And This Is the Thanks I Get

A Gift from the Chinman's

OK, it's a given that I love this kitten meeces to pieces, to lift a phrase from my Dad.  That said, she can make that very, very difficult, particularly in the wee hours.  The broken pitcher above is what I awoke to this morning.  It was a gift from dear family friends I've known since second grade.   In an act of crazy synchronicity, the breakage occurred because Glenwood knocked the plug from my dinghy off a shelf right into it.  (Yes, I have a dinghy.)  The dinghy was my father's (a Cape Dory named His Martin's Ship Bouncy) and was also given to me by the Chinman's.  My father (Marty) gifted it to them after we wrecked it in a boating accident, and they had the good sense to take it and repair it.  The dink sits in a yard in Marblehead waiting for me to claim it.  The plug is my reminder of it, and of years of wonderful sailing with my family and the Chinman's, and of more wonderful sailing with the Chinman's after my parents' deaths.  It is a beautiful object itself, and quite heavy.

Plug from the HMS Bouncy

I've put away so many things that to have the few left out be targeted is disheartening.  Below is a morning present from months ago.  This was a gift from my brother and his wife when they were living in Singapore.

A Gift from Andrew and Gloria