Thinking about thoughts on a boat.

Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again? ~Winnie the Pooh

Remember how I said I wouldn't have a post about lobstering? Well I lied.

This is not a real blog entry anyway... this is simply a compilation of things that went through my head in the past week while banding lobsters....

You'd be surprised at how much can go through your head during a 15 hour work day.

You'd also be surprised at how much of that is absolutely meaningless.

The top twenty things I think most often, in no particular order.

1. ugghhh....I have to pee

2. I don 't think I can feel my fingers.... oh wait, there's a crusher claw, yes yes I can feel them....

3. "Fish heads, fish heads, rolly polly fish heads"

4. What time is it?

5. Is it daylight?

6. Dammit where's the horizon?

(For anyone who has never experienced seasickness, I'm not just hoping to find the spot where the sea and sky meet because it looks pretty... I'm trying to keep my lunch down)

77. How many more hours till I can pee?

(My toilet on the boat is a bucket.

That fact alone is enough to make me not want to use it.

Add to that the amount of work it takes to take off your gloves, scarf, hat, oil gear, ask your father for the bucket, not fall over while on the bucket, put everything back on, including snapping the stupid oil gear closed which my hands are normally to numb to do, then hand your bucket of pee back to your father like it's a perfectly normal thing to do so he can throw it over and walk back out on deck and pretend that no one knows why you were down forward for so long.

Plus all the unbanded lobsters that have collected while you were taking this stupid break. Needless to say, I try not to ever use the bathroom on the boat.

But since we are there from 4:30am to around 7:30 pm it is not something I can entirely avoid, I can only put it off as long as possible)

8. I wish the sun would come up so it would be warm.

9. Stupid sun is in my eyes.

10. Only 8 hours left!!! yea!!!!

(This one always makes me laugh, it is the most ridiculous thing to think in the world, but also completely genuine.

8 hours is an entire shift in most worlds, but in the double-license banders world, it is the last portion of your day, and something to celebrate)

11. "Fish heads, Fish heads, eat them up yum."

12. Why the hell don't I know any more words to the stupid fish heads song??

13. 4 more hours till I can pee.

14. Cheesies are the best invention ever.

15. Ha! got you you bastard.

(Much like slapping a mosquito before it bites you, it feels very triumphant to band a lobster that's being ornery and fighting for it's freedom. I know I'm 20 times bigger than they are, but it still feels good to outsmart them).

16. I'm going to count the strings to make this go faster.... one.... two...... three.... two?? or three?? five, it must be five by now... wtf??

17. I'm going to count the lobsters to see how many I band in a string.... one, two, threefourfivesix....sev-nope to small, seve-nope, seven, eight-nine-ten, nope V-notch,was I on nine? ten? thirteen? no twelve, no wait- what?? dammit.....

(I'm not really good at concentrating on counting. Generally because if you focus too much on counting you are bound to screw up and get your fingers caught in a claw.)

18. ow that hand hurts, I should switch to the left.

19 damit, my left hand hurts, I should switch to the right.

20. huh? isn't that funny, two hours ago I had to pee, and now I don't.

There is more that I think about.

~Life plans.

~How to achieve world peace.

~Lyrics to Jem and the Holograms.

~Other jobs I could do and if they would make me as much money as this one.

~How happy I was to have new boots.

~If it would be worth it to figure out how to use Kijiji and sell my new boots, so next year I can have the pleasure of buying new ones again.

~What really happened "The night the lights went out in Georgia".

~How the hell I managed to have a bag of croutons for lunch that had an expiration date of June 2009.

~If I really cared that the crusty bread bits I packed because I don' t like sandwiches were out of date, since they still tasted of garlicky goodness.

But in general, year after year, those twenty listed are thought over and over.

And with the exception of #14, probably won't be thought again until next year.