A very weird morning so far. First the news about the horrific shootings in Colorado. Sickening. All over the news. It's making me depressed but that's my problem. The parents, relatives, friends of the dead and injured - what they must be going thru - I can only imagine. I am praying for them - for the ones who are teetering - for that little 3-month-old baby who was shot - what are we turning into? Like I said, it's sickening.

~ ~ ~

I was asked by The Boss last night if I would take on the job of getting a referral from our roofer for a gutter installer. In the storm the other day, we realized our rainwater gutters are totally broken, useless, kaput. We need new gutters, sad but true.

He usually handles house repairs but he asked me to organize it, so I agreed. I called our roofer this morning to get a recommendation but all I got was the answering machine. I left a message but haven't heard back.

If I don't hear by the end of today, forget them, I'm going to the phone book.

So that's one thing.

Then, the phone rang. I hate answering the phone. I usually don't and let the machine answer it, but I did today because I was waiting for the roofer to call back.

It was some guy from Marblehead who said he knows Paul. He has had conversations with Paul about the situation the lobstermen have found themselves in lately, namely low boat prices from their dealers and the inability to even "eek out a living" as this man put it. I just nodded in agreement.

I heard the other night a spot on NPR (radio) by Emily Rooney (Andy Rooney's daughter) about the lobster crisis, and people were saying that the price of lobsters hasn't gone down in restaurants or in stores but the price the lobstermen are paid has been plummeting rapidly, some even receiving only $1.50 a lb. for soft-shell lobsters! $1.50 a lb. That's criminal. Especially since people are still paying $16 for a one-lobster dinner when they eat out! Something is not kosher smelling right here. And Paul is the victim. He's working harder than ever for less money than ever. His gas prices are climbing daily, his bait prices don't ever go down, so his expenses are going up while his income goes steadily down. Someone is making out good here and it's not him.

Anyway, this guy who called lives down near where Paul sells his bugs on the weekends in Marblehead. He wanted to be of some help somehow so he said he spoke with the editor of the local newspaper, The Marblehead Reporter, to see if a story could be done on Paul and the situation of the lobsterman in this area in trying to "eek out a living." Paul never mentioned this to me. So he said the editor liked the idea of a big story and that a reporter might be contacting Paul in the near future to set up an interview.

It's been done before. Reporters, I mean. They see the problem, talk to the fisherman, and once a female reporter even spent the day out on the boat with Paul and wrote up a huge story on The Day in the Life of a Lobsterman. Years ago. So now they want to do it again. I suppose Paul has agreed to do this but I don't know because I haven't spoken with him about it yet.

A little while ago the phone rang again, and I got it. It was Amy, a reporter with the Marblehead Reporter, and she wanted to talk with Paul about the story. I told her she can call here after 7 p.m. but not after 8:30 because that's when we go to bed. She mumbled something about "well, I don't work Friday nights...blah blah blah..." so I said well then, you could go down to where he sells on the weekends from 2 to 5 p.m. and talk to him there. She said how about Mondays? I said it's the same every day. After 7 but before 8:30 at home, 2 to 5 on the weekends down at the Landing. She asked if I'd take her number in case he calls in today, but I told her he won't call because he dumped his mobile phone and besides, he never turns it on anyway. So she will get back to him sometime, I know not when!

I would think if you were tasked with doing a big story on the plight of the hardworking, underpaid lobstermen in this area, which are becoming something of a lost group these days, you would make the effort to get the interview when you could, not during regular 9-5 M-F working hours.

Geesh.

So, still nothing from the roofer and it's after noontime. Back to my book now. I need to get my mind wrapped around something other than the news, it's too depressing today.

Cheers,

Bex





Paul selling lobsters several years ago in Marblehead.

"What we ardently love, we learn to imitate."
~ R. Waldo Emerson ~

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