The Caretaker's Concern can be blamed on Wreck-Loose Island Publishing.
Send all complaints to:
WLIPublishing P.O. Box 1521 Bolton Landing, N.Y. 12814

WreckLooseIsland@yahoo.com

Saturday, April 12, 2008

TCC for 4/12/08





The Caretaker's Concern 4/12/08
Lake Temp. 38 F.
Ghetto temp. 52 F. and dropping.
Island tmp. 48 F. Yesterday's L/H: 40.5/38 F.
Current conditions: A few snow flakes, wind from the East 10 to 15 mph, bringing down the stench of the paper mill.

It was a rather windy morning, even a few snow flakes, but the rest of the day was mostly calm and mostly sunny, a mix of sun and clouds, another nice quiet day on the Lake, just the way the Caretaker likes it, unless of course he wants to go sailing, then he would much prefer it be windy. The Caretaker should make a point to get the sailboat up and in the water sometime soon.

Another sign of Spring has arrived, the house-flies have begun to hatch. These aren't exactly house flies, at least not the typical kind, these are larger, but not as large as black flies. Whatever they are, they are mostly annoying, they don't bite but they do make a lot of noise, all they really seem to want is to get out of enclosed spaces. The Caretaker does his best to prevent that, the Caretaker makes a point to keep them inside so he can give them the old whap-whap! with the fly-swatter. The Caretaker is not exactly expert at this, as will soon be revealed, however he has had much practice at the swatting of flies, so much so that he long since grew tired of the typical plastic type fly-swatter which often breaks in short order. He owns a fly-swatter made of metal and leather, this one has performed many a kill and is still giving out the good old whap-whap! with deadly results.

While at his desk doing something or other, occasionally reaching for his trusty fly-swatter dispensing with a fly here and there, the Caretaker noticed one particular fly that was rather cunning and evasive. Not willing to stand for this the Caretaker directed all of his attention to the destruction of this fly. After a number of near hits, the Caretaker finally lined up a shot that he was certain would not miss. The fly was dead center on a pane of glass of the East window, the Caretaker did not dally, he immediately let fly with the swatter--WHAM!

Clink, clink.
...
Bzzzzzzzzzzzz...

The Caretaker missed the fly, but he sure gave it good to the window pane, no mercy there. A long time ago, sometime before the current Caretaker was in residence on the Island, this particular pane of glass had suffered a hit causing a star that spidered out towards some of the edges. All of the glass was intact and seemed rather sturdy so there was never a move to replace the pane, it had a sort of decorative look to it. Such beauty is no more, a piece of the window pane clinked out of it and fell to the ground, it was no match for the might of the Caretaker's fly-swatter. Soon this pane of glass will be pulled and replaced with a new one, in the mean time, the Caretaker has papered over the pane, hopefully it won't rain soon.

Some may ask why not let the flies live, just let them out a window or door. The Caretaker will hear none of this poppycock. To let them out is to let them multiply. One female fly can lay up to 500 eggs at a time. Now some people are against contraception, and perhaps even more so of a type as brutal as practiced by the Caretaker, but as far as the Caretaker is concerned, if you want the flies, by all means do what you can to protect them, however to do so in the presence of the Caretaker will result in only one thing--a sharp rebuke from his fly-swatter, WHAP!WHAP!

--The Caretaker

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