Jul 21 - Merc 25

I guess the most interesting part of my day was fiddling with the Merc 25.  I installed the new parts but didn't get very far with setting it up.  The exploded parts diagram doesn't get you that far.  I've got to look at Jason's and do some googling to see if there is some guidance online -- there usually is.

Early in the a.m. I'd gone fishing to see if there were any bass biting ... nope.  No bass, no pike, nada.  I guess I did have a nibble or two that were likely rock bass. 

Cassie isn't exactly a calm fisher-dog.  With no action she eventually gets bored up front and wants to sit on my lap.  With lots of action she's all over the boat with her nose into everything, checking out the minnows, the caught fish etc. 

In addition to the 7 crappie that we brought home, Lauren and I also caught a couple of catfish and I caught a bowfin, or dogfish.  I'd forgotten the net so it ended up breaking the line when I tried to get it into the boat.  It wasn't a keeper anyway.

A line of thunderstorms was moving towards us and eventually hit before supper.  I watched an episode of Dr. Who -- I haven't watched much TV since returning north and have quite a number of episodes of different shows on the Plex Server that I've got to work through.  Perhaps I'll copy a few onto my laptop and do some of that catch up on upcoming flights.

Otherwise, it was a quiet day.  Sandy and Lauren went into the Market in Arnstein - or was that the day before ?  Today, Friday, they're heading to Sudbury, stocking up for the upcoming crowd.  We do go through an amazing amount of food etc. in a few days with a crowd here.  It's expensive, but fun.

Today, yeah Friday again, I'll get out on my bike for a short run.  Tomorrow, Saturday, I should get out for a full ride.  It's about time. 

We had crappie for dinner, of course, excellent !  There's nothing like fish that fresh. 

Cassie had a dead squirrel at the base of the deck out front.  Did she kill it ?  Is that possible ?  She is fast and perhaps a squirrel made a wrong move.  She didn't know what to do with a dead squirrel, however. 

I've been setting out bait for carpenter ants which are swarming across the concrete steps out back, close to the woodpile.  It's likely that they've colonized a piece of wood.  Thy were eagerly eating up a few drops of bait that I put on the steps, so that should take care of that bunch.  They are also in the roots of the cedar out front; right in the ground; again more bait.  The cedar isn't looking very healthy up top, perhaps they're killing it.  Hopefully they'll take the bait and that will kill the colony and the tree will recover.  It's a continuous battle.  The real objective is to kill these colonies before they decide that the house is a nice spot to live.

Lauren got a bee sting or two before dinner, somehow a wasp had gotten into her pants.  By dinner it was forgotten, no lump or reaction.  The sting was on her leg which leaves lots of room for any poison to disburse.  Sandy was going to give her Benadryl, just in case, but when I talked to Stef, we agreed to wait to see if there was any reaction, and there wasn't.  I should really get an Ana-Kit or Epi-Pen to keep here in case someone has a reaction.  I don't know if I'd have to have a prescription to get it; probably depends on jurisdiction. 

Now here's something interesting -- I was reading on both the Ana-Kit and Epi-Pen and found the following about the latter -- An autoinjector for anaphylaxis, as of 2015 in the United States, costs about 100 USD.^[23] In 2016 this increased to about 600 USD.

Now why would there be a 600% increase in cost from one year to the next ????

Anyway ... enough about that.

Onward !