:: Venting Insanity ::

:: Monday, September 08, 2003 ::

ow! what a way to wake up!
Mom came in this morning, telling me I have to get up because Auntie Lyn and Nana were coming over. I thought, 'yes, at one o'clock.' She said they'd be there in a little while. I sat up. It was only 10 am.

A little while? But... but... Damn. I flopped back down. I only had a few minutes to get up and get showered now, didn't I? I hate rushing... I really hate-

Holy crap!

My right calf muscle suddenly cramped up, and painfully! I pulled my leg up in reaction, and then flexed my foot up as I tried to stretch and massage the cramp out. Pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain. Oh, God, why won't it stop? I have to get up, I have to take a shower, there's no way in hell I can walk like this...

Well, the cramp finally subsided. Mom wasn't yelling, yet, so I figure I'm safe on time. I limped into the bathroom, used the massage setting on the shower head to try and loosen up my muscle some more, and then finished getting ready.

Bad start... I wondered if it was an omen.

a beautiful day and everyone's at the mall
So, Auntie Lyn and I went over to the Verizon store at Smithaven. We get inside, and they're taking names to see salespeople. The Sprint store is nothing like this. The woman tells us it's a half hour wait.

I balked.

"Oh, nevermind then," Auntie Lyn said, and we left. "I'm not waiting half an hour just to get a new phone," she complained as we headed back to my car.

So much for that.

day at the lake
We got to the club just after Mom and Dad got there with Nana. Lunch was nice. The lake was calm and blue from the clear sky above. There was a gorgeous breeze blowing east down the river that feeds the lake. We set up our chairs and ate our lunch, while Dad prepped the mowing boat. I went with him to 'mow the lake'.

Like most lakes and rivers do, this one gets clogged with undergrowth. To maintain the flow of the river and prevent the fish from getting choked, the club bought a pontoon boat that has a large plow like thing on the front to cut the growth with. There's only one problem. Some of the fish get pulled up in the plants. So, we usually take a second person out with a net to catch them as they come over the back of the conveyor and dump them back in the water.

It's kind of fun. We had all sorts of fish today. No turtles, though. I love catching the painted turtles. They're fun. The snappers are just plain ugly and nasty, though. They actually hiss at you.

colorful dots in the sky
As we're enjoying our lunch, we can hear the plane from Skydive Long Island circling above. Mom recognized it first. As we watched it fly across behind the house, little black dots become visible falling behind it. Then, these colorful stripes suddenly explode out of them. It's the parachuting class! It was fun to watch them. They start spinning about and swerving back and forth in little zig zags. It was fun to watch. We saw about three or four classes go up throughout the day. As Dad and I came back off the boat, one waited till the last minute and we could actually hear his chute open.

>FFFWWWOOOOOOOSHH!!!<

At first, I didn't know what it was, but then I caught sight of him through the trees.

wildlife encounters
We had a few sightings today, too. The club is in a majorly rural area, and we get all sorts of animals hanging around. Today, we saw two great blue herons and two hawks flying over the lake.

The biggest thing was the sheer number of caterpillars. It seems that the caterpillars around here migrate. The weird part is that they all do it at the same time. Across roads. So... now the roads all look really dirty... but it's actually (ewwww!) squished caterpillars!

Of course, we found a bunch making their way along the grass at the club. I picked one up on a stick and held it towards Auntie Lyn. She squeaked, yelling at me to throw it in the water.

I'm so mean sometimes... {{evil grin}}

long day
We were actually there a really long time. We didn't leave until after six. Now, I'm like really tired from two long days of fresh air and sun. @.@; Luckily, I don't have to work tomorrow. I wonder how long it'll be until Bill calls me back in...