Yah, I’m spending a bit more time on water these days (or thinking of building more kayaks,,,). The way I am looking at it: When the shit starts to roll, the only time I am going to be kayaking is for Infil/exfil, if even then. I wanna have some FUN at it while I still can.
And I had a sad moment of sorts today. I loaded Duh!kee on to Buffalo for (hopefully) a lake float tomorrow. Geez she looks like hell these days. Her skin is all mottled with rain and water stains, dust enough that I had to give her a bath before loading her up. Had to chase out a couple hornets that had made home deep inside her hull, and used a walking stick to knock the nest loose and out. That was ‘interesting’ since the Hornets saw no need to relocate and voiced complaint to management.
The sad,,,,
The last time I paddled Duh!k, was Labor Day week in 2019, when I hooked up with B for the first time. The intent was to learn rolling, and that was when I earned the nickname “Bluegill”, in no small part because Duh!k is blue, and I figured out “Inhale THEN capsize!” (Duh, right? simple logic, and sometimes I have weird dyslexic moments,,, Do shit in reverse order, have even written my name in ‘mirror image’ and not realized it.). Well, Bluegill stuck, and Duh!k went on the rack and has stayed there ever since. I have been through 5 other boats since and she watches as they come and go, but she is always the wallflower,,,
Time for the old girl to take a spin again. Had to fix some of her deck rigging as it was weakened by age and humidity. But that skin,,, Ick!!! Looks really bad now. The water stains on the inside show clear through and she now has a greenish hue to her that looks more like pond water camo. I knew the goop would yellow with age, but I figured like a decade worth, not three flippin’ years. I will have to keep that in mind if/when I build another SOF.
Today kinda sucked for paddling. I would have gone out, but there were things needed done around the house that a rainy day was perfect for. The reason it sucked was Mama was constantly underfoot wanting attention/sympathy for her plight (that doesn’t flipping exist, its just HORMONES). So, While I was replacing firebricks in my stove, she was trying to get in the stove to make a nest. While I was working on Duh!k, she had to have her two-cents added in (though she did help me evict the hornets, so I can’t be that mad about it.). And Poor Voodoo; his schnoz is beat to hell right now. If he even comes close to her, she’s swiping the hell out of his nose. Its not like he is a danger to her non-existent kittehs, or even the real ones that she has had in the past, BUT, hormone laden Cat-brain+Dawg=MUST PROTECT THE LITTLES,,,,
It’s kinda cute, and irritating at the same time. Usually Mama is the loner-kat: leave me be and I won’t turn into a woodchipper on you. But when she gets these hormone boosts, she’s clingy as hell. OR touchy like warm Nitroglycerine. And she does have a sweet disposition this time around so its not the nightmare version. She even gave Zoom’s a bath today, which is really out of character for her,. The look on Zooms face was classic “Oh Shit, Mama’s gonna kill me”, but she held him down and went all out on his face and neck.
I do hope this passes soon. I don’t mind the attention wanting, but it gets old constantly having to look out for cat-tails when in the office chair.
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