For the Birds

I just want to start out by saying how exhausted Norman is from being a complete jerk of a dog today. He started out the early morning by going for a hike with me on the Barn Island Trail.  We decided to not do the 'loop' which ends up at the end of our road because our neighbor there has several roaming dogs that Norman immediately tries to pick a fight with.  Trying to avoid that scene, I opted to walk the trail 2 miles in one direction then double back.  May I say Sunday @ 7:30 am seems to be take your dog(s!) on the trail without a leash day.  I did not get the newsletter since I spent one hour fending off unleashed dogs from Norman.  One woman, as her dog was galloping at full speed toward us, yells 'he's ok, he is a puppy'...and I say 'he's not, he is dog aggressive' -  needless to say after holding Norman back with the strength of Hercules while he was snarling and she unable to catch her dog as he danced around Norman (no leash and none with her), I did give her a bit of flack about not even having a leash with her ( it was at that point my third unleashed dog encounter and I was exhausted). In the house with another dog Norman is fine.  On a leash, crazy.  

Despite the crazy dog, it was a spectacular weekend weather wise.  I saw egrets in the marsh, a hummingbird in our flowers and Irv and I saw two Baltimore Orioles in our backyard.  

Later in the day, we got to launch one boat then watch our septic system overflow.  Let me explain.  First, over a year ago Irv built a wood dinghy.  Beautiful small boat that until this weekend never saw water.  We brought it over to my parents where we got to give her a maiden voyage- yea!  She floats and no leaking!

She is light and fast and most important seaworthy!   Then we went home.  I was doing several washes since our washing machine in Princeton went bust when Irv saw sewage coming out of the overflow valves.  Ugh!   We had to call 'a guy' immediately.  Good news, it wasn't the cesspool failing.  Bad news, the pipe to the septic was clogged and is caving in.  More $$$$$.  There is nothing worse than septic problems.  They stink!