I'm Gavin And I'll be your host-taking you through what em and i have been through.
oh yes...
First, big news for the Matson family, as Greg and Katy, after 5 days of hospital/ labor had Lucas Henry Matson. As far as I know, they were thinking about 'Gavin' the whole time, which I liked. but in the last round my name was knocked down by Lucas. I guess If i have to be second place in the matson family, it might as well be with the name of the new generation and not with Em.
Props!
Today was sunny. Not that warm, but sunny. Two weeks ago there was 3-6 inches of snow on the ground. It all melted in 1 week, and spring was born.
It is an ugly birth featuring the revealing of cigarette butts, garbage, leaves, sticks and mud. Let's go back to something I just wrote. the difference between warm in spring and warm in winter is different. Warm in spring is 65 or so. w
arm in winter is anything above 20, which does include 65, but 20 is not warm for spring. am I making sense while I chase my linguistic tail? I hope so.With the thaw, Iceboating has ground to a halt. I went out with geoff for one last hurrah on madison's own lake mendota. when we arrived, I noticed a slight separation of ice and land. People laid down ply-wood to cross the gap and for another first, I stood on floating ice instead of a solid sheet. so the first picture just depicts the landing and some of the water fighting to regain a seasonal advantage over the ice. also in the distance is the shadow of the madison.
After walking near a crack in the 15-20'' ice, I watched water flow upwards, which made me walk backwards. An old-timer stuck a stick in this crack and found that spot to be 3' above the lake bottom. Kinda weird, I know. One more shot of iceboating, this one shows my runners sinking into the ice as I set up the boat. I think it took me about an inch of ice to do a complete job. But i have to mention the banter of these dedicated guys. It's morning and someone needs a helmet. everyone is busy setting up there boat or helping another guy set up his boat. someone says "hey jim needs a helmet" which sets off chatter about who has an extra helmet and who has a big or small head. no macho stuff, just old friends ribbing each other, and within a minute a helmet is produced. I realize that these guys may have as few as 1 or 2 day sailing and maybe as many as 20 weekends a year with each other. Most know who built who's boat and where and when and what repairs h
ave been done to it. they know not to trust some guys from some lakes because their dads or grandpas had a dangerous sail there in the 60's. I can't put my finger on it but I love these guys for it. I guess it doesn't have to make sense if it is love.Speaking of not making sense, I talked to my neighbor, carla, today. I hadn't talked to her since she called the cops on us. i was nice and gave her our phone numbers again, but she insisted that despite her sensitivity to volume, em and I needed to insure that we weren't being to loud for her. which is easy since we know carla's every thought. more to come I'm sure.
Upon arrival in our surrogate city, I realized I'd have to try new beers and figure out how to survive without Boundary Bay Beer. I started saving 1 beer from each 6-er and soon a collection grew in the fridge. I wanted to know what IPA I would like the best. I now want to empty the fridge just to create space as much as taste the 16 IPA's that have patiently waited for the right time. Here's a pic of all of them before I covered up or tore off their labels to conceal their identity for the IPA tasting that we're having this coming friday. mmm.
