After the Storms

Big one blew through Sunday afternoon. National Weather Service said later that they saw evidence of wind gusts that exceeded 90 mph. Hundreds of thousands lost power including us for 22 hours. No damage to house, but we may have lost two trees, one a 30 foot spruce.

Mild storm today. Winds not too strong, nice rain, air temperatures dropped 10 degrees, and no power loss. Walked over to the pond later and caught one bass on the B & B fly.

Patapsco River up from Daniels

Hadn't been to this spot for a few years, and it's worth the 45 minute paddle from the parking lot. Caught only one smallmouth, but it was the best one of the season so far. Caught it on the first or second cast of the day using the Black & Bluegill which is becoming the go-to fly this summer. Kept the fly on and caught a bazillion bluegills. Better make that two bazillion because I caught about twice as many as I did last week on the Monocacy.

Air temp about 90 in the early afternoon when I left. Water level 1.54 at Hollofield.

The Pond: 8 AM

Many runners and other people exercising here early before the temps get up in the 90's.

For me, one bass and two small bluegills on B & B, and one large bluegill on surface slider.

Two new arrivals at our house

Ten weeks old. No names yet.

The Lower Monocacy River

Monocacy is an American Indian word meaning "river with many blends", and like many Indian place names it flows musically off the tongue when said. Near Frederick Maryland a Civil War battle was fought along its banks, and where the Monocacy empties into the Potomac a C & O Canal aqueduct constructed mostly of granite stone quarried at nearby Sugarloaf Mountain was completed in 1833.

It was near the aqueduct that I put in my kayak and paddled upriver yesterday. When the current picked up and the river bottom became rocky, I entered the water to wade and fish. I caught only two smallmouth bass but about a bazillion bluegills, almost all the fish while using the Black and Bluegill fly described below on June 15.

A pleasant day, not as hot as it's been. Water level 1.74 at Bridgeport on the Monocacy and 1.11 at Point of Rocks on the Potomac.

AFI Silver Spring

One great benefit of living where I do is my proximity to the American Film Institute Silver Spring theater. It is an art deco styled building in the downtown area that holds smaller theaters in addition to the grand and restored original theater.
This summer the AFI is featuring films by Truffaut and Kurosawa, and last night we saw Francois Truffaut's Day for Night. Going to movies there seems like a good way to spend what is becoming a very hot summer.

Upper Potomac Smallmouth Bass

This is about the time I usually start fishing this area because the water's warm enough to wade wet. I beached the kayak on a gravel bar on the Maryland side of the big island at Noland's Ferry, just into Frederick County. No luck on the surface, so I tied on a black and olive wooly bugger and started catching 10-12" smallies. Although small, each jumped when hooked and fought well on the six weight fly rod.

Action was pretty much over by afternoon, but it was such a beautiful day I stayed on the river anyway. In most places when you've waded out to mid-river and look upstream or down you see no sign of human creation, and the water, woods, and hills look much as they must have when Europeans first came. Today I saw great blue herons as usual, and I think I also saw an eagle. A beaver smacked water to warn me off his territory and groundhogs scurried near the bloat ramp.

Water levels low (2.82 at Little Falls and 1.05 at Point of Rocks), and air temps in the low 80's by afternoon.

Visiting Farmer John

Visited John Van Brunt on his farm in Carroll County today. A number of years ago and well before he retired as a psychology professor at the University of Maryland, John bought about 30 acres with a pond and an old farm house and raised sheep.

We visited John often when our children were small, and the farm was an excellent place for suburban kids to learn about rural living. John doesn't venture out to the city often these days, and we got out of the habit of going up there. Lately, though, I've been re-establishing the friendship and have been glad I have because he's a person of many interests and an all round good guy. A few years ago, he converted the farm for use by a group that acquires mistreated horses.
I brought a rifle because John would like to see a thinning of the local groundhog population, but they laid low and I didn't get a shot. We took turns shooting his new shotgun in one of the back pastures. I'm looking forward to visiting him frequently.

Oliver: 1997- 2010

We had to put him down today, and both Pam and I are sad. He was one of the most affectionate and interesting cats I've known. He had this odd habit of dragging out wool sweaters and blankets from where we preferred them in the bedroom to where he preferred them in the kitchen. Some of the blankets were heavy and Oliver was a small cat, so this chore took a reasonable amount of effort. He did this "work" at night presumably to avoid being observed for reasons known only to him.


His best buddy, Gus, died in March. We called them brothers although there was no blood relationship. Gus was the only other animal Oliver liked. He despised Jerry, a third cat who lived only a few years.







Oliver could be cranky and quick tempered with humans also and expressed his displeasure with a fearsome hiss. He did this to my sister Elaine at a dinner party we hosted this past winter, and it hurt her feelings because she's a cat-lover. Later when we were still at the table he climbed over a couple of people to get to Elaine's lap where he stayed as if he wanted to make up. It's significant that one of the people he climbed over was Pam who was his all time favorite person.

When he was younger and had bursts of energy, he would sometimes shoot through the house and leap up onto the drapes where he would hang upside down emitting a low growl. He was the most verbal cat I've known and had seemingly an infinite variety of sounds. Some nights or mornings he would place himself outside our closed bedroom door and go through a concert of his sounds in an effort to get fed or get attention.

He was fun to share a house with and beautiful to look at.

We miss him.

Too many deaths over the past few months

Thoughts after a week at the beach

Very few.

I don't think the beach is conducive to profound thoughts. Maybe the rhythm of the surf crashing and the tidal movement lulls your mind into dullness. Maybe it's all the beer. Whatever the reason, my level of conversation rarely progresses past "Hey, pass me the sun block" as I act as a human sundial by adjusting the position of my chair to follow the shade of the beach umbrella.

One observation that I make every time I go:

Most adults never go into the water. My family seems to be the exception because we all think swimming in the ocean is great. Just get out beyond the breakers.

One of Marv's Paintings

When I first met my friend Marv he was an avid painter, and many of his paintings were nudes. I guess it was because he liked looking at naked women.

Catching Largemouth Bass in the Pond

Just over a month ago I wrote about watching the largemouth bass on their spawning beds in the nearby pond. Those 12-15" bass have been giving me some great sport during the last few afternoons on a 5 weight fly rod. Yesterday the bite came on a foam spider, and today on a new fly that I read about in the latest issue of Fly Fisherman magazine.

This fly is so simple that I should have thought of it myself. It's just black chenille and white rubber legs tied on a 6 or 8 hook. Because it resembles nothing identifiable that fish feed on, it's in the category of attractor rather than imitative flies. The creator of the pattern designed it primarily for big bluegills but mentioned that he's caught some good bass on it as well. He weights the hook by wrapping with lead, but the first couple I tied unweighted to run a few inches below the surface. Pictured above is one of the ones I tied and used today.

The fly was created by Jim Dean who lives in North Carolina but writes that he caught his first trout on Big Hunting Creek in Maryland, a stream I know well.

The President is Hipper than I am

I don't go around thinking I'm hip. My primary self image is as a father and as a fisherman, and neither of those is very hip. However, I'm used to being hipper than whoever is the American president. It's partly an age thing, but not completely. Music producer Ahmet Ertegun was in his 80's when he died, and he was probably the coolest and hippest man in the world. Bill Clinton tried for cool with his saxophone and dark glasses for a TV appearance in 1992, but his actual musical tastes were Fleetwood Mac who haven't been hip and cool in 30 years and Kenny G who was never and will never be hip and cool. Don't even think George W and hip at the same time because your brain will reject such an obvious contradiction. These two were the first presidents in my age bracket.

This subject is on my mind because a few days ago I discovered a jazz vocalist, bassist named Esperanza Spalding. Upon investigating videos of her on the Internet, I realized she performed at the White House last year. That President Obama was hip to her a year before I was should not be shocking to me, but it is. Esperanza also appeared on David Letterman, and after her performance Dave (who is exactly my age) said to sidekick and band leader Paul Shaffer (who will be hip his whole life), "You were right. She is the coolest guest we've ever had."

Why all the excitement about this young lady? Well, the string bass was my instrument so I can judge bass players with more intelligence than I can other musicians, and she is very good. She also sings and composes very well. Now, Pam thinks Esperanza got my attention mostly because she's sexy. Pam hasn't said this, but I know she is thinking it. Ok, Esperanza is obviously a lovely young lady, but it's her talent that is important to me. At least I think so.

Theology and Author Jim Harrison

Gnosticism played a role in the last two novels I've read, The Other by David Guterson and True North by Jim Harrison. I've read almost all of Harrison's many published books: fiction, nonfiction, and poetry; and the short mention in this novel of The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels was enough to make me read it.

This is not the first time I've read a book about religion that Harrison complimented since his also was my first recommendation of Stephen Mitchell's The Gospel According to Jesus. Don't conclude that religion is a common topic of his writing, however, as the topic runs well behind drinking, fishing, and sex. In his novels there must be 10 times more descriptions of the beauty of bare female bottoms than of anything remotely theological (Harrison is clearly an ass man), but even though his religious references are unusual and brief his thoughts weigh heavily on me because I admire his writing

Harrison's memoir Off to the Side describes his embrace and subsequent rejection of Fundamentalist Protestantism as a teenager. He is well read in Buddhism which makes his interest in Pagel's and Mitchell's books logical since Mitchell is a Buddhist and Pagel's book on gnosticism discusses its similarity to some aspects of the Eastern religions.

Both The Gnostic Gospels and The Gospel According to Jesus challenge traditional Christianity although they show great respect for the teachings of Jesus. They both give me much to think about concerning religion and history.

Motorcycle sidecars are cool

Had a motorcycle for a few years but never had the opportunity to ride in a side car until today.

Pam and I drove down to Southern Maryland to have lunch with friend John who I'd gotten to know through Marv. Other than his loved ones, John's passions in life are guns and motorcycles. After lunch, I got in the side car, and we drove up route 4 to while Pam and John's wife Mary Catherine followed in our car to a store which sells model trains (a distant third interest of John's) and quilting supplies. I looked at the train stuff with John, and the ladies shopped for quilt stuff.

Before saying goodbye, Pam took the above picture of John and Mary Catherine:

One of Marv's Poems

On Things Not done

Though I put my thoughts to rhyme
Perhaps better would be to mime
But action I fear to do
Lest my fool folly to rue
And comes the day to fear
When dire blackness appear
It all is not to matter
For naught but dust to scatter

Marvin Hurwitz: January 3, 1933 to May 10, 2010

He was my best friend for almost 40 years.

His health has not been good recently, but the end came quickly. We had lunch together on Saturday and then visited a gun shop. When I dropped him off at his home we shook hands good-bye because he was planning to go out of town. He woke up late that night in severe pain and called an ambulance. His daughter, Dana, and I met at Holy Cross Hospital Sunday morning, and I stayed until mid-afternoon. Although still in pain at that time, he was lucid, but the calls from Dana later started to sound pessimistic. She went home to Southern Maryland in the evening, but the hospital called her back to come in the middle of the night. She called me, and we were there together until he died at 11 am.

Marv and I became friends when I was in my early 20's and he was in his late 30's, but he never talked down to me and always treated me as an equal. Since I retired 9 months ago we spent a lot of time together and never ran out of things to talk about. Lately he became interested in studying the history of the English language and, knowing I remembered much of the history I majored in long ago at college, he threw many questions at me to supplement what he read and heard on DVD's.

He was close to everyone in my family. My kids knew him their whole lives, and he was "Uncle Marv" to them. I think he was in love with my wife Pam but would have never done anything to betray my trust.

Good-bye, Marv. I loved you and will miss you always.

Largemouth Bass in Shallow Water

For a couple of weeks I've been watching them in the pond in the park. They come into the shallows this time of year to spawn, but I'm not certain at what stage of the process they're in now. Although they have generally disregarded flies I've cast in their area, I caught one the day before yesterday who put up a good fight for his size which was about a foot which is about the average size I've been seeing. He leaped twice which is something I always like to see. Even when I'm not fooling any bass, there are invariably bluegills that I hook. Actually, I've done much more looking than fishing lately.






The fish aren't the only animals reproducing right now.

An Old Maryland Plantation

Today we had the fourth session of our archaeology course and the first that we actually got hands on.

This visit was to the Needwood Mansion between Rockville and Olney. There was a couple dressed as the Robertsons who owned the plantation at the time of the Civil War. Staying in character, they complained of the Yankee Army looting their belongings and their slaves running off.




After touring the mansion, we then organized into groups and began to dig.






We then sifted the dirt through screens in search of artifacts. We didn't find anything dramatic, just some glass and a nail which we placed in a bag and documented for further study by experts. It was fun, and we learned a lot about the process.

Archaeology of Montgomery County, Maryland

Yesterday we had the third session of this course and our second field trip. These first two field trips were both near the Potomac River, and yesterday's was just upriver from Pennifield Lock. We walked through the woods to a rock shelter, a small cave about 13 feet deep where archaeologists have discovered artifacts that go back to 3800 BCE. It became an official archaeologic site in 2002, but locals have obviously known of it for years because in addition to the old arrow heads and other stone tools a .22 bullet shell and a 1990 penny were also found.

Last week's trip was a visit to a historical archaeological site where almost 20,000 Union troops were stationed during the Civil War at Muddy Branch creek. We saw the site of a block house on a buff overlooking the river where the troops kept an eye on Confederate activity on the other side. There was Confederate activity on the Maryland side as well causing Lincoln to put the state under martial law to keep it from seceding. The area is heavily wooded now, but I had to continually envision how it looked at the time, all open fields.

Recent Fishing

Thursday, April 15 rented a boat at Fletchers on the Potomac and caught about 8 hickory shad. Temperatures in low 70's, so I was comfortable in a tee shirt.

Today, I caught about a dozen bluegill and one bass at the pond in the park, pictured above. Cooler and windy.

Jug Bay on the Patuxent

Nice day to visit the tidal Patuxent, not to fish but just to show the park to Marv and enjoy being by the water. Went a few miles downriver for lunch at River's Edge in Benedict, Maryland and had fried oysters and a draft beer. Life is good.

Fletchers Boat House on Potomac

Some early reports that shad are making their annual spawning run up the river, so today I drove to Fletchers to get a DC license. Water way too high (6.6 at Little Falls) and muddy for good fishing but tried a few casts anyway. Pleasant walking upriver to within sight of Chain Bridge. Perfect weather, in the 70's and sunny.

Big Hunting Creek

Spent all day Sunday there with friend Lou, the Mad Russian and his son Dmitri. No one caught much of anything, but we had a good time.

Caught Trout. Ate Same.

The pond in the park was just stocked, and Saturday I caught a 13 inch rainbow trout which we ate for dinner. Also earlier caught a crappie which I released out of habit, and that was a mistake because they're good eating. Spinning rod and black Mepps #1.

Celebrity Sightings

Normally, I don't make a conscious effort to see the well known, but I tend to people watch while in airports and spot one now and then. Years ago when I first started making business trips, I'd often see well known politicians on the shuttle from DC to NY. In the last few years of business travel not as many celebrity sightings for whatever reason, I now realize looking back.

The topic is on my mind because I had a couple during my recent trip. In Dulles as we were waiting to leave, I pointed out Al Gore walking through talking on a cell phone. None of us had any interest in approaching him, however.

The second was a much less famous person but a more interesting encounter. In the airport in Paris, I saw someone who I was fairly sure I recognized from TV, and when I saw he was carrying what looked like a trombone in a case I was about 99% certain. When he sat down, I walked over and asked, "Excuse me, but are you in the Saturday Night Live Orchestra?" He smiled and responded that yes, he had been in it for 25 years.

My wife who was sitting nearby was amazed that I would recognize him, but she agreed that he is somewhat distinctive looking. The three of us had a very pleasant ten minute conversation about music and the show, and I think he was pleased to be recognized. Maybe people of his level of celebrity, as opposed to the big time people like John Travolta and Oprah Winfrey, are less likely to view being approached by strangers who recognized them as an intrusion.

His name is Steve Turre, and he's cut a number of jazz albums under his name as well as appearing on recordings by big names like Ray Charles and Dizzy Gillespie. This morning I bought his latest album.

Visit to Italy

Just returned from trip to Florence with my wife, Pam, and my daughter, Rebecca. Although I may post other pictures in the future, I thought about which one I would select if I was limited to one and picked the above shot of Rebecca on the Ponte Vecchio over the River Arno.

I felt that this one was the most appropriate because Pam and I would not have made the trip if Rebecca hadn't suggested it. None of us had been to Europe before. When I was in college, most of my friends went, but I didn't. Pam and I always expressed interest, but we sometimes need a push to do something like this and Rebecca provided this push because art is her career. She did her advance work and knew exactly what she wanted to see, so we spent a couple of days in the cathedrals and museums of Florence. After that was out of the way, we did some day trips into the surrounding Tuscany countryside.

We all loved the scenery, food, and general atmosphere of Italy. Thank you, Becca for bringing us to it. You were great company and are a darling daughter who I am very proud of.

Fishing the Upper Patuxent

Acting on a suggestion from the Orvis shop in Bethesda, I fished at the Howard Chapel Road crossing. Yesterday, the guy at the fly fishing store pointed out that today would the last opportunity for a while since rain is forecasted for the next four days.

I felt some insects on my neck a couple of times which looked like stoneflies, but there were no visible rises so I fished streamers downstream from the bridge. A Patuxent Special didn't produce, so I switched to an orange Crystal Bugger and walked further downstream to where there were no footprints. Caught a nice rainbow about a foot long and then a small chub. Noticed some piles of mud which indicate the presence of beavers, and soon saw confirming evidence on some trees.

Water level was 2.8 at Unity, and air temperature was in the upper 50's.

St. David's Day

March 1, which was last Monday, is a national holiday in Wales, their equivalent of St. Patrick's Day. Although I was conscious of the date and its significance that day, I didn't note it here so now I am. Besides, it's a good excuse for showing their colorful flag.

The movie "High Fidelity"

Have seen it a number of times and watched some of it today. Many of the scenes reminded me of when I worked part time in a record store in the 70's. Although we were not rude to customers the way the guys in the movie sometimes were, my co-workers and myself looked down on many of them because we were snobby about our tastes in rock music.

The main character reminded me of myself and other guys I have known because of his romantic ups and downs as well as his often erroneous perception that he was the one who was wronged. His obsession about the sex in his relationships with women is probably true of men in general, but probably not all men hear an on-going soundtrack in their lives like the main character and I do. However he explains and describes his life almost solely in terms of music, and I don't do that.

Pam's awkward time

My wife is 23 days older than me although she looks about 23 years younger (and I am not kidding), and the period between our birthdays is unsettling to her. Were we to make the news as a couple during these 23 days, which is unlikely but possible, her age would be listed as 63 and mine as 62. She wouldn't like that.

Nine days to go.

Reading Larry's McMurtry's Novels on Thalia, Texas

This is the snowiest winter on record in the DC area. That's all I'm going to say about it. Since the weather has been the main topic of conversation recently, I'm weary of talking about it. Instead, I'll talk of the books I've been reading while snowbound.

Duane's Depressed is to me the centerpiece of the series of five novels McMurtry has written which take place in the fictional town of Thalia, Texas over about 50 years. Duane is the character played by Jeff Bridges in the movie The Last Picture Show that was based on the first novel of this series, and he is the protagonist of the books that came later. The second, Texasville, was also made into a movie using the same actors, but was not nearly as successful as The Last Picture Show. I haven't seen that movie, but I read the book probably about 15 years ago. I stopped reading Duane's Depressed to reread Texasville to clarify some of the characters in my mind before resuming Duane's Depressed.

McMurtry has written other novel series that feature the same characters, and I once heard that he thought of his characters as if they lived a parallel existence and that when he was ready to write another book about them he would check in on them periodically to see what they're up to as if they were in another room. I have the sense that he wrote the last two books of the Thalia, Texas series to quickly wrap up Duane's life. Although I enjoyed these two novels which take place after Duane's Depressed, I found them less substantial.

Thalia was based on the town in which McMurtry grew up, and the character Duane who is about 18 in the first novel would have been born about the same year as the author. Duane differs from the author, however, in that Duane's education ends with high school, and he lives his entire life in this small West Texas town where he prospers as an oil man.

In the novel Duane is my age, his early sixties, but has even less in common with me than he does with his creator. A large metropolitan area in the East differs drastically from a small Texas town, and I know nothing of the oil business in which Duane made much more money than I ever did in my jobs. Additionally, he is of another generation than me, and the changes in America life impacted me differently as 11 years his junior in real years. Like me, Duane likes to fish, but unlike me, reading, music, and movies don't play a major role in his life. He grew up poor with parents who died young, then served briefly in the army (stationed in Texas), and married and started a family at a younger age than I did. In short, I had many more educational and cultural opportunities than Duane.

These lack of opportunities, in my opinion, played an important role in Duane's life crisis that forms the basis of the plot of Duane's Depressed. His success in business has led to many material acquisitions- big house, multiple cars, etc.-so many that he suddenly sheds them and retreats to a simple one room cabin. To the bafflement of his family and neighbors, he refuses to drive or be driven and walks or bicycles everywhere. As he walks or bikes or sits in his cabin, he thinks about how little he knows of the world and how narrow his life is. Although he loves his wife and children, they do not provide consolation for all the things he feels he has missed in life.

Duane's sudden change puzzles and maybe even frightens the town because he had always been a leader and stable presence. He worked hard for his business success and although he didn't seek his role as a community leader he accepted those responsibilities and carried them out with decency and honesty and without complaint. To the residents of this small town, he is their natural leader. "We're kind of their royalty, Duane," his high school sweetheart explained to him as he was confused by the wild cheering as they rode together in a pageant float in Texasville. She briefly returned after leaving Thalia to become a movie actress, but despite the passing of 30 years she and Duane were still the pretty homecoming queen and the handsome captain of the football team to the townspeople.

Did McMurtry base the original character of Duane on himself and go on to speculate what his own life would have been like had he remained in his native town? I don't know, but when reading these novels I find myself wondering what it it would be like to grow into middle age and beyond surrounded daily by people who had known me all my life. I live a short distance from where I grew up, but I rarely run into school mates although many of them have also remained in the area. There are so many places to work, eat, and shop in the suburbs of a big city but not in a small town. Had I lived my life in a place like Thalia, every day I would see older neighbors who would remember me wetting my pants as a toddler, women who could recall my shy sexual fumblings as an adolescent, and younger men who may perceive that they have surpassed me as a businessman, as an athlete, or as an outdoorsman and are amused to think that they once looked up to me.

With everyone knowing everyone else's biography, there are fewer secrets in Thalia. The people there are a randy lot, and Duane has had a few affairs that he doesn't express much guilt about. His affairs are not a secret to his wife, Karla who has had a few dalliances herself, and her first reaction to Duane's leaving their home for the cabin in Duane's Depressed is to assume he's meeting another woman there. Unlike her husband, Karla expresses her emotions immediately and directly, so she is loud and clear about her jealousy concerning other women. Duane is as silent as Karla is talkative, and his reticence has always un-nerved her. At one point, she explains their sexual differences by saying she loves to flirt but is generally all talk while Duane isn't very good at dodging women who throw themselves at him.

From his other novels, I've always felt McMurtry liked to create strong, colorful female characters, and Karla is in this mold. She is a beautiful woman who retained her looks as she aged. She is lively, energetic, and funny, and her outrageous but honest comments provide much levity to the series and sometimes scare the male characters. The main conversation among the townspeople is about one another, and Karla provides a lot of material.

Duane and Karla's children also are invariably in the town's spotlight. They are good looking like their parents but are often wild in their behavior. By the period covered in Duane's Depressed, some of Duane and Karla's children have children of their own, and much of the burden of raising them falls on the grandparents. Despite their problems, however, Karla and Duane love and depend on one another.

Although this post is dated as of the date I began it, I have actually written it over four days, and during that time I read the first book of the novel series, The Last Picture Show. I had seen the movie but hadn't read the book before, and as I expected the movie was faithful to the book. In contrast to the other four books, The Last Picture Show is more about Duane's best friend Sonny than Duane. In the subsequent novels Sonny also remained in Thalia, so I find it interesting that McMurtry chose to focus on Duane after The Last Picture Show. The later books certainly present a fuller picture of Duane's character, but many of us are not fully developed personalities when we are seniors in high school. However, I have know some people who were.

Besides being entertaining reading, these books caused me to reflect on my own life, and I guess that's why I've had a fair amount to say about them. Each novel stands on it's own, so it is not necessary to read them chronologically or all of them. The characters and the major events are consistent among the five books although McMurtry sometimes changes details. In Texasville, for example, it is mentioned that Duane's father died in World War II, but in Duane's Depressed, the author writes that he died in an oil rig accident. Hey, they're his books, so he can do as he wishes.

General Update

After a few mild days, it's cold and snowing again. It's 18 degrees as opposed to near 60 earlier this week when I took advantage of the warmth to go trout fishing on a section of the Patuxent River below Brighton Dam which I had never before fished. A day later I was about 80 miles down river in St. Mary's County when Pam, Marv, and I visited John Marum who's soon to be married to his high school sweetheart who he re-met following his 50 year high school reunion.

We had a number of viewings of the otter for a while, but we haven't seen him in about a week. He may have taken up residence in the abandoned beaver lodge, or as the beavers did a year ago he might have moved on. Like the beavers, he was fun to watch.

Finally getting used to using a digital camera and added a picture of some my pipes to the pipe smoking post below. Up to now, all the pictures here were taken by Pam which is odd considering what a big role conventional, non-digital photography once played in my life.

Wildlife at Home and in the Park

Impressive looking hawk visited the bird feeder on our deck. He was attracted by the fresh beef suet Pam put out. She says that hawks never come to the commercial suet.

Yesterday we saw an otter in the pond in the park. At first we thought it was one of the beavers who residing there for a few years but seemed to disappear a few months ago. We talked with a man who told us it was an otter and that he has been watching it for a few weeks. He's seen it dive and surface with a fish and it looks remarkably like a dog. We returned this afternoon hoping for a better look but didn't see the otter.

Two days ago it snowed for the third time this winter. It's been very cold, and the pond is almost completely frozen.

Life Since High School

My 45th high school reunion is coming up, and although I'm uncertain about attending I've been thinking about what to say in the questionnaire which I will complete since I've enjoyed reading what my classmates have submitted on line. So, here is what I plan to say about my life since graduation:

My wife, Pam Winters, another '65 graduate, and I have been together since 1976. We have two children who are both grown up and out of college, and we are close with them. In the summer of 2009 I retired from working for a government contractor, and looking back on my work years I would say the most satisfying part was mentoring the career development of subordinate managers many of whom stayed in touch after either they or I moved on.

Pam retired from the government a few years ago, and we are both avid readers who spend a lot of time discussing books, often while walking in the wooded park near our home. We also enjoy going to restaurants, movies, and musical events with our many friends. Each season I attend a few University of Maryland football and basketball games with a buddy I met while a student there and some younger guys. I also spend a lot of time outdoors, fly fishing, kayaking and other such things and belong to a number of these organizations.

Good and bad things happen to each of us in life, but on the whole I consider myself a lucky man, at least so far. Looking at the list of our classmates who have died is a reminder of how tenuous life is. Rock star Warren Zevon was also born in 1947, and before he died a few years ago he advised people to enjoy every sandwich. As I grow older, I try to remember to do that.

Outdoors Report

The 1 1/2 feet of snow which fell a week ago has largely melted over the past two days. It was sunny and in the 40's today, and I took advantage of the break in the weather to clear off the ornamental grasses some residual snow that was weighing down some of the stalks. I then walked to the park and counted what I estimated as about 130 Canada Geese on the pond which is a couple of acres in area, I believe. About one third of the pond was still frozen, but the geese were concentrated in the open water. Walked back over just before sunset with Pam, and we noted that the geese had left the water with their numbers split between the two nearby ball fields.

While we walked, a small doe crossed the path about twenty yards ahead of us. A few seconds later a buck crossed at the same place heading in the same direction. Then another buck followed. Unlike the doe who had proceeded to the water's edge, the two bucks stopped in a field near the small patch of woods between the path and the pond. They eyed us suspiciously as Pam moved closer to photograph them, and I urged her to back off which she reluctantly did. Although the two bucks appeared at first to be in pursuit of the doe, they did not join her near the pond and soon took off running away from the pond and us. We believe the rutting season is over, and they may have been after the doe without sex in mind. Or maybe we ruined their amorous mood. I had never seen two bucks together and thought initially that we might see them fight over the doe. Just as well they didn't because it was a neat enough sight as it was.

Pipe smoking

I took up pipe smoking for the first time in over 20 years. Had about 6-8 pipes from before, some given to me from my father, others that I bought, and one given to me as a gift from Will Dean, a family friend. To these I have added a number of others inherited following my father's death three years ago. They are almost all briar pipes, and each is handsome to me in its own way. I enjoy the entire process of cleaning them, polishing them by rubbing them against the side of my nose because my father taught me that the oil of human skin is good for the briar wood, and then putting them back in the rack where I can display and admire them.

I'm still experimenting with tobaccos to determine my favorite. I also inherited my father's copper humidor which I liked the looks of even as a young boy.