Eight moderately busy days later, three movies, some rowing, and various sort of hard work.

“Finding Dory” is a significantly inferior sequel to an upper mediocre talking fish movie. It sort of almost developed a soul by the end. Almost. Sort of.

“Independence Day: Resurgence” is terrible science fiction; it even manages to be embarrassing by the standards of space opera. But it is also about courage and loyalty and friendship, and manages to work at an emotional level even if it is painfully stupid.

“The Shallows” is a mediocre horror movie that features Blake Lively in a bikini in nearly every scene. Depending on your tastes, this may be worth the price of admission.

On the 21st I went down to visit my father, and the headed over to Tampier Lake to wait out the traffic. Along the way, I found the source of the awful cracking noise from the previous Friday at Busse Lake: I had managed to break one of the gunwales. I limped the boat through more than three miles anyway. The next day I stripped off the outriggers, added reinforcements to both gunwales, and put it all back together. We shall see.

Fresh off an afternoon of boat repair, I spent the following afternoon cutting down two trees that REALLY needed to come down, disposed of a dead tree that I haven’t gotten to in about two years, and cleared away more of a brush pile that has been building for years.

One of my goals for this year is to row the perimeter of Geneva Lake in one day. I need low winds, no precipitation, and NOT a weekend. This doesn’t happen very often. The forecast for the 29th looked perfect, and kept looking perfect. On the 28th, I packed up everything I needed and went to bed early. On the 29th, I got up early, did the last minute prep, and then whimpered and wailed when the car wouldn’t start. The car had to be towed away. Still don’t know what the butcher’s bill on THAT is going to be…

Uncle Hyena