final word

Complete clean bill of health from surgery. As I had been told several times over the past 10 years, it was a nothing – a lypoma. They give it a nasty sounding name but it’s just a sac of fat or water, totally benign. The doctor said it looked like a nasty flying saucer or a breast implant, whichever visualization you prefer.

A gardening tip – Use your newspaper for mulch around your plants. It keeps weeds down, is cheap, biodegradable after a year or so but most of all, reallyl holds moisture well. I had done some recent landscaping with plants that require a reasonable amount of water. That would be azaleas and Hydrangeas. I planted them in the shade so assumed the heat would not be a problem and hell, this is Florida in the summer so water is no problem at all. Wrong. While I hope these plants eventually put down some deep roots and don’t need so much attention, without any rain, these guys droop badly by the end of a day. That is until I used the paper solution. Now they hold up for 3 days without watering. And I have plenty of paper. We now take 4 regular papers and one on occasional basis. We take the Volusia News Journal. Need that so I can keep track of Chris’s weather and get the weekly fishing report; Also the daily tide chart comes in handy; the Sudoku puzzle. and nd the weekly TV guide. We get the Deland Beacon. I think we get that because of the imbedded coupons. That must be the reason for there certainly is nothing resembling news. Maybe half that of the Volusia paper which is nearly zero itself. We now get the Sanford Herald since Tommy is contributing and could one day be the managing editor after they see the quality of his inputs. And then of course we get the Lake Mary High School paper for the same reason. Of course I take the Wall Street Journal, the source of most of my vast knowledge and opinions. So you can see we have a long position on paper every day and the mulching program is a great recycler. There are probably plenty of people who read as many papers but I doubt any could tell you the water absorbtion characteristics of each and know which should be used for different kinds of mulching.

A closing thought. I have needed to run the new generator before hurricane season to get the required 5 hours of run time until the breakin oil must be changed. Nancy and the neighbors left today early so I decided today was a great day to run it. To load it, I ran the AC and dehumidifier in my shed. Then it struck me. I keep saying that the only bad thing about the generator is that it’s too small to run the house AC. But it does run the AC’s in the sheds – both of them. And since we have “his” and “her” sheds………….. At this time we have only one aero blowup bed but I can see where another one could be an essential element in the hurricane prep kit. I already have an XM radio set up in His; so if I got a small TV and unpacked one of our multiple VCR’s, Her’s could do just as well in the entertainment dept, not to mention the sewing machine setup. Bring ‘em on!

surgery update

Everything came out just fine. The fatty tissue, called a lypoma, was fully encased, unattached and I hear, came out easily. I was put out with a general anesthetic about 2:30 and fully awake by about 3:30; home at 4:30. The only misgiving I had was just before the anesthesia was administered the background music was playing “So you’ve had a bad day”. I definitely picked up on that. I have a prescription for pain medication but have not needed it – just an occasional Tylenol seems to have it well under control. Slept fine the night of the operation and ever since so all in all the only side affect is some manageable soreness. I go back next week to have the stitches removed and learn the results of testing on the tissue. Without a doubt, the critter bite on Tuesday was a far, far more painful experience.

critter attack

Had a nice encounter in the jungle yesterday. I was doing a major trim, clean and fill operation back by the picnic table. It had overgrown in the past year since I’ve fairly well ignored it after the dock was built. Anyway, I was wearing sunglasses and a sweat band around my head. I felt an irritation on my left ear where the head band and sunglasses set. I guessed that it was just rubbing and the sweat was aggravating it. I rubbed it a few times but it would not go away and in fact started to burn a bit – no doubt the salty sweat. Over the next few minutes it started to feel like a real burn and within another 5 minutes was really pounding. By then I figure this was not the head band but probably a spider bite. I actually had to sit down and decided to wrap up the task at hand and go do an alcohol and cortisone treatment. By the time I finished and walked up to the house it was throbbing and making me a bit dizzy. I took the head band off and there was the nastiest looking caterpiller/larva you have ever seen. It was a white thing with horns and hair. Really gruesome – probably an East Indian Killer wasp larva or something like that. I had squooshed him somewhere along the line. The pain had started down my neck and I could see my ear and head swelling. Nancy was at quilting so I decided to go over to Barbara and see if she could see anything to pull out. She put ice on it, sprayed it with something and gave me a benedryl. I went back home, got a shower, took another benedryl and made an ice pack. The throbbing and swelling persisted for a while so I took a couple of ibuprofen and laid down. My ear was huge, bright red and hot to touch. It was like double the normal size and along with the head swelling, I really looked like hell. In an hour or so the throbbing quit and the swelling went down. It was still sore to the touch and burned but certainly I was over the hump. By 4, about 5 hours after the sting, it was almost back to normal. We went out to dinner and I mowed the lawn when we came back – all better, no pain or burning.

That was Tuesday. Today I go get that bump cut out of my side at the Deland Surgical Center. I’m guessing that won’t hurt nearly as bad as the critter bite. The operation is at 2:30 so I expect to be home recuperating by 5 or so. They told me to fast from Midnight which means no food or water. I took the liberty to have a cup of coffee this morning secure in the knowledge that I’ve given it plenty of time to work through my system. If the surgery had been scheduled for 6AM, the fast still would have started at midnight so that must be so much bunk.

Azalea project

When we got the new shed I decided it was time to landscape that general area – general area means the area between the carport and the upper road. My reason for not doing that area previously was the problem with watering which was solved with my new battery powered orbit sprinkler system. Since I’ve had good luck with azaleas and since that area is well shaded and with lots of oak leaf mulch instantly and continuously available, I decided to do the job with half a dozen or so azaleas. The last time we purchased azaleas they were $5-$6 and we had found a great nursery in Ocala – Porter’s.

Our first setback was that Porter’s has moved from Ocala to the Villages. We learned that after wasting a day traisping around Ocala. Decided to try more local nurseries only to learn that the locals were too proud of their inventory – $10 proud. So I opted for a fallback – start my own from cuttings. I have plenty of good stock and they were a bit leggy so it seemed natural to kill a few birds with one stone. My history with starting new azaleas has been spotty, maybe one out of four actually happen. So I decided to add a bit of science to the project and see if I could home in on a higher yield approach. My expectation is that within 6-8 weeks the starts would either have taken or be deadwood.

I started the cuttings on July 3 in an open (not potted) shaded area where it would be easy to maintain consistent watering. I ended up with 10 starts. All used a growth hormone stimulant since past experience has proved that worthwhile. I did 3 starts using a technique I coined “long branch”. These were starts from cuttings about 2′ long with sparse upper greenery. I scraped about a foot of the woody and coated with the hormone then buried it mostly horizontally. My thought was that the more area with the hormone, the more possible root formation surface.

Five starts were my conventional approach – cut about 6” below a branching point and plant up to the branch. These cuttings were fully leafed.

Two starts were bare wood, about 8” long, with no leaves. Just sticks in the soil with the growth hormone applied.

Three weeks into the project there are some interesting results. The leaves on the five multi-branched starts all turned droopy within the first week. Some worse than others but all looked significantly wilted. I expected that the leaves would all fall based on that start but they are still hanging on, looking poorly, but hanging on and still green(ish).

The long branch starts look much better; two have some visible droop but one, the one with the longest branch, has shown no signs of wilting at all and looks about the same as the day I planted it.

The most interesting is the plain sticks. They have started budding out new leaves – very tiny, but leaves.

So at this point in the project, I would start speculating that the long branch and stick approach seem to be the most successful. Of course I can’t tell what’s going on under the soil so I’m only speculating. It does look like my old approach is the saddest which would support my 75% failure history. Also at this point there is zero pressure to produce since my friend Jess Hayes found 6 nice plants for me at $5 each and I found 3 nice Hydrangeas to complete the landscaping in the uplot area. So at this point, any success in the cutting project is pure bonus and in the interest of science.

old reels

refurb'd reels

I got my shed all fixed up with a workbench, lighting, shelves and a pegboard for my tools. I needed a project to try it all out so I decided to see If I could make some old fishing reels useable. All of these were ‘60’s vintage; the 5000C’s were late 50’s – so these are all classics. I had my Dad’s and some I had personally retired about 30 years ago – 9 reels in all. They included one of those old brown Ted Williams Ambassadeur knock-off’s; a black Daiwa Millioniare (another Ambassadeur knock-off); 3 of the original Ambassadeur 5000C’s (the classics from which all others are measured), a 5000D (a poor man’s 5000C), a 4500 (narrow spool version of the 5000C), and a mini, stripped down ABU 2650. Also an old Pfleuger. The Millionaire, a 5000C and the 4500 were my dad’s. Working on them sure brought back lots of old, fond memories.

I don’t ever recall seeing a 4500 before so that was a new one on me. I can say that with some confidence because I would have preferred it to the 5000C and no doubt bought one. I was pretty much out of the reel buying mode from about 1972-85 so maybe it hatched in that stretch. My guess is that it’s likely the newest reel of the bunch.but it’s the same as the 5000C – silver rather than red and with a narrower spool. Has a stardrag. As best I can tell the parts are totally interchangeable except for the narrow spool which should make it a lighter, more castable reel.

The reels were for the most part totally frozen – no drag, spool locked tight. Covered with crud. I could crank the spool on a couple – but really stiff and totally unuseable. Some looked like they were growing there was so much grib and mold on them. Maybe I could get a couple working by interchanging parts. I started by taking them apart one at a time and soaking the pieces in Liquid Wrench to dissolve the dried grease and kill the growth. Nothing was rusted beyond repair, badly pitted but not structurally problematic and they all cleaned up nicely after a bit of soaking and coaxing. Encouraged, I oiled, greased and put them back together. I started with a 5000C since I used to know those things inside and out. It took me a couple of times breaking down and putting together before I figured it out again and learned the old spring loaded traps again. After that, all the 5000C’s, the Millionaire, and the Ted Williams were a piece of cake. They are identical reel inside.

The 5000D was one of those cheaper, green models. No star drag so it came apart and went together easier. I remember customizing that reel – exchanging plastic gears for metal ones – high speed buzz gears – and exchanging a one knob, balanced high speed handle for the two knob version that came with it. My thought was that without a star drag, the reel would be nice and light and still have the great bearing system of the 5000C. I was right and don’t think I ever used a C again.

The 2650 was a very small reel. It was quite flimsy and cheap but very light and cast like a dream. I remember searching far and wide to find a good freespool reel that wasn’t heavy and this was the answer. It also turned out to be cheap. I caught hell for using such a cheap reel when they were all into the big buck 5000C’s. I had forgotten it had a push button freespool on the handle so that mechanism stopped me for a minute or two during this refurb operation. Somewhere along the way the handle had gotten bent badly and it was more or less a mess. I held this one till the end since I figured it was never going to happen and I have zero spare parts for this particular model.

I remember using the 500D and the 2650 almost exclusively after I acquired them. I was hung up on light weight since a good deal of my fishing was wading where I’d be out for 10 hours with no place to set down and more or less casting the entire time. You’d be surprised how much difference a few ounces makes. It turned out that the 5000D was a great reel for buzzing over the grass since it had a fast, smooth retrieve. I used the 2650 exclusively for top water since I could cast lighter lures and retrieval speed was not an issue. All my buddies fished exclusively with 5000C’s and I know at the end of the day, I’d made many more casts than them due to the light weight of my rigs compared to theirs. I know I also caught more fish because I could fish smaller lures, farther from the boat. I gave up the star drag for pure thumb control but don’t ever remember that being a problem with bass.

Believe it or not, after 3 days, I have 6 working perfectly. Haven’t messed with the pfleuger yet since I never really liked that reel anyway. It has a really wide spool which makes it hard to thumb control. It’s a stronger reel than the 5000’s with a better drag system so I used it on snook and tarpon but cursed it a thousand times a day when using it. I have rods for all of them. Oldies but goodies.

After the refurb operation I took them all down to the dock for a flight test. It’s one thing to have them spin ok on dry land but the proof is in the casting. Beautiful – they cast like a dream and I immediately remembered why I loved that 2650 and the 5000D better than the 5000C’s. As I indicated, neither of these reels have a drag system which adds quite a bit of weight – maybe half the weight for the 2650 – and the spools are much, much freer. I could cast them a country mile and they retrieve with much less drag. You know I now have some fairly expensive Shimano reels with a jillion ball bearings and all the magnetic and super centrifugal spool controls but these newly fixed reels are just smoother. The new reels have centrifugal control with 6 slider weights – these have two; the new reels have 6-10 bearings, these have none or two at most. I have no doubts the new reels are easier to use, especially for a beginner, but these old reels sure feel good to me. I need to change the line since they are currently strung with stuff that looks like rope compared to the new lines but I’m really, really happy with how it all turned out. Next step is to see how well they fish. I know they were trained properly so I’m anxious to see if they still remember all the tricks.

another great weekend

Another great weekend – this one extended by the fourth of July holiday. We attended one of Olivia’s birthday parties on Sunday. In her case she doesn’t really have a birthday but rather a “birthmonth”. I was personally lucky enough to attend two – the Sunday party and the party on the fourth. Nancy took Olivia shopping for her presents and we were treated to a long fashion show of the results. I got to spend my birthday gift card – Bass Pro Shops – and loaded up on new sinko style worms which Si and I had depleted on our previously reported trips.

After the party, Olivia came back to the lake with us for a mini vacation. On Monday she and I took off in the kayaks for a lake fishing trip. I was casting for bass and she was trailing behind, mostly, while I fished. At one point she crept ahead of me – exactly at the point where a fish grabbed my worm. The fish was jumping but I couldn’t see it because it was right next to her kayak – what a hoot it would have been if it had jumped into her boat. We finished off the day a little later with the three of us swimming in the lake.

The grand finale was the fourth celebration in Cocoa. We took the boat – the good ship Double Shaafted, down to the missile launch area to have a picnic and get up close and personal to the space shuttle Discovery launch. The kids spent most of the time in the water, cannon balling off the roof – that would be maybe a 10′ platform. Simon dove down at one point and brought up a live sponge. The launch itself was spectacular. I’ve been closer to launches before but not the shuttle. It just couldn’t have been more perfect. On the trip home we were occasionally tracked by dolphins, so close you could see the blow holes and eyeballs! Back at the dock we celebrated yet another birthmonth party for Olivia. The traditional cake was this time replaced with a giant chocolate chip cookie – more than enough for a dozen people. It was without a doubt the sweetest thing I ever tried to eat in my life – had to be kilocalories per bite.

Weekend redeaux

Another great weekend. Simon came up on Friday armed for a rematch with me and the bass at the lake. This time he brought his full tackle box so had everything necessary for success. My only concern was the weather which was forecast to be rainy due to a tropical something or other – wave, depression, storm – something without a name (yet). The forecast was 70% rain chances Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

We went out Friday night and luckily for me, Simon lost the first fish. Shortly thereafter I got one and nailed that critical first position. I lucked out and came in with a clean sweep – first, most, and biggest. Sounds like a big win but he was just that first fish from a much closer score. We came in and he was explaining his loss when he blew me away with his analysis. Seems that I had an advantage because he’s left handed and we were fishing on a shore and in a direction that was particularly difficult for left handers. Played the lefty card!

The next morning we were up and at’m fairly early. Check Simon’s blog for the exact details of who caught what but if memory serves, he caught the most this segment. I know I caught the biggest since it was the biggest for either of us in a couple of months. We had fished the exact same shore, in the exact same direction but “lefty” caught the most fish. We went out again that evening and Sunday morning and each time caught fish. I think I probably ended up with a couple more points than Simon for the whole trip but it was at most one or two fish away from him beating me. In other words, a close contest that could have gone either way. He landed more fish this weekend than last and is definitely pressing me hard.

On the first Friday night, we got chewed on a little by the local bugs – some mosquitos, some nats, and some yellow flies. Simon always sprays himself with bug spray but these critters were a bit nastier than his spray – particularly the gnats. Turns out that “OFF” does nothing for gnats or yellow flies. I remembered that we had bought some special stuff last year to fight a gnat swarm and decided to give it a test. Nobody is more sensitive to bug bites than Simon so if this worked on him, it would be really great. Well it worked. He suffered almost no bites on the morning trip and very, very few that night. So if you’re looking for something to try, find an Avon person or go online and find “Skin So Soft”. They have an oil product and a bug spray with some sun screen functionality built in – I think SPF 15. It beat the socks off “OFF” – even the strong DEET version.

And regarding the rain – I think we got about 7 drops the whole time. We fished when we wanted and for as long as we wanted and never had a weather concern. So much for 70%.

Great Weekend

What a great weekend – and not just because it was Father’s day. And to think it followed the Thursday from hell – see Tow Squared report.

Simon spent the weekend with us and we had a blast. He and I fished our little hearts out and we did some nice eating! To top it off, we joined the rest of the family including Joey and Mark, at a Tourist event in Orlando, Arabian Nights on Sunday night.

It started Friday morning when Joey and Mark came up to the Lake and did a job I had been dreading – going up into the attic to run the generator cable. It went smoothly and in just a few hours we were cranking up the generator and verifying that all the wiring was correct and that the house would actually run! I count that as a great Father’s day gift.

We picked up Simon at a halfway point Friday afternoon about 3:30, came home for some grub and then out on the lake with the Kayaks to clash with the lake’s fish. Naturally I expect to outfish Simon because, of course, I do have home court advantage – but it soon became obvious that this wasn’t going to be quite so easy. In the kayak, he could position himself exactly as he wanted and could make the most of his casts. He was using his Christmas tackle, which is first class stuff, and he was using it like he’d been fishing for 100 years. Perfect casts and excellent lure control. I knew I was in for it. We went out each morning and evening and I can summarize by saying I won by a razor’s edge and I can honestly say it was pure luck on my part rather than superior skills. I predict that if he comes back a few more times this summer, he’ll clean my clock big time on one of these outings.

On Saturday we headed over to Port Orange to one of our favorite spots, DJ’s under the bridge. Nancy had lusted after a guy’s meal when we were there last time and only her strong self control kept her from moving over to his table and abandoning me. It was the steamed clams. Not big for me but when Simon was there, we ordered the bucket – 3 1/2 dozen. That along with two bowls of the best fish gumbo I’ve eaten – spicy and loaded with chuncks of fish, shrimp, scallops and who knows what else. Simon and I topped it off with buffalo shrimp sandwiches so that Nancy could work on the clams. At DJ’s you sit about 5′ from the Halifax River and watch the mullet jump, the pelicans dive, and the fishermen on the nearby pier catch trout and crabs. Certainly nothing fancy but a most relaxing lunch for sure.

Sunday morning we concluded the fishing with some great action, polished off a gourmet breakfast, and then just hung out for a few hours listening to jazz and working Sudoku puzzles. Simon and I each had our own books and he was working out the puzzles by himself and in fairly good time. I managed to dunk one labeled “ Beware – very challenging”. About 3 we packed up Simon and headed to Lake Mary where we hooked up with Tom and his brood. Then off to the Arabian Nights in Kissimme. That was a fun dinner show featuring mostly horses and trick riding. The food passed muster and the wine flowed freely so it capped off a great weekend. For the record, the Arabian Nights event was part of our Christmas present from Joey and Mark along with the Mystery Dinner Theater last month. It’s totally happenstance that they end up being celebrated on Mother’s day and Father’s day.

Closing on Father’s day – really got some nice things. The aforementioned attic job; two great books from Chris; and a Bass Pro Shop Gift from the Lake Mary Carbone’s.

Tow Squared

We were driving back from Ormond Beach today after some fishing and a nice lunch at Greggs. We were west bound on 40 about a half mile east of 95 in nominally heavy traffic and I put on the brakes as we approached a traffic intersection. The brake pedal continued on to the floor as I pressed, stopping the truck ok but clearly failing. We were in a line of traffic with no option other than to procede on, virtually brakeless. The traffic was such that you could never really get any speed up so by using the gear shift, the clutch, and the emergency brake, I was able to get us safely to Walmart, a couple of hundred yards east of 95. We knew they had an auto center there. What we didn’t know was that they only did tires. I took this opportunity to figure out what the problem was – a ruptured brake line was my best guess and a roll under the truck proved that to be exactly the problem. So now we have to navigate that parking lot without crashing into anyone. Of course running stop signs all the way. We were told there was a Mobil station with a repair shop a few hundred yards west of the Interstate on 40. That meant some interesting navigating across lanes and thru a series of traffic lights to get to the garage. Not sure how, but we managed to make it – only to find that the guy was too busy to deal with us for a couple of days – that was unless we paid an added $100 to move to the head of the repair line. I think it’s illegal to punch a guy like that but I was fairly close. Instead we called AAA for a tow. The game plan was to find a local garage, a Goodyear place, and have the brakes repaired. A call there found that it was too late in the day and we’d have to leave the truck overnight and figure a way back home. Instead we opted to have AAA tow us to a local garage in Deland that we’d used before.

The tow truck eventually showed and we took off westbound on 40. We got a couple miles past SR 11 when the tow truck started whining and within a few minutes, jammed up totally. The transmission failed. The driver said he had been concerned about the noise the truck was making for a few days and called back to the base station for assistance. They sent two flatbed trucks, one for us and one for the tow truck. That left us sitting on the side of 40 for about an hour. After loading the truck on the new tow truck, we headed for the house where we dropped off Nancy and then headed to Deland to drop off the truck at the mechanic. Nancy came to pick me up just a few minutes after all the transactions at the garage were completed.

I guess, all things considered, we were lucky to get out of the whole thing with just some inconvenience. I’m guessing that if that brake line had given up a few minutes later, we could easily have been in a position where the failure could have had nasty consequences.