For the last several days I have been staging my shop to take on the major fiberglassing project on the dory…it is all laid out, cleaned up and ready for cloth and epoxy, which will be applied all day tomorrow…so today Linda, Trixie and I took a break and had a walk through the most lovely vineyards and farm-plots here in our valley. It was glorious; so fecund, fragrant and quiet, we could have been the only people on the planet.
Then, while walking down the track through a cornfield, near a thick wall of immense oak and eucalyptus trees and a big brook, I heard a rhythmic clack-clack sound that grew louder and louder and suddenly a brilliant yellow and white passenger train ripped through the trees on a track I could not see, blasted into the past and disappeared like it never happened! It was stunning!!…two long cars in the Art Deco mode, taxicab-yellow and going at least 150 kilometers an hour. The event was so unexpected, brief and dichotomous, it turned my head around…thrilled me. Made me feel like a kid. 
In Portugal, you must be on your keenest alert for the dichotomous. It lurks in every turn of your head, blink of your eye. Joy awaiting your arrival.
Rick, your new boat sounds fantastic. Enjoy the building and the process. I have a question for you about your uncles. Please contact me if you can.