You know, Barbara, your post sparked a memory from my childhood for some reason. I remember Dad mentioning his visit to Guam and looking it up in the encyclopedia. I remember thinking I would never want to go there though I don't know what it was that made me think that. I'm going to have to cogitate on that for a while.

Today dawned bright and sunny. There is a lovely breeze blowing out there. This appears to be the time of year when the plants put on their showy displays. The flame tree in the side yard has blossomed with beautiful brilliant fire engine red flowers. The plants in the planter are sending up lovely yellow and red flowers. Driving to work I drive through patches of the tall grass with the white mare's tails. There are blossoms in places that have heretofore been only green. This is not unlike back home where the leaves are turning bright colors in preparation for winter. Somehow I think the winter here will not emulate the winter back home.

I recently got the storm shutters off the side windows on the house. When I rented this place all the storm shutters were up and we inspected the house by flashlight. The first thing I did on moving in was to take down the shutters I could reach. That left the shutters up on two windows in the kitchen/living room. This weekend I finally got to them and the difference in the room is remarkable.

My neighbor in the other side of the house, Nick, keeps his shutters up. I think they are on the low side of the income spectrum and he probably does it to conserve energy, i.e., reduce solar heating and keep a/c costs down. His dog has learned that I am not a threat and does not bark as much as before. I still will not approach that animal. He looks quite vicious. He spends some of his time leashed in front of the house. The leash is a piece of heavy chain, we're talking car towing heavy chain, big links, attached to four concrete blocks. I think he wears himself out just dragging it around.

The seafarers have found a couple of logs big enough to build a new canoe. One is up in Pago and the other is a huge piece of driftwood washed up on the rocks somewhere. I've seen a picture of it. They need to drag it off into the sea and the Coast Guard has agreed to do that with their cutter. I think they are now looking for a way to move the logs to a work site.

It's tough because they are still $1000 in the hole from buying the Quest. As I understand it they bought her for $5,000 which they've been paying off as best they can. They've been selling T-shirts, asking for grants and now we will be helping out with a craft fair and holding a silent auction. We are having a bunch of hats and more T-shirts made up to sell as well. They look like they'll be pretty snazzy. There will be a picture of the Quest under full sail on the hat and the T-shirt will have a picture of the utt (canoe house) on the front and the Quest on the back. The sleeve will have a reproduction of the navigator's tatoos on it. I'm looking forward to getting some of those to send home as Christmas presents.

It's time for some breakfast and then I'm off to the UOG to find the MARC. This will be a good day.

Oh, and I have a date next week.