maiden voyage

A lot is going on, but I haven’t been in the mood to write about it.  Today is a lovely rainy Sunday, so I will try to transform some brain rubbish into a blog post.  My laptop is about to crap out on me, and I don’t want to buy a new one yet....I’m just stubborn like that sometimes.  It has a new power problem.  it was still under warranty the first time it had a power problem.  Now it is almost four years old and a different power problem cropped up.  I can still use it, but when it’s connected to AC power the screen goes dark and won’t come back until rebooted (without AC power).  HP wants a minimum $300 to fix it.  No thanks.  I will ask a local repair guy what he thinks about it.

 

I took my kayak out for its maiden voyage yesterday.  We (kayak and me) put in on Greenbo Lake, a small lake nestled in the hills of Greenup County.   I expected to see some people fishing and some families doing picnics, but it was a complete underestimation on my part.  There was a giant church group outing – three busloads of kids and a multitude of cars in the marina parking lot.  The lake is small but I bet there were 400 people out on the water in some fashion – pontoons, canoes, fishing boats, kayaks, and paddle boats.  I could hear hikers all around the lake.  My instinct was to leave as soon as I got to the parking lot, but no....I just forged ahead with the plan.  Do or die.

It was noisy, but nevertheless FUN.  FUN!!!  Down low to the water, you can see every little insect skipping along the surface, and several times big fish came up trying to catch a snack.  The day was sunny, gentle breezy, and not hot at all.  Perfect weather.  I paddled to the back of the lake (almost to the dam), not all the way back into a couple of coves, and back to the marina in a little less than two hours.  The dragonflies and butterflies were attracted to the bright chartreuse color of my kayak.  I also attracted some mean, nasty horse flies.  I hate them.   When they bite they take a chunk away.  They buzzed around and there’s not much you can do in a kayak besides swat at them.

1,000 times I've been here wishing I was down there on the water

 

Someone picked 7 pounds of green beans from our garden yesterday, and a boatload of cucumbers.  I cooked a large pot of beans yesterday, so today I’ll freeze the rest of them.  I’m also going to make pickles – refrigerator pickles, which really taste much better than any ordinary pickles.  My recipe was nowhere to be found in my recipe box, but fortunately it was written in a book Sarah started for me (since nobody can ever find a specific recipe in my recipe box). 
 

 

And so, now it’s time to wrap this up and get myself busy with important mundane things like housework and laundry.