June 3: (Not a) Typical early season

We have had an unusual start to the season this year. Normally, I'd have arrived in the last day or two, by myself. With few demands, I'd putter around my cabin, getting used to the silence and solitude, cleaning up after the winter, eating energy bars or smoked salmon I'd bring with me, and remembering which way is up here. After a week or two, the crew would start coming in and then... it would start!

It was sort of backwards this year. David came in the same evening I did, and Carbon followed the next morning. We had barely opened our respective cabins before we started getting the sites set up and ready. When Jeff and Roger came in a few days later, we were well on our way to being ready to fish. Meanwhile, I hadn't taken my mixing bowls or anything else out of their plastic bags that Jean had so carefully put them in at the end of last season so they would be easy to use this season. Instead, I had pushed to the side anything that wasn't urgently needed for the purpose of feeding crew or getting us ready to fish. Today, finally, I have set my cabin to rights. Almost. I even cleaned the floor. Tomorrow it will be the counters and then I'm pretty sure peace will reign and I will achieve my personal goal of becoming patient.

And it will be easier to remember that it is still extremely early in the season and not to despair about the fact that we've fished three tides so far, with nothing but flounders to show for it.