I hadn't realized I was idle from Sunday until today on this here blog. Part of that I blame on being tied to a dial-up connection while I was at the Bolt Hole--and a relatively slow one at that. The rest I'll blame on the heat and humidity I experienced while I was there.
I was lucky to get the grass cut on Saturday for the heat index rose perceptively by Sunday and got only worse on Monday and Tuesday. While the temperature nudged 90 (and may have crossed the line a little) the humidity kept pace and every movement produced copious amounts of perspiration.
Add the pesky black flies to the mix and there was little incentive to go outside and do anything. Even sitting inside with several fans circulating air didn't produce much relief.
I had an appointment with National Grid on Monday morning. Apparently my electric meter wasn't being read by their remote sensing devices. They drive up the road and turn around at my gate which is about 200 feet away from the meter. Their remote reader is supposed to pick up a reading from as much as 500 feet away but they weren't getting a reading. I didn't tell the tech who showed up that they might not have been getting a high enough reading because the only things on for the last three months were a single fluorescent light in the kitchen and the refrigerator--which would not be pulling much juice because 1- the doors were kept closed and 2- it's been bloody cold. Oh, and a digital clock in the bedroom and another on the microwave.(I really need to unplug that when I leave.)
Anyway, the tech made the 50 mile drive from his base at Old Forge to swap out my meter and he was nice and early on Monday morning. He had come and gone by 9:30 AM.
Even so, that was late enough for the warmth of the day to awaken the dreaded black flies. As the tech and I stood and talked, their numbers grew and grew. By the time he left there must have been four or five million of the little bastards out and about. (Or should that be "bitches" since the female of the species is the one that requires the blood meal to lay her eggs?)
Of course that was when I
had to go out and load the brush hog into the truck to take it to the repair shop. I tucked my pants into my boots and donned my long sleeve shirt, bandanna, ball cap and copious amounts of Deep Woods Off and set to it. It took me but 15 minutes to load and tie down the brush hog spurred on as I was by my flying companions, then it was time to drive the 35 miles to the shop.
I really didn't mind when the repairman told me it might cost $250-300 to have the oil changed, blade sharpened, throttle cable and belts replaced, and to get it started and running. (Might be more if he has to rebuilt/replace the carburetor.) I've had the machine for about 15 years and this is the first time it's been in the shop. (A walk behind, self propelled, DR Field and Brush Mower with a Briggs & Stratton engine. Excellent machine. But mine doesn't look anything like this:
DR Field and Brush Mower, after all, mines 15 years old.)
It took me almost three hours to make the trip to and back from the repair shop with a lunch stop thrown in. But I didn't mind. There were no black flies inside the truck (well, not many) and truck has a very good AC.
The remainder of Monday was one of a short walk in the woods (amazingly, there were no black flies once under the the trees and only a few deer flies) and then just sitting around reading and doing crossword puzzles.
Tuesday wasn't much different. Very early in the morning (like from 6 to 7 AM) I could take a brief walk about the property and into the woods. After 8 AM, the flies were awake and hungry. Around noon or so I had a brief but heavy rain shower that dropped the temperature from 85 to 65 for about, oh 15 minutes before the temp rose again to 85 with humidity in the 90% plus range. For a time, it looked like that was going to be all the rain I got. Looking at the weather map showed heavy and severe storms to the east and another long line to the west but they were sliding to the northeast and I was in the slot between them.
Ah, but the ones to the west were actually the edge of a cold front that was also moving my way. I missed much of the severe weather, but around 7 PM one thunderstorm moved directly over me. For half an hour I could see the lightening, hear a sizzle in the air and then hear the boom of the thunder as rain came down in quantity. I would say that in that half hour I got well over an inch of rain--maybe even two. I know a bucket outside rose about 4 inches but it was slightly tapered and that would cause a false reading.
After the storms passed the temperatures slowly dropped into the 50s and then upper 40s during the night. Excellent sleeping weather. I learned later that there were massive power outages to my west and to my east. All I suffered was a temporary flicker of lights and slowdown of fans.
Wednesday morning was spent cleaning up and packing the truck for my return to the Aerie.
I didn't manage to duplicate my 20 mpg on the way home. While my trip up from NJ was via the NY Thruway most of the way, half of the ride home was by way of Rt 13 which took me through Ithaca (lots of stoplights) and many a small town and village where I was forced to slow down to 45 and 35 mph. I learned that the Tundra definitely prefers to cruise at 60-65 mph by watching the on board mpg calculator. Thirty-five and 45 mph it doesn't like as much.
