked to submit a story on boating travels once before and thought the anchor incident might prove to be another interesting read for MTOA participants. 

At the meeting tonight, I got a surprise. I received a turtle pin and a scribe pin for my contribution(s) to the newsletter. I now have more than one turtle lapel pin as I received one for my prior submission as well. It is so nice to know that my writing is appreciated. Apparently, my anchor article missed the deadline for the December issue, but they included it anyway. I have received a few compliments on the story.

MTOA Pins of Recognition

16 January 2025

On occasion, the Marathon library has free concerts demonstrating the talents of traveling performers. At 1 o'clock today, Sean Gaskell played a 21-string instrument called a Kora. In between songs he explained the construction of the instrument, provided some information of the African people who build and play these instruments, and talked about his path on learning how to build and play this complex harp-like instrument.

As one can see from the picture below with Sean, we had to wear warm clothes for the walk to the library due to the windy weather.

Clark, Sean, and Ev
at Kora Concert

Sean explained that the bottom of the instrument is a dried gourd. Cow hide is very tightly secured to the gourd. Posts are passed through the gourd, and cowhide strips are woven around the center post and used for tuning.

Sean Gaskell explaining Kora construction

Strings are made from different
weight fishing line for high and low notes

This rawhide rings are pushed up or down
the post to tune the instrument.

Finished product - played 2-handed
with 11 strings per side

The hole in the side of the instrument is traditionally where the musician receives payment for their work. The African Kora musicians are the keepers of their history. When a song is performed related to someone's long-passed relatives, that person is expected to put money in the Kora as a tribute to the song and their ancestors. 

Concert attendee putting money in the Kora

This instrument comes from The Gambia area of Africa on the western side of the continent.

17 January 2025

For the second time this week I was feeling sluggish and did not feel like getting off the boat. We had rainy weather and cloud cover that convinced me to stay put. However, at 4 o'clock Clark said he was going up to the pool area to hear "Johnny Live" perform and asked me to join him. I declined so he went on his own. He stopped by to say hello to John and then, just before 5:00, he left to head to the library to hear today's free concert.  

Marc Berardo and Grace Morrison performed today.

Clark liked Grace Morrison's humorous, story-telling songs and came back having bought two of her CDs. 

Marc Berardo

Grace Morrison

After the library concert, Clark stopped back at the pool bar to listen to "Johnny Live" until he finished his set. Finally, at 7:00 Clark texted me "on my way back". I put dinner on the table in anticipation of his arrival. By the time he arrived back at the boat, I had already finished eating. Naturally, he got distracted along the way. John was taking down the equipment and said he'd be there another 45 minutes. Clark asked, "45!!?". John told him, yes, 30 minutes to talk to you and the rest to load up. Turned out, he had some news to tell Clark.

18 January 2025

Today, being Saturday, I considered the items on the Farmer's Market produce list and decided to pass. I did not feel like racing there for 9:00 only to find that what I most wanted was already gone. Instead I convinced Clark that we needed to go to Publix to stock up on some essentials. By the time I was done there, we had no more room in the backpacks or bike bags. Clark asked if I wanted to stop at the Farmer's Market on the way back to see what they had left, but with a full load, I did not bother to stop. 

19 January 2025

With Clark playing in the church band, we have to leave reasonably early to bike there. We arrived slightly before 10:00. Service starts at 11:00. He practices in the time before service starts with the other members of the band. I generally find a quiet place somewhere and either read or work on the NYT Wordle, etc. We are getting to know a lot of folks via the church, so I chatted with various people as well. 

Service ran a bit longer than usual today, so it did not end until sometime after noon. Then we adjourned to the eating area where some food had been set out for us to enjoy. I thought we would be eating our regular lunch on the boat sometime soon, so I did not partake of the offerings. That was a mistake as, at 1:30, we were still sitting there talking with various folks. Clark had met a couple with an airplane and was gung ho on that conversation. Meanwhile I was catching up with our friend Zoe. 

Suddenly, I realized that I was getting light-headed from lack of food and told Clark we had to leave immediately. I grabbed a roll from the kitchen to hold me over until I could get "real" food. I was afraid I would faint on the bike ride back to the boat if I didn't get something in me.

After lunch on the boat, Clark went off to work on a friend's boat to look at, you-guessed-it, a battery issue. I decided that it was a lovely day to jump in the pool. I found fellow boaters at the pool and chatted with them until we all decided it was time to call it quits and dry off. 

The Buffalo Bills seem to be extremely popular with boaters here. Many folks planned to hang out at the bar to watch the playoff game together. They asked the marina to turn on the bar television and keep the drinks coming. I had no interest in hanging out at the bar, but I was interested in a good football game. 

When the game started, I turned on the television in the salon on the boat to watch. It did not disappoint in excitement. Football in the snow makes for an interesting, slippery football game. Phew! The Bills won the game! So happy for my son who has been a Bills fan all his life.

Clark disappeared into our stateroom where he found a movie to watch. Fortunately, we have a setup where we can watch different shows on the two televisions. We generally try to come to an agreement on something we can watch together, but I guess football was not getting on Clark's list tonight.