I kissed the baby and turned on the musical mobile above his resting head. I handed E a handful of T3’s and closed his bedroom door. I went downstairs, feeling not so sorry for E with a bruised and swollen face but mostly just sorry for me. Sure, he had just had his wisdom teeth pulled but it was my birthday. I was 30 and alone on the couch. There was no Netflix, or YOUTUBE, not even a VCR and the only thing on TV was Meet the Press. It was 1987.

At 8 PM there was a knock at my door. I opened it to find my two girlfriends from the Big Blue company where I worked. They carried brown paper bags filled with chips, dip, red wine and most memorably a Sara Lee frozen chocolate cake complete with the requisite birthday candles.

We talked, drank, ate, sang and danced long into the night and after I bid them goodbye, I went upstairs to fall happily into our bed. I found there, that neither my son or husband had so much as woken to blink an eye thru the noise of all the shenanigans.

We continue to require an inordinate amount of patience to build on this island. I am not normally known for my patience.

We ordered the fascia to finish the house siding two weeks ago and it was to arrive on Wednesday. It is now Friday and might arrive by next Thursday. So that task is on hold.

The roofing for the guest cabin was supposed to arrive weeks ago and now won’t be here until the 24th!!! The 24th!!! I refuse to pay for two more barges to bring supplies, so that means the tongue and groove is also on hold. We will fill that barge to the brim with every conceivable thing we might need to finish this project, any future projects and if there is still room, I will fill it with soils for the garden.

In the meantime we will do everything we can on the cabin without a roof. As backward and out of order as it may be.

The friend who came to my door thirty two years ago came to work with us this week with her husband. Through the years she has always been just a phone call away and I treasure the friendship and loyalty she has always shown to this imperfect soul. My friend is a woman who seems to be able to ignore my many faults. She apparently has much more

patience than I.