Riding to the Lake Some More

Greetings Fellow Humans.  It has been a week in the life of the orange ectoplasm.  The ectoplasm's legal team went forward with the request for a Special Master to review the documents taken by the FBI.  I don't understand how that works, the FBI is done sorting classified from not classified, and some of the secret docs are so secret that some of the FBI people couldn't even look at them.  Apparently the judge is still considering the special master, but I do not know to what end.  They are still arguing executive privilege, but he has none.  He's an ex-president, Biden did not allow him to keep executive privilege, and in fact cancelled his daily security briefs.  So, it will be interesting to see what happens with this.  I still think they should search Bedminster, and perhaps under Ivana's coffin.  That would get him going.

The enormity of driving to Tucson in the winter is beginning to set in.  We got out our trusty Mountain Directory West, which shows where all of the terrible hills are.  Comparing routes and elevation changes has convinced us to go the way we came here last August.  The more westerly route has a 12 mile grade with three significant up/downs and worse weather.  So, we will not see anything new on the trip.  We are going to buy cable chains for the car, which hopefully will ensure that we don't need them.

There has been riding to the lake.  I figured out how to panorama with my cell phone.  The two vertical arrows indicate the start and finish of the blooming milfoil.  It's huge! 

Jim talked to the owner of this boat for a bit.  It's a bass boat.  He bought it from a friend who is a boat dealer, and it has every toy known to fisher-people.  The square things up front are the screens for the fish finders, they send out an electronic impulse that comes back and shows you where the fish are.  There is also a trolling motor on the front, folded up.

The vertical things in the back are shallow water anchors.  They go into the lake bottom if you want to stay put.  That is quite the boat, but it's definitely a single use item.

On the way back we saw this red car.  You can't see the passenger seat, but there is a dog in it.  The dog is alone, and he's not happy about it.  When his owner gets back, he should bite him.

Today was also back to the lake.  There was enough smoke in the air to cool things off.  Except for the smoke, it was rather pleasant.  It's hazy.

There were a fair number of people on horse back today.  There are horse trails cut into the woods for them to ride on unmolested by people on bikes.

They are closing the state park September 6 for the year.  There is much maintenance to be done.  The edge of the lake is eroding; the plants that are currently stabilizing it are nasty non-natives, so they are digging them up and replacing with natives.  Unfortunately they are converting it to a day-use only park.  All of the RV sites and tent sites will be replaced with picnic tables.  I'm fairly disgruntled about this, it's hard enough to find places to put an RV and now these will be gone forever.  So, that was an unhappy thing to learn.

I have also discovered the macro setting on my cell phone.  I'm not even going to say how long I've had the phone, apparently I am a slow discover-er.  This is the kitchen sponge, up close.

And here is a moth, hanging out on the dining room window glass.  He looks pretty furry.

Serena Williams did not win the U.S. Open.  Apparently she's decided to move on from tennis.  I don't follow the sport, but I have always been aware of her and in awe of her strength.  She's going to be a tough act to follow.

From the depressing side of twitter we learn the following.

So on that cheery note, that's it!  That's all I've got.