I'm a little late getting going this morning - this humid weather takes a toll on me, slowing me down to a snail's pace.  I had high hopes for relief from the heat when I heard it raining so hard last night, but turns out the rain just adds to the humidity.  The "crisp" weather we can expect after this will be a relief, but on the other hand, I'm not quite ready for real cold weather yet.

This was a busy weekend at the pond.  We stopped briefly at Bill and Diane Rossi's yesterday afternoon and there seemed to be still lots of activity on the water.  Some people were definitely taking their boats out of the water, so going for one last ski or ride, but others seemed to be just enjoying the last gasp of summer.

I had a message from Jim Bernotas this morning.  Jim has been busy cleaning debris from the upper narrows by the Cobb-Gruggel and Coffrin camps.  There are times when sailors must walk their boats through the narrows between the middle and big pond, and Jim realized there were shards of broken glass and other dangerous objects lurking on the bottom there, so he voluntarily has been using his diving skills to clean it us.  Here's his update: 
 

Hi Jane,

I did another sweep through the upper narrows this weekend and thought folks around the pond would like to see what I've been taking out of there. This is the fourth pail of debris that has been removed. What you don't see is all of the broken pieces in the bottom of the bucket. I thought this would be a quick job when I started, but I must say I'm amazed at the amount of glass on the bottom in that area. Looks like I'll be there a few more times to get it all. As I had mentioned at the fall meeting, none of this stuff is very recent.  I'm sure we don't have a current issue with boaters floating through the narrows smashing bottles. The most popular find are beer bottles from the "No deposit no return" era, followed oddly enough by Armour chipped beef jars, and then wine bottles. The only real oddities have been a few shards of tableware and an oar lock, no doubloons yet.  

Thanks again to the boaters for keeping an eye out for me.

Regards, Jim B.

I'm sure everyone joins me in thanking Jim for doing this.  It might be interesting to know how some of that stuff got there.  That narrows was dredged in 1984, and that makes me wonder if some of what Jim is finding was unearthed at that time.  It has certainly been a few years since a rowboat has gone through the narrows.  

Many thanks to Jim for his dedication to this unpleasant job.  

I had a message last night from Andy Rudin about this article that he found floating in the pond yesterday.  I have no idea what it is, although it looks like a child's toy or float of some kind, so it is no doubt important to someone and if you are the owner or know who might be, you can get in touch with Andy (684-3876) or just stop by his place at 403 Old Homestead Road.