It’s official, my broadband modem is bad. I’ve been seeing a zero signal strength for a couple of days and the Virgin Mobile folks have been telling me that there was an outage in my area. Yesterday they ‘fessed up that the outage had been fixed and it was my modem. I had suspected that from the get go since I had messed up the antenna interface connector trying to get my neighbor up and running with my modem at his house. With the Pierson library about 3 miles away, it’s not as bad as it was a couple of years ago when I was 15 miles from the nearest legitimate wi-fi. Assuming that is the problem, I should be back up and running mid week. So if we’re a little late in responding to emails, that’s the reason.

The lake is coming up, slowly. Another inch will bring the surface level up to the second rung on the ladder. That means the water at the end of the dock will be knee deep instead of ankle deep – still way too low to even launch the boat – but certainly the trend is right and we still have 3 months or so left in the traditional rainy season. Personally, I’m convinced that the extended low water period is a net positive for the lake since it consolidates soft shoreline into nice firm lake bed when resubmerged. I’ve already noticed one thing different about the lake. When we first moved here, it was full of shiners – natural bass bait. It would take us a few minutes to fish off the dock and catch a dozen or so nice bait size shiners. Over the next few years, the shiners got bigger and the population of small ones seemed to dwindle off to nearly nothing for the past few years. But now we’re starting to see smallish, 4”-6”, shiners swimming around in the lily pads just off the dock. I can’t help but think the dramatic changes in level the lake has experienced in the past year is a factor in the shiner recovery. Maybe the baby fish have an easier time surviving or maybe the solidified bottom is better for egg survival. All I do know if that if you have lots of shiners, you have lots of fat bass chasing them.

Another little factoid relative to the changes in the lake is that there are lots of new lily pads popping up farther out from shore – as far as 200′. The water there is normally 15-16′ deep and I’m guessing that not enough sunlight penetrates that far down to allow the pads to sprout. Now the water is more like 10′ deep there which must allow just enough sunlight to promote growth. It will be interesting to see what happens as the water level rises since the sun capturing pads are on the surface. My guess is that they’ll do just fine until they’re cut off by a boat prop and then won’t regrow.

George is all over the idea of fencing the garden. He has a fenceline between him and his neighbor on the other side which he wants to pull down and we’ll use those posts and fencing to construct a nice one around the garden. We measured it and the distance around the periphery of the garden is 150′ and it looks like he has more than that available to use. It’s going to be a fairly big job taking down the old fence and then putting it up again around the garden but we’ve got until October or so before it becomes necessary. Both families are now so used to just going out and picking a good percentage of what we eat, that the idea of just letting it go was not something either Nancy or Barbara were too keen about. Aside from being fresh, tasty and cheap it’s very convenient which is a big deal out here in the woods. I told them that there was no way I was going to go to all the trouble of planting and keeping it up just to feed a swarm, covey, herd or whatever of rabbits so the fence became a no brainer compromise.

It’s been nice getting some occasional rain but it has unleashed the largest number and hungriest mosquitoes ever. With my low blood count, I’m pretty sure these guys could drain me completely in just a few minutes. In fact they’re so big that if they got their act together, they could carry me off to finish the kill at their leisure. So I’m forced to dress full winter – long pants, long sleeve shirts, and socks – in the heat of summer. So if I don’t succumb to blood loss, dehydration would surely finish me off. Any exposed skin is sprayed with poisons. Other than that………

I have a problem for sure in the garden with rabbits. The local predators just are not getting the job done. They don’t really like most of what I have growing right now but everytime I go out there now there are a couple hopping around in the garden just waiting for me to plant something more to their liking or removing the covers from the sweet potato plants. These rabbits are so tame that I have to actually go over and give them a little kick to get them moving. A kick moves them about 5′ so I take a step and give another kick – all you have ever heard about how timid they are is bunk. No way will we be able to have a fall garden with cabbages, lettuce, and the other typical seasonal greens. I mentioned to George that my next step is to break out the pellet gun but that would bother Barbara so I’m thinking fencing or maybe just hanging up the hoe, so to speak.

Had a follow-up to the kidney stone procedure and the blaster assured me he had got “the” stone. But he was quick to add that there are still 2-3 more on each, that would be each, side. They are quite small and way up in the kidney so there’s nothing to do but let nature take it’s course. Nice. He said just drink plenty of liquid and come back for another X-ray in 6 months. Nothing happens quickly and I’ve probably had this overhang for years and never knew it. He hadn’t received the chemical analysis yet but was pretty sure they were calcium oxalate, very garden variety and no dietary changes would make much difference. I’m thinking about the advice an old neighbor gave me – go into the bathroom with a case of beer and just stay there until the stone passed.

Back to hitting the Pierson library to get on the internet. The local Sprint tower must have been zapped so we have no signal at all. I’ve been assured that it will be fixed but ……………………….

Back from visiting Simon at the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. Simon has a summer job at the Tremont Institute which is an educational nature facility where kids/families spend a week experiencing the Park and it’s ecosystem. (check it out on the internet). He’s a counselor and leads groups on nature hikes, swims and classwork. His major is Environmental Science and with his years as a boy scout, has the perfect credentials for this job.

Our plan was to get up early Friday morning and pick him up at the park by 5PM when he got off work. So we got to bed early Thursday night only to be awakened by a call at midnight from Tom advising us that there had been a major storm at the park which had basically shut it down and trapped people inside with downed trees and at least one fatality. No way to know if Simon would be able to get out or if we would be able to get in but we decided to get started as planned and have him call us along the way if he got any information that would keep us from seeing Simon. Along the way, Simon called 3 times with the news that we couldn’t get into the park but he would be able to get out and meet us so we continued on as planned. He told us that he and several co-workers had ventured out right after the storm and started cutting away trees that were blocking the road. They were at it until the wee hours of the morning when the forestry guys arrived and took over the heavy clearing. When we got there, right at 5, sure enough we were stopped at the entrance and it became obvious that we were not getting in, no matter how sad our story. No worry, Simon did get out right on time and we headed to the hotel in Maryville, TN. (I was under the impression Simon’s job was in NC but learned that his part of the park is in Tennessee). Saturday we went into Knoxville to a downtown farmer’s market, hit one of Simon’s haunts at a restaurant called Tomato Heads and the obligatory 3 quilt shops. The whole time we were educated with Park lore regarding the flora and fauna and with tales of the kids and coworkers that Simon had befriended. He’s learned more about salamanders than you ever thought there was to know; ditto trees indigenous to the area; ditto birds; lichen; snakes; old settler cabins and farms; this trail and that peak. He can expound, and does, for half an hour on the difference between a 9 year old and a 12 year old and is as happy as I’ve ever seen him – and he’s a normally happy guy. We left him about 2PM so he’d be able to meet up with the crowd heading for a tubing trip to be followed by a burrito party that evening. We did actually get to see two bears fairly up close and personal.

We took a liesurely two days on the way home, stopping a couple times in Georgia to buy some roadside stand peaches and vidalia onions. No more quilt shops!! And the reason there are no pictures is that the battery on the camera was dead. nice.

Getting some nice rains now – an inch Monday night, an inch and a half last night. Lots of lightning. We had one bolt last night that seemed to be right at the edge of the lake, 100′ or so from the house. That definitely reset our clocks but apparently did no damage at all. So in the last 10 days or so, we have topped 10”, maybe a foot of the five we need to return the lake to “full”. Using the ladder as a gauge, we are now a couple of inches over top of the bottom rung.

Went one step further retro in the pasta making – rolled the dough into thin sheets using an old fashion rolling pin instead of the pasta machine. Then the guitar/banjo/chitarra to cut the noodles. I really liked the process better and think it actually went faster. I have no intention of taking the last step back, ie, abandoning the food processor and making the dough the old fashion way. I also played around just a tad with the materials – used 1.5 tbs olive oil instead of 1; 2 eggs instead of 1; and a few drops of milk instead of water. Of course the final test is on the plate and once again, incredible success. I think next time I’m going to try the angel hair pasta side of the banjo.

We’re getting ready for Olivia’s 16th birthday party today and then heading up to North Carolina on Friday to spend the weekend with Simon at the nature camp. It’s about an 11 hour drive so we’ll get underway early and be there to pick him up at 5PM when he gets off work.

Settling into the standard summer in Florida mode – 94 degrees/30% chance of rain. Pop up showers (if you’re lucky) about 4PM; an occasional tropical storm event. I get up early and get all my outside stuff done by 11AM at the latest. Not having enough water in the lake screws up my my morning, after work swim. The warden is making sure I don’t do too much labor for the next few days but I do feel totally normal – all pain, blood, and other inconveniences seem to be gone.

I wonder if they might rethink logging the western forests with devastating beetle infestations? What they’ve been growing or producing for years is fuel. I guess if you’re a true environmentalist, people shouldn’t be allowed to inhabit or even visit the forests so all those pseudo environmentalists who enjoy living in the wilderness are just getting what they deserve. At least if they had been clearing out the dead trees and replanting………………..

Spotted a really big owl on May’s porch yesterday. That’s a very unusual sighting and quite welcome. I haven’t seen any signs of rats since all the poisoning but I have been seeing lots of rabbits and this particular owl looked large enough to handle a small rabbit to me.
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Starting to see the Mormon “thing” pop up in the media as it pertains to Romney. I think that had the election not been shaping up to be a tight one, the Dem’s would have kept this issue quiet. For example: seeing the first polls – real or designed – defining the number of people who won’t vote for a Mormon no matter what; Starting to see the late night comedians making Mormon jokes; expect to see: the “documentary” pieces detailing the theological basis, practices, and the Christian/non-Christian/cult pieces – all done as serious, educational pieces; Mormon money – how much is there, where does it come from and where does it go? – maybe a 60 minutes or Dateline kind of treatment; the historical role of blacks and women; and the obligatory fringe, polygamist, fundamentalist groups exposed. This administration is built on a divide and conquer strategy of pitting one population group against another – rich against poor, black against white, white against hispanic, straights against gays. They ran into a bit of a buzz saw with the Catholic Church so one way to take the focus off or redirect at least some of that is to set up another religious group to take the heat. Especially a group who will vote big time for Romney with 100% certainty. Of course no politician will ever come out directly so it will be left up to the media to do the dirty work. I do think this election will be the first ever where the Jewish vote, Evangelical vote, Catholic vote, Protestant vote and Mormons will be lining up Republican. You really have to be an equal opportunity offender to accomplish this but I think Obama may have accomplished it.

Ever wonder what a 911 emergency ambulance will cost? Wonder no more. The bill was $916. I’m guessing that between Medicare part B and my Gap policy, it’ll all be covered. I knew it would be fairly expensive because there were 5 technicians on scene and we’re a fair distance to the hospital. Nancy thought it was a bargain!!

Hit the 5″ mark on rain Tuesday at noon – rain started on Saturday. That’s the magic number because my rain gauge holds 5″. The weather folks are saying we should expect a few more inches over the next 3-5 days and I’m just fine with that. So far, this storm has does everything right. It would be great if we could get one of these every couple of weeks for the next 6 months.

Got lasered. When you’re on a first name basis with most of the staff at a surgical center, you know you’ve been there way too often. This was my 4th visit in eight or so months. It takes two of them to carry my records now. We arrived at 7AM and were leaving, sans stone, by 11. This procedure does generate a bit more “discomfort” than the sonic approach but no doubt, this worked. I have to take it easy for a couple of days but that’s about it. So in the past month or so, I’ve been scoped and cleaned out from top to bottom and certified as A-OK.

For those of you that think the only place for okra is in a deep fryer or as part of jambalaya, think pizza. We had our first (of the season) okra and eggplant pizza. Exotic and delicious – that’s what I call it.

We were supposed to meet up with some old friends in Altamonte this afternoon for dinner but the weather turned yucky such that it would have been nasty driving on the interstate so we called it off. The folks we were meeting love eggplant so I had gone out this morning and picked enough for the 3 families. The change in plans put us in eggplant overload mode with really no room to stuff them in the fridge for another day. So Nancy decided the right thing to do was to break out a couple bags of previously frozen spaghetti sauce and construct a couple of batches of eggplant parmegian to be frozen for future events and also a couple of eggplant sautes to freeze for future sides. A couple of hours later, we have enough put away in the freezer to satisfy several meals or one big party. Just wonder what the folks without a garden do when the weather gets too yucky to go anywhere?

The yucky was a named storm – Debby. If you were outside of Florida it looked like a big old bad, almost hurricane. We got just about 5” from 7AM Sunday through 7AM Tuesday and some modest wind so it was a good storm- certainly one that wouldn’t have earned a “name” 50 years ago. The nice thing was that what little rain we got came slow and steady so it really soaked the ground well. A garden rain, not a lake filling rain. The forecast, for what it’s worth, is another 3-5” over the next couple of days as the storm very slowly crosses the state from west to east about 60 miles north of us. Cumulatively that could make a dent in the drought. I checked the lake today and it’s noticeably higher, at the bottom of the first rung of the ladder and now totally covering the area where I dug out the muck last month.

Getting into one of the books Chris sent – Gone Girl. As with all the books he sends, I have never heard of them but they never disappoint. This grabbed me on the first page but it’s not a fast read; the kind of book that you have to read intently – no word skipping. I even had to change the XM background music back to the Loft from the Coffee House.

Went around the cove at our end of the lake with the poke boat and a bamboo pole to get a good handle on the water depth. Looking for holes and shelves that would hold fish while it’s still low enough to find them. I was surprised at just how deep the shoreline is in many spots – 6-8‘ deep within 10‘ of the shore for much of it. Many lakes in Florida are really just depressions with very gradual, sloping bottoms but this lake is clearly a sink hole lake with a distinct shoreline and only a few gradual slopes. With the lake down 6‘ or so, that means there’s plenty of 12‘ deep water very close to shore under normal conditions. That makes it much more suited for deeper running lures than top water baits which I use most frequently.

Got the tackle box conversion job done on a first pass basis. I couldn’t fit all the things I had in the old bag into the new one but a good bit of that hadn’t seen daylight in 15 years. If Tom has room, I’ll gift him quite a bit of the overage.
Joey’s tackle box find turned out to be a gem. Just so happened that Nancy was going over to Cocoa to a quilt shop and Joey was home so she went by and picked it up. It was a smaller version of the same kind of box I just filled – a soft bag with plastic lure containers and lots of pockets. There were two lure boxes loaded to the hilt with Rapala’s, a wide variety of in-line, Mepps style spinner baits, a nice variety of trout spoons, and some tools. At new, retail – at least $200 worth of goodies. The previous owner was clearly a trout fisherman, probably from an area with large reservoirs where trolling is a common technique- like I used to do at Strawberry. The contents included a few containers loaded with flies – not anything I’d use here but something Tom would probably use in North Carolina. There were also a number of jars containing salmon eggs and trout concoctions called Power Baits. I would have no use for those at all and will probably just end up chucking them. I think many of the spinners and spoons will work well for speckled perch if not an occasional bass. And for sure the container/tackle box itself is really nice. I found one item that I had never seen before. I opened a pill bottle and there was a cluster of tiny, tiny treble hooks, probably size 22 or even smaller. There has to be thousands of them totally entangled into a ball. It would be a major task just getting one hook out of the cluster to use. I have never seen such tiny treble hooks. I know they must be for the salmon eggs but can’t imagine how micro the leader would have to be or how impossible it would be for me to tie a hook onto the leader.

Nancy and I have a difference of opinion regarding the definition of the word surgery. I think you have to be literally cut, as in cut with a scalpel, or it’s not a surgery – it’s a procedure. So when I have the laser attack on the kidney stone, I refer to it as a procedure whereas Nancy tells people I have surgery. That sounds way worse, to me. People send me “get well” cards or religious cards because she tells them I’m having surgery. I’m thoroughly convinced that if she told them I was having a procedure, no concern, no cards. Her definition is that if you are put out, anethetized , that’s surgery.

I’m in the third day of transitioning from my old tackle box(es) into the new one and I think I have another day or two ahead of me. I’m uncovering tackle that I have had in my possession for 30+ years. Joey put me under even more stress today when he called from a flea market in Cocoa with a tackle box “find”. He briefly described the contents and asked if I wanted it for $30. It sounded like way more value than that so I jumped on it. Just what I need, more tackle. What I’m going to do is have Tom come over and we’ll just go through all the excess stuff I have and split it up in some fashion. Now all I need is water in the lake.

Mark is on a trip ferrying a sail boat from San Diego to Panama City, Panama. It’s a 37′ sailboat which seems kind of small to me for such a trip. Then at the end of August he has another job ferrying a sail boat from Newport CA to Aukland NZ. Much bigger boat, I think 75′ but that’s a trip of several thousand miles without much land between here and there. I think the plan for the latter trip is for Joey to fly down to Australia for a week or so vacation with old friends from there.

Great father’s day. We went to Tom’s where Tina made her now famous chicken enchilladas with the equally spectacular apple cake. She also made a large taco in the shape of a bundt cake. Tom got me a new tackle box – well I guess that’s an understatement. It’s a Gator, orange and blue kind of Gator, bag with five or six individual plastic tackle containers and loads of pockets to carry all the accessories. It will take me a few days of careful planning to transfer my tackle to the new bag. I have soooooooo much stuff in the old bag that I haven’t seen in years that this new bag will force me to sort through and organize or toss. My first pass through the old one included food that could have been buried in there for years.
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Bought myself a new drill for father’s day. I really didn’t need a drill but just couldn’t pass up a “free” one. I have a really nice, Dewalt, 12V drill that has served me well for 5 or so years and would probably do so for another 100 years. Problem is the batteries died and just won’t hold a charge. Went to get new batteries and found they cost $35 each; $70 for the two I need. Or I could get a brand new Hitachi, 1/2”, 18V drill with a matching flashlight and two batteries for $79. Seemed like a no brainer to me. I guess it’s like the printer/ink business – give away the printer and make lots of money selling ink. I have to take a more global view and figure it will cost $75 or so every 5 years to have a portable drill. $15 a year doesn’t sound so bad.

We may have/may have had a gator, the swimming kind, in the lake. The other night there was a boat going slowly around the shoreline with a spot light. That’s the standard technique for gator hunting. Never heard a gunshot so either they didn’t spot anything or perhaps they were using some other, stealthier technique. With the lake so low, I don’t spend much time down there so it’s not likely I would have spotted one unless it crawled out of the lake and on up to the porch