Day 6 at the Dune Shack, Friday October 29th, 2010

Day 6

Beautiful crisp fall sunrise. A quintessential Edward Hopper Cape Cod morning, I half expected to see one of his thick-armed female figures staring out the window of the Margo-Gelb Shack in the distance.

I love it here. The mornings are by far the best moments of the day. They feel valuable, but not precious the way a weekend morning back home does – those are always dotted with errands and brunch plans and work to catch up on. Never enough time to feel truly caught up.

Here I wake up with the sun and have the expanse of the day before me. Mornings in abundance.

It’s been so mild that I haven’t had to use the wood burning stove all week. This has been a blessing.

I have a windburn on my face from painting at the lighthouse yesterday. I think it’s a windburn. Or maybe I am developing that ruddy complexion people have here? I can wear my contact lenses all day here without any discomfort. My eyes feel constantly enveloped by a cloud of salt air.

Walked over the dune to the beach this morning and saw a seagull frantically running back and forth with a SEVERELY broken wing. Can seagulls dislocate their wing?? Because that is what it looked like. Needless to say, the bird was freaked and it wouldn’t let me get near it. What happens to it now? This afternoon I revisited the same part of the beach and it was still there pacing around like mad. Sad to watch. Really sad, actually.

Can’t get over how many seals inhabit the water here. The population has really exploded. Earlier this summer one was documented being killed by a great white shark near the shack. I read that it was because the conservation efforts to replenish the seals have worked too well. They are eating too many fish and attracting sharks.

It’s about 8 o’clock at night as I write this, and of course very dark.

Because I’m here in this creepy ass shack and because it’s almost Halloween, the radio stations here insist on playing Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” “Werewolves of London,” and most frightening of all: THE X-FILES THEME

If they play “Tubular Bells” from the The Exorcist I don’t know what I’ll do.

NPR is not much better. Unfortunately for me there is a pledge drive going on which is insufferable to listen to. When the pledge drive isn’t going on the programming alternates between Massachusetts gubernatorial and senate candidate debates (these people are exaggerating their accents for effect, RIGHT???) and macabre Halloween stories. When it’s just me, and the wind against the shingles, and the coyotes howling in the dunes, I could use something more upbeat.

Despite these minor complaints, which are not real complaints, another reason I like being here is that it gives me the opportunity to feel brave -- an emotion that is maybe too uncommon in my everyday life.