Friday, June 28, 2019     -     Poplar Grove Campsite – Ottawa        

I was feeling a bit fatigued and retired early. Then came bright flashes of lightening followed by sharp cracks of thunder. Gusts of wind blew rain through the vents and windows. The rain pounded down. Our electricity wobbled upon a near strike. We went back to DC for an hour.  The converter quit. In the morning I reset breakers, unplugged and replugged the 30-amp main outside. No tell-tale hum. Run through the process once again – you know, if you can’t figure things out try the same thing a few hundred times thinking it might just work one of those times. Second time through there’s a hum from the converter. All is good, for the time being.  Yet one more thing to keep an eye on.

I’m up at six having had a relatively decent night’s sleep. The sun is shining low in the morning sky, golden and syrupy. A few birds stretch their throats. There’s a ring of itchy, red bumps all around my left ankle.  It must have been left out during the night. My personal mosquito, well fed through the night, has found some little nook within which to retire. I suspect he’s overfed, has a belly ache, and is too fat to fly. Perhaps he’s too fat to crawl into his hidey hole. I refrain from giving him a name because I put a warrant out for his capture, dead or alive. No trial, execution by squishification.

The weather for Ottawa shows 26 degrees and cloudy, rising to 28 by 3 PM with a 40% chance of rain. The weather station shows humidity as 61% but I’m pretty sure they forgot to put the 1 in front – 161%. It’s sweltering. There’s also a couple of interesting metrics for 1. Mosquito Index, currently ‘mild’, and 2. Sweat Index, currently ‘mild’.  I’d hate to think what the conditions would be like if we were at ‘high’ or ‘extreme’. 

View toward our campsite. Water slides defunct.

Not much more to report. It’s getting on toward 11 AM and some of us are heading out from the campsite.  We’ll see what thrills that brings.

Back from a lovely Indian lunch with my friend Eileen. Always nice to catch up. Halfway back our old friend lightening and rain made an appearance.  Back at camp, we hang about for a few minutes before the storm catches up.  It continues to rain. Seems very tropical really.