On Sinks, Scars, and Storms

CAOS is officially understaffed. Between people leaving permanently, going on vacation, and checking out sick, we're scrambling for people to cover programs and activities. As a result, I've been pulling a lot of overtime lately with one to two days a week of "triple shifts" - 14 hour days that juuuuusssst keeeeeeep goooooiiiiinnnnnnggggg. You get the idea. Between that and our already-standard 6-day workweeks, we're a bit tired here, and definitely ready for the kids to go back to school.

So I came home from work yesterday evening and wandered into the bathroom to find this:


This little guy had been living in our room for over a week before he made the mistake of jumping into the sink. After taking a few photos for posterity, I herded him up my arm to my elbow, where he perched as I took him downstairs and out into the yard.

Not all animals have been so understanding, however. Last week, for example, I was snorkeling the North Reef as part of a program when the local nurse shark came around to investigate. Now it should be noted that nurse sharks are about as harmless as they get - their mouths are about 6 inches by 2 inches at full gape, and they don't have any teeth. We see and swim with this particular individual almost every day and have never had a problem with her. So last week I was waiting for the last guest to get on the pontoon boat so we could go to our final stop of the tour, so I decided to dive down and hang out with the shark. I pet her on the head and body as I always do, then watched as she turned and swam away. I turned around to climb into the boat and saw a chunk of squid floating down from the surface of the water. The boat captain and captain-in-training had been throwing the squid left over from our stingray visit into the water, and for some reason I felt the need to reach up and grab this one piece. That's when the shark darted out from behind me and snatched the squid. Unfortunately, she also snatched a few fingers along with it. She bit down, realized very quickly that I was not food, and spit my hand out. After seeing a little bit of blood flowing out of my fingers underwater, my first thought honestly was, "Waaaaait a minute... I thought you guys didn't have teeth!" Sure enough, one of her non-teeth had done a little slicing and I now have a very small half circle mark on the side of the knuckle on my left ring finger. It's actually healing so well that I don't think I'll even have a scar, which is somewhat unfortunate because there goes any cool scar-related bragging rights I may have had. Just think - with that one little nip, I can now say I've been bitten by a shark AND I've survived a shark attack! Okay, that last one is a little bit of an exaggeration, but I could probably get by on a technicality. It should be noted that I don't hold a grudge toward the shark at all. In fact, I swam with it again the very next day, joking to the boat captain that, "Uh-oh... she's back for seconds. She's acquired a taste for human flesh!"



So after that week or two of excitement, it's nice to have a few days off coming my way. Granted, those days off will conveniently coincide with the arrival of Hurricane Dean, but I'm sure I'll get plenty of rest as it passes... right? So yeah, we've got a storm on the way. At this point it's forecast to be a Category 3 or 4 when it hits us head-on at about 2am Monday morning. I've already penciled it into my day planner. I'll be spending the next couple of days getting my own things ready along with helping to empty out the relatively flimsy CAOS house and put all our stuff in the Big House. With preparations taking up most of my time, plus the fact that all power will be cut a few hours before the storm hits, I probably won't be able to give any more advance updates, and I guarantee I won't be able to give any updates via internet for quite a while after the storm hits. For updates after the storm passes the island, I would refer you to my parents, one of whom in particular will probably be making good friends with the people staffing the Winchester-Swann hurricane call center hotline. In the meantime, sit tight, don't worry, and I promise I'll take plenty of pictures of my little hurricane adventure.