May 15 - an itchy head

Darn black flies. It's impossible to avoid them when riding, unless I bike with a bug jacket. Now wouldn't that look silly, a bug jacket over top of my helmet ... hmmm.

For a change, the wind was coming from the north, or at least it seemed that way when I got to highway 69 and made my north/south choice. It was pretty much neutral until about halfway back when it made up its mind and came from the south. South and west, it sped my ride back along 522 to home. The speed doesn't matter to the black flies though. There are enough of them on the road pinging off my jacket and helmet that eventually a couple go through my helmet vents and nab me. Eventually a few manage to bite my exposed legs too. Ah well, it comes with the territory.

It was a good day for cycling though, albeit cool enough for jacket wear. The only trouble with riding every two or three days though is that it takes 50 miles or so before my legs finally "settle in" and start feeling good. We have some cold weather heading our way so my next ride might be inside.

Before getting out on the bike I did some work on the basement ceiling, putting up some T's, crossers and a couple of ceiling panels just to see what it's going to look like. Well, compared to the very high ceiling that we have now, with the virtual ceiling extending up between the floor joists, it's quite a change. It still leaves 7'7" or 8" which I'm sure will look ok once finished ... but I still have to think about this one.

This morning, the plan was to go out fishing. Notice the past tense. I just checked the Doppler and there is a huge wet front headed our way. Guess what ... I'm going to work on the ceiling instead. The fish can wait.

There was no activity next door yesterday other than me going over and checking out something that I'd seen driving back from the ESS Narrows from biking. I wasn't sure if something had fallen on Jason's temporary garage ... went over and checked ... found that it had blown over and part-way down the slope. This is a 2x4 & fabric structure that has held up amazingly well. I called Lorraine to let her know, so that they were not surprised when they got up here. "The good news is ... that your boat is in my barn". She figures that the talk is now going to center on doing something up there this year. The quonset, being lower, squat and steel ribbed, wasn't affected by the wind, but the garage, or winter boat house -- that was the original intent -- had much more head room and was therefore more exposed to the wind. During the winter it's held down by snow; during the spring and late fall is when they are very exposed to the wind since there are no leaves on the trees.

I expect that Jason et al arrived sometime after I turned in for the night, which was a little after 10pm. I was watching "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" with Paul Newman, Liz Taylor and Burl Ives. What a great movie. I went out to the kitchen and heard the movie in stereo -- Sandy was watching the same movie upstairs. I had originally intended to go over and turn on their heat but it was so warm out that I figured that wasn't necessary.

For dinner we had store-caught pickerel along with rice and green beans. Excellent as usual, hopefully I can catch some pickerel here too, when it's not raining that is.

Perhaps I should go down to the dock and do some casting ... but expect that would be a waste of time because the weed bed only develops there during the summer, after which we get some pike hanging around looking for minnows.

That's it for now. Abby and I have both eaten. I see raindrops starting to hit my den window ... yes, spots on the deck ... that clinches it !