Eaglet, moon rise and post viral

Houston's Beach, cloud with rainbow

Another more or less perfect week. I and another kayaker have been exploring the hidden coves on the other side of the lake that we kayak in. There's a young eagle living there who sits by its home nest calling all day, presumably for his parents to come feed him. He can fly—we've seen him in the air—but he prefers to sit in a tree by the nest calling plaintively. One day three of us floated in the water beneath him and he quieted and examined us from the safety of his perch.

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I missed only one morning of kayaking due to weather and I am glad that I did, I think five days in a row is a bit much for me but I can handle four days broken by rain. Yesterday I kayaked in the morning, swam in the afternoon and went to a beach bonfire in the evening to watch the full moon rise. We roasted marshmallows while waiting for the moon. Our "firepit" was an ingenious little metal affair that folds away to nothing, it has a heatproof but porous bottom to allow air flow from below without setting fire to whatever is underneath, it also has an optional firescreen cover and a grill for roasting food over the fire. The owner of the portable firepit says he bought it over the internet from some company in southwestern USA.

We also had telescoping forks for roasting our marshmallows. My companions prefer their marshmallows browned but not burnt, I prefer them well burnt. I stick my marshmallow into the coals to set it afire, then raise and twirl it to make sure the entire surface is burnt. After we had our fill of marshmallows, the popping corn was popped and we filled up whatever crannies of our stomachs remained unfilled. 

At one point we were all so engrossed in the popping of the corn that we missed the actual rising of the moon. It was halfway up before we noticed. Watching the progress of the moonrise was the highlight of the evening, a few clouds at the horizon allowed you to actually see it rising upwards. It gradually turned from dull red to bright white as it gained height. The reflection of the moonlight on the water of the Minas Basin gave the moon a kind of long bright trail.

The tide was very low so the beach was extensive when we arrived, but it was coming in so that by the time we left the beach was half its width (length? distance to the water's edge?). Some fishers were out fishing for striped bass and flounder; they only come into the Basin when the tide is rising so serious fishers are prepared for nighttime fishing when the low tide is late at night. The beach is also the only place in the county where you can camp for free so there were several tents and one RV set up for the night, with a couple of fires in the parking area. In June recent school grads use the beach to celebrate so it can be quite noisy, but in late July it is quiet.

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I am quite exhausted by a busy week so I try to rest on the weekend, nevertheless I plan to go out tonight to a music event with a couple of friends. I was going to mow the lawn today but couldn't muster the energy so hopefully I can do that tomorrow. My friend J is going to paint my truck cap tomorrow and then sometime this coming week I will get a roofrack installed on it. In the course of prepping the cap for clearcoating last week, J managed to sand off too much of the existing paint, so now he has to paint before he can finish the clearcoat. I didn't think I would find a roof rack before autumn but I found a shop that said they could have it for me next week. A little pricey but worth it.