On my first vacation to Negril, Jamaica, I commissioned this sphere to be made from local ironwood. I located an artist who understood only a little English but eagerly agreed to interrupt his current carving to make a sphere (which I described). When I returned two days later, he presented me with a golf ball...the entire surface crammed with hand carved dimples. I promptly paid for it without argument (my cats enjoy it...and it's probably under one of my chairs or couch at this very moment). Then I commissioned another (for the same price) only, this time, would he be so kind as to make it smooth? Yes, of course; respect mon. And could he make it slightly larger? Just a little larger? Irie...two more days.
It is smooth and it is ever-so-slightly larger (it's close to 1½ inches, 40mm). It also has a hand-crafted look because it is almost but not quite a perfect sphere.
Every time I look at it I think about pumpkin soup at a West End restaurant overlooking the cliffs, walking the beach drinking just-squoze orange juice from a recycled whiskey bottle with little shards of ice still floating in it; golfing at the Negril Hills (with a caddy who sprinted off as soon as I hit in order to locate the ball...what a way to earn a tip); sunburn removing beach massage with the goop squished fresh from Aloe Vera leaves; obtaining my SCUBA certification (with stingrays!); Orange Bay; catching crabs and lobsters from a pier using a net-shrift and some twine, and a private concert by Brushy One String.
All these memories are completely intertwined from my 1997 and 1999 trips; only with concentration can I pick the them apart.
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