(no subject)

Kuma and I went to the lake shore yesterday! He's never been one for swimming, but he did step into the waves and get his paws wet.

I brought the rubber raft that I picked up from someone on Freecycle a year or two ago and had never gotten 'round to using. I plunked myself down in the sand at the water's edge with the dog and spent about fifteen or twenty minutes blowing it up. Success! It holds air! The tag inside says it's rated for two people (at a hundred and fifty pounds each) and a correctly positioned load of one hundred pounds of gear. Awesome; it'll hold me and some stuff easily!

I've always loved the idea of floating on water, being in a boat. The idea of being supported by the water fascinates me. I love the section of David Macaulay's The Way Things Work about buoyancy, and how building a wall around your raft would keep the river gods from seeing how big your cargo was and moving away from under it out of fear. *giggles* (Actually, that whole book endlessly fascinated pup-Stormdog).

There's also the thrill of imagining what's down under the water. As I was saying to faeriecat a little while ago, the idea of sunken ships, missing cargo, or underwater cities, is enthralling. I've wanted a sailboat ever since I can remember.

I probably won't have one of those anytime soon, but now that I have a workable raft, I think I'm going to have some fun with it this summer! I just need to get a life jacket and a paddle, and I can go play (close to shore!) in Lake Michigan, or circumnavigate the little lake at the park in Pleasant Praire, Lake Andrea. *bounces* Oh, this is so exciting!

I got Kuma to get in the raft while it was on shore, hoping that I could lie in the shallows in it with him. But once I started dragging it into the water, he got nervous and scrambled out, landing his fore-paws in a few inches of water, with his hindquarters stuck over the rubber. Poor pup; he's not so mobile these days. *sighs* It's probably better to leave him out of my boating plans anyway; his claws might puncture the rubber.

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So weekend plans. Let's see. Animè tonight with serinthia. Andrea has plans for some of the weekend, but mine is fairly open. I'm going to work on cleaning the house some more, and hopefully go boating! *giggles* Man is that raft hard to fit in a car, even half uninflated. And it takes forever to get the air out of it!

(no subject)

Whee; on hold with Dell! Apparently a couple of our laptops are still registered in the name of our reseller, so when I call for service and tell them what company I'm with, it doesn't match the name the laptop is registered too.

So, I've been selling a bunch of stuff on Ebay. Various bits and pieces; mostly work kruft, but some of my own stuff I don't need anymore too. Half is going toward paying for school for me, and half is set aside for the lens I want; this one.

The images you can produce at that wide an angle are just awesome. Take a look at these two. Those are the kind of pictures I want to be able to make of the interiors of the abandoned buildings I visit. (That's not the same lens; he shoots Nikon. But just so you get the idea.)

I have the money for it! But...with moiracoon as worried about her employment situation as she is (and justifiably so)...I keep thinking I'd better hold off on this right now. Just in case. *sighs* Puppy wants. But I can be good. Besides; I have every confidence in my dear one that, even if she does end up looking for a new job at some point, it won't take her long to find one.

In the meantime, I'll just collect a little extra interest.