utenzi

I'm milking my trip to my parents' place for yet another post. This time it's about the family enjoying a day on the lake together. We started off with a nice ride around Lake Hartwell in a pontoon boat. Half of us were in the front, suffering in the hot and blazing sun, and the rest were being wienies in the shaded back. It was actually quite pleasant in the sun as long as we were moving along quickly. Unfortunately there were quite a few ventures into scenic places that were "low wake" areas which translates to "go so slow that you literally broil in your own sweat" areas. Learn from my experience people: when it's hot, go fast! As you can see in the picture below, even little boats with dogs in the front staring down the waves were going faster than we were. *sigh* Did I mention how hot it was? In the next picture you can see us, lighter by a few pounds of sweat, heading back into the dock. Time to rehydrate! My brother was so eager to get bac...

By and large I don't mind insects. At least as long as they're not crawling on me, that is. In fact I love to take pictures of insects since they're so foreign looking. But I draw the line when they sting me. And an unprovoked "sting" at that. Take a gander at Exhibit A over there to the left. I know it looks weird from that angle but I assure you, it's just my arm. The back of the left arm, to be specific. That wrinkled thing is my left elbow pictured from the rear. Kinda freaky looking, huh? Hmph. If we can get off the topic of how odd my arm looks for a moment, I'd like to point out how red and swollen the poor arm is. A bee or hornet---I never saw it so I'm not sure what it was---flew up to me and stung me as I was walking across my parent's driveway on Sunday evening just before I packed up my car for the trip home. It was odd 'cause I was just minding my own business, not near any nest or food source. Damn bugs! The back of my arm still...

I got another early start this morning and decided to try to get more pictures of the beaver in that tunnel. This first picture is of my kayak on the dock as I walked down to the lake to get under way. It was still a little dark but the sun was almost up. This next picture is of two beaver in that tunnel I mentioned yesterday. I was about 20 feet in, maybe 3/4 of the way, and the two beaver were warning me to stay back. I suspect their home was just on the other side of the tunnel. It was too dark to see the critters clearly and even with the flash only their eyes were lit up. It was a little spooky 'cause they would slap their tails in warning--which is very loud in a small concrete tunnel--and each time it was a complete surprise since I had no visual cues that the noise was about to occur. On the way back to my parents' house I met up with this Blue Heron. He seemed to be guarding a boathouse. As sentries go, he seemed quite serious. Maybe he was just scouting out the best f...

This morning I got started before dawn and reached this cove just after the sun had risen. I posted about this place last March but back then the water level of the lake was about 15 feet lower. Instead of the pretty expanse of water pictured below, instead it was a stream of water flowing between high banks. In any case, at the end of that body of water seen above, you can just barely see a concrete structure. That turns out to be a bridge with two tunnels---seen below---that allow water from the uphill side of the road to flow down into the lake. And apparently it also allows a colony of beavers to live on one side of the road and forage for food in the lake. I tried to go through the tunnel in my kayak but I only got about 3/4 of the way through before my rudder grounded and I had to push myself back out backwards. Kinda got my claustrophobia thing going a little. Funny now, not so much then! The tunnel started seeming a whole lot narrower when I couldn't get the kayak to mov...

I got an early start on the day due to Julie's help. Let's just say that not everyone sleeps silently... And as a result I got to see the sun rise over the trees while kayaking up Lake Hartwell. I had to turn around to get this shot since the sun was rising behind me. The weather was quite fickle though. While it dawned bright and clear, within 20 or 30 minutes it really clouded up quite a bit. In the picture below, taken around an hour later in a sailboat marina, the sky looked stormy and I was sure that it'd be pouring most of the way home. That rain never materialized but the sky stayed overcast and stormy looking until around 11am. My glasses kept fogging up due to the high humidity outside and the amount of heat I was giving off. There's nothing like paddling in high 80s temps when there's no wind to speak of to make you really sweaty and hot. It was a really nice day to take pictures but I sure was wishing for some wind...

Julie and I are on our first day of vacation down south. Don't let the hat fool you, we're not vacationing in Mexico---we're only a little ways south. And no, we're not at that kitschy place on the SC/NC border either. We are at my parent's place in South Carolina. For 4 days of sun, fun, and lots of heat. It's going to be in the low to mid-90s every damn day. *whew* I'm going to try to get out in the kayak every day but it's not going to be easy. And Julie insists on going with me. (ok, not so much) Julie is more likely going to be pursuing dead folk. A lot of her family is buried in this county. As far as we know, the interring was done in a timely fashion and Julie wasn't directly involved. But I'm keeping my eyes open. Practically all night long, in fact, ever since she told me. When almost all a person's relatives are dead--you get a little suspicious! And this is me coming back to the dock after a short paddle. I went out at 1pm and...

I have this week off from work. Originally I was going to go to my parent's house for most of the week. Spend some time with them, catch up, all that. But the plan changed and so I'm spending a few days at home instead--and then going to their house. Probably a good thing since there's a lot here that needs work. Today I spend 90 minutes mowing the back half of my lot. It was really overgrown from all the rain we had last week so I mowed on the highest setting. It's even now but it's still pretty deep out there. See those berries over there? No, they're not from my lawn. It's not quite that overgrown out there. At lest not yet. Actually I went hiking in the late afternoon despite the heat and went back to that place with the gravel quarry, Occoneechee Mountain park. And that's where I got the picture of the berries. I also wore those new shoes I posted about on Thursday to try them out. They were just a little tight but worked pretty well anyway. They...