People are Stupid.

Maybe it is just that I am very tired today. I went to bed close to 3am this morning, because I was finishing up the flag to give to Mr. Brinks later this morning. That was probably my biggest mistake.

You know, how when your tired, everything seems magnified? Like all of the stupid things people do? The guy in front of you is driving too slowly and your late for something, or nobody uses their turn signals, or people ask you dumb questions. It all seems to grate much more when you are super tired.

That was me today. Today was the day to finish the wheel. It now has a coat of epoxy on every surface. Some of it needs a couple more coats, but the point is, that it is 98% finished. And it looks gorgeous.

Nevertheless, I still got all of the original questions and statements that I normally get when I spend the day on the caution tape-roped-off-wheel. "Wow, that looks like hard work!" or "Did you lose a bet?" or "Are you being punished?" or "That's a big job...". And of course there are always moments where I have to laugh at people. I have now had three incidents of somebody thinking that we steered the ship backwards, and having to point out to them that the pointy end of the ship is actually the front.

Today takes the cake, however. While I was cleaning everything up in preparation for epoxying, I had three people come up and touch the wheel's spokes. Then a family came on board, and the dad walks up and says "wow, they must be working on the wheel. I guess we shouldn't touch it." What does he do? He reaches out and touches it. His three kids race up and the littlest follows his father's stellar example and grabs a spoke, prompting the man to start yelling at him, and the kid to start crying. Brilliant.

The best was at the end of the day. I'd just finished applying epoxy to the outer ring of spokes, and this guy and his two daughters walks up, and he reaches out to touch the wheel. I give him my I'm-going-to-skin-you-alive look, and say very sharply "Sir, please don't touch the wheel." He replies, "Yeah, I know..." and shows me his now sticky fingers. Crap and a half, man. Seriously. Rig up the grating. Give him a dozen stripes. He'll never look at CAUTION TAPE and FRESH VARNISH signs the same way again.

I had to leave shortly after that, because I was extremely close to maiming someone. And you know that as soon as I left, someone probably touched the very freshly epoxied wheel. I'm positive of it.

So, note to self: go to sleep early tonight. The last thing I want to do tomorrow during sail training is bite the head off of one of my mates...especially as I'm going to be living with 25 of them for 4 days in close quarters next week....

Cheers.