The Captain and the Admiral finally getting back on the water

VALOIS POINT, New York - The summer has flown by. It started slow after I had to have a hernia repair (ouch), which meant about a month of relatively limited activity. There went June.

Then the Star-Gazette newspaper and a regional magazine called Mountain Home called me for duty a lot. The assignments were all fun, but all seemed to coincide with the best boating weather.

A great day to head down the lake

We also had a hot spell - a really hot spell - that sent Admiral Fox and I diving not only into Seneca Lake, but into air conditioning. It was actually hard to breath at times. High 90-degree temperatures and 90-percent-plus humidity does not make for comfortable living. Ask anyone who lives in Florida in the summer.

And then, there's the book.

The draft of The Fracking War is now safely in the hands of three expert editors to read, critique and eventually return to me for rewriting, editing or a trip to the landfill. What a relief! (Though this morning I woke up rewriting a chapter in my head...)

Spirit of Louise at Village Marina

Today the Spirit of Louise pontoon boat will head out for a down-lake adventure to Watkins Glen. I just arranged for a berth at Village Marina for a few days - right next to the Sheriff's Boat. We hope to explore the south end lake, perhaps even the wilds of Montour a few miles down the channel.

Then on Saturday, the Spirit of Louise will become a press boat for the day. I will be covering a floating protest against a proposed propane storage project that has the community united - united against it.

About 100 kayaks and other boats will join the floating entourage. I'll be shooting still photos and taking video for the newspaper. I'm really hoping for calm water. Really hoping.

The summer also ended up with virtually no blogging for me - the book and commercial writing assignments took up all the writing energy I had.

But at least until the beta readers return The Fracking War, I'll hit the keyboard more often. In fact, I just finished the latest novel by James Lee Burke - Light of the World. A review of it is definitely in order. A great book. But then, his books are all great.

A not-so-quiet Sunday in August at Seneca Lake

VALOIS, New York, USA - All of the outdoor-related fun of the lake - and the hours spent at the  Hector Fireman's Fair - caught up with Admiral Fox and I today.

Instead of catapulting out this morning on some new adventure, we went to the local Dandy Mart and bought a New York Times. We settled in for a couple of hours, reading some generally depressing news - a fitting introduction to our upcoming reentry into the classroom this fall to teach newswriting and other journalistic pursuits.

I'm going to stop thinking about that right now.

By 1 p.m., we decided to head to Watkins Glen and Village Marina for lunch, in good part because cousin Brett Beardslee was scheduled to be playing outside on the patio. And by 1 p.m., I was ready to have a cold beer. Really ready.


Cousin Brett with his signature VW van in the background

The entire town was buzzing because of the three-day Italian Festival (which concludes tonight), though the Village Marina was just starting to come alive as our lunch arrived.

Unfortunately, as my Magic Hat beer and french fries made it to the table, so did a rolling rainstorm that drove all the fans - and Brett - diving for cover. It turned out to be the first in a series of nasty thunderstorms that have been hitting up and down the lake for the afternoon.

Electric guitars and rainstorms mix very poorly.


The red areas usually have lightning - and lots of rain

Brett's latest CD (Uncle Bumpy's Big Banana Blowout) is selling pretty well through ITunes and other places- though most of the songs carry a label that says "explicit."

Some of the songs probably deserve the label, some don't. But they are all pretty hysterical. I hope to have a few memorized with chords for the ukulele by the time I get back to Mexico for open mic night at Palapa Joes.


Uncle Bumpy's CD cover

Here's a short video of Brett performing - just before the rain whooshed in and sent us all scrambling.