{"id":1860,"date":"2016-12-11T17:38:31","date_gmt":"2016-12-12T01:38:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erikdolson.com\/?p=1860"},"modified":"2016-12-11T18:18:21","modified_gmt":"2016-12-12T02:18:21","slug":"holiday-to-remember","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erikdolson.com\/?p=1860","title":{"rendered":"Holiday to Remember"},"content":{"rendered":"

We had game hen instead of turkey for Thanksgiving, and celebrated a day late. But we gave thanks. It was a beautiful day in a beautiful city. We were together, living on a boat in Victoria Harbor for the winter, getting the boat ready for a three month voyage to Alaska next summer.\u00a0<\/span>It could be a lot worse.<\/span><\/p>\n

As we’d soon find\u00a0out.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHarbor Authority is giving away Christmas lights to the first people who come to the office! And they\u2019re giving a prize for the best decorated boat!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Her\u00a0enthusiasm told me Irish was not going to be denied on this one. My effort was weak.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOh, babe \u2026 Christmas is not my favorite holiday.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s one of mine. Oh, c\u2019mon. They\u2019re free.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

We picked up two of strings of free lights, and then rented a car and went to Costco for four long strings of blue lights to string around the hull, and to Home Depot for eight strings of white lights to create the outline of a sail. There were other things we needed, of course, like groceries and a laundry cart and a dehumidifier for living on the water with the hatches closed against winter temperatures.<\/span><\/p>\n

But I teased\u00a0about the slippery slope of getting something for free.<\/span><\/p>\n

So our blue boat was ready for Christmas in the harbor below the Empress Hotel\u00a0in a\u00a0city offering centuries of architecture, fun\u00a0restaurants around every other corner, a new and well-equipped gym nearby, a quality grocery store and laundromat just up the hill, and fine ship’s chandler a healthy walk away.<\/span><\/p>\n

Three days later, Irish was told by her employer in Minnesota that her \u201cposition was being eliminated.\u201d Immediately. Her work phone was wiped remotely.<\/span><\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t a huge surprise. The company wasn\u2019t really set up for remote employees. New hires for similar positions had to move to Minnesota. Her boss had been making it more difficult for Irish to telecommute, and expressed \u201cshock\u201d she was in Victoria BC, a \u201cforeign country.\u201d They did not respond when she told them we\u2019d pay any additional expenses for internet or phone.<\/span><\/p>\n

That silence was my tip-off.\u00a0 <\/span>There was something toxic about that company culture. When her boss quit complaining, I knew the end was coming and wondered, to myself, if they\u2019d found out about her Parkinson\u2019s Disease. Irish had let it slip to a coworker a couple of weeks before.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou were not happy working for them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI know, but still \u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Getting fired leaves a sense of rejection, even if unfounded. Sitting in front of a computer fearfully looking for work, or going over and over and over what she may have done wrong, would not be good for her soul. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s go for a walk,\u201d I said. We\u2019d do some Christmas shopping for the kids, instead. She had options. We had options.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThank you,\u201d Irish told me about mid-day.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor what?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor being here with me, for bringing me here to Victoria, for everything.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThanks not needed, but you\u2019re welcome.\u201d She was teaching me, slowly, to accept appreciation.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the next four days we settled into a new\u00a0routine, talking about jobs, insurance, how to respond to an absurdly low severance offer, about\u00a0lawyers, options, Alaska. She told me to stop restringing the Christmas lights on the boat. We\u2019d been hit by a\u00a0storm that loosened some of the things I’d kludged together, and\u00a0I have a bit of obsessive\/compulsive urge not to let something alone I think could be a little better.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut they\u2019re not quite right.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey are just fine. We can do it differently next year,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

So I would tweak the lights when she wasn\u2019t looking. I reduced the number of cords needed by connecting the strings together, changed the layout of the white lights a bit, to mimic waves off the bow.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was a week to the day after\u00a0Thanksgiving, and we\u2019d finished dinner. I went up on deck to secure a lazy jack line that had been banging the mast when the wind came up, making it difficult to sleep. Irish said she\u2019d do the dishes.<\/span><\/p>\n

True to form, I was monkeying with the Christmas lights when I heard a sound, like someone hit a pumpkin with a stick. Irish screamed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOH MY GOD! ERIK! OH MY GOD!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDid you drop something on your foot?\u201d I called back.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOH MY GOD!!! ERIK!! ERIK!!! OH OH OH!<\/span><\/p>\n

I dropped the flashlight and hand-full of shock cords and ran to the cockpit. Irish was crumpled in the small space between a cockpit bench and the helm wheel. She was screaming, holding her face.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOH GOD. IT HURTS! IT HURTS! I CAN\u2019T SEE!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It was cold and blowing. I lifted her up and into the shelter that surrounded the cockpit. Her\u00a0screams had become moans, but incoherent, \u201coh oh oh god oh oh Erik oh god oh god oh oh \u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Blood was streaming from between fingers of the hand she pressed to the right side of her face. I leaped down into the galley and got a clean smooth cloth towel, not terry cloth, and went back up.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPress this against your face,\u201d I said.<\/span><\/p>\n

When she pulled her hand away, there was a pool of blood where her eye should have been. Gashes on her cheek formed\u00a0creeks of blood down the side of her face.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cStay right\u00a0here. Don\u2019t move.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOH ERIK! OH OH OH! I can\u2019t see, IT HURTS! MAKE IT STOP!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I grabbed my cell phone and called 911, tried to be calm as I told them we had an emergency, serious emergency, where we were. The dispatcher was very good, very calm, said help was already on its way, asked me about the injury, where it happened, how it happened. I gave them the code to the gate that led to our berth\u00a0in the harbor.<\/span><\/p>\n

I had Irish in my arms, she moaned incoherently, except for begging me to \u201cmake the pain stop.\u201d Then my phone rang.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSir, the paramedics can\u2019t find you. Where are you exactly?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHave them look at the boats in the harbor below the Empress Hotel!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I jumped into the cabin below and began pulling and pushing the plug for the Christmas lights in and out of the socket. Our mast stretched 64 feet above the water. The white lights ran to the top. The bottom of the lit triangle of “sail” was close to 50 feet from bow toward the stern.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve got you,\u201d the dispatcher said after a few seconds.<\/span><\/p>\n

I stayed\u00a0below and put all her medications in a bag, an extra set of clothes, anything else I could think of, turned off the diesel cabin heater and the fresh water supply. When she cried out I went back up and took her in my arms.<\/p>\n

“They are almost here, sweetheart, they are on the dock. I can see them.”<\/p>\n

“Oh God oh, oh oh, it hurts, I can’t see, it hurts, oh oh oh \u2026 “<\/p>\n

Three paramedics worked\u00a0their way down the ramp with a gurney and were soon on board. One sat with me and asked what happened while the other two determined the best course of action. One asked the other, \u201cIs that her cheek bone?\u201d before they put her in a neck support collar and applied bandages to slow the bleeding. <\/span><\/p>\n

When they were ready, I followed the gurney as they wheeled Irish\u00a0up the ramp. They transported us, with lights and siren, to the hospital that serves Victoria as a trauma center.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We had game hen instead of turkey for Thanksgiving, and celebrated a day late. But we gave thanks. It was a beautiful day in a beautiful city. We were together, living on a boat in Victoria Harbor for the winter, getting the boat ready for a three month voyage to Alaska next summer.\u00a0It could be a lot worse.<\/p>\n

As we’d soon find\u00a0out.<\/p>\n

\u201cHarbor Authority is giving away Christmas lights to the first people who come to the office! And they\u2019re giving a prize for the best decorated boat!\u201d<\/p>\n

Her\u00a0enthusiasm told me Irish was not going to \u2026 Read more\u2026 → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[373],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-second-star-to-the-right"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3mcOb-u0","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erikdolson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erikdolson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erikdolson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erikdolson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erikdolson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1860"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/erikdolson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1870,"href":"https:\/\/erikdolson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1860\/revisions\/1870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erikdolson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erikdolson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erikdolson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}