3 A.M.

This is EJ first week back on night shift. We don’t mind whatever shift he’s on–both have advantages and disadvantages. It just takes a little time to adjust to new schedules. For example, we’ve changed our biggest meal of the day to lunch instead of supper. I also have to adjust to EJ not being home in the evenings. Hannah Joy and I’ve been going to bed just after I get the chickens shut in the coop. They go into their coop at sunset, which right now is about 8 p.m. Hannah dozes next to me under the blankets while I read until EJ messages me during his lunch break at 10 p.m.

With medical expenses from EJ’s stroke last September and our truck recently needing expensive repairs, he has decided to work as much overtime as he can to pay off these and other bills. He would have worked more overtime before but he really didn’t feel all that great. But now says he feels better than he has in a long time.

We have a geo-thermal heating unit, which doesn’t use propane or electricity. It pulls heat and coolness from the ground. If the outside temperature is below 20, then it switches to using our auxiliary propane furnace. Last week the temperature was in the 30’s, but the auxiliary heat turned on. We normally have our thermostat set at 67 degrees. The indoor temperature dropped to 62 degrees even when I turned the thermostat up to 70. We feared that there was something wrong with our geothermal furnace so we called the repair man. The last thing we need is another expensive repair. However, the repair guy said everything checked out fine. It’s possible there was ice on the sensor so it thought it was colder outside than it actually was. Or something like that. I don’t pretend to understand such things. The main point is that there was no need for expensive repairs. We just had to pay for a maintenance call, which was overdue anyway.

The Great Lakes shipping season has started and our son has returned to work on his bulk carrier. This morning I got messages from him at 3 a.m.:

Hey mom, we hit something big, I was on bow watch, compartment below me flooded with about 30 feet of water, we’re stable, but kinda f’d.

Ships listing hard might be slowly sinking tug squad and a specialist squad on the way.

We are safe.

He’s given us updates throughout the day. Apparently, their new steering system failed so they couldn’t steer the ship. They hit a buoy and almost hit another ship. He says his ship is seriously damaged. All the marine traffic on the St. Mary’s River near Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, is shut down. He doesn’t know for how long. Eventually tug boats are going to tow the ship to a port, but he doesn’t know which one.

Here’s a news article about it from the website SooToday: Accident Closes St Mary’s River

Working on ships is dangerous and 3 a.m. calls are usually not good news. However, I’m glad our son always quickly reassures us that he’s safe.