Sometimes you want to be careful what you wish for.
I haven’t posted for a while because I haven’t had anything to write about. Maybe the muses were on vacation. Maybe I was just too lazy. Or maybe, just maybe, nothing too exciting has been happening in our lives. Sometimes it’s just hard to get terribly excited about where your life is at. That’s been the case for me this summer. We’re here in West Lafayette just doing the daily grind. Doing the things we need to do as a functioning member society. It’s just not nothing very exciting to write about. I just couldn’t get motivated to write.
We’re in West Lafayette because this is where we need to be right now. It’s a family thing. We’ve done some trips, but short trips to places we’ve been before and have written about. Nothing too exciting there.
I did a quick trip back east to Delaware and Pennsylvania. When Molly and Mitchell left Philly for Omaha, they left behind a lot of stuff at our trailer in Delaware. I went back to get their stuff, loading the back of our Honda CRV with a lathe, a router table, a pottery wheel, a kiln, boxes of tools, wood, pottery clay, and a few other miscellaneous things. I had so much weight in the back end of that little Honda I thought the front wheels might lift off the ground. It still managed to get through the mountains of western Pennsylvania. My hat is off to the designers of Honda engines.
Our trailer is in the city of Lewes Delaware. Lewes was once a sleepy little town at the point where the Delaware Bay and the Atlantic Ocean come together. Close to the resort mecca of Rehoboth. Summer was tourist time but most of the town would close in the wintertime. That has changed radically the past decade or so. The farm fields surrounding Lewes have become condo complexes and McMansion subdivisions full of starter castles. The town has gone full blown gentrified. Typified by the docking of the Prince of Tides yacht at the city dock. This 100 foot, many millions of dollars yacht is owned by Pat Conroy, author of the book “Prince of Tides”. Its home port is listed as Telluride, Colorado. I’m not seeing a direct water connection from Telluride, through the Rockies to Lewes, Delaware that this beast could have navigated. The crew must have done some hellish portages on that trip.
If you have a few million to spare…..
From Delaware I went up to an annual family reunion in Pennsylvania. This reunion was for my paternal grandmother’s side of the family. My grandmother compensated for not having cable TV or streaming services by having ten children between two marriages. This is how I ended up with an aunt slightly less than two years older than me. Both sides of my family have been in Lebanon County for many generations. I’m probably related in one way or another to half the county. The reunion started fairly large, but over the years numbers have dropped. When it started my numerous aunts and uncles were the elders. Now I’m in the elder category. Not sure how that happened but it did.
We also got in a much needed six-day trip to Marquette, Michigan. We stayed at our friend Joanna’s cabin on Sand River by Lake Superior. As I have written before, this is one of our favorite places in the world to be. We both love Marquette and the Upper Peninsula. There’s a state of mind that goes with being above the 45 parallel. Especially sitting on the rocky shores of Lake Kitchi Gummi (or Gitchi Gummi).
From the back of the cabin looking down Sand River.
Lise coming up the access point from Sand River.
The raft I put my camera gear in while wading for dragonflies.
Lise on the river.
Along the river.
Swamp spreadwing damselfly.
Female swamp spreadwing.
Mating swamp spreadwings.
Swamp spreadwing ovapositing.
Eastern forktail damselflies mating.
Eastern forktail eating someone else.
Unknown female spreadwind damselfly. To key some of the females out you need a dead specimen and a microscope.
Violet dancer.
A little mushroom family along the Tioga Trail.
Taking a break in the McCormick Wilderness.
The Scout. This poor old boat has been beached behind the cabin for over 20 years.
But these trips only represent a couple weeks out of a couple months. What about the rest of the time you say? How do I account for myself? Well, we haven’t been just watching the corn grow. We’ve been busy with the regular day-to-day tasks that come with life. Cooking, cleaning lawn mowing,….. Lise has been working almost full time for Indiana State parks. I’ve been doing woodworking and just a little photography. We’ve gotten in occasional birding and I’ve gotten out a couple times for dragonflies. But mostly we’re just going through the routine, wishing for something different to shake things up a bit. Well, we got our wish in spades.
Autumn meadowhawk.
Widow skimmer.
Immature skimmer, species unknown.
Immature meadowhawk, species unknown.
Bluet type damselfly, species unknown.
Teneral (newly emerged) female damselfly, species unknown.
After Molly finished her PhD, she and Mitchell went to Europe for six weeks. Good gig if you can get it. We on the other hand got to babysit her cat. A good cat, but a cat. Returning from Europe Molly started a post-doc at the Doorley Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska. Having brought a load of their stuff back from Delaware, plus a load of stuff they left here before going to Europe, we decided to load the trailer and head to Omaha for a few days.
A few days before heading west Lise attended a big event celebrating 100 years of Indiana State Parks Naturalists. Something like 150 current and former naturalists attended the event. About halfway to Omaha Lise was informed that someone at the event tested positive for COVID. Shortly after that initial message a bunch more messages came in from participants that picked up the virus. Lise felt run down and was having allergy symptoms that she attributed to overwork and walking through a field of ragweed. Wrong. As soon as we got to Omaha we got tested and she turned up very positive. I tested negative.
We decided to stay in Omaha with Molly and Mitchell and use the standard precautions. Masking indoors and near other people, staying outdoors as much as possible, sleeping in separate rooms. The usual stuff. I tested again and came up negative. Then we did an all-day outing to the Doorley Zoo. I started feeling tired and my throat felt bad. A strep throat kind of bad. I tested yet again and came up very positive. We quickly threw our stuff in the car, pulled chocks, and headed back to West Lafayette. As adventures go, it could have been worse. It was not a fun drive with two sick people, but we managed. I guess I can’t complain. We wanted something different from the normal routine and we got it. In spades.
Jellyfish at the Henry Doorley Zoo. I could watch these for hours.
The short time we had in Omaha was fun and we will be going back there, hopefully disease free.
So, after a long hiatus, I hope I’m back to writing on a regular basis. Next up will probably something about the groundhog war. It has not been going well lately.
The enemy within. Within my woodpile at least.
Ed's and Lise's Biggish Years 