Chapter 161

• I continued to get up every morning and take the boat out to start each work day. I made it a point to invest into a couple of items. The first was a Zippo lighter and the second was a chimenea. A chimenea is a portable ceramic fireplace that emits an incredible amount of heat. Before going out on the boat, I would start a fire in the chimenea and go find and winch in the first log of the day. Then I would take a break from the shivering cold until I was warm enough to go out again.
• Usually by midmorning the sun would warm the water enough that I could skip huddling around the chimena. As I thought would happen Gayle scoffed at my need for my breaks, ascribing them to general laziness more than anything else. I responded that for a woman that wore nothing more than Texas A & M tee shirts she certainly had a lot of opinions that nobody gave a damn about.
• The remark had her gulping air like crazy and tears fell as she ran towards Robert's car and left Robert stranded with me for the day. I told Robert that I didn't think it was that good an insult as we went to collect another log.