Category Archives: Lake Superior

I’m on a Boat

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Dan’s New Prindle 16 Catamaran

I’m on a boat, I’m on a boat
Everybody look at me
‘Cause I’m sailing on a boat
I’m on a boat, I’m on a boat
Take a good hard look at my MF-ing boat!
— T-Pain

Whoopie! Finally something to write about, something besides the virus anyway. After way too many years, Dan now owns a sailboat at the cabin. He found this boat on Craig’s List, but we didn’t hear much after that except to ask if his Prius could tow it. Anyway, the Prius managed, they put the boat in at Brimley State Park’s boat launch and sailed it to back to the cabin. Well almost, Mr. Bill had to motorboat Dan into shore after he had become becalmed. Dan has been pining for a sailboat, ever since the dingy lost its sail. Now he has a beauty all his own.

I applied for my Social Security benefit today. I received a letter from them stating that at least in their eyes, as of this month, I have attained the ripe old age of full retirement. I should get my first check sometime this month. I still need to convince Anne that she needs to do the same, because can you believe it, she is even older than I am. Maybe now that I’ve done it, she will follow my example. Then we can kick back and wait for the checks to begin rolling in each month.

In other news, yesterday, Saint Louis city and county announced that on Friday, masks must be worn in public. Just in time for the 4th of July weekend. Also this weekend, the musical Hamilton drops on Disney+. We would have seen the live version of Hamilton for the second time, this spring if not for this virus thingy. Anyway, in honor of both events, I offer for your viewing pleasure this video:

Fun Guys

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Blue Stain

Dan and Brit are at the cabin and Dave and Maren will join them today. Dan is discovering all sorts of interesting things… There is a squirrel in the loft that has left pine cone bits on the stairs and new to me at least, bumblebees are flying into the cabin. There are mouse turds, but no signs of a mouse yet—cabin living.

Dan has broken out the Have-a-Heart trap for the red squirrel and baited it with peanut butter, but after the first round, it’s squirrel one and Dan nothing, after the bait was stolen without triggering the trap. The bees seem to be coming inside in the corner of the sleeping porch above the bed. Dan has stuffed some wadded up plastic in the hole for the time being. When I get there, I’ll look at it.

The Blue Stain also-known-as Sap Stain, because it grows in the sap wood of trees is caused by a fungus. According to the Northern Outdoorsman, this stuff is the bane of loggers and is one of the main reasons that they prefer to work in the colder months and I always thought it was because of the bugs. As in this case, if a tree is felled in the summertime, like from of storm damage, the freshly cut logs are quickly invaded by one of the many species of fungus that leave bluish streaks in the wood and that dramatically lower the value of any lumber that is sawed from that wood. It is a pretty color though.

Dave and Maren visited with Harry and Jane yesterday. They brought gifts of chocolate and wine from the Finger Lakes, making them welcome anytime. The wine was for Jane, to thank her for all that she has done to get the cabin ready. Maren and Dave overnighted in Bay City and should be at the cabin by now.

A Proposition

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Candidate Amethyst Rock Replacement

Dear beach bums—I have a proposition for you. I propose that we substitute the old Amethyst Rock down at the Doelle end of the beach, with the above bauble. You can’t really tell by the photo, but they are about the same size. Now I understand that in its current form, it would be a bit difficult to stand on, at least barefoot. Its sharp crystals would surely hurt, but hear me out. We can leave the original Amethyst Rock where it is and you, “traditionalists”, can continue to march down the beach and commune with it, as you always have. In the meantime, we’ll just set this new one up in front of the cabin. I figure that in a few years, wind, wave and water will smooth its exterior to the smoothest finish of purple beach glass that you have ever seen. And because it will be right in front of the cabin, when were all old and doddering, it will still be accessible, as they say. Are you on board with this plan? Good!

Now there is just one little teensy-weensy other thing. This Amethyst Rock is currently located in the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum, in its Minerals and Gems gallery. Woah there, it’s not like it is in the same room as the Hope Diamond, so don’t get your panties all in a bunch. I’m sure that it’s not that well-guarded. With your help, I’m sure that we could pull this little caper off. I know what you are thinking. He goes off to DC, without any adult supervision and this is what he comes up with. While that may be true, it is not entirely my own idea. Before I went to Natural History, I was in the National Archive. Have you ever seen the movie, National Treasure?

In this movie, Nichols Cage steals the Declaration on Independence. It is all part of an elaborate scavenger hunt. He is trying to find the treasure of the Knights Templar, who the Founding Fathers hid, because they were all Free Masons. Clear? Anyway, he has to steal the Declaration on Independence, because the next set of clues are secretly written on its back. Once stolen, he then has to Q-tip lemon juice on to it to make the invisible ink reappear. I guess by now, I should have told you to suspend your disbelief at the door. Anyway, it all works out, he finds the treasure, get the girl and the document in question is not too worse for wear. Except when I viewed it today, it looked horrible. About all that you could still read is, “In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776”, “The unanimous Declaration […] States of America,” and “John Hancock”. I don’t think Nick Cage is all that responsible for this deterioration.

As I was waiting in line to get in, I got to eavesdrop on the spiel of a private tour guide that the family in line before me had hired. He was good and apparently our forefathers were not. Or at least they were none too kind to the Declaration on Independence. In 1823 President John Quincy Adams ordered 200 copies of the document to be printed. The printer used a wet-ink transfer process, where the surface of the document was moistened, and some of the original ink transferred to the surface of a copper plate, which was then etched so that copies could be run off the plate on a press. Then for 35 years the original document was displayed on a wall in the Patent Office, where it was exposed to sunlight and Washington’s horridly humid summers. If faded badly and now is unreadable, as are the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. So, it’s no wonder that Trump behaves as if there is no Constitution—Now, where was I going again?