10 June 2011 Poker Face

Those who know me well know I do not have a poker face.  Most of the time, particularly when I don’t have time to mentally prepare a response, my expression completely betrays whatever emotion I am feeling.  As one half of the public face of the Friends of Seguin, I will have to learn to control this to some extent, as I’m pretty sure our visitor took offence this afternoon when I laughed in her face.

I think it’s forgivable- you see I was talking a bit about the lighthouse, and out of the blue she asked me “You don’t really climb up that hill every day do you?”.  Holding steady, I replied “why yes I do, five or six times a day actually”.  The look of horror this precipitated on her face made me lose my composure completely.  It wasn’t the question itself, so much as the fact that she obviously hated the hill so much she was convinced that everyone hated it, and that made me crack up.  And she didn’t even compliment the work I was doing on the trail.  Quite the opposite, when her daughter started asking how to apply for the caretaker job, her mother pointed out I spent my day hauling rocks up the hill, and that there was no television.  As a deterrent.  It takes all kinds I suppose.

Aside from our two visitors (who admitted being overwhelmed by the view, even if underwhelmed by the climb) the day passed as days do.  Taking advantage of the warm & sunny weather, we spent the day mowing grass, weed whacking, hauling rocks, changing oil in the lawnmowers, doing minor repairs on the grounds, and so on.  Now that Amy & I have figured out how to live on Seguin we have begun the process of prioritizing work projects.  We came to the conclusion that as presentation is everything, we need to focus on making the place, particularly the public areas, look sharp.  So the next couple of weeks will be spent cleaning, spreading a little paint, straightening signs, cleaning up beach trash, making the trails accessible, and so forth.  You should all come to visit and critique our work.

I wrapped up the day filling the cistern and plucking at the mandolin.  Predictably, now that I have had a lesson, and have actual exercises to work on instead of just picking at tunes, Amy has driven instrument & I outside, and out of her hearing.  The sun set with a light SSW’ly breeze blowing, mostly cloudy skies, temp around 60F, calm seas, and barometer at 30.04” and rising.