An Irregular Curious Event

This blog does not get many visitors (and I sure appreciate you all).  A typical post gets 0-6 comments and a dozen or so views.  I don't mind that, I'm basically tossing bottles into the ocean (or, if you have ever seen the movie 'Conneger', tying messages onto tumbleweeds).

But sometimes there are suddenly 50-200 views days later.  They never leave comments, so I have no idea who they are.  And this never happens on the cat blog.  Many years ago, the cat blog suddenly got 100s of comments on really old posts that advertised products in Chinese that (as far as I could tell with Google Translate) were only for local sale in China. 

It baffled me, and I spent some days deleting as many as I could (and some were undeletable).  But this is not the same thing.  These visitors never leave comments (that I can detect).  And when I try to search keywords and phrases in those posts, none show up as one-off oddly-popular flash-group interests.

My antivirus programs (I have 2 I run alternately) never find any problems.  It is entirely weird. 

Just mentioning this in case someone has any ideas about what is going on...

Random Thoughts

If the weather forecast says a 75% chance of rain, it won't.  But if it says 25% and you decide to cook something on the grill or decide to plant flowers, it will.

You can look at your riding mower tires every week and they seem inflated, the day you don't, they aren't.

Any typo you make is assured to be a real word that is embarrassing in context.  And I don't use autospell.

Lawn grass grows faster when the mower is at the shop for repairs.

If there is a spot of plants who die at the least time of inattention, they are ones you wanted to save.  If you didn't like them, they are impossible to kill.

Speaking of which, why is it that the slightest bump to a sapling you are trying to grow kills it, but chopping down a "junk one" only makes it regrow faster?

I am convinced the mailman sits at the top of the hill just waiting for me to go out and check the mailbox.  Because 10 minutes later, he always arrives.  I need to check the mailbox for a "secret sensor".

Poison ivy always knows where you don't think it is... 

Dry holly leaves are pricklier than you expect.

Never build one fence gate larger than the other.  The larger one will pull the posts over and make the gates hard to open.  On the other hand, the way to solve that is with a chainsaw or Saws-All run between them.

RoundUp kills wild blackberries.  And they curl down from the top.  It's a pleasure to see the next day when you don't want them. 

Iza won't poop in a litter box unless I am watching but always pees in them.  I think she knows pee spreads.  Ayla will come in from outside to use the litterbox and then want to go outside again.  Marley prefers going outside.

Marley hates walking on dry leaves.

In math, constants aren't, variables won't.

I can't tell which way to tighten things when they are upside down.

If I watch my hometown sports teams on TV, they usually lose.  Well, they usually lose anyway, but if they are winning, my watching them is the kiss of death.  I stopped watching the Washington Nationals baseball team a couple weeks ago and they have won something like 10 of 13 since.  Is this a marketable skill?

I like a dish brush that holds liquid soap.  The bottom half came loose.  I bought a new bottom half.  It was the top that was bad.

If I mailed myself a letter, it woudn't arrive.

I could put my car in an empty parking lot and there would be a new dent when I returned.

I have no luck at cards or dice.  I lose a 50-50% chance 75% of the time.  If all I needed to win a game of Yahtzee, and needed only 7 pips, I would get four 1s and a 2.  If I wanted four 1s and a 2, I would get all 6s.

Ayla is terrible at Backgammon; she only wins 1 of 5 games.

The car dealership sent me an ad saying I was due or my 100,000 maintenance.  The car has only 28,000 miles.  And its 13 years old.

Hope you enjoyed...

Frozen Indecisively

Have you ever hit a decision where you kept changing your mind?  I had that problem the past week and that sort of thing really gets me locked-up internally and I can't really get anythng else done until I resolve the issue. 

It doesn't have to be a really serious problem like a decision about medical treatment or a big financial decision.  Just something where you can't make up your mind.  Military training teaches you (I have read) to deal with a 50-50 decision by just choosing one.  But my profession was an an analyst and the thought there is that nothing is "50-50".  That there has to be some additional information that will make it at least 51-49...

My issue this past 2 weeks was my riding lawn mower.  A little background...  I mowed the family lawn starting at age 12 (and hated it).  I got several summer jobs at 15-16 (and hated it).  My first serious Summer job was mowing lawns at an army base during Summer Vacation (and I hated it).  And I still had to mow the family lawn (1/2 acre) until I left for college.

Not-very-fun story:  The month I left for college, Dad bought a riding lawn mower because my brother (who was only 2 years younger) simply refused to mow the lawn, and Dad sure didn't want to use the push mower). 

At my first 2 rental houses (with other people), part of my contribution to the general maintenance was (naturally) mowing the lawn.  When I bought my house, I had to mow the lawn.  When I bought the house, I was broke and owed my parents money for the down-payment.  When I paid that off in a year, I had to replace the old car. 

So, don't be surprised that my first voluntary purchase was a Riding Lawn Mower!  I was thrilled.  It was a rather cheap model but I kept it going for 11 years.  By that time, I could buy a GOOD One.  It is 18 years old and needs serious maintenance.  I can do the basics, but this time it is suddenly hesitating, then stalling.  If I let it sit for about 15 minutes, it starts right up again and runs well for another 10 minutes, then hesitates and stalls again.

I decided it was time for a new riding mower, and equipment always gets better, right?  I am a True Believer in Consumer Reports magazine ratings.  They never steer me wrong.  So when I looked and saw that Jogn Deere riding mowers were the top 4 rated ones, I felt certain that I should choose one of them.  I found 2 that seems to suit me.

But, as I've mentioned, I'm an analyst, and I read the negative reviews of those mowers on other sites.  I was shocked by what I read.  Apparently "new" is not always better.

The first thing I learned was that virtually all riding mowers made in the US are made by a single company with minor differences (according to brand names) about the engine and deck construction.  Like major brands and store brands of canned beans etc all mostly coming from the same producer.

The complaints I saw involved 3 problems.  Most new riding mowers use "hydrostatic transmissions".  I won't pretend to understand the details, but it seems that they are cheaper to build.  The cons are that they lack durability and require frequent maintenance. and are not good under load (hauling a trailer or mowing up even mild slopes.

The 2nd problem was that most of the newer engines are damaged by ethanol gasoline (the routine gas at gas stations).  You can by premixed gas at auto shops or a stabilizer yo add yourself.  Either way, it doubles the cost of fuel.  That adds up.

The 3rd problem is they are more expensive to maintain and repair. 

I didn't just look at one site about this.  I searched several.  They all said about the same thing.  And some were so technically detailed about the problems (many by repair-persons), that I had to accept their negative opinions about the newer riding mowers. 

So my option was to have the current one repaired again, hoping that in a few years, the current problems would be solved.  Basically, up to $400 for the current one this year vs $2,000 for a new one that would be more expensive to run and maintain and could well be expected to last only 5-6 years.

So tht has been keeping me uncertain in the day and worrying at night.  I had "bad lawn mower dreams" 2 nights.

To make it worse, "Angies List", a site that collects user ratings of business and denies business postings gave the only local repair shop I have used for lawn mower repair a C rating.  But I looked at that closely. On the lawn mower repair only, they got seventeen 5 ratings, seven 4 ratings, one 2 rating, and one 1 rating.  And the bad ratings were for "promptness".  And they got a good rating for price. 

So I delivered the riding mower to them Tuesday.  Sure enough, they said it would be a week before they got it up on their bench to provide a detailed estimate and a week after that before the work was completed if I accepted their quote. 

The good parts were that the desk clerk you writes the repair ticket seems to know exactly what I was describing about the hesitations and stalls.  And the guy "around the back" where I actually turned over the mower  asked a few good question and wrote down my answers.

So...  I bet it will take 3 weeks and the mower will be working great for a few more years.

Meanwhile, I'll have to use the battery-powered push mower a couple of times.  A battery lasts 20 minutes on that (but there are 2 of them).  So I'll have to mow the lawn in pieces. 

But at least I finally made a decision about whether to replace the current mower.  I slept well that night and got busy outside the next day.  Nothing like having a weight off your shoulders...

I'm going to send Consumer Reports a letter asking about their ratings.  But I suspect they will say they rate existing products and are not really in the business of comparing then to older ones.  Seems fair.

Memorial Day

Today is Memorial Day (observed) in the US.  I honor this day.

Memorial Day was first widely observed in the US in May 1868. The celebration commemorated the sacrifices of the Civil War and the proclamation was made by General John A Logan. Following the proclamation, participants decorated graves of more than 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers.

President Ronald Reagan said in 1986, "Today is the day we put aside to remember fallen heroes and to pray that no heroes will ever have to die for us again. It's a day of thanks for the valor of others, a day to remember the splendor of America and those of her children who rest in this cemetery and others. It's a day to be with the family and remember."

President Barack Obama said in 2015 that "On Memorial Day, the United States pauses to honor the fallen heroes who died in service to our Nation. With heavy hearts and a sense of profound gratitude, we mourn these women and men—parents, children, loved ones, comrades-in-arms, friends, and all those known and unknown—who believed so deeply in what our country could be they were willing to give their lives to protect its promise.”

I usually post a small graphic to recognize the day.   I am of an age who had uncles who fought on the battlefields and aunts who spent time giving and collecting blood, working in the factories, and keeping the home fires lit...

But I think we sometimes forget why they did that beyond the usual "defense of country",  and I was reminded of that yesterday watching a history DVD.

The Statue Of Liberty (full name "Liberty Enlightening The World") was a gift from France.  It took a couple decades for the US to settle on a site for it and to construct a pedestal and to assemble the parts.  But I only mention that because of the poem.  Because the part of the poem by Emma Lazarus we know best is:

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

That's why my uncles, aunts, and forefathers fought.   And that is why I honor this day.  And not that my past generations succeeded in all, but they tried.  Sometimes honor is doing your best, knowing you are imperfect...

  ...................

BTW, do you know what is inscribed on the tablet?

"JULY IV MDCCLXXVI"  (July 4, 1776)

And the full sonnet written by  Emma Lazarus is:

"The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!".

France gave the U.S. the Statue of Liberty in 1886; Americans gave Paris a smaller version of the same statue in 1889.  The two face each other across the Atlantic...

Stuff

Today is my 69th Birthday.  Whoppee...  NEXT YEAR I will feel officially old.  I got a nice card from my Sister.  They are usually humorous, and I love those.  This one was kind of serious about appreciating a Big Brother.  That was nice too.  My Sister and I have always been close.

But I mostly enjoyed the day planting some flowers.  Not the mass yearly annual plantings of zinnias and salvia and marigolds (those are the rest of the week as I had to soak the soil today so I can pull weeds out tomorrow).  These were specialty flowers for the hummingbird/butterfly/bee bed.

Last year, I bought seeds of less-common flowers that were self-seeding for a cottage garden bed.  But I didn't plant them and the places they were to go were too over-run with weeds (and poison ivy and invasive vines).  So I planted lots of them this year, intending to clear those areas.  I didn't.

But I had tilled up the hummers/butterflies/bees (HBB) bed (it grew few flowers last year).  So I looked up the flowers and found that most of them were very attractive to the HBB bed.  So I spent the day repurposing the seedlings planting those. 

It made sense.  The commercial HBB seed packets haven't worked 2 years in a row; time to try something different.  But I HAD spread a commercial mix around the bed and there were plants coming up.

So I had to stand in the beds VERY carefully to plant the seedlings and bend around so as to not move my seedling-stomping feet.  I planted 4 Cleomes, 4 Cosmos, 9 Maltese Cross, 5 Butterfly Weed (Asclepus or something like that), and 4 of one that I forget.  And, of course, I have hopes for the seedlings that are emerging from the HBB packet.  I know some are weeds and I tried to pick them out while planting the good flowers.  I gave them a good watering.

My back is KILLING me.  That used to happen a few times a year before but it is becoming a daily annoyance.  Aspercreme helps a lot.  The heated waterbed helps at night, too.  The more common problem is hand-clenches.  If I grip things too long too hard (like mower steering wheel or loppers or pruner handles) I pay for it 2 hours later.  My fingers clench up just when I'm preparing dinner and (aside for being painful) it is really awkward.  I do a lot of fresh food prep, so when I can't hold a knife firmly, I have to be REAL careful.

While I was planting the seedlings, I was watering the weeded parts of the older garden.  I have a sprayer mounted on a tripod I built years ago and that is really good for watering a defined area for 15-20 minutes to really soak the soil down to root level.

But there is good news.  I harvested snow peas. I love those in stir fries and I get to pick them when they are fresh and tender.

Planted 15 sunflower seedlings too.  I placed 5 each around three 2' high cages for support while they adjust to sunlight and the real world.  Helps them in windy conditions too. Support 2' high is better than none.

There is also good news in the backyard where the brambles used to grow rampantly.  The brush mower really killed most of them last Fall.  Individual wild blackberries succumb to a small controlled shot of RoundUp.  I don't like that kind of stuff, but things got out of hand and I've been very specific about what I sprayed.  It is nice to see a 1' high blackberry shoot falling over.  I've targeted wild grape vines and poison ivy too.

The wild english ivy is harder to kill  and takes a couple shots.  I finally identified the invasive vine from a neighbor's yard as Vinca Major.  It is hard to kill, too.  Mowing it and then spraying the new growth seems to work well.  But it will be several attacks before it is dead in the open areas.

The hard part is that the Vinca and poison ivy have slowly infiltrated my old fence flowerbed.  I can't spray there as there are still good perennial plants.  THAT is either going to be slow careful "dig out one weed at a time" or try to dig out the plants I want to save, move them temporarily, and kill the whole area for the year.  RoundUp degrades in 3 months, so I could re-establish the plants I save (and there aren't all that many left) in late Fall.

There are shrubs along the fence and I can't move THOSE, but I was planning to cut them down anyway as they are really too large.  So my plan for those is to take new-growth stem-cuttings, dip them in a rooting hormone, and set them in 4" pots to regrow.  I have some ideas of where I can plant some along the fence in the far backyard where they are welcome to grow large, some along the drainage easement (fake creek), and some polite ones (nandina) along the edge of the front yard to make a border.

And I had a nice discovery!  In the backyard, there was a bramble plant that that I thought was wild blackberrybut it had a slightky different flower and a nice scent.  I did some research and discovered it was an old wild rose I think is called 'Hawthorne Rose'.  It was a casualty of the "clearing of the wild brambles". 



But last week, I noticed what appeared to be wild blackberry flowers growing up through a Burning Bush and went to get the loppers to cut it out of the shrub.  But then I was thrilled to smell the scent!  It was a volunteer of the Hawthorne Rose I had lost...  I will take a few dozen cuttings of it hoping some will grow.  Meanwhile, the Rose and the Burning Bush will live intertwined for a year.  I don't want to risk losing it again.

Back to the wild blackberries...  Looking over the fence in all directions, it seems that my yard is the only one with wild blackberries in it.  I recall that there was a single patch in a corner of the front yard when I moved here.  It must have spread from there.  I love rasperries.  I mention that because wild blackberries carry a virus that doesn't harm them much but it is death to rasperries with a about 200'.  So If I can kill off the wild blackberries, I can grow raspberries again.  I'd like that!

That's enough for today.  I'm going to feed the cats, clean the litter boxes for the night, and haul my weary back into bed...

Been Busy

I haven't posted here in a while.  Not that I didn't have things to mention, just didn't do it.  I've been busy...

On the outside (and some of this may not be new but I'm too lazy to check, so forgive me):

1.  Transplanted 4 specimen saplings (2 dogwoods  and 2 sourwood) in the cleared area where the wild blackberries, virginia creeper vines and wild grape vines used to rule.  The saplings will stay about 20' tall and NOT shade the garden like the trees I removed did).

2.  Straightened and re-attached bent PVC tubes (with metal pipe inside) on the garden enclosure (I built it to keep squirrels, groundhogs, rabbits, and weird birds out.  Pollinating insects get through the chicken wire just fine.

3.  Been carefully spraying individual wild blackberries and vines to kill them.  New stuff is growing now that the blackberries aren't shading them, but a string trimmer cuts them down well.  When the sapling start to grow they will cast enough shade below them to prevent new growth.

4.  I used to have a compost bin next to the older shed.  I removed it a few years ago and built another one that is better.  But there was a foot of rich soil left over on the old site.  I moved most of it to the new garden beds.

5.  Years ago, I ordered a dozen seedlings of a nice perennial flower with purple leaves.  They sent me the wrong plant.  But as it also had purple leaves I didn't realize the error.  The wrong plant is VERY INVASIVE. (lychimastria 'Firecracker' I think).    I spent 2 days pulling up all that I could.  I'll have to do that several times, but progress is progress.  And there are some volunteers a 100 yard away.

6.  I have 2 toolsheds.  One I built when I moved here 32 years ago and one I had a contractor build (larger, with a cement floor, and a garage door).  I reorganized everything in both.  Now the equipment I seldom use is packed tightly in the old one and the stuff I use often is in the new one.  And I added shelves to the old one for odd stuff that was clutterring up the basement.

7.  I spread seeds for the meadow garden bed.  Some were saved seeds from last years plants and some were new from a packet.  Supposedly, they are are surface-germinators (well, like a natural meadow WOULD be).  I will be interested in seeing if the bed flowers better this year.

8.  The hummer/butterfly/bee bed was a failure last year.  So I tilled the whole area and spread a new batch of hummer/butterfly/bee seeds.  I also have a few dozen seedlings of the same sort to plant in there.  The seedlings will give the bed a head-start.

9.  I planted 15 annual sunflower seedlings in the meadow bed today.  They were weak last year when I did the same, so this year I planted them around a cylinder of mesh wire (anchored to a stake) and clipped them all the the cylinder.  That gives them 2' of support.  Strained my back doing all that bending-over...  I had 1 left over, so I planted it right behind the mailbox.  Maybe my mailperson will enjoy seeing it.

10.  I've been interested in grafted heirloom tomatoes for several years.  My efforts have always failed.  So this year, I bought 3 grafted tomatoes.  With shipping and taxes, $12 each.  OUCH.  But I really need to know if the effort is worth it.   I planted 2 today.  I have 6 graft attempts I did myself, but I won't know if they worked for a week.  At least THIS time, they are still alive after a week.  And I have 6 more home-grown ungrafted heirloom seedlings as back-up...

11.  I'm fighting some invasive plants.  I get poison ivy coming in from 3 neighbors.  They don't care about it because they don't go into the corners of their yards.  And there has been a vine from deliberate plantings of a 4th yard (2 residents ago).  I finally figured out it is Vinca Major.  It is almost impossible to kill.  My veggie garden is organic.  But I'll use napalm on the Vinca and poison ivy if I have to.  By "napalm" I mean Roundup.  I hate the herbicide, but the vines have taken over half my fence flowerbed.  I'm desperate.

12.  The daffodil/tulip/hyacinth bed is fading, so I gave them a good dose of organic fertilizer suited for bulbs.  That should help them improve for next year.  When the leaves turn brown I will cover the whole bed with landscape fabric to smother the weeds.  Next February, I will remove it.  I tried using regular black plastic last year but all it did was collect rainwater in low spots and Asian Tiger Mosquitos developed there.  So I was constantly going around and poking holes in the plastic to drain rainfall.  The landscape fabric is permeable, so it won't hold puddles.

13.  I planted corn in a bed under the roof edge.  It doesn't get much natural rain, so I'll have to water it regularly all Summer.  But it is rich soil and safe from wind, so the bi-color corn will like it.  I plant a block of 9 corns (3x3, fewer gets poor kernal development) and the bed is 4 blocks long, so I'll plant a new block every 2 weeks for continued harvest.

14.  I pruned my front yard saucer magnolia tree.  For some reason, the backyard one grows just fine with minimal pruning in Winter, but the front yard one grows oddly with lots of suckers and internal shoots.  By the time I was done, half the tree was gone, but it looked a lot better.  With careful future pruning, it should get more balanced.

15.  When I originally cleared the backyard back in the 90s, I discovered that I had a wild rose growing there.  It has small white flowers and a nice scent, and I think it is a 'Hawthorn Rose'.  Unfortunately, it looks just like a wild blackberry, and was overgrown with them among its canes.  I was sad to mow it down with the new DR Brushcutter I bought last year.  But I HAD to get rid of the wild blackberries.

Now, the main area in the backyard is cleared of wild blackberries, but there are some that spread to odd spots and I have to dig them out.

So when I saw white flowers suddenly blooming among a Burning Bush I love, I was depressed at the effort it would take to remove it.  But when I approached, there was The Scent!  The Hawthorn Rose had established itself 150' away from the original plant!

I have to remove it from the Burning Bush shrub, but I'm going to take 36 cuttings (a flat of 6-cels) and try to grow some first.  The rose never spread much from its original spot, so I'm not worried about it taking over like the blackberries did.  I can think of several spots where it would be happy (and I with it).

I think that is more than enough for today.  I still have the inside projects to discuss...

I Did It!

I finally made a good egg roll!  Laugh if you want, but I mastered the 7 parts...
1. I cooked the contents to "just crisp".
2.  I put down a pak choy leaf where the contents would go.
3.  I wetted all the edges so that when I
4.  Tightly rolled it up and folded the sides and
5.  The egg roll wrapper sealed with water from a bowl!
   ----------

6.  Then after they sat sealed for several minutes
7.  I dropped them into my Frybaby (375F) until they were golden.
    ---------------

No oil inside, and the wrappers were "just right" crunchy.

And only took an hour., Best I've ever had!  I'm gonna make them tomorrow night and until I'm tired of them ...


2 were shrimp and 2 were minced pork.

I wonder what a pepperoni pizza egg roll will taste like?

A Stroke Of Good Luck

My camera sticks the lens out when I turn it on.  I suppose all digital ones do.  But 2 weeks ago, just as it was shutting off and the lens going back flush, I stood up an leaned on it.  Bizarre accident.  Since then, it goes halfway in and stutters and clicks, so I have to manually push it closed. 

Today, it suddenly went back to normal!  Sometimes random events work in my favor...

Special Chicken

I forgot to mention the "Special Chicken" in Canada.   As we were driving toward Algonquin Provincial Park, we stopped to buy a chicken to cook over a campfire the 1st night we were spending there at the regular family tent area.  The small store didn't have much, but then we didn't need much either.  The owner asked us where we came from and were going and then said he kept frozen chicken just for travellers like us. 

We had a cooler full of ice, so there was no chance of the chicken spoiling.  When we got to the campsite and opened the package and started to thaw it, it was so rotten that we gagged at the smell.

That guy KNEW we weren't coming back his way (we had said so), so he sold a frozen rotten chicken to us "Yankees".  Fortunately, the tiny campground store was still open and they had some canned beef stew which heated up fine by the campfire.

I hasten to say that everyone ELSE in Canada were unfailingly kind and helpful...  

But to this day, if any store-owner mentions "special", I twitch, LOL!

Algonquin Provincial Park, Canada

So there we were canoeing 12 miles uplake to the primitive camping area.  I was in the back to provide the power.  My friend and he was supposed to steer and I discovered he didn't know how to do that.  In other words, I paddled and he made me work harder.

It took all day.  I was disappointed that my friend had exaggerated his canoeing skills, but maybe he underestmated mine and thought we were more even than we were.  And when you are about to spend a week camping and hiking in wilderness, you don't won't to start an argument, you know?

So we found a designated campsite that looked good.  Seemed like a good spot to fish, the wind drifted in from the lake, and there was a flat open spot for heating our dried food.

We put on some mosquito repellent, made a quick dinner of rather boring freeze-dried spaghetti and went to bed.  It was a good thing my tent had a full front mesh cover.  Because we both woke up to see it completely covered with mosquitos trying to get at us!  Seriously, it was COMPLETELY covered.  That is a very scary thing to see.

But they were definitely night-oriented mosquitoes.  Or they gave up getting at us.  The next morning, I said well let's get out on a hike.  He said, why don't we try to catch some fish for dinner first.  Well,  OK.  So we went out in the canoe.  And caught nothing.  I had even caught a few crickets and a few worms.

Then my friend took a nap.  And I realized that if I wanted to hike around, I was going to do it alone.  Which is not safe...  So I didn't.

By the 3rd day, we were out in the canoe again trying to catch some fish.   I don't like fish, but the freeze dried food was pretty awful, so I could have eaten one.  That's when my friend (who was not skilled in a canoe) tipped us over.

I saw it coming.  He leaned too far over.  I yelled at him and tried to balance by leaning to the opposite side, but he outweighed me by 80 pounds.  Over we went!  Fishing rods, tackle, anchor, ropes, all overboard.

Thankfully it was only 8' deep.  But guess who can't swim or dive?  My friend.  And of course he wouldn't know how to get in a canoe without tipping it.  I tossed over the other anchor (attached to the canoe) to keep us at the spot and spent an hour retrieving our stuff while my friend put the stuff I handed to him into the canoe.

That night I said we were leaving in the morning.  It wasn't at all what I was expecting.  I was fine there, but he was completely inept.

We left in the morning.  12 miles can be a fairly long trip, especially when you are basically doing all the paddling.  As we got to the widest part of the lake, a squall blew over.  Suddenly the waves were 2' high.

My friend panicked and started paddling every whichway and I told him that if he did that we were going to die.  I told him to lay down in the bottom of the canoe and I would paddle quarterwise of the waves to the lee shore.

We got there, waited out the squall, and arrived in the main camp after dark (thanks to lights).

I asked the camp manager for a regular tent spot (which he gladly gave after hearing my sad story) and set up the tent.  My friend just fell asleep on the ground in it.  I went fishing...

Sometimes, you are just to worked up to sleep.  So I dropped a 16" bass I caught right at the dock on him,  the only fish caught on the trip, LOL!

When I learn that I do something poorly, I try to improve at it.  And quite frankly, I usually achieve "competncy".  And if it is something I just can't get good at, I admit it (like playing any musical instrument or learning a foreign language).   "Jack of all trades, master at none" is my life...

My friend never wanted to learn anything he didn't already know.  He refused my attempts to give advice on boats and canoes.  In fact, he seemed not to have a simple understanding of basic physical reality. 

Years later, when I had a Jon Boat (basically a rowboat with a sloped front), he stepped off the pier onto the boat.  With one foot on each.  Have you ever seen what happens when you stand one foot on a pier and another on a boat that moves?  Yes, he actually had his feet spread apart as the boat moved away until he fell into the water! 

I always thought that was a joke like slipping on a banana peel.  But it was real...  I watched him fall into the water.  It was only 4' deep there and the pier was only 2' above the water.  But he couldn't even get himself up onto the pier with my help (and he was 6'4") and had to wade to shore.  I'm amazed he didn't drown on the way.

Tax Day

Today is Tax Day in the US.  Many people are shocked that they aren't receiving a big refund.  Well, the Trump tax law changes gave people slightly more money in their weekly paychecks withholding less.  So they get a smaller refund or owe more today.

Most of the tax law changes benefited the wealthiest among us.  By peculiar circumstances I actually owed slightly less.  But mostly, for the first time, my Federal and State taxes refund/owed came out close to nothing.  A few hundred to the State, a few hundred refund Federal.  I'm pleased with that.  It means I don't have to adjust my withholding.

But a whole lot of people are screaming mad about it because they depend on the Big Refund Check.  And I get it.  A lot of people who have trouble saving money use the Tax Refund as a sort of forced saving account.  I feel for them.

Trump and the Republicans thought that people would notice the increased paycheck net.  They were SO WRONG!  They don't understand that people who live paycheck to paycheck don't notice a $30 increase much because they spend it as fast as they earn it.  And mostly on legitimate things like food, shelter, credit card debt, and medicine.

I agree completely that the way to savings is to pay of existing credit card debt.  But when paying an extra $30 per month on a $20,000 credit card debt doesn't make much of a dent in the total bill, it is hard to see how a weekly increase helps.   I am personally fortunate to be debt-free; others aren't.

What most debt-ridden people WANT is a manageable (if forever) debt and a tax refund to splurge with.  That's not the way to managing debt, but it IS what most people do...

There HAS to be a better system for those folks...