TCC for 12/27/2009

TCC for 12/27/2009

Only two photos from the summer due to a lack of free time and cloudy weather conditions, these two photos are all the Caretaker has to show for photography from this past summer:


6/3/2009

TCC for 12/20/09

The Caretaker's Concern 12/20/09

Photo from today:


Photos from Ice-out last Spring:



3/27/09


3/30/09

TCC for 1/26/09

The Caretaker's Concern 1/26/09

1/26/09


1/26/09


8/28/08

TCC 1/16/09

The Caretaker's Concern 1/16/09

Ghetto temp. 48 F.
Island tmp. .5 F. Today's L/H: -4/8 F.

Current conditions: Mostly clear night, mild wind from somewhere.

Today's report will be posted tomorrow but more likely Sunday because based on the Caretaker's schedule for tomorrow he's not likely to be back to the Island in time to post to his blog for Saturday. Have a good weekend.

--The Caretaker

1/16/09


1/9/09


6/11/07

TCC for 1/15/09

The Caretaker's Concern 1/15/09

Ghetto temp. 45 F.
Island tmp. 5 F. Today's L/H: 7/8 F.

Current conditions: Little to no wind, mostly clear night, a touch more than a half moon has just risen above the horizon, oh, and it's still cold.

1/15/09


1/9/09


1/9/09


It was rather cold today, the Caretaker was out and about on the Island as little as possible, in the morning there were two men over by Dome Island, they had a dog with them. It didn't look like they were ice fishing, the Caretaker couldn't figure out why they were out there, their dog probably couldn't either. Given how cold it was the Caretaker decided to stay inside and listen to the Senate hearing for Barack Obama's choice for Attorney General. It was rather shocking, the man gave straight answers, often times using declarative sentences that included words like: "Yes", or "No", very informative. Little to almost none of the usual equivocating as practiced by the Bush administration appointees. Other than that not much else to report.

--The Caretaker

TCC for 1/8/09

Report(s) will frollow tomorrow.

TCC for 11/19/08

The Caretaker's Concern 11/19/08

Lake Temp. 48 F.
Ghetto temp. 31.75 F.
Island tmp. 30 F. Yesterday's L/H: 26/36 F.

Current conditions: Mild wind from the North, no more than 5 mph. Some clouds to the South, stars visible but no so brilliant, occasional flurry or two here and there. The wind was from the Narrows for much of the day, going pretty good, no precipitation, mostly sunny.

11/19/08


10/6/08


8/6/08


This report is going out earlier than "usual", the Caretaker has to get to the mainland to take care of some business, come tomorrow is the big push for the last part of the kitchen project, shutting down the septic for the main house. From tomorrow on the Caretaker will be residing exclusively (more or less) in the Ghetto for the rest of the Winter. As for today, not much happened to report on. Well, except that the Caretaker had some fried green tomatoes for lunch, but that story, which isn't much of one, will have to wait until tomorrow night.

--The Caretaker

TCC for 11/17/08

The Caretaker's Concern 11/17/08

Lake Temp. 49.5 F.
Ghetto temp. 36 F.
Island tmp. 34 F. Yesterday's L/H: Missed the specifics, but the morning was "warm" then the cold front rolled in and the rest of the day was progressively colder.

Current conditions: Calm clear night, almost no wind, perhaps a touch here and there every once in a while. This is the first clear night in what seems like ages, before the moon rose Orion was clearly visible just above Buck mountain, the light of some of the stars could be seen reflected upon the water. In the morning the Lake and the Island were visited by snow squalls that varied from snowflakes, hale, and rain. Today marks the first day that snow reached the Island before melting, however, upon touching ground all precipitation turned to water. Hopefully today's snow won't be it for the Winter...

11/17/08


9/2/08


8/10/08


--The Caretaker

TCC for 11/5/08

The Caretaker's Concern 11/5/08

Lake Temp. 52 F.
Ghetto temp. 56 F.
Island tmp. 54 F. Yesterday's L/H: 39/51.5 F.

Current conditions: Dark night, total cloud covered sky, faint bit of moonlight is backlighting a portion of the clouds in the Southern sky, dead calm on the Lake, not a breath of wind. Mostly cloud covered throughout the day, a few patches of sun light here and there during the day, but mostly foggy, mostly calm. Very, very warm for this time of year, very humid, very hazy. Very unmid-Autumn.

11/5/08


11/5/08


11/5/08


The Caretaker was up late last night listening to the election returns and then the speeches, he then awoke rather early this morning. He was originally planning on getting around to writing today's post much earlier in the evening, but he didn't. Not that he has much to report on for the day, he mostly did computer work. His intent was to share a story from back in October, but it will have to wait for another time.

It sure is nice to have the election over with, 22 months is way too long, hopefully the next one will be much shorter.

Here's to a new direction for the next four years, it can't possibly be as bad as these past eight, at least let's hope not.

Onward and Upward.

--The Caretaker

TCC for 10/31/08

The Caretaker's Concern 10/31/08
Lake Temp. 52.25
Ghetto temp. 52 F.
Island tmp. 50 F. Yesterday's L/H: 36/40 F.
Current conditions: Some night time haze, stars obscured, rather dim, mostly a dark night. A touch of wind from the South. For most of the day the wind raged pretty good from the South, quite a bit in the way of white caps. Come sunset the wind began to slowly calm down, as nightfall wore on, the wind continued to diminish. As the day carried on, it became warmer and warmer, 50 degrees Fahrenheit is definitely the new 60 degrees Fahrenheit, at least for now.



10/31/08


10/30/08


10/31/08


The Caretaker would like to be able to say that yesterday's omission was an act of cleverness, however, it was really just the result of a drastic shift in priorities. While writing up yesterday's report the Caretaker was also doing some surfing on the web. Being on dial-up, pages often take a while to load so he usually does other things while he waits. So, when the Caretaker was getting to the end of the narrative at this point in his web surfing he was just about to make a purchase on-line (it was a goose down house coat, this is another story that the Caretaker will get to shortly, in the mean time,) just as the Caretaker was expecting to have to get his wallet to finalize the purchase he realized that he didn't have his wallet, he didn't know where it was.

He did know this though, he last knew of having it in a public space and so there was a possibility that it could have been picked up by someone else. So now the Caretaker was somewhat concerned that this possible someone might get the idea of running-off with the Caretaker's wallet. So, rather than just end yesterday's narrative with either a lengthy explanation or an abrupt: "Sorry, gotta go." The Caretaker decided to quickly work in his heart felt sentiment that he carried over from the report of two days prior to conclude yesterday's report. He was aware that he was leaving his readers hanging, but the Caretaker's concern had shifted drastically from writing his daily report to trying to locate his wallet. So, he combed the places on the Island he had been to since he had last returned but found nothing. He then checked his accounts on-line to see if this possible someone had gone head over heels with the Caretaker's credit. Nothing appeared there, so by this time the Caretaker was tired and instead of finishing up his report proper he decided he would just go to sleep.

The next day, this one, today, the Caretaker got up and headed over to the mainland to retrace his steps from the dock to the public place where he knew he had his wallet last. Found nothing on the ground, at this point there was nothing he could do until the public place opened up. Eventually it did, and there was his wallet, with a few other things, basically where he had left them, which when he placed them there the night before he observed the fact that if he left them there he will probably forget them there. As you have just read, he did indeed do just that, leave them there. So, as much as the Caretaker would perhaps like to be clever, he is decidedly not.

Today wasn't all too eventful, after finishing up with his stupid wallet trick, he spent some time on the Island doing some of this and that, fired up the grill to cook some lunch, enjoyed his lunch, then did a few other things that don't really standout in his mind all too much. Yes this is Halloween, and the Caretaker supposes he could have gone to town for the Trick-Or-Treating, but really has no interest, not so much because he has grown out of it, but instead has become much smarter about it. The Caretaker went Trick-Or-Treating on the 30th of October, the day before Halloween. He only stopped at one "house" and didn't even have to bother with the expense of a costume. Dressing up as something you're not, and going from house to house begging people for candy is so...so... What's the word? Ah! Childish. Not that childish is a bad thing, the Caretaker, when he was a child was a big fan of Halloween, although he must say, there was always a few bad apples, the type that give out say, Apples! Thanks for looking out for my health Mr. Brinkton. Nooo, of course 68 cats in one house is normal. Oh look, there's the ASPCA, wonder who could have called them?

"All right Mr. Brinkton, we understand that you can't be separated from your cats, but you will have to come with us for questioning, in the meantime these representatives from the local chapter of the ASPCA will make sure that all 68 of your cats will be taken care of properly."

"Don't forget the ones gone feral living in the garage," chimes in The Caretaker from behind his Halloween mask.

The officer looks over at the Caretaker, frowns, not sure what to make of his costume, then the officer walks to the back of the yard to open the garage door. Mr. Brinkton starts to stammer nonsense, shifting back and forth from foot to foot. As the garage door opens up a wall of cats come pouring out into the yard, some running away, others running around, some lying down, up trees, in and out of the garage, it's total cat pandemonium all over Mr. Brinkton's yard. The police officer draws his gun, repeatedly taking aim at cats then switching to another, not knowing what to do or which one to shoot, with so many cats how can you tell who is the ring leader? Then it occurred to the officer, Mr. Brinkton probably knows, so he marched over to the squad car to interrogate. Mr. Brinkton, realizing what was up, began to pee his pants.

"Now you tell me right now, which one of these cats... What on Earth is wrong with you man."

"I, I... I don't know. All I do is open the door enough to slide in a unopen 40 pound bag of cat food and then quickly shut the door. They come and go as they please through a back window that is missing a pane."

In the meantime, the top dog of the ASPCA had begun to shout into her walkie-talkie, "Calling all units, calling all units, we need back up, we need back up, bring every available cat travel box in a 40 mile radius."

Then she pointed to one of her underlings. "You. Get on the horn with the local markets, we need every bag of kitty litter they've got. There must be ton's of cat doo in that garage, and there will be tons of cat doo to take care of until we can find homes for these cats. Everyone else, you've been in this situation before, you know what to do, everyone get moving, stat."

Stat?

She then turned to Mr. Brinkton as the officer was just ducking his head to get him into the back seat of his squad car, "what's with you guys who live alone?"

The police officer closed the squad car's back door before Mr. Brinkton could utter a response, before getting into the front seat to drive off, the officer said, "I don't know, but they sure do seem to pee there pants in response to a lot of things."

And off went the police car.

At this point the Caretaker and his fellow T-O-T's, in their Halloween costumes had grown bored of the situation, and so they walked on to the next house to Trick-Or-Treat. As they walked up the path to the next house the Caretaker turned to his friends and said, "If these people know what's good for them they won't be giving out apples."

"Yeah, we sure showed that other guy!" Piped up a ghost.

DING-DONG. "TRICK-OR-TREAT!!!"

Tooth brushes and toothpaste? Oh no...

The Caretaker must say, that all of the above is fiction, it is not a recount from his childhood. It is merely the result of him sitting here feeling like making something up. Which in turn is a result from him checking the weather, originally he was thinking of cutting this post short because he wanted to get up early for a field trip tomorrow, but the weather looks to be no good for field tripping, perhaps another day. Anyway before the Caretaker went down the weird road, which he has drawn a map to for many people, many times in the past, he was going to share how he went Trick-Or-Treating this year.

At a certain point in his life the Caretaker realized he didn't need to go begging for candy from strangers. He could just go buy it. So, this year, the Caretaker did not bother with a costume, went to one "house" i.e. a store, and bought one of those giant mixed bags of candy, a variety of like everything. It's basically instant night of Trick-Or-Treating in a bag without all the hassle. On the surface it may seem clever, but after a day of having this bag around the Caretaker has quickly become rather tired of the candy. Too bad he doesn't get any Trick-Or-Treaters out here on the Island, he could have given it away to them. Perhaps he'll instead just pee his pants.

--The Caretaker

P.S. The story of the thing of rare beauty will come out on November 1st, the Caretaker promises, if not, you can always pee your pants.

TCC for 10/29/08

The Caretaker's Concern 10/29/08
Lake Temp. 52.5 F.
Ghetto temp. 39 F.
Island tmp. 36 F. Yesterday's L/H: 38/42F.
Current conditions: Cloud filled sky, occasional wind gusts but mostly calm. Throughout the day the sky was cloud covered, wind from the South, West, and North, mostly just a breeze with occasional gusts. Off and on snow flurries, no accumulation, snow fall from last night did accumulate on the surrounding mountain tops, here at Lake level the precipitation was just rain. The forecast calls for some Sun tomorrow, the Caretaker is looking forward to that, and the temperature is supposed to rise to the fifties, the Caretaker is really looking forward to that. So far the Caretaker has gone without heat, he's a little low on propane since he never refilled from the end of last season, also, he still has to locate some hoses and get his heater out. Until he does that he will be pursuing the pleasures of life in the mid to upper 30's degrees Fahrenheit, which to be honest, he's finding it to be not all that bad. Usually during the Winter he tries to maintain the Ghetto at around 60 degrees F. but he's thinking he might look to lower the temperature, probably not as low as the high 30's, but probably at least to the low 50's.

10/29/08


9/27/08


10/29/08


The morning began considerably calmer then yesterday as far as the weather goes. It was actually a few degrees cooler then yesterday but with a lot less wind so it didn't feel too cold. Although, in comparison to others in the greater New York area and beyond, yesterday's weather here on the Lake was a lot less severe than for others--power outages, loss of heat, water, etc. The Caretaker's heart goes out to those people, to lose such amenities when so accustomed to having them is a little tough to deal with, especial for the elderly or those with small children.

The Caretaker's day today was actually quite productive, he did some work for the Island, became further organized in his preparations for the Winter, took care of some things in town, AND, managed to get in another hot shower this evening even though his on-demand water heater was trying to give him the business. His heater doesn't like to operate in these colder temperatures, well, actually, the battery for the water pump for his on-demand water heater doesn't like to run at these colder temperatures, so the Caretaker warmed up the battery a bit and got hot water, on demand-ish. Tomorrow the Caretaker is going to try and see if he can come up with an AC/DC power converter that will plug into the wall thus allowing him to bypass using the battery. If this could be arranged, the Caretaker would have no problems spending this Winter in the Ghetto in the mid 40's.
Got to lower that carbon footprint.
--The Caretaker

TCC for 9/16/08

9/15/08


8/8/08


8/20/08

TCC for 8/11/08

8/10/08


7/30/08


8/1/08

TCC for 7/26/08

TCC for 7/26/08

TCC for 5/17/08

All photos from today, shown in order taken.







The Caretaker's Concern 5/17/08
Lake Temp. 53F.
Ghetto temp. 60 F.
Island tmp. 60 F. Yesterday's L/H: 52/58 F.
Current conditions: total cloud coverage, little to no wind, damp and moist from earlier rain.

Report will follow tomorrow morning.

--The Caretaker