Holding Pattern

Today is Cappy's BIG 29th birthday (50th). I waited all day in hopes of being able to take him out one of his gifts that I picked up the other day, since he already opened the birthday present last week that I had 'hidden' in his seabag. Well, here it is after nine o'clock at night and it doesn't look good. As I'm typing this, he's in the process of 'doing a good deed'. Someone else's towboat is mired down to the point of being stuck and not able to move, so he's got lines attached to the other vessel so he can pull him out. What a guy. That's the kind of thing that makes me proud of him. He's always looking for an opportunity to help someone. He often does so at the expense of himself, which he says gives him the biggest blessing; "otherwise it aint a blessing now is it?" and "isn't that whatcha 'posed to do??" What a good man. I hear him talking over the mic to the other captain, saying, "I'm easin' it kinda slow here; I don't wanna scratch my pretty paint job". It's sailor thing; them taking pride in how bright and 'pretty' their boats look, and they take great pains to make 'her' look good. We used to have pictures of other boats he drove until our computer crashed and 'ate' all of them. As of yet, we still haven't taken pictures of his current towboat. So that's what he's doing; easing and moseying along, helping others and eventually heading along the Intercoastal Waterway and up into one of the bayous where the oil companies have gathering facilities with holding tanks, where the crude oil he collects in his huge barge is to be delivered. Presently, I hear the other captain laughing his head off; Cappy has a way of making people laugh. They jokingly call each other "Pirates". Cappy just told the guy, too, when thanked, "Hey, thank YOU; you gave me the opportunity to help somebody." As it is, he's already doing double duty today, because one of the guys on his boat got off the boat yesterday to go be with his 4 year old son, who had surgery this morning. We got the report this evening that, so far, the little fellow is doing just fine. He had to have his tonsils, adenoids taken out, and tubes put in his ears.

I talked with my daughter, Sookie, whose husband is in the hospital, that he's getting well, having had an extremely bad viral infection, which affected his brain. We're just waiting on him, now, too, to get back to his old self.

I didn't get to Thibodaux to see if there's any more news about Brad regaining consciousness, but called across the street as soon as I saw lights on over there. Mr. Jude said that Brad remains the same, but there's also no negative news to report, so that is indeed, still, good news. We are optimistic that he will awaken at any moment. His mother's birthday (and her twin sister, Marcella) is next week, so we are hoping for the best birthday gift God could ever give to them.

So, now it's late, and today I waited all day to see if the dawgs and I could somehow manage to connect with Cappy to take him a book he wanted for his birthday; and alas, it just wasn't to be. The book, written by Jimmy Buffett, the famous 'balladeer', whom Cappy truly respects is appropriately titled, "A Pirate Looks at Fifty", I also found a pirate pen that lights up to go with it. It'll wait.