Passing Time: Observer Oddities

Location: Seattle, WA (yep, still here)
Temp: 44 F

Everyday I wake up and I have two things to do, ride my bike and read my book. I usually have no clue what time it is, let alone what day of the week it is. I completely forgot about the MLK Jr. holiday, what ever day that was (no offense). The Seattle clouds make it feel like its always morning, until it gets dark, then its night.

There are about ten of us here in fishery purgatory between three apartments, plus another seven or eight in the four day briefing class this week (getting cleared to go out, or more likely sit in waiting with the rest of us). We're all waiting, waiting for storms to pass, for boats to come in, for tickets to Alaska. Everyone handles it differently, some people cook elaborate meals, or baked goods, some watch movies on end, others go out to the bars, and some just sit on their computers all day long. I ride my bike and read. But it starting to get old, riding alone every day.

Gossip about free food travels quickly through the three apartments. Today I was just waking up and pouring a glass of orange juice when another observer came in from the unit next door, "Stealing a bagel. Morning." I didn't even know we had bagels up for grabs in my apartment. Bagel Stealer then informed me that the downstairs apartment has some unclaimed cream cheese that would go great with this bagel. So I toasted my own stolen bagel, put on my slippers, and wandered into the downstairs apartment for something to top my free breakfast with.

As I was finishing breakfast, I heard someone calling from the next door apartment, "Deck Meeting!" Deck meeting, you know, when everyone goes out on the deck of your ship to talk about the important operations of the day, fishing plans, industry info, offload schedules ... oh wait, I'm on land, in the middle of Seattle, decidedly not fishing. So I wandered out onto our apartment's "deck" to see a few other observers, sipping coffee in their sweatpants and slippers.

"Ok, what are we doing today?" - I think I'm the only one that found it even remotely odd that we're having a "deck meeting" across three different apartment porches, spanning two different levels, in our pajamas. Everyone agreed we have pretty much nothing to do today, coffee got cold, and one by one we wandered back into our apartments. Yep, so that happened.

I guess I should go ride my bike now. I need to leave the apartment for at least a few hours today before settling in to finish my current book.