Stump Day

After a normal Friday afternoon in the office and a burly paddle on the Harbor, we came back to the homestead and expected to have a mellow evening and maybe watch a movie. Low and behold, that wasn't meant to be. A few friends had left us messages while we were out on the water. Apparently we were missing out on a special occasion: Stump Day.

They were celebrating Stump Day at the bar that's 200 yards from our house. We walked over there (after Sara got to feed the chick Tropicbird that one of our neighboring biologist rescued the evening before) to find a small crowd of palagi hanging out in the cavernous bar/dance club by themselves.

Turns out that Stump Day is the celebration of the day that one of our fellow palagi lost his left hand rock climbing. He had been climbing in Tahoe and the plate of granite he had been on split off the vertical rock face and fell on him. He fell and the plate of granite fell on top of him. His left hand was pulverized and had to be amputated. His left arm now ends approximately 8 inches below the elbow. Today was the 14th anniversary of that day. Thus we were celebrating the 14th Annual International Stump Day.

Yeah, Random.