The benefit of batteries

I write this from a small one-room cabin in Maine. If you do the Google Maps thing and type in 04431, you'll see Craig Pond (satellite view is better tan map view). I'm on the NE side. It's grayish right now and a roll of thunder just rumbled on for a good 30 seconds. Seymour looked at me, concerned. This cabin was built in 1973-78 by
Maynard Sawyer, who was about 93 when he sold it to the camp, in 1994. It's quite a place. He didn't actually do much building until 1975, but he set the foundation in '73 in order to get it grandfathered against the law that required one to build at least 50' from the lake. This sits about 12' from the shore. It's almost creepy. Today I wiped down the yellow pine countertops and shelves in this 14'x22' space, swept the floor, set up the non-working hand pump (looks good...), assembled and wiped down the various kerosene and Aladdin lamps, and rehung some eye-hooks to hold the 3'x5' windows open in such a way that I can close the two facing the lake when the storm rolls in (cedars protect the other three sides) and keep the other two windows open. This affords me lots of storm sound inside (lovely!) and keeps most of the rest of the storm outside. The frogs are chirping. In a few weeks they'll be croaking much more deeply.

Speaking of frogs, I bought one the other day. It's a big "solar" bullfrog, glass-like plastic, with an LED inside. It charges in
sunlight and glows 8-15 hours at night. Well, it's 5pm right now, and the critter is glowing.

And now it rains. Perfect. I have my guitar, good books, candles, and semi-cold beer. I believe I'm in for the night.