Clara's Window

If you can't beat 'em...

Tonight begins my week-long venture into fear-conquering. You may recall back in January I mentioned my terrible fear of sailing, and my commitment to conquering it. On January 1st at 8am, as soon as they opened registration for this year, I signed up for a week-long sailing intensive at the Wooden Boat School in Brooklin (a nearby town that was home to E.B. White for many years).

Well, that class begins tonight. I am excited and terrified and not yet able to let go of all the earthly things I needed to get done before abandoning myself to another world for a week.

Household logistics required that I rent a car so I can easily get to and from class. (It begins at the buttcrack of dawn and ends either when the sun goes down or people are too exhausted to continue, and Brooklin is about 30 minutes from me.) So today I went to Bar Harbor to pick up the car. I reserved a tiny Hyundai, but when I got there, this is what they had left for me:

A gargantuan, bright-red SUV with New Jersey plates.

A Ford Expedition, to be exact. My apologies to anyone who drives a gargantuan SUV, but as someone who drives a small car, it really is a shock to suddenly find yourself at the helm of the U.S.S. Enormous.

And my apologies to anyone from New Jersey, which is a perfectly fine place. But in this particular instance, in this locale and at this time of year, I am literally cloaking myself in the garb of the enemy. I know I'll let it go, but right now I'm thinking of taping a sign to the back window that reads, "It's a rental."

The wet nature of ocean navigation will most likely prohibit the taking of abundant photographs over the next week, but I do promise a full report when I get back. Until then, I hope you are all safe, well, and enjoying some sort of holiday weekend.