Grape-picking day!

After writing in my journal, I read bit, and finally fell back asleep sometime after 3.
At 6:10a.m. I woke and hit the snooze button.
At 6:20a.m. I woke and turned the alarm off.
At 7:15 a.m. I woke, cursed, and dressed as fast as possible. I shoved 2 Clif bars in my pants pockets and ran out the door. I found Eve in the garden and she drove me to the vineyard, I ate one Clif bar on the back of the ATV on the way out. Thanks to Dad and Bobby for telling me to take them with me. Tip of the day is, Clif bars are awesome. Yesterday's omitted tip of the day, Sweet n Salty Nut bars, while delicious, do not survive well in your pocket after a full day's work.
I also learned last night that most of the men working on the picking crew are Moroccan, and are Muslim, and this month is Ramadan. That means these guys are getting up at 4 a.m., eating and drinking all they can, then working all day picking grapes in the sun when it's 32 degrees centigrade (I don't know exactly what that is in farenheit, about 90 I'd guess. I suppose I could look it up, but clearly I'm not going to.) This really did make me feel like a candy-ass when my back started hurting half-way through the day. From my time picking I learned that Syrah grows in longer bunches than Grenache, and that the Syrah clusters have pretty distinct shoulders, while the Grenache has more of a conjoined twin kind of thing. I learned that goblet pruning makes for prettier, more consistent clusters which are more backbreaking to harvest. I learned that not all Muslims know George W Bush well enough to hate him. And finally I learned that, when instructed to watch your fingers when handling grape clippers, you should also watch your hands. I nipped the heel of my left hand, but not that badly. But now that I've sustained injury the adventure has truly begun! I don't know if "It's not really an adventure until you hurt yourself." Is something I've actually heard Jen Adams say, but it was her voice in my head when I thought exactly that after cutting myself.
I count myself blessed that this work is not my full time job, although I do have to do it again tomorrow. Fortunately the Cartiers have a pool, where I spent about 3 hours lounging away the day's lower back pain. Tomorrow I will take aspirin before work. And I'll wear a hat. And sunscreen.
Eve won't be here for dinner tonight, which means I've got to make conversation in French without any translation assistance. Fingers crossed!