Monitor Quest

When we were in Jacksonville FED EX tried to deliver our new computer to us. We didn’t receive a shipping notice so I was surprised to see when I checked on line that they had already made 2 attempts to deliver it. I ended up calling them and requesting they defer delivery until we are home. They agreed to and so now we will have the new desktop I bought on Woot.

Now we need a monitor. The computer is a high-end HP with lots of storage, an excellent video card, a TV tuner and lots of other bells and whistles. It’s more computer than we needed but the price offered made it a great buy. We’ve been researching monitors all week. For technical reasons the computer should have a 22-24-inch monitor. I had just about decided that I couldn’t afford a 24’ monitor until we went out today and looked at them. The internet is no substitute for boots on the ground viewing. We are going to use the computer for photo and video editing and for viewing HD DVD and if we ever decide to spring for digital cable it can serve as an HD TV. The computer can also be used as a DVR for recording TV shows. Anyway, back to the monitors, we found there is a significant improvement in resolution when you go from 22 to 24 (along with an increased price). The difference is worth the price. We visited Wal-Mart, Sams, Circuit City, Office Depot and Best Buy. At Best Buy they had a 24-inch HP monitor hooked up with an HP computer with the same configuration of the one we bought. It was impressive.

We left Best Buy and went to the Sony outlet to see if they had monitors. They didn’t. After about 2 hours of deliberation and discussion with Penny I decided that since we thought the 24” monitors were worth it I would go home and look some more. Penny thought we wouldn’t gain much by waiting. I thought about what she said and decided she was right. I went back to Best Buy to get the HP—and they didn’t have one in stock. Not to worry they had 2 in the warehouse. So I paid for it and they will deliver it to the house by the end of the week.

We are moving the old desktop to the sewing room. It is capable of running Penny’s sewing programs. It will also serve out its golden years doing other duties as assigned.

The Last Blackberry Adventure

1230 ZULU—It was a grey overcast morning. I wanted to take one more look at my secret blackberry patch to confirm the season was over. I checked the weather on the computer and examined the radar to assure myself that no storms were imminent. All looked good.

I loaded the kayak on the CRV and headed out to the little beach. I made sure no one was following me. I mustn’t reveal the secret location. Before launching the boat I once more checked the sky. There were some ominous clouds to the North but they were being blow away by the prevalent breeze.

1255 ZULU—I set out to the secret destination unobserved by any enemy agents. The wind was at my back and I made good time, reaching the end of the bayou in 20 minutes. My kayak training was paying off. My shoulders did not tire as easily and my thumbs were doing fine.

1315 ZULU—I once again checked that I wasn’t followed and then started upstream to the secret patch location. I entered through a different branch of the stream than normal—once again to throw off any enemy agents from my trail. The stream was strange today. It was not flowing. I quickly deduced that it must be high tide. As I drifted upstream I surprised a small egret (I think, the agency’s training program didn’t include identifying birds). He didn’t hear me coming and panicked as I floated by only 5 feet away. At least I knew no one else was around. My location remained a secret.



1330 ZULU—I drifted by brown dried-out blackberry bushes. Nothing left to pick. As I reached the last bend in the stream I stopped short. Blocking my path was what appeared to be a water moccasin (once again my agency training fails me). I took it as a sign I should head back to the bayou. I had determined the blackberry season was over and Mr. Snake was enough incentive to make me head back.


1340 ZULU—As I approached the mouth of the stream I heard a deep rumble in the distance. I hoped that it was an F-15 taking-off. Another rumble followed and I knew I was hearing thunder. That was not good. It is not smart to be out paddling a kayak in the middle of a thunderstorm but that’s where I was headed. My agency training immediately kicked in. I knew I must not be the highest object around. I also knew I didn’t want to be under the highest object around. The storm was not upon me yet but it was coming fast. I zipped up my lifejacket and headed out hugging the shoreline and letting all the trees provide a taller lightning target. It finally started to rain. I could see heavier rain walking its way across the bayou towards me. The wind was beginning to pick up and now I saw the first lightning stroke. Thunder followed about 7 seconds later meaning the lightning was over a mile away. The distance was not comforting. I decided to find a shore location far enough from high trees but cluttered enough to not make me a target.

1350 ZULU—I pulled up into some exposed tree roots with the growing wind at my broadside holding me against the shore. I was already soaked. Then the storm hit in full force with lightning and thunder, strong wind and waves. I just sat there, arms in my lap, rocking with the frequent waves and taking in the show. Fortunately none of the lightning came any closer than a mile away. The wind and rain were strong. I sat there about 10 minutes until things began to let up. Then I waited until all the dark clouds left and there was no more lightning, about 5 more minutes.

1410 ZULU—I headed out across the open water in a b-line toward the little beach. Once again I made it in record time. I didn’t want to expose myself any more than necessary.

1425 ZULU—I hit the beach, jumped out and dragged the kayak to the CRV. I then called headquarters (Penny) to let her know my mission was accomplished and I was coming back in.

1440 ZULU—I arrived at headquarters soaking wet, stowed my gear and boat and went inside to make my report to the boss.

I DO NOT recommend kayaking in thunderstorms. Thus ends the last blackberry adventure .

Jax Visit

We are back home after a quick trip to Jacksonville. We hadn’t seen Sophie in only 2 weeks and she had started crawling and saying some basic words. (da da, ta,ta, hi-i-i-i ) Penny watched Sophia while K&T went to a wedding.

We ran into lots of heavy rain both ways on this trip. We saw 3 cars that ran off the road in different places along I-10. Our driving was uneventful. Once again we saw a truck full of Smart cars heading for a dealership somewhere.

While in J’ville I once again raided the downtown library and added 8 audio books to our collection. I’m back to going through a book every day or two so I need to keep the supply up.

Penny cooked up a wonderful meal of pork tamales for everyone. Christy and Christian showed up for the meal. We had a great Saturday evening. C&C brought along a watermelon. Before the night was out we had all eaten too much. We brought some watermelon home with us and I just finished a bowl of it before I started writing tonight.

Speaking of produce, I checked the garden when I got home and found 3 ripe good-sized tomatoes and a smattering of small ones. Also found was a ripe cucumber. I’ve also got 3 small watermelons ripening. I’m still losing 2/3 of my tomatoes to bugs. We were still able to bring 8 of them to J’ville with us. So this year’s harvest is spotty but I am learning. This year I’m not losing the harvest to birds—the netting works.


Good news on how my thumbs are doing. The shots I got have settled down the severe inflammation. I still get sore when I do a lot, like carry Sophie around but the pain is reasonable and doesn’t stop me from doing things. I’m hoping it will stay like this. The effect of the shots may wear off after a couple of months. At least I don’t have to think twice to grab a doorknob, open a jar or tear open a sweetener packet—let alone do some woodworking or yard maintenance.

I may make a final blackberry run tomorrow. There shouldn’t be many left but weather permitting I’m probably going to give it a try.

KITTY UPDATE—I’m still sad and depressed about the loss of Bianca. I tear up when I think about the fear and pain that sweet little cat went through at the end. It’s going to be a while until I get over it. Seeing how I feel about a cat I can only imagine how someone feels when a loved one is lost in a war. I understand why they are almost always told, “they died instantly”.

On the positive side, all 4 kitties are out there tonight. Meredith showed up late. To my surprise Lady Marmalade let me scratch her ears and head and liked it. She is beginning to come around. She is still wary but trusts me a little more each night.

Once again the feeder worked fine. There is no indication that a raccoon is around. I thought there was one out there last week.

I Love My Brother, But

I just got back from dropping off Lou at the bus station. He is gone—at least until September. He spent 22 days in this area all of which were supposed to be supported by the local church. They sent him to us after 8 days claiming they had no place for him to stay.

Lou is a tough houseguest to have. He is appreciative but also very manipulative. He would have ended up staying here until August if we didn’t explain to him that he could not stay in our house if we were not in town. He figures if God has led him into a home he can stay there as long as he feels he needs to. We love the guy but we cannot let him move in permanently.

He is now off to Missouri and has no idea how long he will stay there.

We are preparing for a trip to Jacksonville. I apparently fried my mp3 player while loading a book on it. I’m going to try to recover it but it doesn’t look good.

Brie is taking advantage of her regained freedom and is not in the room with us. Instead she is out in the den just enjoying no strangers in the house.

Lou’s departure was typical Lou. He decided he would travel with 2 bags. He stuffed all his stuff into 2 bags. When we got to the bus station he was told because the bag was 22 pounds over the limit it could not be checked but must be shipped as cargo (for $35) So I had to dash back home and get his other suitcase for him before the bus arrived. He left 2 bags at our house a big one and a small backpack. I chose the bigger one because I knew for sure he could fit 22 lbs in it. When I arrived with the bag Lou was upset. He wanted the smaller bag. No thanks. He didn’t even say good-bye when he got on the bus. He was too preoccupied with where he would sit.

It will be nice to get back to normal around here.

Pillars of the Earth

I finished a book today that was 32 CDs long, the equivalent of 976 pages.

It was a historical novel, The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett about the building of a cathedral in Kingsbridge, England. It is set in the middle of the 12th century and provides both an interesting insight into how people lived at that time and into the architectural considerations that go into designing and building a cathedral. It spans a period of 40 years and changes main characters as the story requires.

It’s a different style of book than I normally read. I enjoyed it for the most part and came away with a greater appreciation for cathedral design.

Tomorrow brother Lou heads off to Missouri in his continuing adventure for the We Care Ministries. He worked hard for the church while he was here and wore himself out. I took him to lunch today at a local Greek restaurant and then toured the Armament Museum. I showed him some of the systems I have worked on. He kept wanting to sit down and rest. We didn’t do much more than give him a place to stay on this visit.

Poor Brie, our cat, doesn’t like having a stranger in the house. Now that he is leaving we are going to once again drag her off to Jacksonville.

The garden has about a dozen tomatoes that look like they will ripen when we are away. I’ve got netting up to keep birds out and I think I finally have the insects under control. Now I have to hope they will be just right to pick when we get back. No matter how “automated” I made the garden it still requires daily attention. My Dad understood this and set aside time each day to work the garden. I’m learning a lot his year and I’m hoping that next year the harvest will be greater.

Bianca

It looks like we’ve lost another cat. This time we know what happened to it and it is not good news.

I won’t provide all the details. Suffice to say our neighbor on the corner of Rodney and Kris found half of a cat in their yard yesterday morning. The police forensic people were called because they thought some kids mutilated the cat. It turns out an animal, fox, coyote or dog got the cat. It probably got interupted and could only carry off half of the cat--thus the other half on the neighbor's lawn.



They described the cat as white with orange with a cropped ear. I think our cats are the only ones around here like that and Bianca has not been here for the past 2 days.

Once again I’ve lost my favorite. Bianca was the one that would crawl up on my lap, sit in my arms and look up at me as if I was the most wonderful person in the world. Her downfall likely was her tendency to freeze, lying on her back and howling when faced with danger.

We try to keep the cats safe and provide a little human kindness for them. It’s the best we can do. As far as I know I’m the only human they trust enough to let touch them. I worry that because I am nice to them they might let others get close. When we thought the cat was killed by people I thought that was how they got it.

I’m going to miss Bianca. I’m going to have to quit choosing a kitty as my favorite.

Pop’s Birthday

Today would have been my Dad’s 90th birthday. I’m sure he would have had several appropriate jokes for the occasion—and some inappropriate ones, too. I miss the guy. I think of him just about every day. Happy birthday Pop.

I spent the whole morning on a quest for blackberries. I was fighting a strong headwind all the way up the bayou. This time it was hard work getting there. It was worth it. The berries are peaking out. This may be my last chance to get them. I actually weighed my haul this time and it came to 2.2 pounds. We’ve already had our berries and cream today. This batch was even better than the last. I was able to be more selective as I picked them, taking only the ripest ones. It’s neat to have a berry patch that no one else knows about.

I’m going to have to spend some time on the garden tomorrow. The weight of the tomato plants have bent my trellis. I need to prop things up an put up the bird net. We’ve got about 20 tomatoes that are about to ripen. Hopefully these will ripen properly.

Brother Lou is starting to wear out with his church work. He’s not home yet and it is 9 PM. He got back late yesterday and was tired this morning. I’m hoping he doesn’t make himself sick. ---- As I write, Lou arrives home and he has hurt his back. Gotta go.

Business and Pleasure

Today was another mixed day. It started with my making Lou breakfast—2 eggs, 4 pieces of bacon, a handful of pepperoni, oj and toast. Penny and I had cereal,

We then set off for the bayou to try out Penny’s new kayak. She took to the water like a duck in that thing. Because of its short length and light weight it responds quickly to paddling. It causes the kayak to turn more drastically from side-to-side with each stroke. Penny took off ahead of me and I couldn’t keep up with her. She was cutting a back and forth path ahead of me, probably traveling twice the total distance but she was still too fast for me to catch.

I think that kayak is perfect for Penny. The fact that it was relatively cheap only makes it better. At 26 pounds she can even carry it to the water. It won’t be as durable as our wilderness kayaks but it is so easy to transport that having 2 kayaks like this one wouldn’t be a bad idea.



The business part of the day was our yearly visit with our financial advisor. We are losing money as expected with the current economy. Our advisor felt we were sufficiently diversified to weather this period and we should ride it out. With gas prices likely to go to $7 a gallon before things level out let’s hope she’s right. There was an interesting political cartoon the other day. It showed a couple in their yard grilling hot dogs. The husband said that with gas prices the way they are people would have to vacation at home. The wife agreed but added if they still have their house.

Then it was back to pleasure—a visit to a local Greek restaurant. We’d never been there but were going on a friend’s recommendation. It was great. The prices were reasonable and the food good. We will return.

Back at home Penny and I took a nice nap (older people can nap without guilt). It was then back to business for me. I mowed the lawn then did the dishes.

Lou arrived home looking tired but happy. He said he had a good day. Tomorrow he would not need breakfast here. He would eat at the church.

I just about finished off the wild blackberries tonight. I had a flash of piggy brilliance when I remembered we still had some of the blackberry syrup Penny made. So I had blackberries with whipped cream topped with the syrup. It doesn’t get any better.

Tomorrow I may head out to pick more blackberries.

KITTY UPDATE—All 5 cats have been here for the past few days. To my surprise old lady Marmalade is letting me pet her. She still runs away some but she is getting used to me stroking her back. Maybe someday she’ll let me scratch her ear. The othe 4 cats hav a regular attention ritual each evening. Meredith stands on my lap while I pet her. Buzz sits in front of me while I scratch his head. Velcro circulates back and forth rubbing everything in sight. Bianca has stopped sitting in my lap and has reverted to jumping up on the picnic table and peering down on the activity while looking for a periodic scratch on the head.

The feeder is still dispensing from when I loaded it 12 days ago. With no raccoons to clean it out each night it will feed for 2 weeks now easily.

We’ve Already Got One

We’ve been working to bring our bicycle capability from development to fully operational. That means we should be able to deploy to distant locations with only minor preparation time. We now have the bikes, helmets and locks. We need a bike rack.

We’ve been scouring the Internet and visiting bike stores (and sports stores which landed us a kayak) but in the back of my mind I knew I bought a rack from Goodwill a long time ago. I bought the rack for about $10, thinking at the time that I would use parts of it to make a kayak carrier for the roof rack on the CRV. That was more than a year ago and the bike rack has bounced around from shed to garage to—well I hadn’t seen it in a while and searches of the shed and garage didn’t turn it up.

That meant it must be in the old shed—the recently reorganized for easy finding old shed. Here was a test of whether my storage job a while back was effective. I grabbed my 10,000 candlepower macho-flashlight and ventured into the shed. There in the 3rd row leaning against the shelf was the rack. I hadn’t remembered whether the rack was complete and I didn’t know if it fit my trailer hitch receiver. As I dragged it out into the daylight I was very pleased. It is an older design Yakima 2-bike rack—and it was all there and it was the right size to fit my hitch.

The only problem is when I attempted to mount the rack; the CRV’s rear mounted spare tire interferes with it. I need the hitch receiver to be about 6-inches longer. No problem, I figured. I headed out to the trailer hitch place to get an extender. The guy there said they didn’t have any. My hitch is 1-¼ inches. He said they have never carried extenders for that size receiver. It was back to the Internet. Penny and I played dueling computers each trying to find the best deal. We found the item at 3 sites and 2 of them were only a couple dollars apart in price. So I ordered one. Now we have to wait for it to arrive to go fully operational.

I took the first long ride on my bike this morning. I went around the neighborhood and then around the big block down Racetrack Road to the hospital and back home again. I figure it was only about 4 miles. It was enough to find out that the bike is comfortable and very easy to ride. The only issue is the narrow seat gives me a wedgie. I felt good after the ride and this evening nothing is sore. It looks like the bike will work OK. A few years ago with my back issues the doctor thought I should stay off bikes. Fortunately my issue was not disk related and riding doesn’t hurt the back.

I’m losing tomatoes in the garden as soon as they begin to ripen. I think it is insects so I whipped up a batch of natural insecticide and sprayed the garden. I’ll find out in about a week if that worked. I’ve lost 8 tomatoes so far and there are a couple dozen coming along.

The blackberries I picked are almost all eaten. They won’t last much longer in the fridge so today I bought a can of whipped cream and sat down to a nice bowl of blackberries and cream. It was real good.

Sandlot Ball

Having Lou visiting us always dredges up memories of the things we did growing up. I’m beginning to realize, as the members of my family die, that these unique family memories whether valuable or not are dying with us. I think there is some value to these memories because they were formative to my personality. If nothing else, perhaps my generation will be remembered as more than just an old picture or fading video. I’ve decided to write about some of these memories from time to time as I feel the inspiration.

Once again my inspiration comes from Karen. She got me blogging. Recently she loaned me a book written by Johnathen Franzen, The Discomfort Zone. It’s a series of short stories of his experiences growing up-some interesting; some forgettable. One story tells about the attempt of him and a group of his friends to throw a automobile tire over their school flagpole. It brought to mind the many exploits I had with my friends back in Connecticut. The final push is Karen’s blog today about narrative writing.

As I contemplate those experiences it seems that most of the memories are about games we played. Some were standard such as touch football in the street and sandlot baseball on the paved hilly Bullard’s parking lot. The games were standard but the ground rules had to be invented. For example, our baseball field was laid out in the following manner. Home plate was in one corner of the L-shaped lot. First base, a scrap of wood or cardboard that we found in the lot was placed on the intersection of the yellow parking space markers (when they were visible). When the paint wasn’t visible there was a gouge in the asphalt we used as the marker. The right side foul line was defined by the first base placement. The lot wasn’t big enough to have a second base. Third base was straight down the last parking stripe on the left—a well-defined and more visible foul line.

We used a hard ball wrapped in many layers of electricians tape. Without the tape the leather cover of the ball would quickly wear off. Periodically as we played a well-used ball would wear out and when hit would either shed its cover immediately or fly weirdly with one flap of the cover acting as an air scoop. We didn’t have spare balls so when that happened it was game over until we could scrape up the money to get another one.

There were several ways we had to lose balls. Streets bordered our field—fairly busy ones. Alfred Street was on the right. Canfield Avenue on the left. There was no automatic home run on the right field side. A well-hit ball could be pursued across Alfred Street and a runner could be thrown out if the pursuer was fast and had a good arm. On the left field side the parking lot had a small curb separating it from the sidewalk on Canfield Ave. A ball clearing that curb and not caught was a homerun. That was an important rule from a safety standpoint. Canfield Ave. was very busy. We hit more than one car with well-hit balls—at which time we would sometimes scatter and run away. Most of the time the cars just kept going. I can’t remember anyone ever getting in trouble for hitting a car. Of course, being the 98 lb weakling I was, I never hit a home run. Across Canfield Ave. was the Bullard’s factory and it had a tall chain-link fence (8-10ft?). The better hitters, Johnny Slater and Jerry Marcus, could hit balls onto Canfield Ave. Sometimes they would bounce over the fence. We had to retrieve them without getting caught by the guards there. More on this later. Through the laws of that genius named Murphy, sometimes a ground ball would accurately find its way through the gap between poles on the gate to that lot. Any time a ball went over the fence it was imperative to track it as long as possible. Depending on where it entered the Bullard’s lot it would either fall into a not so well kept grassy area where it would hide from us or roll off into a parking lot—sometimes penetrating deeply into the forbidden grounds of Bullard’s property. The other significant ball-eater was the sewer drain at the end of Alfred Street. Good old Murphy was at work here also and many balls were swallowed between the grate and the curb.

Over the years we developed into a crack ball-retrieval squad. At first the Bullard’s fence was a formidable foe. The only way we got through was to scale it. The risk was great to body, it had those pointy ends sticking up on top, and the exposure was lengthy, endangering being seen by a guard or employee. We needed to get the ball or the game was over. I never was a fence climber (see the 98 lb weakling comment above). I was too small to get over the fence easily or safely. Once over the fence the group on the safe side would yell directions to the retriever. Retrieval was usually successful.

Later we found that a couple of us could grab the bottom of the fence and lift it out far enough for someone small, like a 98 lb weakling, to roll under. The danger here was the fence was trying to spring back to the closed position while the holders strained to keep it open. The fence bottom also consisted of those pointy things and there was a real danger of the retriever being impaled on his way in or out. We developed a well timed routine. The fence was lifted and the retriever would drop and roll under and the fence would be released. This was much faster than scaling the fence and thus involved less danger of detection.

The sewer presented a more interesting problem. If there had been sufficient rain water filled the sewer but it was about 6 ft down the shaft. In dryer weather there was just muck down there. We learned we could lift the heavy metal grate off the top and provide access to the sewer. Depending on the conditions we would improvise some way to scoop the ball out. I remember one time we got my Dad’s pear picker to scoop the ball out.

After retrieving the ball we would continue the game where we left off.

We pitched overhand but not real fast. When there were sufficient numbers playing we had someone umpire. Otherwise we just pitched until someone struck out, hit out, or successfully got on base. I usually pitched for our team. I was a terrible outfielder and too short for first base. I could pitch and play infield well enough, however.

I was fortunate that our neighborhood kids were all good guys. The big guys were not bullies. There was no prejudice because someone was Italian or Jewish. Of course we did the normal ribbing, but no one was mean-spirited. Best of all they were tolerant and accepting. I don’t remember initially meeting any of them. They were all just there and that’s the group we hung around with through 8th grade.

Friday the 13th Comes on a Friday this Month.

We had a normal Friday today nothing about it being “13-ish”. We started with the wild blackberry, banana and pecan pancakes covered with home made blackberry syrup. It was good! Then it was our normal Target run. On the way home we went to Goodwill on the off chance they might have a bike rack. They didn’t. I did pick up a used skill saw that I will give to Christian if he wants it.

The rest of my day was spent in yard work and sanding and varnishing our wooden kayak paddles. That’s a job that was overdue. I found the wood on one edge of my paddle just beginning to separate so I re-glued it. I think I caught it in time to save the paddle.

We are in that period where nasty thunderstorms roll through any time of day so we didn’t try any biking or kayaking. Tomorrow we start the day at Waffle House (Lou is coming with us) and take it from there.

Penny’s Outdoors Recreational Holiday

We went to Pensacola today and returned with a new bike and a new kayak for Penny. We went there for her to test drive a bike she thought she would like. She did and we bought it. The guy at the bike shop tried to sell me a bike, too. He sent Penny and me off on a ride together on matching bikes. The ride did clinch the sale of Penny’s bike. Now we need to get a bike rack to carry the bike on our future biking adventures.

We both have had health issues that kept us off bikes for a while (my back, Penny’s balance). Both issues have improved. We are going to give the bikes a try. With the price of gas the way it is we are getting into recreational activities that have an initial investment with low recurring costs. The kayaks have worked great. Now we will see how we do with the bikes.

We had lunch at the Macaroni Grill in Pensacola—this was my Father’s Day meal. After that we happened by an Academy Sporting Goods store. We stopped to look at bike racks there. We had one of their flyers in the shopping cart and I noticed they had a small kayak on sale for an excellent price. It came with a backrest and paddle, too. Penny has wanted an individual kayak that would allow her to kayak with me when I ventured up the streams at the head of the bayou. She doesn’t like going up there (snakes and things might be there). Separate kayaks would let me explore while she stayed out enjoying the open water. We decided to get it. Now we already had the back of the CRV full of bicycle. To carry the kayak we would have to strap it on top. We didn’t have the CRV that has the roof rack so we bought 2 cheap towels and used them as padding when we tied the 26 lb kayak (yes, it is that light) to the roof. Penny and I worked out a good stable tie-down configuration with ropes going front, back and around (through the rear windows) the kayak. We did a good job and had absolutely no problem on the drive home on I-10.

When we got home we both got on our bikes and rode up and down the street—just for the fun of it.

Tonight we have a houseguest. Brother Lou is back. He will be here until the 20th, we think. He originally told me he would be coming here on Monday night next week. Then, last night, he calls and says he’ll be here tonight at 8PM. It seems he made a mistake about the date he arrives and how long he was staying. It’s a good thing he is family. We know how Louie’s brain works and this kind of behavior is typical Louie. He just doesn’t realize how much he jerks people around. You’ve got to love the guy—otherwise you’d wring his neck!

We (Penny) decided to hold off on our wild blackberry, banana, and pecan pancake breakfast until tomorrow so we can share them with brother Lou.

So we had a good day. Penny is excited about the bike and the kayak.

Thumbs up For Blackberries and Bikes

This Wednesday began as I expected with a kayak adventure up the bayou to pick berries. To save my thumbs as much strain as possible my paddling technique was not in proper form. I held the paddle as much as possible with only my 4 fingers.

It was a beautiful day for kayaking with no wind to slow my 8-finger paddling. A couple of osprey were doing their morning fishing. They stayed in touch with one another by chirping. The chirps sounded like the peeping of baby chicks except deeper—like baby chicks with a 2-pack-a-day cigarette habit. One of the birds flew about 100 feet off my bow with his talons out as he dipped toward the still water. His prey must have dived because the bird rose up a little and then dropped down to drag his feet across the surface for about 10 feet before lifting back up into the sky. I wished I had a long lens on him. He was close enough that I could hear the water splash as he dragged his claws in it. I think he was just enjoying himself and his freedom.

When I arrived at the mouth of the stream and started up against the flow I was disappointed to see the berry plants there were all dried up and brown—all the berries gone. I was afraid I had missed the opportunity to get any more. I continued upstream and finally began finding some ripe berries. I began filling my container. I ran into many spiders and webs while picking. This is not a place Christian would enjoy. Some of the berries were so ripe they squished when I tried to pick them and blue juice ran down my fingers. I, of course, was forced to eat these very-ripe berries. Some of the berries would drop off when touched and I ended up watching them fall into the water and sink. Some fell inside the kayak resulting in berry-stained pants when I inadvertently sat on them.

I found the best spot far up the stream. One bush had big juicy ripe berries hanging out over the water—most of them in reach. I didn’t actually measure the amount of berries I got but it is well over a quart—maybe 1 ½ quarts.

I headed out downstream picking any low hanging fruit I found. It was about 10 AM when I broke back out into the bayou. Then my cell phone rang. I knew it would be Penny—she has an uncanny way of knowing when I start home. She told me she was looking at bikes on-line and although she was looking for one for her, she found one for me on Craig’s List. So I headed back to the car to bring my bounty home and perhaps go look at a bike for me.

The bike she found is a Gary Fisher “Nirvana” hybrid bike. It’ advertised as the go anywhere, do anything bike and lists new for anywhere from $450 to $670. “It's for the rider who wants a simple, dependable bike and who appreciates better quality. It's just the thing for around-town, leisurely touring, and fitness riding.”

Both Penny and I were already getting squeamish when the price of bikes we looked at cost $200. This one was offered at $325. So we had a lot to mull over. Many of the sites we read said that you should buy as much bike as you could reasonably afford. It will pay off in the long run if you actually use it. The Nirvana for sale was in “as good as new” shape.

We went to Navarre and looked at it. I took a nice long test drive and although I need to adjust the seat and handlebars a little it rode beautifully. The bike was in such good shape that I didn’t think haggling over price was warranted. We bought it. The bike has an aluminum frame and aluminum hub wheels. It is a Shimano 24 speed and 700mm tires. The color is metallic crimson. Here is a picture from on-line.
Returning from the trip to Navarre we stopped at 2 bicycle shops in Ft Walton to look at bikes for Penny. The first shop serviced Gary Fisher bikes and I asked them to check out my bike. They said my bike looked like it had never been ridden (which confirms the seller’s story of very little use). The chain lube was the original factory lube stuff and there was no wear on the tires or breaks. The bike checked out in good shape—so it confirmed that Penny found me a great bargain. Isn’t she good? She got into her shopping “zone” and once again got a great buy. I ended up with a much better quality bike because of her work.

We didn’t find a bike for Penny yet. We are going to Pensacola tomorrow to maybe get one for her.

We are thinking tomorrow morning holds the promise of banana, blackberry, pecan pancakes.

No Raccoons, No Squash, First Tomato

We are back home. We slept in this morning. We haven’t unpacked yet—but we are well rested.

All was well when we arrived back at home. The cat feeder worked. The garden waterer worked. No raccoons had raided the cat food. But one cat was missing. Buzz, who had not been there for 2 days before we left was not here now. I was worried about Buzz because he was foolish enough to approach the raccoon. He also had another wound on his hindquarter that was just beginning to heal.

For some reason all my squash plants died. We had a bad storm come through while we were gone and it may have beaten the tender vines to death but I really don’t know why they all didn’t make it.

My first real order of business today was to get my tooth fixed again. The repair Dr Woo made a couple of months ago popped out when I was playing with little Sophie. So this morning she again repaired the chip in my front tooth (#9 for those of you who know which tooth is which). This time she fixed it so it won’t be under pressure when I grit my teeth as I tickle my granddaughter.

The Feagin’s trashcan has a pedal on it to open the lid, ours doesn’t. Twice today I tried to open ours by stepping on a non-existent pedal.

I mowed the lawn today and found once again that I had to rest after mowing the front yard, before doing the back. Then as I was finishing the back yard I got tired just before I finished. I don’t tolerate the heat as well as I used to. I don’t know if this is temporary or just my age catching up with me.

I then did some garden management. Tied up tomatoes and searched for any ripe vegetables. To my surprise I found a ripe cucumber and 1 ripe tomato. There are many more tomatoes on the way—I’m still keeping my fingers crossed on the harvest.

Penny and I had a movie night tonight. We rented National Treasure II, popped a 100-calorie bag of popcorn for each of us and had a small glass of wine while we watched the movie.

KITTY UPDATE--Tonight when I fed the cats Buzz showed up. His wound has healed over and he seemed normal. The big news is old lady Marmalade is letting me touch her a little bit. She still is very cautious but she is acting the way all the others did just before they decided they would allow me to pet them. At one point tonight I had Buzz, Velcro and Meredith sitting in front of me and I was successfully scratching all 3 chins with my 2 hands.

Tomorrow morning, weather permitting, I will go kayaking in search of blackberries.

Visit to J'ville / High Springs

Here is a quick glimpse through pictures of our trip to High Springs and J’ville so far:

The Saga of Houdini

I was finally successful in catching, transporting and releasing Houdini. Here is his story (I'm having issues adding pictures to this so I will add them later):

Houdini was quite clever for a raccoon. Each morning he would brag to his friend Rocky about the previous night’s adventure. One time he told of being temporarily trapped but, being the clever raccoon he was, he simply lifted the sliding door to the trap and strolled off to his next feeding station. “I’m too smart for those people” he said, “They will never catch me—I’m too good”. Rocky told him to be careful out there.

The next morning Rocky didn’t show up at the den.

That night Houdini made his normal rounds. He liked this one place because it always had tasty nuggets for him to eat. It also had some sort of box that, when he scratched and jiggled it, gave him some more of the tasty nuggets. Tonight, however the box had very few nuggets and there was that thing he got temporarily trapped in sitting there with a bowl of water and lots of those nuggets. He remembered the sliding door and just stood over the doorway and satisfied himself with those nuggets that he could reach. He bumped an empty tray of food and the noise scared him and he ran off.

Later the same night he returned to the place and stepped all the way in, feasted on every last morsel—washing each bite in the water—and left for his den to take a long nap on a full stomach. “That wasn’t so bad”, he thought to himself.

The next night the food was replenished and the water was fresh. All the food was deep inside the contraption and it was hard to get it without going completely inside. He thought about his feast the previous night and decided it was OK to go in. If that door closed he could always just slide it open again and leave. Besides, just look at all that food in there.

He stepped in. Just as his tail cleared the doorway it made a loud noise and the door started to drop. Houdini tried to make it out but the door just beat him and closed off his escape. To his surprise one of those human creatures came out of its den and looked at him. After that creature left Houdini tried to slide the door but it wouldn’t budge. He’d have to find another way. After poking all around testing this cage he finally found a weak point. He found he could stand on his rear legs and grab the bars on top of the cage. Using his strong paws and his teeth he spread the bars apart and squeezed his flexible body through the 3-inch gap he made. As he sauntered off he thought to himself “I am good. I am clever. I am strong. No cage can hold me”. He was only a little sore from the squeeze and he did not have enough to eat so he went on to his next feeding stop to eat some cat food at a house up the street a ways.

Back at the den once again he did not find Rocky and began to worry for his partner. “Rocky never was that bright”, he thought. “Not like me. I hope he is OK”.

It was nighttime again and Houdini was once more at the cage. He remembered how good those nuggets were and the fact that even when the door closed on him he was able to get out. So tonight he checked out the box for nuggets and only found a few. Very few dropped when he shook the box. If he were to eat his fill tonight he had to go into the trap. Once again he stepped in but only halfway. “Yummy those nuggets are good”, he thought but he didn’t go all the way in. He stepped out and checked the bowl where he had found water 3 nights ago. It was dry. If he was going to moisten his food the only water was in the cage. So back he went and this time he went all the way in to the water bowl. He grabbed a paw full of nuggets, washed them and ate them. Oh my, this was good stuff! He took another step deeper into the cage and wham, the door closed again. Once again the human creature came out of his den and looked at him. Once the creature left, Houdini went to work figuring out his escape for tonight. He huffed and he puffed but he couldn’t get out the way he did the night before. He kept trying to get out for a couple of hours before settling down to think. Then he tried again and rested. That’s the way the whole night went. It got light outside—he should be back at his den—but here he was still in this cage.

That human creature came out and started moving the cage. He lifted it onto another contraption that had those wheel things and Houdini found himself rolling across the backyard, around the house and into the front where he was loaded cage and all into the back of one of those big 4-wheeled monsters that roll around on the big hard black paths that were all over this territory.

Houdini didn’t understand what was happening but he was moving and being jostled and bumped around. After a short while everything stopped, the back door of the monster opened up and Houdini saw the human lift the sliding door open. Houdini could see a big lake. Rocky had told him about lakes but he had never seen one. All he had in his territory were those square pool things that had funny tasting water in them. But here was a real lake. Houdini wasn’t sure what was going on so he stayed deep in the cage. Then the human opened a door and was right there next to the cage. Houdini decided it was time to go.

He crawled halfway out of the cage and looked around. Yep, that was a lake all right. He jumped down and walked quickly to the lake and took a drink.

Wow! That was good water. The human just watched. Houdini turned and scampered into the woods. He was thinking that he got out again. No cage could hold him.

It was a little scary in this new territory but he found a nice log to sleep in. When it got dark he awoke and started to explore his new territory. He was surprised when he went down to the lake. He saw another raccoon—a familiar raccoon—it was Rocky! The two raccoons jumped around and played and were happy to be together again. Rocky told Houdini that he had found the perfect den and it was big enough for both of them. He said the lake was full of little fish that you could catch and there were roots and berries all over.
Back in the new den the next morning Houdini explained how no cage could hold him. He told Rocky the story of how he outsmarted that human creature.

Trip Prep

Today was laundry and trip preparation. In addition I reinforced the cage/trap so that if I ever get another raccoon in it, it will not get out (I hope).

Part of the prep involved finishing the 2 picture frames for Sophie’s stock certificates. They are now finished in black satin. Tomorrow the hardware—glass, cardboard backing and hanger hardware goes on and we pack it in the car to go to Jax.

My thumbs have reached a plateau pain wise. They hurt but not as much as they did a week ago. They don’t seem to be getting any better than they have been the last 2 days.

Last night I ended up staying up from 1 AM through 5 AM. I finally settled into my recliner and got 3 hours of relatively deep sleep. I’m losing too much sleep over these raccoons. I guess the kitties are just going to have to go hungry from around 9 PM until 6AM when the feeder dispenses again. I watched the raccoons eat all the dispensed food and then stick their paws up inside the feeder (very similar to the way we stick our arms into candy machines.) to shake free any pieces that are caught up in the feeder. They reach in and shake things and a few pieces fall out. They eat that and try for more.

Tonight we have the trap set and the baby monitor listening once again. Maybe Houdini’s hunger will win over his fear of the trap.

Catch and Escape

Bummer! I caught Rocky #2 at 1 AM. The baby monitor did the trick. After checking that the cage was secure I attempted to go back to sleep. I guess the rush of adrenalin from the suspense and excitement of the capture was still in my system—I couldn’t fall back to sleep.

I got up at 1:45 and checked the cage—it was empty! Rocky had squeezed through the top bars on the cage a spacing of about 1.5 inches that he successfully bent a little wider. Raccoons are strong and now I know they can squeeze through a narrow space. Instead of Rocky this guy is now named Houdini.
I would guess he will be back to feed again. I don’t think he will go inside the trap again. Now I not only have a raccoon problem, I have a smart raccoon problem.

More Blood, Sweat and Tears

I had to call the doctor’s office today to figure out when my upcoming appointment is. The appointment card said Tuesday the 4th or 9th depending upon how one deciphers the handwriting. Since the 4th is a Wednesday and the 9th is a Monday nothing short of a phone call would settle the issue. It turns out it is on Wednesday the 4th.

Since the appointment is 2 days away I began the day by going to get some blood drawn for my blood work.

Back on the home front I bought a new wireless router that will hopefully have a wider range than our current one. I’d like to be able to use my laptop in our bedroom. Right now the coverage is spotty back there for me. Penny’s computer works fine in the bedroom.

The problem is (this is the tears part) I’m having a bear of a time setting it up. The router is supposed to have a setup wizard on the CD but the .exe file that is the wizard is not on the CD. The alternate setup procedure was cumbersome but I finally reached the point where I had the router working and connected to the internet—but only for our desktop. After some more time and effort I got my laptop to see the router but I couldn’t get past the WEP security. I couldn’t get Penny’s computer to see it at all. So I put the old router back on and will step away from it for a while. This was the 2nd computer issue we had this week. Norton antivirus graciously upgraded my 2006 version of the software to 2008. In the process it introduced a couple of error conditions that made the computer unusable. I used their customer support but they couldn’t fix it. For a while today my computer was being controlled remotely from India. I finally recovered my computer with Norton Ghost (a program I highly recommend) to the way it was on May 4th and left the antivirs 2006 program in place. Between the 2 issues I have spent hours in front of the computer and not actually solved the problems.

The sweat part of the day was yard work edging the lawn where it had crawled about a foot out over the driveway. I did this work at a leisurely pace, resting the thumbs often. The thumbs still hurt but the pain is much reduced. Time will tell whether this treatment helps in the long term. I did some research and if my problem is arthritis the prognosis is bad—if it’s tendonitis it might get better.

Then there are the raccoons. I’ve set up the trap so that I can spring it with our sliding door. Since I’ve consistently watched the little boogers feasting out there, I thought I might have a chance to spring the trap manually. Again, no fear of hurting a cat. It means I have to be there, however. Last night I watched a raccoon go into the trap just deeply enough to reach some food. If I wasn’t concerned about catching the critter’s tail in the slamming door (and probably breaking it) I could have caught him last night. He just wouldn’t go in enough . Finally he scared himself and ran off. That was 9:30. I woke up at 2:30 and checked the trap and there was a coon trying to get into my cat feeder. It didn’t even try the trap. This may have been a different raccoon than the one I saw earlier. In the morning all the food in the trap was eaten—so I missed him going inside.

Tonight I’ve made it so he gets no food until he goes deep enough in the cage. I also set up a baby monitor to alert me when some noise occurs out there. It’s almost 9:30 and we’ve had no action