The hot tub is in, the lake is warming up, a Father's Day sail maybe?

VALOIS, New York, USA - Eric and Tina Hazlitt's sailboat was launched Wednesday a sure sign that summer is here. The Red Rocket might make a splash this week, if the weather gods permit.

One of last year's boats

And then Saturday there will be the annual Cardboard Boat Race in the Village Marina Harbor. No entry this year from *subject2change media but perhaps next year we will get up the courage to get some cardboard and a half-dozen rolls of duct tape and make a vessel.
 
 But I will be there filming, for sure. And it is always a great time.

After two years of putting it off, I finally build a real deck for the Valois house hot tub. Three years running, I used a combination of plywood, shale and wood chips as the base.

Hot tub atop its new home

The combination was hard to keep level (READ: impossible). Plus, spiders, ants, and a variety of insects of totally indeterminate genus and specie would somehow find their way under the cover and be found doing the backstroke when Adm. Fox and I would uncover the softub for use.

During the day, it was just annoying. At night, it was occasionally a stinging experience.

The deck is made of a pressure treated wood that is supposed to last, well, for a long time. All I know is the tub is a good six inches off the ground and while spiders, ants, and that variety of insects of totally indeterminate genus and specie might still want to see the soothing warm waters of the hot tub, they will have to work a little harder to do so.

Here's a video of last year's cardboard boat races in Watkins Glen.