A boy and his cat...

It's the American story... a boy and his cat.  If the boy falls in the well, the cat runs to the house to get help.  When out hiking, the cat goes ahead to scare off the bears.  While the boy is off at school (or work, in the case of an older boy... or out for a leisurely lunch, in the case of a retired boy), the cat waits dutifully by the door, listening for the sound of footsteps... or playing frisbee in the park - where the cat throws the frisbee and the boy leaps and catches it in his mouth.  No doubt, you're familiar with all these boy and his cat cliches'.

Yeah, this isn't anything like that.  But, I do have a photo of my sweet cat sleeping by my shoulder...

:-)

If the rain comes...

If you said, "The Beatles, 1966," you get 50 bonus points!  If you said, "It was the B-side of Paperback Writer," you get an additional 100 bonus points.

Today the rain came.  Off and on.  Not a heavy pounding rain, but the occasional gentle kind of precip.  The weather weasels were predicting this, so we had today planned as a catch-up day, with our electronic stuff in mind.  It looks like it should be cold out there...

It isn't... mid-70s most of the day - it didn't change much from the 75º when I got up this morning.

I admit it, I don't back-up my laptop on a daily basis.  Nor weekly.  In fact it has been several months since I hooked up the external hard-drive... and there have been a lot of photos and writing that have been added in that time.  So, it took a while.  While I was waiting, I did a software update to my phone, then deleted a bunch of duplicate photos before backing up to the cloud.  Joan updated her iPad and phone, as well, and picked up the last of our "run it from an app" items from the Post Office.

I added a couple apps to run the new stuff.  Seems that everything is playing nice together.

It is Halloween.  Pretty much a non-event on our island.  There are only a couple families with kids, so we expect the same number of trick-or-treaters that we have had since we've been here: zero.  Seems that many communities (ours included) have gone to having a "city sanctioned" trick-or-treating event for the kids.  Not like the "days of yore" when we used to run through the neighborhood with big bags, getting full-size candy bars (nothing particularly fun about "fun size"), popcorn balls, cupcakes, and other home-made goodies.

Ah, the good ol' days.  Before you could turn on a lamp with your phone, without getting out of your chair.  ;-)

Surf's up!

Not a beach day - this is about bow surfing.

After a couple days off the boat, we were both ready for some time on the water today.  Temps in the upper 70s, lots of sunshine, low humidity, and breezy.  The weather weasel on the local TV channel this morning called it, "Winds 10 to 25 mph today"... yeah, it should be in there somewhere.

Coming out of our canal and into the ICW, we could see this shrimper heading out and coming up behind us...

He must be expecting some breeze - they don't usually have their outriggers out in this area.  Coming into the turning basin, this tug and barge are docked...

We saw some dolphins ahead of us in the Port Isabel Channel.  With the shrimper coming up fast behind us, we expected to see some bow surfing.  Yep...

I brought our speed up to match the shrimpboat and we enjoyed the bow surfing show...

The dolphins do this for the sheer joy of it, and you can sense their excitement.  We backed off power and watched this shrimpboat head out the ship channel.  This one was coming in...

I hope the fact that it is sitting lower in the water means a good catch.

We turned off from the ship channel, going into South Bay.  Lots of shallows there, so it isn't on our regular sight-seeing route.  It did give us more of an up-close look at the barges and pipeline operation going on there...

This couple was fishing from their kayaks - perfect for these shallow waters...

Back into the ship channel, another tug pushing a barge, heading for the pipeline operation further east...

I generally wear long-sleeve cool gear for the warm temps.  This old body hasn't seen sun in a while, so I whipped off the shirt to get some vitamin D...

Sorry - I should have warned you ahead of time.  Joan apparently didn't need the vitamin D, but was exhausted after that intense dolphin photography session...

Heading towards home, I scanned around us, looking for more dolphins or other interesting views.  A half mile from turning in our canal, "Two dorsal fins ahead!"

Energized...

Some heads and tails...

We watched these two for a while, then said our good-byes and turned to head for home...

A nice tail and dorsal fin in the sparkly water to send us off.

Nice day on the water.

Another test...

A test of the Canon G3x in full manual mode on the moon this evening...

I downsize all images here so the pages will load faster.  Even in this compressed resolution, there is good detail in this shot, with craters visible.  Nice to have the 600mm focal length when necessary.

The WPA...

If you said, "Works Progress Administration" or "Work Projects Administration" you get 25 bonus points.  For any whippersnappers who didn't study history or haven't been to any of the numerous National Parks and other public places that benefited from this program, the WPA was established to put Americans back to work during the Great Depression.  It was mostly unskilled labor building trails, bridges, roads, buildings, and other infrastructure.  There was no Welfare, so this gave Americans who were out of work the opportunity to earn a wage.

We have a program like that in our household of two and a cat.  Yes, there is our sweet daughter, but she is out on her own.  And Izzy falls under the "royalty exclusion": she is a little princess and as such, her duties are mostly ceremonial.  In return, she gets all meals and other needs attended to.  For the other two of us, "work projects" are required.

Don't get me wrong, I am not worked to the bone.  In fact, I consider myself mostly a "man of leisure."  (Also known as: a trophy husband.)  But frequently, there are projects doled out.  Infrastructure projects.  You may have seen the door locks/knobs of two days ago.  Yesterday was the Great Smart Thermometer Undertaking.  Today was more manual labor: one of us wanted to remove the glass from our storm door, remove the sunscreen film, and replace it with new darker sunscreen film.  That has the look of a 2-day project.  The other of us took the easier projects of dealing with the generator and putting away the un-used stand-up paddleboard.

The generator needed to have Sta-bil run through it, then drain the carburetor and float bowl, then siphon the gas out of it.  Pretty straight forward, and other than having to lift it and smell like gas, it wasn't that much of a chore.

You would think letting the air out of a stand-up paddleboard, rolling it up, and putting it in its bag would be simple.  You would be mistaken.  I twisted the valve to let the air out while I was working on the generator... yes, I am all about the efficiency.  Going against mandom, I looked at the instructions for deflating the SUP: remove the main fin, open the valve, roll it first from the back to push any air out (the valve is in the front), then roll it from the front for storage.  Seems simple enough.

I went over the SUP with Clorox Wipes to remove any grime it had accumulated.  Removed the large center fin.  With the valve open, I rolled it from the rear to push the air out.  When I went to roll it up from the front, apparently there were air pockets hiding in the SUP, thwarting my roll-up efforts.  I started from the back again, pushing air out as I rolled.  Rolling from the front, more damn sneaky air.  This was obviously a three-person project, but I didn't dare take the Blonde away from her storm door sun film removal project.  Besides, I wasn't going to let some stupid inflatable SUP get the best of me.  Four tries later, and there was still too much air inside to let it roll up properly.  I considered cutting a large hole in the aft end of it to let air escape... only briefly, then I thought about having to later patch that hole.

On the seventh try, I somehow managed to get enough air out of it that it rolled up enough to fit in its carrying bag.  It is another cool day here in the Tropical Tip (the timing was planned for the storm door window film project).  I was sweating like a farm animal.  I'm a city kid, so I don't know if that is a valid statement, but I heard it used once.  And, I was sweating that much.

Joan was able to remove all the old sunscreen film and reinstalled the glass to be able to clean it and will let it dry overnight before taking on the new sunscreen film install.  She was doing her project on the deck, in the shade - I was on the dock, in the sun.  No way would I have wanted to take on her project, but I did notice there was no swearing coming from the deck (the same can't be said for the project occurring on the dock), and when I saw her, there was no sweating.


Today was chosen for these projects based on the predicted cool weather.  With the new smart thermostat and temperature/humidity probes in other rooms and out on the deck, I can attest to this morning's "cool."  It was 54º when I got up this morning.  Yes, there were days when we were in the San Juans that I rode my scooter to work when it was 54º.  If that were to happen here, I would be calling in and saying it is too cold to come to work.  Perspective.  It was a very comfortable 70º in the house, with no heat running... but Joan did turn on the portable fireplace for ambiance (not heat) this morning.  ;-)

We let it warm up into the mid-60s before taking on today's projects.

The storm glass is back in the door, awaiting the next step in the project...

More smarter...

Today was taking on the new smart thermostat.  We removed the old thermostat, labeled all the wires, then connected it up... just like is says in the instructions.  Nothing.  No power to the thermostat.

A call to our builder confirmed: no power connected for the thermostat at the a/c unit outside, since it was a mechanical thermostat.  He had one of his guys come right out and connect 24v at the a/c (one wire) and... lights on!  Well, the thermostat lit up.

Now, Joan is getting us all set up on-line with it, so she can control the heat or air conditioning from a phone or tablet... or, go all old-school and adjust it right on the thermostat...

Good to go.

Locked out! Or in??

A breezy day in the Tropical Tip.  I put the cover on the boat, anticipating a front to blow through this afternoon; supposed to drop temps overnight and tomorrow, with 25+ mph north winds.  Again, it is a relative thing - the high tomorrow is only supposed to be in the upper 60s.  I am not kidding when I say the forecast winds for tonight are: "NNW@29 gusting to 24.  (??)  Not often you see gusts lower than the steady wind.  ;-)

Today's project: replace door locks and install new lever-knobs.  We are going high-tech with push-button exterior locks that can also be run by an app.  DIY install.  How hard can that be?  ;-)

In fact, it was all pretty straight-forward.  The new deadbolt is deeper than the old one, so I had to chisel out enough depth for that.  Joan set up all the app stuff.  Slick.

We re-keyed the locks.  Installed and re-keyed the door knob-lever.  (Probably a better name for that.)

We are a team: I made sawdust and wood chips, Joan vacuumed.  We went out for a late lunch, and didn't have to worry about a key.

Yeah, but what about the important daily activities?  You mean: Izzy?  She was keeping an eye outside this morning...

She spent the afternoon keeping an eye on what we were doing - we rarely have that door open other than coming and going.

As long as her feeding happens on time, she is quite content... she can't reach the doorknob anyway.

The smells...

Nothing to do with me after a fine Italian meal.

Years ago, in fact the first time we came to this area, we had been traveling here from the west coast in our motorcoach in March... and being chased by cold weather all along the way.  As we drove south of San Antonio, the conditions began to improve.  South of Corpus Christi, there was sunshine.  Rolling into the Tropical Tip, I opened the coach door when we arrived and took in the smell of freshly mowed grass and salt air.  I was hooked on this place!

This morning, Joan opened the door to our deck... yep, the smell of freshly mowed grass and salt air.  Ever notice that freshly mowed grass smells better when someone else is doing the mowing?  Yard work is taken care of by our homeowners association fees.  The salt air is free.

A windy day - enough so that I didn't feel like taking the boat out in it.  Windy enough to close up the bimini to keep it from catching wind at the dock.

After taking Izzy for a walk, we were coming up the back stairs... when I saw the smallest pontoon boat I've ever seen: just enough room for two pedestal seats.  Similar to this...

It made our boat look big.

The folks on it were just cruising the canals and had stopped to look over our boat.  New residents here, from Minnesota.

I see that Minnesota is getting snow right now... good time to not be there.  It got up to 80º here today, with a cool down coming for the weekend.  "Cool down" is a relative term.

Lunch aboard...

A cool start to the morning.  Really.  In the 60s.  Refreshing!  Joan asked if I'd like to have lunch on the boat, maybe toss out the anchor and just kick back... "Sounds great!"

The weather weasels were calling it: clear, high in the low 80s, light wind 5 to 8 mph out of the north.  Close.  On all of it except the wind - it was blowing around 15 when we went out.  With the wind out of the north, it would mean a lumpy ride to our favorite anchorage and not much protection once there.  We changed the plan a bit, with lunch aboard while sight-seeing.

Today, the sight-seeing included birds, dolphins, and an in-coming ship.

Out the canal...

Plenty of crewboats shuttling back and forth...

This sportfisher came by us twice, kicking a huge wake both times...

I mentioned the stronger than predicted wind - I wasn't trying for it, but still managed to pull off the Gomer look with the brim of the hat standing up...

Shazaam!

The GPS says we are on land...

Nope.  We are in shallow water about 30 yards away from the shore.  Out of the channel, but in the water.  Notice the water temp: 77.7º - pretty typical for this time of year.

 Checking out the Roseate Spoonbills on shore...

Keeping an eye out for dolphins.  The first sighting...

This group was moving east at a pretty good clip - our preference was for heading west to stay out of the lumpy water.  Lunch time...

It didn't take long to find a couple more groups of dolphins...

During all this, I was maneuvering the boat every which way to allow the best view of the action.  The GPS track...

Yeah, that's a joke.  Sorta.  OK, probably pretty close, but I didn't have the track turned on (added after the fact).

More dolphins as we headed back towards the Port Isabel Channel...

Plenty of pelicans diving into the water...

Just before turning into the channel, we could see a ship coming in through the jetties...

 

We decided to hang out where the Brownsville Ship Channel and the Port Isabel Channel meet to watch the ship pass...

The cargo on there?  Propellers for those huge windmill electric generators...

And, some more bow surfing...

After the ship passed, the pelicans were all over - I'm guessing plenty of "pelican chow" stirred up thanks to the ship...

We did a bit more sight-seeing before heading for home.  Little Izzy said, "I didn't think you were ever coming back!"

My buddy Mike was wanting to put his boat back in, but knew he would have to cross the dredge pipelines several times to get to his dock; I volunteered to ride along... with my boat-pole in hand.  He had to turn off the motor and raise it while we went over - while I pushed down on the pipe.  It worked - his boat is back at his dock and on the lift.  I can appreciate his anxious desire to get back out on the water.  While the dredge is in his canal, on the other side of the small bridge from him, he will have to deal with the pipe, but not the actual dredge (ain't no getting around that easily); they are done dredging in his part of the canal.