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Monday, June 30, 2014

There's never a sure thing in fishing...



Two recent trips I've taken with people with extensive local knowledge illustrate this.

Yesterday, friend Lou and I went with Capt. Mike to Mattawoman Creek off the Potomac, a strikingly beautiful area 20 miles downriver from DC.  Capt. Mike is a great guide who seems to know every inch of these fishing grounds, and yet all our efforts produced only one small largemouth bass.  That's the way it is sometimes.

A few weeks before, I met another friend, Greg, at 5:30 am in the parking lot of his boat's marina.  He pulled his truck next to me, lowered the window and told me that a storm was heading to our location on the Chesapeake.  Like Capt. Mike, he knows his area well and times his trips for just the right tide and wind conditions.  We waited out the storm at the marina and at his home a few blocks away, but when the storm passed and the sun came out a few hours later all the conditions were wrong.  Nevertheless, we tried, and, as we anticipated, we caught nothing.  Still, we had a nice time watching the rain and lightning at the marina, putting together a piece of furniture he recently bought for his video system, and then having lunch at his favorite neighborhood pub.

Thanks to Lou for the above picture on Capt. Mike's boat.  That's a good angle for me even though there appears to be metal handlebars growing out of my head. (Actually it's part of the front casting platform.)

Friday, June 20, 2014

The House in Gormania

Pam's grandfather was living in this house when I first visited it about 35 years ago.  The house is located in a small West Virginia town and has stayed in the family with  sister-in-law Kathy and her husband Bernie currently owning it.

When I first entered the house, I was struck by the hand painted artwork of Disney cartoon characters on the dining room wall because I had seen a similar scene long ago.  In the 1950's my Uncle Steve and his family lived in an old house on the outskirts of a tiny town in Upstate New York, and the kitchen wall also contained pictures from the Disney cartoon feature, Bambi



My guess is that these paintings were done in the 1940's because the movie was released in 1942.  I don't know if an itinerant artist specializing in these paintings roved small town America in those years, or if kits were sold providing instructions for home-owners to paint them themselves.  To me the pictures have always symbolized a link between my family and my wife's.

Friday, June 13, 2014

South River Boat Ride

Neighbors Paul and Marianne like to water ski which I've done only a couple of times in my life and not in 50 years, but I enjoyed the boat ride and watching them.


To make certain all systems were ok, Paul took the first turn while Marianne drove the boat.


She then went out on the skis.  By this time the skies got dark as a storm moved in.

 
 When it began to thunder, lightning, and rain, we raced back to the dock and pulled the boat.
 

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Georgetown street scenes

Enough of the flowers.




To me, this worn sign looks like it was originally for a movie theater.  Pam says she doesn't remember one on that side of Wisconsin Avenue.  It seems to me that I do, but I don't trust my memory for things like that.


 


 

 



Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Japanese Dogwoods



I wasn't satisfied that yesterday's pictures sufficiently brought out the flowering trees in front, so I took another picture this evening.

Monday, June 2, 2014