Summer moves along

Usually by about mid January I am sick and tired of cold weather and winter in general...the Spring is always slow to arrive in Ohio, and once it does, it is usually windy with rain and the continued cold. By the time things improve in the middle of May...I am glad to see some sunshine and warmer weather. However in Ohio, you never know how long the Spring conditions last before the heat and humidity make one long for Fall.

Last year, the Summer remained cool with low humidity throughout the duration...this year? Not so lucky...it got hot, humid, and stayed wet through June, and with the exception of a day or two respite...it has been pretty miserable to be outside, at least during the daylight hours. Here it is heading into the middle of July, and I am looking forward to Autumn.

Growing up in the heat and humidity of South Florida, along the Gulf Coast in the small town(at that time) of Venice, I can understand why folks move south to get away from the brutal winters of the North and Northeast, I never could understand why one would live there from May through September, or even want to. Rain, humidity, and oppressive heat indexes are the rule of order, and I would never live there for that stretch of time...Hell Ohio Summer's are bad enough, but the deep south, along the Gulf Coast? No Thanks!

So here we are, less than a full month into Summer, and I'm sick of it already...knowing we have at least 2 full months to go....unless, like last year, we have a couple of months of less humid conditions, but with the universal Global Warming Threat(sarcasm insert), that cannot happen 2 Summers in a row...can it?

No games for me today....one college summer game at Ohio Northern University tomorrow evening, then some late season tournament action in both ACME and area Pony League stuff and I am finished with baseball until next March...football beckons, and that is usually pretty warm and humid to start, and then finishes on the cooler side. I'll settle for a season of 70 degrees and sunshine with humidity in the 20% range. What are the chances of that happening for an entire season? Hummmm...that would be ZERO! But we will take what we get, and be glad to still be up and around, running up and down the diamonds, fields, and courts at the age of 61.

I did get out and check out the flowers around the fence this morning, photos included...the Radar says rain is on the way....a good shower would be welcome, if, if, if, the humidity would be lowered...but I see 90-95 will be the temps with humidity to match for the next couple of days...O' Well! You take what nature throws at you.

enjoy your day.....back later>>>

Photos-The lone Sunflower that has bloomed along with some of the fence flowers that are surviving the Summer's Heat....and me in the Summer of 1956 with a Red Snapper that I caught off the Manasota Bridge, near Englewood, Florida. South Florida was a great place to grow up in the 1950s, it was a wild and wonderful place back then....not so today, that Venice and other areas have been destroyed by over development, and it has become an overcrowded expressway to Hell, teaming with traffic, Condos on the Beach, perverts, and illegals. Plus the hot, wet, summers still suck. But hey, I got some photos and the memories of when it was pretty nice. A town of 1500 compared to today's 50,000 souls crowded against the dying Gulf.

Bluegill, Rick's new place, and our Grand Lake Ohio Algae

I took the windows out of the Jeep yesterday, and just before Noon headed north and east about 70 miles to my friend Rick's new place, across the state line north of Fort Wayne, Indiana. The trip in the Jeep was cool, bouncy, and breezy, but I made it in about 2 hours by taking the back roads as much as possible, before hitting I-469/I 69 and Indiana 3...arriving just before 2pm.

Rick and wife Toni bought 17 acres in Noble County about 13 years ago, and after working and clearing the land, putting in a large pond, and selling the house that they and the 3 kids lived in for 26 years last winter, finally got their new dream house under roof...and moved in this past April. The inside is something to see. The property is still in the landscaping stages, and Rick is finishing the basement over the next few months...they have themselves quite the place, and with a minimum of neighbors...it makes me wonder just why the Hell I ever moved back into town?....especially considering some of the trash that surrounds us now.

Rick, who was my best man at my 1976 wedding, (I returned the favor at his and Toni's in 1981) and I have known each other since our High School days at Celina....we worked at the old Marsh Supermarket in Celina together until I graduated in 1967...we have been best friends since those days...although we don't get together that often these days. Plus I have missed out on the past 2 annual Mushroom Hunts in Michigan, due to baseball tournament consideration, and we didn't get together last New Years for the first time in about 20 years, because they were living in an apartment waiting for the new house to get livable....so yesterday, I drove up to see how things had worked out since I was last there early in January, when the place was under construction.

We drank a couple of beers, had a cigar or 2, and I dipped the pole in his pond, filled with Bluegill and Smallmouth Bass. I came up with about a half dozen blues in about 15 minutes...almost too easy, these guys are hungry, and pretty tame, and of course I just caught and released...didn't catch any real big ones, but did get some 'decent" sized fish, and a couple of runts....Like I said, way too easy, unlike my next subject, the fishing and other water activities at our Grand Lake St. Marys.....

After about 4 hours of touring and BSing, I headed back to Celina, making it home around 7 last night.

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Gan-Green Grand Lake______

Our 13,000 acre recreational lake, Grand Lake, has become of late a 13,000 acre swamp of Algae and dead fish....the State of Ohio has declared the State's largest inland lake(once the largest man-made lake in the world) "Off Limits" to most activities:

http://www2.nbc4i.com/news/2010/jul/01/toxic-algae-takes-over-ohio-lake-ar-129349/

The above story was from a Columbus TV Station....some photos are overstating what the lake looks like, but the smell cannot be overstated in some locations, lucky for Celina, we are usually upwind from the prevailing breeze...

Here is what a former Mercer Countyian...now living in Arkansas, says about Grand Lake and it's problems:

http://libertywell.wordpress.com/2010/07/02/algae-and-government-mucking-up-grand-lake-st-marys/

Just what the Hell is a "Social Libertarian"? I've always considered myself a Far Right Wacko on both ends of the political spectre...and a ass kicker on Social Issues....meaning, if you piss in my yard, I'm gonna kick your ass., because it's not your yard, it's mine. if you, as a doctor perform a later term/partial birth abortion, you are a murdering SOB...seems pretty concrete to me, but I digress. Back to Grand Lake...

More Photos and Stories:

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/06/29/dont-touch-the-water.html?sid=101

Anyway, this Algae, Ag runoff and Goose Poop is mucking up the works on Grand Lake for sure...and the Freedom Days Festival, beginning tonight in Celina, should make for an interesting read come next week....I won't be around however, 6 District Ballgames to umpire in Lima and Rockford over the next 4 days...

Enjoy you 4th....and Remember...Obama and Company are the enemies of Freedom, true American Freedom.

back later

Photos-top..one of the Bluegill I nabbed and released back into Rick's clearwater pond...just some Catails, and some algae around the edges...nothing like Our Grand Lake...The front and back view of the Pearson Mansion....the landscaping still to come. And our "Grand Lake" in all it's bloom...more photos contained in story.

Smokin' Salmon

More sunshine and a little warmer today...Patricia and I headed over to Nick's place to pick beets and a few other things from the garden for canning....and I took about 15 pounds of Salmon from Nick and my fishing trip to the Au Sable River/Lake Huron last fall. When we returned from the Tawas City/Au Sable area in late October 2008, we cut out some fillets from our catch and proceeded to freeze the goods. Nick purchased a smoker this spring, and today we decided to see how we did with the fish....the results were excellent, if I don't say so myself.

The garden at Nick's is coming along, with plenty of "stuff" now ready for harvest....Patricia has been canning for the past month and with school starting in just a week or so...we gathered beets and some tomatoes....meanwhile we loaded the Smoker with chips, water, and hickory and we put the thawed packages of some of last year's catch....within 2 hours Nick and I were treating ourselves to Salmon and Beer....

Scrimmages being____

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9AM tomorrow it all begins...the start of the High School Football scrimmage season gets underway. Sam and I along with a couple other guys have the Celina Freshman game with Piqua. The good news about the early start is with humidity on the rise and temperatures as well...we will be done before Noon, and before the heat begins. A few more scrimmages next week then the regular season kicks off on August 28th.

Photos-{top left} A few pounds of smoked Salmon as we pulled it out of the smoker{2} A couple of those same Salmon with me as they looked late last October{3} Nick and Patricia digging up some beets for the canning jars, still plenty of stuff to pick, despite the drought, it's been a good year in both gardens that we share{4}Nick's new smoker...next weekend we will smoke some red meat, we just have not decided what kind yet...so far Chicken and Fish have went through it{5} The Salmon at about the half way point...butter lime/lemon garlic sauce with pepper and sea salt makes this a great meal.

Enjoy the weekend___back later>>>>

Best of Times/Worst of Times

4:00 pm EDT

Have always loved summer, but by the time late August and early September rolls around I am usually sick of the heat and humidity, and ready for Autumn....bad thing about that however, winter is just around the corner...wasn't bad growing up in south Florida, but many of my other places of "cooler" climate are a different story. Ohio, Wisconsin, upstate New York, Dodge City, Kansas, Kokomo, Indiana, are a different story...getting sick of winter in a quick fashion makes you not so happy to see the heat of summer go away.

Freshman football at Coldwater yesterday where the home team scored late, converted a fake extra point kick and came away with a quick 8-6 victory of the Flyers of Marion Local....worked Line Judge, and I was rusty....games on Thursday and Saturday, looks to be cooler, and hopefully I'll be able to shake off the rest of the rust.

Mowed in the heat again today...after going from mid June until early August with only mowing once, I've now had to clip that stuff 3 times in 10 days, including last Friday and today. Gonna kick back in a few, pop open a Miller and clip a torpedo and fire that up.

23 years ago

_____________My high school and bar stool buddy Nick now owns a nice classic pontoon boat(see Bar Stool Open thread), but in past years he had a 24 footer which we fished, drank, and partied on Lake Erie with...we tore off a few props, slept standing up, passed out in the Put-in-Bay public restroom...well at least Nick did, but that's another story....almost sank on more than one occasion, and usually drank more beers than fish we caught...but we did have some good weekends. Labor Day weekend 1984 was one of those....we were blessed with good weather, 2-3 foot waves, and I had my Transderm Patches to keep the sea sickness away.

Now growing up in south Florida, on the Gulf, I had the opportunity to catch much larger fish than I ever could in Ohio, or Wisconsin, or even upstate NY, where I learned to trout fish with fly rod...but although not the fisherman my dad was, or even what I used to be...I still enjoy an occasional trip(but only catch and release these days).....from my youth, catching pier and jetty Shark, Jewfish, and Red Snappers, to Perch, Crappie, Walleye, Trout from a stream, Catfish, from lake and quarry....I still enjoy fishing or at least thinking about it.....that Labor Day Weekend in 84 we caught our share, drank our share, and made it home from the Lake Erie Islands alive to talk about it for years.

photo: me with a decent sized Walleye, and still sober...must have been early and I suspect we were about 10-15 miles out in Erie.

prh