tadhana: cambridge.

we left oxford mid-morning and had a short run to cambridge where we tied up at the municipal marina. the fixed docks there were quite high and the finger pier was too short to go out through the side door. a lot of people were having problems getting on and off their boats. the MTOA members are an older group. if we were the young blood, you can just imagine.... since we had no neighbor yet on the port side, we dropped the dinghy and went exploring and found a new potential anchorage. that night, a big thunderstorm came in and it was an issue getting consuelo off the boat in the dark and in the rain. i thought she would just do her thing on the dock and come back but she sauntered off. i waited and waited and then decided that waiting was not a good idea. armed with my jacket and umbrella, it didn't make any difference - my nightgown was soaked by the time all was said and done. and consuelo had wandered off in the wrong direction apparently! in any case, getting back on the boat was another thing at low tide. later, in the light of day, i figured it was easier to get her up on the bridge first and then do the spiderman crawl to the side deck from the finger pier and bring her down the steps instead. i know, it's complicated. and where was tom? asleep, of course! i just went back to work after getting consuelo dried up and tucked in bed. she got an extra treat, too.

sunday was a drop-dead gorgeous day and we went biking around town and along the choptank shore. if i had to live in a house again, cambridge would probably be high on the list so long as it was one of those houses up on the hill. what a view some of those homes had! the choptank river is really lovely - i'd have to say that it is hands down our favorite chesapeake river. monday's weather wasn't that great and i spent most of the time at home working while tom helped the other arrivals dock.

the MTOA rendezvous started on tuesday. apparently, we had something like 56 boats show up for it and some other people arrived by car. at breakfast, they ran out of doughnuts -imagine what folks had to say about that! there were several presentations lined up for this three-day event and tom was speaking on the last day ("what's in your toolbox?"). we attended some of the others. i worked in between presentations that i wanted to attend and at night. breakfast, presentations, lunch, presentations, social hour, dinner... it was exhausting. consuelo got me up at 6:30 in the morning and i never got to bed before 1:00 a.m.

on wednesday, just before the social hour at 5:00 p.m., tom went on ahead because i had a few things to attend to. i made the mistake of: 1) deciding to go by bicycle to catch up with him and 2) using tom's bike instead of my own because his was on the outside and easier to get to. it is a citizen folding bike - its wheels are a lot smaller than mine so the balance is different. i had been riding up and down the docks all these days and had been just fine but when i got up on his bike and felt unbalanced, i stopped and put my foot down but the bike was already falling slowly on its side and pushed me to the left, straight into the water, backpack and all. i lost my sunglasses and both my phone (old) and my iPad mini (which i won in a contest) were in the backpack. one of my shoes came off, too. the bike, thankfully, stayed on the dock. it's the first time i've ever fallen into the water in all my years of boating. i suppose it was inevitable that it would happen at some point but believe me, it came as a big surprise. i am not clumsy so i'm not used to falling! i had a helluva time getting up on the neighbor's swim platform - the swim ladder was tied down and my backpack was full of water, weighing me down. good thing i have some upper body strength! in any case, i rushed to dry off my electronic devices, hoping to resuscitate them but really, i think it's a lost cause. the bike was okay so i left it where it lay. then i went to rescue my shoe - had to get back on the neighbor's boat and then into the dinghy which was tied up alongside and used a boathook to get my shoe which was floating just out of reach. i went back home, dried off and changed clothes. and then i picked up the bike and rode it to the dinner venue just like i had intended to in the first place. you know what they say about getting back on the horse. no one would ever have known what happened if i hadn't told tom. there had been no one on the docks at that time and yes, i know how lucky i am that i didn't get seriously hurt. i have a scratch on my left calf and a huge bruise on my right thigh but both were probably from the bicycle. i guess i'll have to get a smartphone now (finally) to replace my dead phone. and the iPad.... well, that hurt. they're not cheap and even though i won mine, after paying the bill at drum point marine, i wasn't thrilled about spending again. oh well, i will have new stuff and i didn't break any bones. just a bruised ego and a couple of superficial injuries. oh, and when tom told our neighbor, merrill, that he might find that his swim platform and deck were wet, his comment was "you didn't pee on it, did you???"

we spent thursday morning quietly at home. i was a little sore from the previous day's adventure and i had to work while tom was preparing the stuff for his presenation which, incidentally, was well received so much so that he was invited to speak at the MTOA rendezvous in daytona, FL in april of next year. that evening was the banquet at a restaurant called jimmie and sook's in downtown cambridge. it was taking a bit long and i was nervous about consuelo - we had forgotten to leave a light on for her - and i didn't want her to wait too long to go outside, but the dinner and awards ceremony and all those things were taking so long that when they announced for certain people to stand up, i stood up with them and then quietly slipped away without anyone (including tom) noticing. i was going to walk back to the marina but then it started to rain so i went back into the restaurant and snagged the poor shuttle bus driver (i knew there was a shuttle bus driver for the old and infirm haha and as i was leaving the restaurant, i happened to see the logo on the man's shirt) and told him that my 14-year-old dog had to go out to pee. you'd be surprised at how accommodating people can be. he even said he'd wait until she was done and bring me back to the restaurant if i wanted. by the time i got home, consuelo was ready to go. she took a few steps and peed right on the dock. sigh.... this is my life now - squeezing work in between tom's social life and my dog needing to go to the bathroom. i'm not complaining - i have a great view - it changes constantly! every day is an adventure! the reality: tom came home soon after (i sent him a text from my computer earlier to let him know i'd escaped from the banquet - you know, since i no longer have a working phone). he went to bed and i went to work.

we were supposed to leave first thing friday morning but it was too windy so i just rolled over and went back to sleep - i needed it. by noon, the wind had subsided a bit so we left for solomons. it has been a truly exhausting week but it was nice to see old friends and make new ones. and i still haven't seen enough of cambridge - it's a great town that's making a nice comeback.