..but I have been busier than a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest.
Weather has been beautiful lately, but the showers may be back this week. I am hoping to get a bike ride in and undertake an adventure this week since I have a three-day weekend. Victoria, Canada is still on my radar and I want to go over there sooner rather than later. I am told that the museum and the gardens are something to see, as well as the Parliament building. Those would be good on a day that is overcast or rainy. Guess I need to get to checking out the Canadian weather service website tonight!
With this beautiful weather comes visitors… LOTS of them on the weekends, and the weekdays are starting to get busier here at Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge. This translates into long days. I have also been to the lighthouse several times this past week, taking people out from the International Boundary Commission. They were doing some survey work on the Canada/U.S. international boundary (hence the name… clever, eh?). I made a grocery run for the lighthouse people since I was going to be out two days in a row. Out of kindness they gave me two packages of smoked steelhead they brought down from Alaska for doing that for them. Cannot wait to crack that open!
We have not seen any European Green Crab in our crab traps so far, so that is great news. We have seen many small shore crabs, some helmet crabs, Dungeness, and red rock crabs – some REALLY nice and huge Dungeness and red rock. Unfortunately, we cannot keep them since we are setting traps for research. July 1 is the open of recreational crab season and I am going to go out with a few different people to catch my own. My mouth is watering just thinking about some fresh crab and a Guinness. Gotta get my license/catch card (whatever it is that I need!) pretty shortly and have everything ready to go.
All this work has cut into my adventuring a bit, but just temporarily. My ride week before last was a really good ride and the scenery was fantastic. It had to tide me over through last week; since I had so much going on it was good to stay home and relax on Friday.
So, it looks like tonight I will be looking into some options for this week’s adventure – weather, location, things to see and do, and if I can ride or will have to drive. That 45 MPG on the bike is pretty damn nice!
I have been playing guitar nearly every night the last few weeks as well. It kinda goes in waves sometimes, with a lull that will last sometimes longer than I like but it is not good to force playing for me. I have had a dry spell for songwriting; I have some ideas but am not putting anything together quite yet – mainly just getting back into playing more regularly and getting my playing back up to speed. I also tried a different tuning and taught myself to play the guitar part John wrote for one of the earliest songs we wrote together. It actually came out sounding good! Open Mic Night is still happening weekly, and is another reason I have been practicing.
That is about all for this update. I hope to have something new to post in the next few days.
