| July 1st |
Summer is the time when one sheds one's tensions with one's clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit. A few of those days and one can become drunk with the belief that "all is right with the world".
-- Ada Louise Huxtable Ada's quotation appeared in the Chronicles entry for this day five years ago, but it's so appropriate that I just had to use it again. She was an architecture critic and a writer on architecture, and she died in 2013. I don't know when or in what context she penned those lovely words, but they are so true. |
| July 2nd | The midpoint of 2020 was this morning at 1:00 AM; most of us slept right through it. The midpoint of next year will be July 1st at 1:00 PM; most likely we'll be awake for that one. |
| July 3rd |
THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES!
Tomorrow is July 4th. With a major effort in the years 2000, 2001, and 2002, I managed to move all of the regular guests from the week of July 4th, into other weeks. The intent was to use this week in 2003 for an Angst Family reunion, which was to involve the families of all seven of my siblings. It worked out well.......there were 37 of us in attendance, with only a few missing. Click HERE. The family of each sibling had different colored t-shirts, but in the picture it's difficult to distinguish red from orange, and blue from purple. From that year on, the week of July 4th was mostly reserved for my family, although the relatives from other states rarely attended after the first one. The tradition continued for 14 years; the last one was in 2017. Although we didn't eat all of our meals together during the week, as some other families at LBLR did, we always had one meal together during the week, usually on Wednesday. Click HERE to see the one from 2015. [Aside -- We had a pig roast for the family dinner in 2016; to see that one click HERE. -- End of Aside] We didn't get together at LBLR in 2018 (the year I sold it), but we met there again in 2019; this time with only 3 cabins (basically just my kids, grandkids, and significant others, but that was quite a crowd for only 3 cabins). And the tradition will continue.......we have plans to meet at LBLR again this summer. |
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Here's a neat picture for July 4th, but you've seen it before just a few years ago. To see it again, click HERE. |
| July 5th |
Summertime, and the livin' is easy; Fish are jumpin' and the cotton is high. Who wrote those lovely summertime words? Who made the most famous recording of them? |
| July 6th | More past July 4th week stuff. Geez, those were fun family times at the lake every year! Click HERE. |
| July 7th |
There are lots of "toys" at your average small "family" resort. They all sound good, and for advertising purposes it's important to have them, but most of them are rarely used. One that immediately comes to mind is a swing set. It's important for a "family" resort have a swingset to mention on the brochure or web-site.......but the fact is, a swing set is hardly ever used, even when there are a lot of little kids in the resort. It's also important to be able to advertise a number of yard games, like Horseshoes, Bocci Ball, Badminton, Volleyball, Croquet, etc, etc, but these too are rarely used. Most days, and in fact most weeks, they're not used at all, even in nice weather. Back in the 1990's LBLR had a little building in the woods with a set of wooden bunk beds, a table, and some chairs in it. When I first saw it I was sure that tons of little boys would play in that building all day long. When I was a little boy, that building would have been a fort, or a battle ship, or a submarine, or a rocket ship, or even the cockpit of an airplane, depending on where our imaginations took us on that particular day. But over the years, not once did any little boys ever pay any attention to it, even when I specifically pointed it out.
Why is that, do you suppose? Well, it's because the lake is too big of a draw.......especially with the cabins right on the shore line and a dock just outside every door. Sometimes the call of the lake is so strong that there isn't even time to get out of one's pajamas (click HERE.) At home, the kids can play in a makeshift fort or play with yard toys anytime they want to, but they don't have daily access to a lake. Being that near a lake is a rare pleasure. But there's a BIG exception to everything I just said: Water Toys! Water toys (floaties, kayaks, canoes, paddle boats, etc.) are not only very important to have around, but on nice days (and even on a lot of not-so-nice days) water toys are in almost constant use. And above them all, is a swimming raft that's close to shore but in water deep enough for diving. It's extremely rare for a nice day to pass without the raft being in almost constant use. I can't imagine owning a little family resort without a raft and a bunch of water toys. For a few "raft" examples, click HERE, and I could put together even more pictures containing floaties and other water toys (for example, the picture in yesterday's entry). |
| July 8th |
Words on the box for a trail cam: Ultra-fast trigger speed, never miss a crucial moment (less than .45 second trigger).
Does that mean that less than 1/2 second after the game enters the camera's field of view, it will be on film? Nope. What it means is: the camera will snap a picture in less than half a second after the sensor detects motion. But depending on the conditions, game can be within the camera's field of view for several seconds (or even several minutes) before the sensor detects the movement. In fact, it's possible for game to move through the field of the picture, and not trigger the motion sensor. It all depends on size of the game, its location within the field of view, the direction of the movement, the camera angle, and perhaps several other things. It would be nice if there was a better way to compare trail cams other than number of pixels and trigger speed, neither of which are particularly important (to me anyway). |
| July 9th | The northern hemisphere contains 2/3 of the earth's land and 90% of the earth's people (6.6 billion compared to only .7 billion in the southern hemisphere).......or click HERE. |
| July 10th | Click HERE. |
| July 11th |
Question: How many cars does it take to pull a 16-foot boat out of a lake?
I don't remember whose boat this was, nor do I remember if this string of vehicles managed to pull it out of the water, but it kind of looks like it could have been part of a Laurel and Hardy show, does it not? As you can see, it happened at LBLR 13 years ago today (click HERE). |
| July 12th |
If you saw a heat wave, would you wave back? -- Some comedian said that, but I've forgotten who he was or when he said it. |
| July 13th | Sorry, no entry. |
| July 14th | Sorry again, no entry. |
| July 15th |
During my watch, the guests who traveled the farthest to get to LBLR, in decending order of distance, are: 1) Australia: Kiah, and to be more specific, she was from Tasmania (July, 2008) 2) China: Friends of Bill & Bin Norman (July, 2004) 3) China: Bin Norman's parents (May, 2007) 4) Germany: Christiana Kielpinski's parents (June, 2014) 5) England: Brian & Marie Roberts (August, 2007) 6) England: John & Nina Roberts, son/daughter-in-law of Brian & Marie (August, 2012) The first 4 entries were people who came along with some regular LBLR guests. I didn't really feel like an international organization until August of 2007 when Marie Roberts made a two week reservation from England via an e-mail. To round out the list of foreign countries who had guests stay at LBLR, we have to add Canada, but the traveling distance involved was minor, even compared to many American guests. By the way, to see the flags of these countries (plus Old Glory of course) as they were all flying at the resort on August 3, 2013, click HERE. |
| July 16th |
If you earn $1 every second of every day (which is a darn lot of money), it would take you 2,900 years to make as much money as Bill Gates has today ($92.1 billion). If you assume that he began to amass his wealth at age 20 (he's now 64), he grew richer at the rate of 2.1 billion dollars per year, which is over $40 million week. On the average, every day of his working life he was almost 6 million dollars richer than he was day before.
Obviously I have nothing to say again today. |
| July 17th | On this day five years ago: Bloody Marys on the front porch in the morning (well, before noon anyway)......Deb, Judy, and Janet. Click HERE. |
| July 18th |
We lost another friend and long time customer....... Alice Turner. As the matriarch of the group often referred to as the Fire Bug Carlsons, you've read about her (and her husband Jim who passed away last January) in these Chronicles on many occasions. Their first trip to LBLR was in the summer of 1997, and since that time they, along with their kids, spouses, grandkids, and great grandkids, have vacationed there for a week in the summer and part of a week in October every year. I don't believe they missed a single year. In the Chronicles, her group was always referred to as "the Carlsons" because the person who made the reservation that first year was her Daughter Colleen (Carlson). The group should have been called "the Turners", but once the Chronicles began referring to them as the Carlsons, it stayed that way. To see Alice in a few of their many LBLR vacations, click HERE. Ya know, it's difficult to think of Alice without Jim, or Jim without Alice, so to see a nice picture of them together, click HERE. |
| July 19th | A gorgeous Sunday.......full of bike riding and sitting in the shade. Hence, no entry! |
| July 20th |
On April 22, 2007 the ice went out on Little Bass Lake, and the next day I began tracking the temperature of the water at various depths (36 readings before the lake froze again in November). By late July the surface was over 80 degrees, the lower levels were still in the low 40s, and the graph looked like this, click HERE. At that point I made a couple of conjectures about what was going to happen to the temperatures as the year progressed and we glided into the winter months. Those two conjectures were:
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| July 21st | This is NOT the Writer's Block, soooo.......click HERE. |
| July 22nd |
I bored you with a dissertation on Little Bass Lake temperature data (see July 20th, above), so now I'm going to bore you again, this time with some Little Bass Lake clarity data, but not quite so lengthly this time.
Little Bass Lake Water Clarity in a nutshell (based on 92 readings over the years 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009): When the ice melts in the Spring the clarity is around 10 feet. The lake begins to clear almost immediately and continues to do so until early to mid-July when it is at its clearest point of the year at somewhere between 15 and 20 feet. It then loses some clarity over the next few weeks (due to algae growth supposedly) until it levels off in early August at around 12 feet. It stays roughly at that level until early to mid September when the water cools significantly and the lake begins to "turn over". At that time the clarity decreases until it reaches its minimum of 7 or 8 feet in late October or early November. From there it again clears to 12 or 14 feet by the time the lake freezes in late November. To see this on a graph, click HERE. |
| July 23rd |
Words for today:
In the summer when the days are hot, I like to find a shady spot, And hardly move a single bit And sit, and sit, and sit, and sit. |
| July 24th | • • • |
| July 25th |
THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES!
Entry for July 25th, 2009 (11 years ago today): Bob F caught a Northern that was 1 ounce short of 5 pounds before he was halfway around the lake on his first outing this afternoon. That gives him an early lead over his wife and daughter (Sharon and Teresa) in their annual Dairy Queen bet. Their week at LBLR began with their arrival only 2 hours ago..........that's a great start, isn't it? Note added today: Bob, his wife Sharon, and their daughter Teresa have been coming to LBLR since at least 2004, possibly longer, but they are first mentioned in the Chronicles in July of that year. [Aside -- Do you guys know what year you first showed up at LBLR? If so, let me know if you don't mind -- End of Aside] I don't think they missed any years between then and 2018 when I left, and on at least one occasion (probably more) they came up twice in one year. For old times sake, click HERE to see a few of their fish pictures over the years. Note added 7/26/20: I have been informed by Sharon that their first year at LBLR was actually 2001. And by the way.......they spent last week there and reported that the fishing was good. |
| July 26th | See July 24th (above). |
| July 27th |
People drink for lots of different reasons. Fortunately for those of us who drink, it doesn't take much of a reason. -- Dick Thompson (2008) |
| July 28th | See July 26th (above). |
| July 29th |
Here are a couple of questions for you. Consider this: The Major League Baseball Season is now in progress, but a few COVID problems have already arisen. It's a short sixty game season, and as it's planned, the last of the 60 regular season games are schedule to be played two months from now.......on September 27th. That's to be followed by the play-off games beginning two days later on the 29th. The World Series is scheduled to begin on October 23rd, with the 7th game (if there is one) to be played the 31st. The questions are these: 1) Do you think the season will go the whole distance? 2) If you think it won't go the distance, what date do you think it will be cancelled again? Let me know what you think, if you don't mind. And if you have no opinion because you couldn't care less, let me know that too. |
| July 30th | There are Catbirds around here; the first ones I've ever seen. I know.......I know.......they're common birds and I've heard them before. I just haven't actually seen one until now. That's my first new lifer over in over 6 years. |
| July 31st | See July 28th (above). |
