Smiley Wipers

Outside of my house, right now, is a beautiful late summer night. It's cool. The breeze is soft but steady. My neighbor did a late night lawn mowing so the smell is still hanging in the air. The night . . . it's just crisp and clean. Each window is open to let the beautiful night in.

Inside of my house is an Algonquin sweat lodge. Humid and stuffy. Barely enough air to breath. Not one lick of that breeze. It's only a matter of time before I follow this giant crow up that hill to the tall tree. 

Here are some pics from the trip we all took to upstate a month or so back. Enjoy them. Or not. I'll be over hear with the Ghost Coyote.

The water in Seneca gets, for about a week, nicely warm. This was not the week. The water was about 68. Which is nice once you get in, but getting in is harder each time you have too.

 Belly'd up to the bar.

My mom took us to a local craft/artisan place . . . you know, lots of cool stuff made out of branches and local jams (which I tasted way more than my fair share of). All of it nice, none of it cheap. They had a goat and sheep, some swings and a tractor. The tractor was a big hit.

My dad, a sailor from way back, took Charlie out for a spin on the sunfish. And Charlie loved it.

As they were heading in I heard Charlie yell, "NO."

When they got in close I asked dad what that was about. He said, "I asked her if she wanted to go back on shore."

Then they took off again.

OH MAN, A TINY BREEZE JUST CAME IN THE SCREEN DOOR. SO REFRESHING. and now it's gone


One of the many duck families that come by and quack for bread. This family was about nine ducks. The kids are ripping up white bread (gasp) to feed them.

Reading with Dianna. Those silver things are propane tank bottoms someone has turned into steel drums. They're tuned and everything. Or they were before my dad said, "go ahead and bang them," then my kids walloped the shit out of them.

Here's a description of a pic I wish I had gotten last time I was up.  Last time the kids and I were up (as seen in the last post so this newest post happened further back in "time" then the last one. Sorry to get all Vincent Vega on you) was to help close down the cottage. Anyway, when we went up dad had me water proof, Thompson's Waterseal, some of the south side of the cottage. He and Joyce did as much as they could, so I got to get up on the ladder and do the rest. Basically, from above the window Dianna's in front of to the tip of the cottage (you can see the tip if you scroll down - I swear that's not supposed to sound dirty).

So the picture I wish we had gotten was ALL of the window behind Dianna with a ladder and only the bottoms of my shoes.

Hum, that description was a let down but I'm leaving it in to bulk up my word count.

Maybe I'll draw the picture. Then you'll all take me seriously.


This is really a panorama. Pic 1 fits into pic 2 fits into Pic 3 which fits into a small doll which goes into a smaller doll etc etc etc. Feel free to print it out and tape them together, it'll make a nice Sunday afternoon project. I love the view. Water, hill and sky.

And that barrel (pic 3). Grunt. It washed up in the winter, lots of crap dislodges somewhere else and ends up under, around or through cottages. I dragged out a neighbor's sailfish once. A huge tree trunk another - great keepsakes for the kids, you know. When we closed up the cottage I got to drag the barrel up the elevator to the top. Which was fine, when it was on the elevator. But a barrel, even with the teeny tiny opening on the top, will fill up quickly while rolling around the bottom of a lake. Fill up with rock. So it's got 30 some gallons of rock in it. Every time I'd roll it or pic it up all that rock would shift.

I hate that barrel.