Mom & Pop operation
I watched this (presumed) family of geese eating in the grass along the Saranac River on my way to work this morning. The goslings are incredibly huge. It was interesting that one goose was always at one end & the other at the opposite end the whole time. They didn't mind the fast-moving traffic but when I stopped at the side of the road they moved closer to the river and got nervous. Then they got used to me but eventually I made them nervous and they went into the water. They were very sweet. I can't believe how big the babies are! When did they hatch? I guess there will be another hatching this summer.

I had a dentist appointment this morning. I really, really hate going to the dentist. He wasn't in today so I just saw the hygienist. She was very nice and said I practiced good oral hygiene but I might have a very small cavity (CAVITY!!! I don't get cavities! I haven't had one of those in more than a decade!). I may be able to help the tooth heal it if I floss diligently and the dentist decides not to fill it right now when he looks at the x-ray. Yikes. Anyway I don't have to go back until next year (unless he decides to fill the teeeny tiny cavity now rather than wait until next year). And I got a new toothbrush.

A beautiful, very red deer loped across the road in front of my car this morning, followed a bit later by its friend. They both flicked their incredibly bushy white tails when they leapt into the woods. It was great. It's supposed to mean good luck to have a doe cross in front of you like that. Shortly after that a mouse ran really fast across the road in front of me. He looked like a super fast wind up toy. I wonder if it means bad luck if a mouse crosses the road in front of you.

I did a lot of research on kayaks yesterday. They don't make affordable Walden Paddlers anymore--the company went out of business in 2004 and has started up again under different owners. The boats are very expensive now. I called 3 places around here--2 in Saranac Lake and one in Lake Placid. I was looking for an Old Town Otter. They didn't have any, could order me one, get in in 7-10 days. What else did they have like that? Oh lots of things. Guy in Lake Placid sounded good, has something that sounds really good. Read online reviews of the makes & models they mentioned, seem to favor the Heritage Featherlite. 9.5' long, weighs 39 lbs. Sort of tubby looking, but these short flatwater ones all are. And they're very hard to tip over--that's all that really counts. So I think tomorrow I'll go to Placid and check it all out. He's got a paddle (all the way "down" to $60) and the car roof rigging I want too. I took the money out of my savings account and everything. We'll see what I feel like doing tomorrow.

If it's as hot as predicted I hope to be staying in the boat house this weekend. Supposed to be 80-90 and muggy. Maybe rain Sat. afternoon and Sun. afternoon. I need to mow & plant. Stack firewood. Ken wants me to arrange to have a load delivered to him so I'll get another load from the woman we've been buying wood from other years--give her another try. She delivers 4 cords at a time. Saves me $110 when she does that.

Now I have to correct 40 records put in manually by someone at Platt. Public who really, really wants to be a cataloger, but she put in all the authors in the wrong format and made up media formats and didn't use the right fields for the right things in our short record templates. This will take me a very long time and I will get grumpier and grumpier as I go along. And I'm getting very sleepy from the tranquilizer I took before I went to the dentist. yawn.