Yep good old fishing. I have to say I'm okay talking the summer off. I worked hard during the spring semester, hit the river hard after that, and then had the Vineyard trip before settling in to
normal New Jersey summer life. We just got back from a week with the fam down in Cape May where I caught up on some rest in the cabana while those that dig the sun and the water did their thing.
One of my favorite pics of the week is the one of my son Sean and Eva. Nothing better than seeing your kids happy with a solid partner. That just about made my week.
Before I left I was in total Bob the Builder mode. I must say I'm impressed with myself, at least up to this point. My problem is completion, where my rate falls somewhere between 70- 90 % on most projects. Below is a view of the puzzle of 100 year old brass pipes and shut offs that can't be budged.
The push now is to be ready for the big family trip to Ireland coming next week. While we're gone we're having the tile guy come and lay the floor in the mud room and in a first floor
half bath. That's been a project as well getting the old floor up, skim coating the walls, moving some supply pipes, and getting ready for paint. These 100 + year old houses really test one's skills as everything is complicated and usually leads down a rabbit hole of additional work you didn't plan on doing. I still have to tackle the thin setting the Durock subfloor before we go.
Well there has been some some fishy stuff here and there but not at the water' edge. My buddy Abe Pieciak worked on making this tail in honor of Bob Popovic's and I was lucky enough to score shirt #1.
Abe's the artist, fisherman, and just all around great guy from Martha's Vineyard. Like I always said Bobby was the link between so many good people, and if it weren't for him, I wouldn't have met Joe Carey, and then in turn, Abe. Abe has all kinds of cool art swag on his site HERE. He keeps pushing me to take a ride up for some Menemsha jetty albies in the fall and that is something I would definitely do. Albies on foot yes, albies from a boat, I'm just not a fan.
I think the only reason I wouldn't take the trip up north is I'm unsure of my new work schedule. I'm taking my shit show on the road, leaving Essex County College after four years, and landing 10 minutes away at Capital Health School of Nursing in Trenton.
I've been in the new hire mode since coming back from the Cape with a physical, background checks, uploading license and documents, and yesterday my first staff meeting. It'll take some time to get acclimated but so far so good. Great staff and hospital based! I'll get more into what hospital based means when I get going.
And then there's always "Health is Wealth". Yesterday I had an appointment back at Mt. Sinai where I underperformed during a breathing test. But I think not to worry as you can cut the air recently with all this humidity which just kills my lungs and breathing. It's the countdown to October 8th and the repeat chest CT to see which fork in the road I'm heading down.
Fall will be here before you know it. The bays and rivers are full of YOY baitfish which will make their migrations out and south. Either shad or herring in the river, or bay anchovies, silversides, mullet, and peanut bunker in the bays, things will start moving come late August. There's been some Spanish mackerel starting to show off the beaches and the boat guys have been out on the tuna grounds, and closer, for a month or so. I might take some buds offer up on a tuna trip before the fall. I've been hearing the fluke fishing has been good this summer and I'd like to get down there for first light at least once this summer.
And for the hunters in the bunch below is a pic my sister Jessica sent me from her yard in Middletown. Three bucks in velvet chewing and putting on weight before they get all horned up and lose their minds during the fall rutt. It almost looks like they are hanging out in a deer preserve.
It' time to put the respirator back on and get to sanding or take another trip to Home Depot to drop another $100. But I've been tight because I'd rather have money in my pocket to have a Guiness in Killarney next week then extra spackle, PEX, or sandpaper laying around in Titusville.