If you’re just tuning in, CLICK HERE to start at the beginning. 🙂
This monster was actually moving away from us, East into Tampa Bay. We were able to sit on the stern (back) of the boat, and watch the almost-continuous lightning. It looked like a cosmic nuke had gone off. It was AWESOME! I might put this up for sale on dreamstime.com.
Last night, one of the boats on our dock got struck by lightning. No injuries and we haven’t heard about any damage. We think the owner was out of town. They obviously have a lightning protection system on board. I just happened to be looking outside when it hit. Man oh man, those lightning bolts look REALLY big when they strike that close! Even though I saw the lightning, the instant thunder aftershock made me jump about a foot off the bed. Then, I had to go change my underwear…
Angela Hoy is a publisher, a blogger, and the author of 19 books. She lived on dirt her entire life before her family gave away almost everything they owned, and moved onto a 52-foot Irwin Center Cockpit Ketch. They all live, work, and play on board full-time.
Angela is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, a free source of paying markets for freelance writers and photographers. If you want to write for magazines, websites, businesses, or others, check it out. It’s free! Her publishing services company, BookLocker.com, has published more than 9,000 books over the past 18 years. If you want to publish a book, she’d love to hear from you! Abuzz Press is BookLocker’s hybrid publishing company. And, PubPreppers.com offers services to authors who are having their books published elsewhere.
If you’re just tuning in, CLICK HERE to start at the beginning. 🙂
So, I was sitting here working on the boat yesterday. Just answering emails. Pretty mundane. After a morning of errands, grocery shopping, and Mason having a friend over for some gaming, I was immensely enjoying the peace and quiet until…BAM!
The boat went from not moving at all to lurching harshly to port (the left). It bounced back, and then lurched again. My eyeballs darted to the port (window) and huge, dark clouds were on the horizon.
We all jumped up, and spilled over each other to get outside. Our Managing Editor, Brian, quickly went to work checking all the lines. The wind was deafening as it screamed through the rigging on our boat, as well as everyone else’s. ALL our neighbors were outside their boats as well, scanning the horizon. We were all looking for the same thing. A funnel cloud. Thankfully, there wasn’t one.
Brian yelled over the clanging, “Remove the port cockpit line! Toss it to me!” Mason (age 13) took the line from me, and gave it to Brian, who expertly lassoed it around the piling on the starboard side, and then quickly wound the line around the starboard cockpit winch.
To hear the wind whistling through the rigging, go to the 0:15 mark on THIS VIDEO.
No Tan Lines (“Tanny”) was pitching like crazy! There were whitecaps inside the marina by that point. I carefully walked to the bow, and grabbed two bumpers that weren’t tied down. I tossed them to Mason in the cockpit. Max (age 17) was outside saying, “Man, it’s gonna be a bad one! What do you want me to do?” I had him toss some loose items down the companionway stairs. We’d deal with those later.
Then, we waited for the rain to begin. It’s fun to stand on the stern of the boat, listening to the sounds of rigging under attack, feel the wind render your hairspray completely useless, and wait for the first big blops (big drops = BLOPS!) to slam you in the face before you all race down below below, and close the companionway door.
We all did that, which was fun, and we then got settled for a BIG, exciting ride! For about half an hour, Tanny was beaten up pretty good. It felt like it had when we had the mast out.
And, a little while later, Max yelled, “We’re hitting something!”
Brian tossed his laptop to the side, and was up and off the boat lickety split. The wind had shifted again and the anchor was hitting the dock box. He adjusted one line, and then jumped back on the boat. I’d run up to the bow to help…but he didn’t need my help. We both dove back into the boat, and dried off as best we could. There was no point in me changing clothes. I knew I might have to do that all over again.
And, I did. Max hollered again. “Something sounds really weird!”
I told Brian to keep working. I’d handle this one. I went to the v-berth. Yes, it was definitely a weird zip, clang, zip clang noise. Hmmm. I opened the door again, got hit in the face by wind and rain, crawled out of the cockpit, and made my way to the bow. The halyard had come loose, and was sliding up and down (and slapping) some metal rigging. I tightened the halyard line on the mast (praying we wouldn’t get struck by lighting at that exact moment), raced back to the cockpit, and trailed a river of water into the salon once again.
My hair was matted to my head. My mascara was running. My dressed was soaked. And, I was having the time of my life! 🙂
A few minutes later, one of the ACs stopped running (no clue why) and we lost our Internet (that’s still out, too, but I have wifi hotspot on my phone so I’m still online).
It rained for another two hours and the wind diminished considerably during that time. Our neighbor posted the highest wind speed during the storm. It was 45 knots. Whoo hoo!
Angela Hoy is a publisher, a blogger, and the author of 19 books. She lived on dirt her entire life before her family gave away almost everything they owned, and moved onto a 52-foot Irwin Center Cockpit Ketch. They all live, work, and play on board full-time.
Angela is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, a free source of paying markets for freelance writers and photographers. If you want to write for magazines, websites, businesses, or others, check it out. It’s free! Her publishing services company, BookLocker.com, has published more than 9,000 books over the past 18 years. If you want to publish a book, she’d love to hear from you! Abuzz Press is BookLocker’s hybrid publishing company. And, PubPreppers.com offers services to authors who are having their books published elsewhere.
If you’re just tuning in, CLICK HERE to start at the beginning. 🙂
It looks like we’re going to be spared the worst of the tropical storm that’s building in the gulf and we are praying for our Louisiana neighbors. We haven’t escaped all of it. Even if we didn’t have modern weather forecasting and satellites, we’d have known something was brewing. It’s been overcast here all week, which is very unusual for this time of year. And, we had several really strong squalls that had us adding extra lines and bumpers. During one particular lightning storm that woke up the entire dock, we remembered we had not yet reconnected the lightning protection after getting the mast put back in. Oops.
This morning, we had a very short burst of rain but the wind is wailing and the boat is rocking pretty good. We’re supposed to get rain most of today and all day tomorrow as well, even as the storm moves away from us. And, despite what weather.com has been broadcasting, we’ve been watching rotation off the coast for the past two days, even before the low hit the gulf. It just hadn’t organizing itself yet.
Despite the fact that we’ve lived on a boat for two years now, I still feel wobbly-legged after disembarking. Most people say that goes away after awhile but it hasn’t for me. I was sitting in a restaurant eating raw oysters (YUM!) last night and my brain was still making my body feel like it was gently rocking up and down, back and forth. It’s actually quite calming. Thank GOODNESS none of us gets seasick!
After things calm down, we’re heading to our daughter’s house to have some grandkid time this weekend and I’m very excited about that!
Angela Hoy is a publisher, a blogger, and the author of 19 books. She lived on dirt her entire life before her family gave away almost everything they owned, and moved onto a 52-foot Irwin Center Cockpit Ketch. They all live, work, and play on board full-time.
Angela is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, a free source of paying markets for freelance writers and photographers. If you want to write for magazines, websites, businesses, or others, check it out. It’s free! Her publishing services company, BookLocker.com, has published more than 9,000 books over the past 18 years. If you want to publish a book, she’d love to hear from you! Abuzz Press is BookLocker’s hybrid publishing company. And, PubPreppers.com offers services to authors who are having their books published elsewhere.
If you’re just tuning in, CLICK HERE to start at the beginning. 🙂
On Wednesday night (or should I say Thursday morning) at 1:00 a.m., I had just turned off my laptop, and was about to get ready for bed, when the boat pitched suddenly to port (to the left)…and stayed that way. I dashed up into the cockpit and we had QUITE a blow coming on! That first gust of wind in front of a squall hits hard and fast and this one just kept blowing. Our neighbor registered the wind at 45 knots. By that time, NOBODY in the marina was still asleep!
We added a line from a starboard side piling to the winch in the cockpit to take some of the pressure off the other lines. We then sat down and looked at the sky during each lightning strike, scanning the horizon for a funnel. Then, we ducked down below when big, fat, cold raindrops started pelting us, and checked weather.com. It was a monstrous red blob and I knew we wouldn’t be going to bed anytime soon.
So, we settled down and watched TV while Tanny pitched violently to and fro. An hour later, the wind died down and we were finally able to get some blessed sleep.
Angela Hoy is a publisher, a blogger, and the author of 19 books. She lived on dirt her entire life before her family gave away almost everything they owned, and moved onto a 52-foot Irwin Center Cockpit Ketch. They all live, work, and play on board full-time.
Angela is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, a free source of paying markets for freelance writers and photographers. If you want to write for magazines, websites, businesses, or others, check it out. It’s free! Her publishing services company, BookLocker.com, has published more than 9,000 books over the past 18 years. If you want to publish a book, she’d love to hear from you! Abuzz Press is BookLocker’s hybrid publishing company. And, PubPreppers.com offers services to authors who are having their books published elsewhere.
If you’re just tuning in, CLICK HERE to start at the beginning. 🙂
Our captain, Brian Whiddon, shares his first-hand account of volunteering at Ground Zero of Hurricane Michael.
Sitting on my boat last week, observing the rising waters and intense wind, I knew that Hurricane Michael was a monster. It was several hundred miles from St. Petersburg yet we were getting 30 and 40 MPH gusts and the water in the marina had risen over and above the finger docks. The satellite images showed a compact, almost symmetrical cyclone slowly closing on the Florida panhandle. Monitoring the newscasts, I heard that the storm was no longer a Category 2, but a Cat 3. Then, it wasn’t a Cat 3, but a Cat 4!!
Angela Hoy is a publisher, a blogger, and the author of 19 books. She lived on dirt her entire life before her family gave away almost everything they owned, and moved onto a 52-foot Irwin Center Cockpit Ketch. They all live, work, and play on board full-time.
Angela is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, a free source of paying markets for freelance writers and photographers. If you want to write for magazines, websites, businesses, or others, check it out. It’s free! Her publishing services company, BookLocker.com, has published more than 9,000 books over the past 18 years. If you want to publish a book, she’d love to hear from you! Abuzz Press is BookLocker’s hybrid publishing company. And, PubPreppers.com offers services to authors who are having their books published elsewhere.
If you’re just tuning in, CLICK HERE to start at the beginning. 🙂
First, I want to send HUGE accolades to WritersWeekly.com‘s Managing Editor, Brian Whiddon. He left before the crack of dawn this morning to volunteer in the rescue efforts near Panama Beach, Florida. He spent all day yesterday packing up his rescue and survival gear. Tons of water and gasoline, chain saw, first aid supplies, ready-to-eat meals – you name it, he’s hauling it – and all paid for out of his own pocket! He’s an ex-cop and ex-military so he’s been through this before. He now belongs to a group that offers disaster assistance to communities in need. He’s willing to endure being cut off from the outside world, extreme discomfort (no air conditioning or shower!), and the emotional stress of such an important job to help people he’s never met, and will never see again. We are so proud of him and we are honored that he works for WritersWeekly and BookLocker! If you want to send him kuddos and a hug, you can contact him HERE. (He’s going to kill me for posting this – he’s very modest – but, he has no Internet in the disaster zone so…he can’t stop me!) 😉
UPDATE: We heard from Brian this evening (10/12/18). He had to borrow a phone because his doesn’t have a signal. His group was looking for a place to park their trucks, which they will sleep in tonight. PLEASE CONSIDER DONATING TO THE ORGANIZATION BRIAN IS WORKING WITH RIGHT HERE. They need formula, diapers, water, food, gasoline, medical supplies, medicine, ice for insulin, tarps for roofs, and much, much more! No amount is too small. Families have literally lost everything they owned. Their members are buying needed supplies, and immediate trucking them into the affected areas. IF YOU CAN DONATE YOUR TIME, either as a rescue volunteer, delivering supplies to the disaster zone, or even doing computer work, you can register at that website as well.
After Hurricane Irma hit last year, with its accompanying severe stress that lasted for days, we made firm plans to avoid that scenario in the future. To make a very long story short, we planned to evacuate to the East Coast of Florida. Irma changed course. We planned a different route, to Orlando. She changed course again. We decided to stay put and Irma screamed, “Checkmate!” And, thar she blew, straight for us! It was absolutely terrifying!
Not wanting to play hurricane chess ever again, last spring, we rented a very inexpensive “satellite office” in downtown St. Petersburg, on the second floor of an old building that had been through many storms in the past. It’s surrounded by other old buildings that help provide protection from the wind.
And, this week, our preparations paid off! Michael wasn’t expected to hit us directly but we would be on the wet side of the storm, with the storm surge. We had already moved all essential business files and equipment to the office over the summer so we wouldn’t once again find ourselves in a “last minute” panic situation.
On Monday morning, we woke up to the expected storm surge watch. Richard calmly packed up our small on board printer, our duffel bag of office supplies, and a few changes of clothes for the boys. He and Mason drove over there so he could start work for the day and so Mason could start his homeschooling lessons.
The muscle on the boat (Max, who is 17 and over 6 feet tall) stayed here to help me and our Managing Editor, Brian Whiddon, prepare the boats for the storm. Brian lives on a boat, too, and it’s right down the dock. Storm prep simply involved moving all loose objects inside (including our Halloween decoration, who is affectionately called Boner), lashing down the cover on the outboard (since we almost lost it in an afternoon blow), and double- and triple-checking all of the lines even though we would have to adjust them repeatedly when the surge starts coming in.
Rather than repeat the rest of our excitement here, if you want read what happened, and see photos and videos, please look at my Facebook page RIGHT HERE.
And, please friend request me when you do! 🙂
I am still having heart palpitations from this week. I experience those for days after extreme stress, and have my entire life. And, I just checked weather.com. There’s another system developing south of Cuba, where Michael was born just a few days ago. And, Tropical Storm Nadine is marching across the Atlantic in our direction.
“Move to sunny Florida!” they said. “It’ll be GREAT!” they said.
I’m going to post this, and then call my cardiologist…
Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter. We’ll alert you to new posts and we’ll be having book give-aways! 🙂
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Angela Hoy is a publisher, a blogger, and the author of 19 books. She lived on dirt her entire life before her family gave away almost everything they owned, and moved onto a 52-foot Irwin Center Cockpit Ketch. They all live, work, and play on board full-time.
Angela is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, a free source of paying markets for freelance writers and photographers. If you want to write for magazines, websites, businesses, or others, check it out. It’s free! Her publishing services company, BookLocker.com, has published more than 9,000 books over the past 18 years. If you want to publish a book, she’d love to hear from you! Abuzz Press is BookLocker’s hybrid publishing company. And, PubPreppers.com offers services to authors who are having their books published elsewhere.
If you’re just tuning in, CLICK HERE to start at the beginning. 🙂
Last night, when taking Coco out to potty, I heard thunder. To the northeast, a dark wall was approaching. In front of it, a beautiful rainbow was blessing the sky. I encouraged Coco to hurry up and do her business but she was distracted by a police K9 unit nearby.
After the wind wall hit (the cold wind that seemingly hits out of nowhere in front of one of the rainy season storms), I hurried her back to the boat. Shortly thereafter, No Tan Lines was rocking pretty good. I took this shot at that time, as well as the one at the top of this story. Neither one is photoshopped, of course.
The sun was starting to set and the storm was moving very, very slowly. When it finally hit, it was already dark out and I heard some odd sounds outside that I hadn’t heard before. So, we stepped outside to investigate. We weren’t rubbing anything but we adjusted the lines, and added one more, securing to the winch in the cockpit. It pulled us a bit further from the finger dock where we’d been smushed against the bumpers pretty good.
While we were standing outside, the wind instantly shifted from south to east. We suspected a nearby rotation but it was pitch black out. Lightning was striking non-stop so we were able to use those flashes to see the sky in the distance. We couldn’t see any waterspout or tornado, thank goodness. I asked Mason (age 12) if he was afraid. He said no so we opted to stay on board, rather than head the captain’s lounge, which is constructed with cinder block.
We got a TON of rain and some serious wind but Tanny fared just fine once again. I couldn’t take Coco out for another potty attempt until almost midnight. Boy oh boy, was she relieved!!
This morning, we found fallen palm fronds all over the place! The marina had scheduled tree trimming for today but it looks like Mother Nature took care of most of that. 😉
Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter. We’ll alert you to new posts and we’ll be having book give-aways! 🙂
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Angela Hoy is a publisher, a blogger, and the author of 19 books. She lived on dirt her entire life before her family gave away almost everything they owned, and moved onto a 52-foot Irwin Center Cockpit Ketch. They all live, work, and play on board full-time.
Angela is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, a free source of paying markets for freelance writers and photographers. If you want to write for magazines, websites, businesses, or others, check it out. It’s free! Her publishing services company, BookLocker.com, has published more than 9,000 books over the past 18 years. If you want to publish a book, she’d love to hear from you! Abuzz Press is BookLocker’s hybrid publishing company. And, PubPreppers.com offers services to authors who are having their books published elsewhere.
If you’re just tuning in, CLICK HERE to start at the beginning. 🙂
When you live on a boat, you grow accustomed to the sounds and the motions of your vessel on the water. There are normal sounds (the water pump clicking on or off, for example) and abnormal sounds (like the high water alarm!). And, there are normal motions (the constant, gentle rocking), and abnormal motions (like when a waterspout appears nearby and the boat instantly heels waaaaaay over!).
One afternoon earlier this week, I was sitting here working aboard No Tan Lines (“Tanny”) in the aft cabin. It was pretty quiet. Richard had taken Mason to a doctor appointment and Max was busy doing his school work in the v-berth. The air conditioner was running and it’s pretty loud so I couldn’t hear when the wind picked up. I could feel it, though. No big deal. The boat is almost always in motion and, when the afternoon storms blow in, we can rock quite a bit. I glanced through the port and saw black clouds approaching. Yea! Another blow!! We get those daily right now so I turned my attention back to the article I was writing.
And, that’s when I felt something different – something I’ve felt only twice before. The boat started shuddering. It felt like Tanny had the shiggles. She would shudder, and then stop, and shudder again. A weird, silent on and off vibration. And, I knew what that meant. We were rubbing the dock!
I pushed my laptop aside, jumped up, and ran through the hallway. The wind was howling now. Rambo the cat, who is terrified of storms, was heading in the opposite direction. He ran between my legs, screeching loudly as he always does when a big storm is coming. Max came barrelling out of his room. He’d felt it, too. He yelled, “What IS that?!”
I said, “We’re rubbing the dock! HURRY!”
Max threw open the companionway door, and flew into the cockpit. I was right on his heels. Tanny was flush against the dock on the starboard side. The bumpers were too low for the tide so they weren’t protecting her. Since the boat was pitching in the high winds, the toe rail was being scrunched and wood was splintering. Max ran to the bow, and started pulling on the port lines. I raced to the stern and, try as I might, I could not pull the lines. The winds was too strong, around 50 knots. I didn’t have the strength to pull a 45,000 lb. vessel against it.
Thankfully, at that moment, Captain Brian was walking up the dock. I yelled over the wind to get his attention. He jumped on the boat, and started helping Max with the bow line. I then ran to the middle of the starboard side, planted my butt on the deck of the boat, put both of my feet against the dock, and pushed with all of my might. That worked! I was able to get us about 12 inches away from the dock. I locked my knees and held on tight. I was wearing a dress so I must have been a sight.
Our next-boat-neighbors, however, weren’t paying any attention to me. They had their own issue to deal with. They own a large power yacht and they have a pretty heavy skiff on their upper deck, complete with an outboard and a center console. When the winds started howling, they decided to pull it up with their lift, and lower it into the water. I was glad they were doing that because it seemed we might be getting a tornado or a waterspout soon and I didn’t want that skiff going airborne, and landing on Tanny!
They got the skiff in the air, and moved it over the water (between our two boats)…and then the lift stopped working. So, the skiff was hanging there, about 12 feet above the water, dead center between our boats, and swinging wildly in the gale-force winds.
Brian and Max had managed to secure our lines and I was able to unlock my knees. We adjusted the bumpers and then Max then stood on our stern, holding a boat hook to prevent the skiff from hitting Tanny while it was blowing all around. They managed to get lines tied from the skiff to the pilings and that was about all that could be done until the storm ended.
We then sat in the cockpit, and watched the clouds heading our way. We didn’t see any rotation, thank goodness. Here’s the funny thing. We only got a few sprinkles when it passed over. I looked at the radar when I came back inside and the big red dot appeared to disappear just before it hit downtown St. Pete, and then reappeared north of town. WEIRD!!!
After things calmed down, I called Richard and Mason at the doctor’s office, and said, “You missed all the excitement! IT WAS AWESOME!!!”
Rambo was still cowering in the bedroom so I covered him up, and gave him lots of TLC the rest of the afternoon.
The damage to the toe rail isn’t any big deal because we’re currently having it ripped out and replaced. So, Tanny is none the worse for wear. We have a high chance of storms again this afternoon and I can’t WAIT!
Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter. We’ll alert you to new posts and we’ll be having book give-aways! 🙂
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Angela Hoy is a publisher, a blogger, and the author of 19 books. She lived on dirt her entire life before her family gave away almost everything they owned, and moved onto a 52-foot Irwin Center Cockpit Ketch. They all live, work, and play on board full-time.
Angela is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, a free source of paying markets for freelance writers and photographers. If you want to write for magazines, websites, businesses, or others, check it out. It’s free! Her publishing services company, BookLocker.com, has published more than 9,000 books over the past 18 years. If you want to publish a book, she’d love to hear from you! Abuzz Press is BookLocker’s hybrid publishing company. And, PubPreppers.com offers services to authors who are having their books published elsewhere.
If you’re just tuning in, CLICK HERE to start at the beginning. 🙂
I admit it…I suck at poetry.. And, it wasn’t really a “black” sky but it was pretty dark, and getting darker! The photo above is from the big blow we had on Tuesday. The rainy season is in full force right now and, when this one hit, the winds blew 40 mph and it rained sideways. We forgot to close the isinglass over the companionway so we had a significant leak pouring into the salon. Nobody wanted to step outside and get drenched (or get struck by lightning!) so we just laid down a bunch of towels.
Then, we sat by the ports, watching the system push through. The seas in the marina itself were 1-2 feet, which is very odd, even for a blow. The water rushing by No Tan Lines looked like a river and we were bouncing all over the place and heeling way over with each large gust. It was so cool!! We had another big blow yesterday and still another one this morning.
I LOVE rain so this is definitely my favorite time of year. Not only do we get a great lightning show in the afternoons, but the clouds make the Florida heat SO much more bearable.
Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter. We’ll alert you to new posts and we’ll be having book give-aways! 🙂
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Angela Hoy is a publisher, a blogger, and the author of 19 books. She lived on dirt her entire life before her family gave away almost everything they owned, and moved onto a 52-foot Irwin Center Cockpit Ketch. They all live, work, and play on board full-time.
Angela is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, a free source of paying markets for freelance writers and photographers. If you want to write for magazines, websites, businesses, or others, check it out. It’s free! Her publishing services company, BookLocker.com, has published more than 9,000 books over the past 18 years. If you want to publish a book, she’d love to hear from you! Abuzz Press is BookLocker’s hybrid publishing company. And, PubPreppers.com offers services to authors who are having their books published elsewhere.
If you’re just tuning in, CLICK HERE to start at the beginning. 🙂
A few weeks ago, when we were talking about the impending hurricane season, I said, “Last year we got slammed with storms and had a major hurricane. Statistically speaking, what are the chances we’ll get another one this year?” Unfortunately, I forgot to knock on teak.
Hello, Alberto!
After Hurricane Irma last year, we knew this one would be a piece of cake. But, still, we readied the boat and ourselves for yet another live-aboard adventure. We had plenty of water and food – enough to last us for 10 days. Our standard provisions include milk, bread, eggs, juice, proteins, fruits, and veggies, popcorn, raspberry chocolate chip ice cream (2 of those!), and chocolate chip cookie dough, of course. While the storm wasn’t expected to hit us dead on, we were going to get tropical storm force winds, storm surge, and flooding rains. We have a satellite office downtown that’s on the second floor of a building but that’s no fun at all so we opted to remain on board “No Tan Lines” throughout the course of the storm.
Of course, we have a first aid kit in case of minor emergencies but you always hope nothing will happen during a storm. Buuuuuut, Murphy’s Law always seems to find its way into our lives.
That night, we were just about to go to bed. The wind was kicking up and Tanny was bouncing all over the place. And, it was raining again as another squall came through. It was late but it wasn’t a school night so the boys were still up. And, that’s when Mason came into the aft stateroom (our small bedroom).
“Mom. I’m bleeding. A lot.”
“Oh, okay, honey. Let me look.”
He showed me. Yeah, it was a LOT of blood. An alarming amount.
“Geez, Mason! What did you do?”
“Well, it was bothering me so I started messing with it and it just started bleeding and it wouldn’t stop.”
I grabbed a flashlight for a closer look. The source of the bleed was kind of hidden under the layers of flesh. I couldn’t stop the bleeding without being able to put pressure on the source. I told him I’d need pull part of it away to get to the bleed.
“No, Mom! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! Don’t touch it!”
Mason tried to escape but I held his hand, reassuring him that this had to be done.
Remaining outwardly calm, I gently said, “Max, get me some paper towels. Richard, hold this flashlight.”
Mason kept protesting.
Max brought the paper towels and I tore off a small piece, and very quickly did what I had to do. Mason yelped.
Then I shoved another piece of paper towel against the wound and the bleeding slowed down very quickly. It worked! I silently congratulated myself for watching all those episodes of Grey’s Anatomy.
Mason sat there glaring at me, holding the paper towel in place.
I smiled back at him, held up what I’d just torn from my own child’s body, and said, “Do you think the tooth fairy comes during tropical storms?”
Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter. We’ll alert you to new posts and we’ll be having book give-aways! 🙂
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Angela Hoy is a publisher, a blogger, and the author of 19 books. She lived on dirt her entire life before her family gave away almost everything they owned, and moved onto a 52-foot Irwin Center Cockpit Ketch. They all live, work, and play on board full-time.
Angela is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, a free source of paying markets for freelance writers and photographers. If you want to write for magazines, websites, businesses, or others, check it out. It’s free! Her publishing services company, BookLocker.com, has published more than 9,000 books over the past 18 years. If you want to publish a book, she’d love to hear from you! Abuzz Press is BookLocker’s hybrid publishing company. And, PubPreppers.com offers services to authors who are having their books published elsewhere.
