The Fourth of July Weekend

For the Fourth of July weekend, my mom and dad decided to get out of town and head down to the houseboat. My mom told my dad, "You are not to do anything! Anything at all!" After some, umm.. lets call it discussion, my dad grudgingly agreed and called me and asked if I would come and help them out with the boat.

Twist my arm will ya?! :)

And so they spent a couple days sitting in beach chairs, reading, and taking cooling dips in the swimming pool.

My dad was much better this weekend. He had about five doctor's appointments last week and his medication regime was completely revised (for the better it seems). Apparently he was taking a blood thinner/anticoagulant as well as a couple nasty pain killers - the pain killers caused intestinal bleeding and the anticoagulant meant, once started, the bleeding was very hard to stop. Once they got that straightened out - my dad bounced back pretty quickly and was hard to hold down/back.

So with the "no work" edict on him, I was chief cook and bottle washer - until they left the wharf aruond mid-day on Sunday since their doggy-sitter wasn't available later in the day. I then had the evening and Monday to myself.

My mom was really tired - its been a stressful few weeks (months actually) and was taking a nap when three baby swallows landed on a mooring line just outside her stateroom (boat-speak for bedroom) window. I was outside putting the canvas boat top up for some shade when I saw them swinging back and forth as their mom and dad flew around catching them little buggy morsels to snack on.

I gently woke my mother up and pull the shade up a little so she could peek at the birdies just outside the window.


She watched intently for a moment and then her face lit in a big smile and she turned to me and said, "You know, they remind me of the Three K's down at the seashore."

My two brothers and I, since our first names all begin with "K" were often called the Three K's, and often did played and swam on the beach together.


Baby Sparrows Learn the Ropes
The swallow on the far right nearly falls off near the end f the video and tells his brother to "quit that!"

About 50 yards off the stern (back end) of the houseboat, a pair of Osprey had built a nest on top of a wooden pole and were busy raising and feeding a couple of chicks. I was startled nearly to the point of falling overboard when one of them dove past my head and into the water next to the houseboat unexpectedly and snagged a ten inch fish!

I put my camera in my pocket and watched them out the corner of my eye for the remainder of the day, hoping to catch them catching a fish without luck. I almost felt as if I had gone back to the days of my unsuccessfully taking squirrel pictures.


Ospreys are big, majestic birds - I'm glad they are making a comeback after nearly being made extinct by poisonous bug-sprays like DDT.


On Sunday night, there was a nice firework display at the edge of the river - my point and shoot camera is no good for firework pictures - so I just sat alone and enjoyed the show from the upper deck of the houseboat.

There are some other pictures of these and other birds in the Flickr side bar.