The blur

Another 3-day weekend blows past. Yesterday was teed up to be a slow day and was headed in that direction, then Russ pinged me and said he could look at my mountain bike, and John texted me and asked if I wanted to open the valves on the dam right after that, which was important that we do while the lake level was low.

In short order, I got Russ interested in checking out the dam, then Tyler came down too, so Graham came down (for a minute, he didn't like standing on the dam). Eventually, it was Russ who got the bottom valve open, the one furthest from out from the dam, the one that lets us empty the whole lake. When the water finally gurgled out of there, it was the foulest grey sludge. Hopefully it sucked up much of the mire at the base of the dam around the intake valve. When Russ got home (a couple of houses down the hill and creek from us), his daughter Tessa asked why everything had smelled so bad for a few minutes there.

Then John came up for iced coffee and told me that his feelings had been hurt when he was blindsided by the dues increase.

In any case, much of the day was given over to stuff I hadn't fully planned on but which did need to get done. Then I went for a run (not around the lake -- up through Cedar Falls to the trails behind East and down through the ravine in the neighborhood over there). I came past Caroline and Toby's and was sad that nobody was out in the yard, not even any kittens or chickens. I have come to count on the little community center effect over there. Came past the old George homestead and was sad to think that Joan had left us and that Julio was really fading.

Then Graham and I got takeout and watched Bosch, which is pretty good if not great.