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 26, 2008

TCC for 4/26/08





The Caretaker's Concern 4/26/08
Lake Temp. 46F.
Ghetto temp. 60.5 F. and dropping.
Island tmp. 58 F. Yesterday's L/H: 53.5/73 F.
Current conditions: Mostly cloud covered, wind from the South, 5 to 10 mph.

Quite a bit of color in the sky this morning, the Caretaker almost missed it. After a bit of breakfast the Caretaker paddled in to town to post some letters and pickup some things from the hardware store. On his way to the mainland the Caretaker noticed that the mountain sides have begun to cover themselves with the Spring bloom of baby green. The Lake was mostly flat, just an occasional breath of wind. While paddling the Caretaker's attention was drawn to the reflection of the sky on the water, he found it rather mesmerizing, watching the clouds pass below, almost as if riding atop them in a canoe.

After posting his letter the Caretaker had to wait for the hardware store to open, to fill his time he went for a walk about town. Early on his walk he saw K. and said hello, they chatted for a few moments and then parted ways. Town proper is not exactly large, so the Caretaker was able to see most all of it just in time for the hardware store to open. Curious to see what people have and have not down with their homes, great to see the various flowers that have started to smile.

The wind had begun to pick up a bit when the Caretaker started his paddle back to the Island, coming from the South it provided a headwind most all of the way. Every once in a while the Caretaker would come across a patch of water that was agitated by the wind but not being directly hit by it, this resulted in the water forming constantly moving bumps but not waves. This action of the water distorted the reflection of the sky, it looked sort of like a broad, horizontal lava lamp, it also reminded the Caretaker of a fun-house mirror, except this one was constantly changing its distortion effect. 

The Caretaker spent much of the rest of his day working with a chain saw cutting up more branches. However, before he could do so he had to "fix" the chain saw, to make a boring story short the chain saw worked quite well the last time he used it, cut wood, consumed fuel, made noise, the usual. The next time he went to use it he filled the tanks, fuel and bar oil, and then went to start it. It wouldn't start, he pulled it over a number of times with choke and without to no avail. After trying all that he could think of he decided it would require a professional, that was sometime last week. Today, over the phone, the Caretaker located a local professional who would be able to take a look at the machine. The Caretaker's plan was to bring it in sometime during the coming week. Since the Caretaker had filled both tanks full he decided it would be wise to drain off some of the fluids to reduce the chances of them leaking during transit. He opened up the fuel tank and within an instant he saw what the problem was, when filling the tanks the last time, he had switched them up, putting bar oil in the fuel tank and fuel in the bar oil tank. Stupid Caretaker.

The Caretaker promptly drained both tanks, cleaned them out, refilled them properly, started the chain saw and had a merry day of cutting and noise making.

Come nightfall, the wind, having blown from the South at around 5 miles per hour for much of the day, continued to do so through the night at an increased speed. The Caretaker decided to take advantage of the opportunity to further rid the Island of pine needles, branches, tree bark, etc. It was a late night for the Caretaker, when he finally did turn in, he slept well.

--The Caretaker

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