Nice day....

[ctom]

but only 28 degrees with a good wind blowing. That changes my plans a bit. Today was going to be boat day. Ya'll know about boat day, when the boat gets pulled out to the driveway and the bearing get packed, the inside of the boat is vacuumed out, the locator gets hung and all of the batteries get a last minute touch-up on the charger. The day when all of those little things get some attention so they don't end up needing attention when you're a couple miles from the landing. The bright sun here sort of had me lulled into thinking that today was indeed the day. Then I opened the garage door and got a faceful of cold wind. It was out of the south last night at 10, but its from the NW now. Unrelenting and cold.

A couple minutes ago I clicked up my weather forecast and what is it I see? White stuff on the horizon? Right now water levels are offering smooth sailing and the color of the world here is slowly going from brown to green and in my scheme of things white was a color I had no considered....nor a color that I will receive with good humor. I keep thinking that we had winter for a reason and that any white should be confined to within the confines of winter as shown on the calendars we get each New Year. There should be laws preventing this from happening. At least yesterday was productive.

Ma left at 8:30 yesterday morning for three days at the daughters place. By 11:45 I had about 800 assorted jigs cast, all in anticipation of getting the boat out next week of course. Somewhere during the casting session I managed to get the news paper and mail, get the garbage container to the curb and find a mole working along our from sidewalk. The mole got acquainted with one of my size 12 shoes and found himself resting quietly in the trash can I just brought up. While putting the mail where Ma could find it I noticed a large squirrel on a feeder and he had obviously decided to gnaw his way to whatever random seed was still in there. I don't abide by gnawing anything and as soon as the squirrel finished arguing with some high velocity lead poisoning he too went directly to the can on the curb. By the time I got back to the molds and hot pot I had a re-newed energy and felt in control of my game KNOWING that today I'd clear the last hurdle to getting in the boat next week by being able to taking care of all of the aforementioned little nuances that boat ownership bring today. This 25 mph wind at 28 degrees just isn't on my list though. The temp and windchill would require that I put on a long-sleeved T or maybe even a light sweatshirt to work out there and those articles of clothing are now neatly stowed away.

Oh well, its a good thing I have hobbies. I'll put this boat stuff off for a week.

[Muskygary]

Tom, Don't throw that squirrel away! Good food and the tails are great for fly tying! I purchased twenty bags of mushroom compost yesterday with the idea I'd spread it on the garden. Not going to happen for a few days! Winter won't give up.

[2XL]

I had big plans to get out fishing Friday but the crew residing our house had other plans. I ran some errands in town early figuring I would get the boat ready,hook it up, then head to the river when I got back home. WRONG! The siding guys had a 3 foot by 50 foot pile of old splintered siding piled in our driveway with nails all over the place and new siding ,insulation and other supplies stacked and blocking my plan B escape route. That ended my fishin mission before it even started. So I did the annual "get the boat ready to go" spring ritual instead. According to the weather guesser this morning, I have an idea I'll be fishing in the snow come Monday morning. Just hope the snow melts (it should) on the driveways/sidewalks and I don't have to do any shoveling/plowing.

[ctom]

Ma called and asked what I was doing all day today and suggested I clean up a small area of garden that we hadn't gotten to yet. Kind of ironic that this little chunk of dirt afforded a full on view of the boat in the garage. I broke down after doing the garden stuff and hauled the boat out. I still need to fill the lower unit, but did start the engine and get new fuel in the tank. I vacuumed the inside out and checked tire pressure all around including the spare. I'm going back to the garage now just to run the outboard another twenty seconds...just long enough to make some of those wonderful exhaust fumes.

[Denny Welch]

Hey Tom...low 80's a couple days ago...got the speedo out and worked on the tan line.  Fished my delta yesterday (mid-70's) and already getting that leathery look on the back of the hands and the wind burned cheeks.  Ya got to love the CA weather in the springtime.  We should start burning in a few months and this year stacks up to be a really bad one.  I understand that CDF is already hiring.  We have very little snow, our lakes and resevoirs are already low, the rivers aren't running high and at least 20 logging trucks an hour are still passing the house carrying last year's fire scorched timber.  My next door neighbor is a white water rafting guide, but the only white water you see here is the bubbles from the bathroom faucet.  He's leaving for Oregon in hopes of finding some good water.

California has it's share of the yin and the yang.  Oh yeah, we also are on track for our very own Bullet Train. Goes from nowhere to nowhere.

[ctom]

Here in Rochester everyone's all abuzz over a high-speed rail between here and the Twin Cities. At least what's getting yacked about is that its supposed to be built privately, no government money.

And also buzzing here in Minnesota is that the whole state is now officially in a moderate drought. I guess we're in the same boat with ya Denny. As for wind burned cheeks you just need to hitch the pants up a little higher and you'll solve that problem and it won't cost a cent.

[ctom]

Now this morning I am looking at 8" of heavy, wet snow. I'd have gladly settled for rain yesterday.

[2XL]

2" here and it's still coming down at a good clip. Moderate drought here too but I would have been fine with no more snow until next winter.