Random thoughts

We've got one stinking rose bush (a Sub-Zero variety) here at the Aerie. We'd have more but we only bought the one at Agway last year and they haven't carried them since. Just as well. Something, probably a deer, has found it irresistible. Last summer we had over a half a dozen buds all swelling nicely and juuussst getting ready to burst when--WHAM!--a midnight raider came through and ate ever last one of them. Twice already this spring the plant has been hit by some noshing critter. What is semi-frustrating about it is that we though the damage done last summer had sapped the poor things strength and that the very cold winter had, perhaps, been the end of the thing. The stem that appeared when the snow melted seemed weak and frail. You could wiggle it about as if there was no root system at all. Yet, just as I was ready to pull it out of the ground, the darn thing started to produce shoots. It followed that up with buds. Which promptly led to something coming in and...well...nipping it in the bud. Short of building a fence four feet high and at least three feet in radius around this little survivor, I'm not sure what all I can do to protect it yet still enjoy any blossom that might appear.

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We had a thunderstorm sweep down out of the northwest last night just after Terry got back from NJ. She had a great time at the wedding shower, BTW. She would have been home sooner but there was a motorcycle accident on I-80 in NJ around mile post 11. She only saw a crumbled up bike on a flatbed trailer and a tarp covering what she assumed to be a body. There was blood everywhere on the highway she says. No sign of a second vehicle. It took her over an hour to cover about a mile through the accident zone.

Anyway, back to the weather.... After the T-storm, the temperatures dropped like a stone and we ended up with a low of about 48 degrees this morning. The valley was shrouded in fog which gives the impression of a white river running down there along US Highway Route 6. To the north and east it was the same story with Corning and Elmira, New York experiencing dense fog. The temperature is supposed to get back up to just over 70 degrees this afternoon and with the sun currently shining brightly that may indeed happen. The forecast for the remainder of the week might have come out of Ground Hog Day (the movie). Every day is predicted to be exactly the same as yesterday and today right through the weekend. Sunny days with highs around 70 degrees and a chance of T-storms in the evening followed by lows around 50 over night.

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Watching the Mets/Yankees game yesterday afternoon on YES network I kept thinking, "I rushed to cut the grass so I could watch this?" Well, at least the grass got cut. So I guess that's a positive.

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After suffering through the Mets' humiliation, I sat on the deck and enjoyed one of the bottles of beer my son, Rick, gave me when we were out in Eugene for his wedding. (The smallest one. He had to be creative in bottling and I got a 16 oz bottle, a 20 oz bottle and a 32 oz bottle. I could have used the 32 oz when I was done burning at the Bolt Hole the other day. Might have made the cramps disappear--or at least I wouldn't have noticed.)

Rick has been doing some home brewing as a hobby for a couple of years. I guess his mycology classes sort of spurred him on (or maybe it was the tour in Iraq?). What ever the impetus, the results have been excellent. I got a six-pack for Christmas that was really smooth for a dark ale. And this batch has an incredibly fine finish with no bitter after bite. Oh, and the alcohol content may be a tad higher than your standard store-boughten stuff.

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Pennsylvania will be putting it's 2009-2010 hunting licenses on sale today so I may have to wander down to the sport shop later. Doe tag applications will be accepted next week so it doesn't pay to put off purchasing your license. Cost of a resident license for rifle, bow, muzzle loader with a bear tag only set me back $60 last year. The fishing licenses this spring cost me another $20. Compare that to the $280 it cost me for a non-resident New York all around sportsman's tag that covers the same thing. And that's non-resident only because I don't vote there or pay their income taxes. I still pay county and school property taxes on the Bolt Hole's 34 acres...a bill that's higher than the county and property taxes at the Aerie (17 acres).

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Time for another cup of coffee. Later.