5/27/08

5/27/08
12:40 p.m.
Place: Massey Marina

My mastitis is back, but this time it's on the left side.
The weather today is a bit nicer. It's sunny, with big puffy clouds and a slight breeze. The temperature still isn't much above 65 degrees, though.
Our picnic table here is only three or four yards from the water's edge and at breakfast time this morning, we were able to eat while observing wildlife. A turtle came up on the rocks and Jasper tried to feed it Chex cereal, but it didn't seem terribly interested. There was also a muskrat that swam by, very close to shore, while we were watching the turtle.
Yesterday's trip to Dubuque was kind of eventful. First we went to U.P.S. to pick up the jackets I had ordered for the kids, but only Nika's jacket came in. The invoice, that came with the package, said that Ula's size was sold out.
Next, we went to the post office, where we received a letter from Nissan, threatening to reposes the car, since we are late with this month's payment (Jasper's mom is going to be paying off the car for us and then we'll have to pay her back). We also received the coloring books and activity book I ordered from the Vegetarian Resource Center, a catalog of clothing patterns for large women, an x-rated catalog addressed to H.J. Head, and a letter from Human Services saying the children were being turned down for medicaid , because I failed to show up for the appointment (the letter notifying me of the appointment didn't show up in our post office box until the day of the appointment and I was at work that day).
After we left the post office, Jasper went to work. Ula, Nika, and I went to the library and then to the play ground at Jackson Park, where we stayed until Jasper got off work.
While we were at Jackson Park, we were witnesses to an accident. A maroon car with 4 passengers was driving past the park on Iowa Street, at a speed that seemed to me to be a bit fast, and a blue car, driven by a man in his early to mid 20's, ran the stop sign on 16th Street and hit the side of the maroon car while turning onto Iowa Street. A boy of about 10 years old, who had been in the maroon car, was taken away by ambulance with a collar strapped around his neck (the kind they use for whiplash victims).
While all this was going on, the group of teenagers, who had gathered on the sidewalk and tree bank, began yelling insults at an old man and a middle-aged man who looked like father and son. The two men started threatening the kids and a police officer ended up yelling at the men to just go home.
The police officer had to yell at them to leave five or six times before they finally walked away. Even then, the older man yelled something from across the park as they were leaving and a swarm of kids started up the hill after them, but the officer told them to stop and they did.
By the time Jasper got off work, the story of the accident had grown quite a bit among the kids at the park. The man in the blue car had been drinking, one girl told me. I know this was a complete impossibility, because I watched the policeman hand the man back his driver's license and let him drive away. She also told me that the boy who had been taken to the hospital, had a broken neck. She was actually quite insistent that his neck was broken.

5:48 p.m.

I'm sitting here burning wood for no particular reason. Jasper is at work and the children are playing in the tall grass along the river bank.
This is actually a nice quiet place to camp, at least during the week. We'll have to wait and see what weekends are like around here.
The conservation Corp did try to burn the place down earlier today, though. The truck had come through here, gathering up wood and ashes from all the fire pits. They took all this mess and dumped it at the entrance to a stand of trees near our campsite. About an hour later I was getting food for lunch out of the van and noticed that the pile was on fire. It took Jasper about three buckets full of river water to extinguish it. When he left for work, he left the bucket here, just in case. He was afraid that once the wood dried out, the fire would start again, since it was hot embers buried in the ash that started it burning in the first place. The ground in and around that stand of trees is absolutely covered with old dead wood, so it wouldn't take much to set it all on fire. That's where we've been getting all our firewood.
Ula just wet her pants and all of her clean clothes are in the van, in Dubuque with Jasper. I guess she'll have to wear Nika's dirty pants from yesterday.

8:06 p.m.
My fire is still burning. As a matter of fact, I just finished adding quite a bit of wood to it, so this is the biggest and hottest it's been.
Both children are now asleep.
There have been several small motor boats coming into the marina for the night.

8:45 p.m.

Ula was just awakened by a nightmare, but she's back to sleep now.
The sun has set and I have built up the fire again.
It's becoming very quiet here. The birds have all settled down for the night and the only sound is the crackling of my fire.
As soon as I wrote that last line a dog started barking and a cow began to moo.

9:20 p.m.

Now I'm getting a little scared. I just heard something slide down the hillside about 50 yards in front of me. I have been staring at the fire so long that I'm pretty much night blind, so I couldn't see anything. Oh well, I hear the volkswagon coming.