Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Glad to see john eastman going through some things.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

People are weird.

Donald Jessica Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Shut up, hissy kitty!

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

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This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

You are here: Home / Nature & Respite / Birdwatching / Keep on rollin’

Keep on rollin’

by | 48 Comments

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We went for a boat ride Friday just before a cold front arrived:

We hadn’t taken the jon boat out for a while because the water level in the river has been uncommonly low, about as low as I can remember. Old timers have seen worse; they recall a drought so severe that cattle from ranches on one side of the river crossed the muck to forage in the woods on the opposite shore.

There’s a dam upriver that’s visible at a distance in the video, and the water level difference is a couple of feet. Sometimes after the rainy season, you can run an outboard right over that dam. But this summer, the regular afternoon thunderstorms didn’t materialize on this side of Florida.

Thanks to a dreary, wet winter, there’s finally enough water to comfortably run the outboard. Canoes are better for us and the planet, but in my opinion, nothing compares to puttering around in a small boat, looking at birds and appreciating the wild scenery, cocktail shaker in hand. Pure bliss.

We acquired the boat from my dad when he sold off his dive shop/marina rental stock and retired. It’s a 1980s-era boat that had an outboard engine of the same vintage which we used to call the “Ancient Mariner.” But it threw a rod, and we replaced it with a virtuously quiet Yamaha 15 HP 4-stroke.

The engine is the only clean, modern item associated with our boat. During yesterday’s excursion, I noticed how filthy the boat is, how stuffed with cypress leaves and sweet gum doodads every crevice is, how covered with lichen all vertical surfaces are. I was thinking we should probably haul her out for a deep cleaning, but possibly the lichen is the only thing holding her together!

There’s a cheap doormat on the bow which can be seen briefly in the video. That’s for the dogs to stand on during the rare occasions they come along for a boat ride — it provides purchase for their claws so they don’t skid across the metal when there’s a sudden change in speed.

When a boat is underway, any dogs present immediately turn into Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic — king of the worrrrrrrrld. But our two are too excitable to bring aboard often. They bark and raise hell and leap over the benches, generally harshing our mellow. So mostly they get left behind.

Thanks to the cold front, today is too chilly for boating, so we’ll probably loll around watching playoff football. But it will warm up during the week, so we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled waterborne birdwatching and cocktails ritual. I think we’re gonna need that this year more than ever.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

48Comments

  1. 1.

    WaterGirl

    Somewhere I have a photo of my dog Bailey, in a small boat my friend has on their small lake.

    Your description reminded of that, because Bailey moved right to the front of the boat and he stood there, so regal, like a viking surveying the world that belonged to him.

  4. 4.

    cope

    Does your Jon boat have a Pogoan name like the “Kathryn Barbara” or the “S.S. Charles J. Simpson”?

    Lovely video by the way.

  5. 5.

    TaMara

    Lovely video, needed to be longer so I could bask in the calm and beauty.

    A 4-stroke isn’t that bad..someday you’ll be able to upgrade to a powerful electric for cheap. I like to kayak, myself. Had some good mangrove adventures that way

    ETA: My brother’s family has a cabin on a lake in NE and they can only have people powered or pontoons with electric motors on it. Which makes for super peaceful experience. Because w/o that rule, I can just imagine the rednecks “rolling coal” across the water.

  6. 6.

    Betsy

    This is a beautiful description and travelogue.  Brings me back to memories of being with my dad and various uncles in and around jonboats, little wooden boats, canoes, and small motorboats, on Florida lakes and spring-fed streams.

  7. 7.

    frosty

    Canoes are better for us and the planet, but in my opinion, nothing compares to puttering around in a small boat, looking at birds and appreciating the wild scenery, cocktail shaker in hand.

    Sounds perfect! One of my favorite things to do when we visit our Ocala friends on our Snowbird Road Trips is paddle the Silver River in their canoe. Haven’t had a cocktail shaker, I’ll have to work on that.

  9. 9.

    Another Scott

    Nice. I, and I assume everyone here, hopes you are doing well and feeling better.

    In other news, … TheHill.com:

    Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) warned House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) about support for bills from the House Freedom Caucus Friday.

    “Don’t assume you have our votes for the things that don’t matter, when you don’t want ‘em for things that do matter,” the Freedom Caucus chair said during an interview with host Blake Burman on “The Hill on NewsNation” Friday.

    […]

    The House Freedom Caucus already expressed its displeasure with the [CR] bill Sunday, when the caucus’s account called it a “surrender” to the left on social media.

    “The @HouseGOP is planning to pass a short-term spending bill continuing Pelosi levels with Biden policies, to buy time to pass longer-term spending bills at Pelosi levels with Biden policies. This is what surrender looks like,” the caucus posted on X, formerly Twitter.

    [ waaa, waaa, better call the waaambulance ]

    There are noises that Good’s being primaried on the right, so he’s trying to prove that he’s Righty McRightFace to his base. But all this whin[g]ing is pathetic.

    Good for Democrats for helping to twist the knife (the CR got more Democratic votes that GQP votes, again). And throwing words like “surrender” and Roy’s “do nothing” back at them can only help Democrats in the fall.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  10. 10.

    Another Scott

    TV alert for tomorrow.

    4 8 15 16 23 42
    @[email protected]
    #MonsterdonAlert

    Sunday, Jan 21, 2023, 8PM CT (1AM Monday UTC)

    TOMORROW

    IT’S #MONSTERDON

    we will be watching

    Empire of the Ants (1977)

    “Con artist Marilyn Fryser (Joan Collins) has a steady and profitable racket. Along with an unscrupulous ship captain (Robert Lansing), she takes gullible investors on a cruise of the Everglades and persuades them to invest in a housing development that will never be. But when she and her latest group of suckers go ashore on a small island, they’re horrified to discover that illegally dumped toxic waste has created a breed of giant ants set on human destruction.”

    its free to watch on tubi and plex

    #HailAnts

    https://youtu.be/tq6pCO3O66I

    [ image that looks kinda like Cracker Creek, FL ]

    YouTube
    Empire of the Ants (1977) – Official Trailer (HD)
    By ScreamFactoryTV
    Jan 20, 2024, 11:39

    (via https://sauropods.win/@futurebird )

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  12. 12.

    eclare

    Thanks for the video, wow, that water is like glass.  Your ritual of a boat ride plus a cocktail shaker sounds perfect.

  16. 16.

    FastEdD

    Beautiful video. I putter around on weekends in a Caterham 7 (relative of the Lotus 7.)  Yes I’m using gas, but not much with a small engine. My daily driver is an EV, so I buy only 10 gallons of gas once every 3 months or so. It is such a joy to take it out for a “blat” in the canyons first thing in the morning when the air is crisp. When you stand on it it shoots flames out the side and makes burbling noises.

  19. 19.

    Ruckus

    @eclare:

    I live in a seniors apt. 55 is the minimum age to rent. There are a number of people in their 90s, one that I know is 97. They are nice people with some great life stories, only one of them is male but not one of them looks like they are in their well preserved 50s like Joan Collins.

    BTW, my name/email no longer stay in the boxes and I have to reload them every time I comment. Started yesterday.

  23. 23.

    M31

    Got a nice “wind in the willows” vibe going

    “Nice? It’s the only thing,” said the Water Rat solemnly as he leant forward for his stroke. “Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing—absolute nothing—half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Simply messing,” he went on dreamily”

    just needs ‘cocktail shaker in hand’

  24. 24.

    Brachiator

    But it threw a rod, and we replaced it with a virtuously quiet Yamaha 15 HP 4-stroke.

    Wonderfully vivid writing. Because I am an idiot, I wondered how you avoided disturbing the birdies while boating. This answered my question.

    Enjoy the day.

  35. 35.

    mrmoshpotato

    Fifty-seven degrees.  I’d still cannonball into an unheated pool.

    Go 49ers!

    This afternoon?  Meh.

  38. 38.

    frosty

    @raven: ​You have so many photos, it’s great! It’s like you were carrying an iPhone around back then.​
     

    ETA: Go Ravens!!

  40. 40.

    thruppence

    OT: Big accident at work just now – elderly woman lost control of her car, seemed to hit her accelerator instead of the brake, hit another car and then smashed through the glass doors of the main entrance. Nobody seems to have been hurt, thank whatever. We needed new doors anyway. Store evacuated, we’re all standing around to see what happens next.

  43. 43.

    StringOnAStick

    I am waiting for it to get above freezing for the first time in 48 hours, during which time we had freezing rain so every surface is coated in ice and venturing out to even feed the birds requires equipment and planning, much less driving to the grocery store.  It was supposed to be 32 at 10 am, and now at noon it’s still 25.  I have a feeling that grocery shopping will have to wait until tomorrow, again.

  46. 46.

    trollhattan

    California snowpack 50% of average for date, today. But string-o-storms coming through and it should look better in a week. We’ll see, it’s pretty warm for January so there might be more runoff than anything else.

  48. 48.

    evodevo

    That looks like what we in KY call a “john boat” – about 8 or 10 feet long? Flat bottom? got one sitting next to the flower bed…haven’t been in it in years…used to fish, but not so much any more…

Comments are closed.