June 1, 2000 Three days...
 

I have just had three days off. This is how they have gone.

I really had all the time in the world on Tuesday. I didn't know what I would do next. Since I had so much time to kill, I figured I would get started on planting my garden, and I would take care of my web page goals later. It was a nice day to drive to town. I bought plants. Chocolate mint, apple mint, rhubarb, tomatoes, squash and lettuce. I also did a little fruit tree research. They are much cheaper than I expected. I still have to decided what I want and where to put it though. As soon as I got home, I braved the black flies to dig a small plot and get three tomato plants in before dark. I also got in the mints, and the rhubarb as I already had places for them. I still had twenty plants to put in the ground, but all day Wednesday.

Pete called Tuesday evening. I had agreed to help him out with this roof. It is kind of a strange way to spend days off but... He needed some extra hands to get it done. I love to be able to help a friend. I love a change of pace, and $'s per hour  make neighborly acts all the nicer. Since the forecast had been for rain, I hadn't figured that we would do it soon. So it hit like a ton of bricks when he said, "I'll pick you up at seven." My first though was, "that is only ten hours from now." Then, "when will I get my plants in?"

I've been worried about my fish, Arizona. He had been sleeping a lot and it had been getting worse. I finally gave him some medicine for ick. I wasn't sure if that is what it was, but it helped. Overnight he was up and swimming like a normal active fish. Thing is, he still looked like he had been hit by a truck. He is normally a pale gold, but now he has splotches of red, bright orange, and white all over. And the biggest spot of white is on his tail. Waking up at six am and preparing for roofing, I took a good long, worried look at my friend Arizona.

Pete showed up at ten after. I used the ten minutes to dig a few more rows of the garden.

I love working with Pete and Jim. They are easy going and funny. Jim complains all the time. Sometimes it is just to be funny, and sometimes to get his way. It is fine when you learn to tell the difference, and when to joke back, and when to take it in stride. Pete has a lazy but rapier wit. When he says something funny or gives me the right look, I'll giggle out of my seat. I guess that seems like a funny image for two tough guys doing a roof. I was wondering how Kurtiss would fit in. If Jim is Pete's sidekick, and Kurtiss mine, then how would we mix? Side kick, and head dude, and two side kicks, and two head dudes. Ah, class politics on the  job site. Just remember I am a socialist anarchist, if anyone asks.

The roofing was fine. We finished one side and there wasn't much else we could start and finish so we came home. Still I got home at 4. Jim complained the whole way home, to be funny. Have I mentioned it is an hour drive each way with four of us in a king cab pick-up?

Wednesday was a busy evening. I didn't get any plants in the ground, but I got some work done.

I took another good long look at Arizona. He has never had a long tail, but it had seemed shorter. That is mostly what I was looking at that morning. I was sure that it had gotten shorter over the day. So I consulted my fish book. He doesn't have ick. He has fin rot. It's like fish leprosy or a really bad case of athletes foot, that just eats your foot away from the toes up. Poor Z! Of course it was too late to go get medicine. The book says I have to have a disinfectant, that I swab on the tail, and keep the fish out of the water for a minute. He'll be ok though as long as I get the medicine before the fin rots to the base. After that the fin will not grow back. It looks like I have a day or two.

To cap off Arizona's bad week, he almost got siphoned up the siphon tube as I was changing water as was required by the ick medicine. Poor Z.Poor, poor Z!

Thursday is today. It was same bat time, same bat channel for the roofing. Pete was here right on time. Which was good because I was was nervous for Z and wanted to get the roof done so I could go to the pet store tonight and get medicine. I had to be back here by seven, twelve hours later, to be able to get to the pet store, which is an hour away from here, by eight, PM.  With the drive to the roof and back, that gave us a ten hour window, to finish. On the drive Pete almost had Kurtiss convinced that a fallen birch log was an Adirondack Snow Snake that could grow up to 40 feet long. He gave me a look in the back seat while he drove. I giggled. How could Kurtiss not have known?

The black flies had been bad yesterday. Kurtiss wore a bug helmet, and Jim kept putting on bug spray. Pete and I  took the, "The-flies-don't-really-hurt-when-they-bite-so-why-bother" stance. I hate bug spray because it is nasty chemicals, and I can't see well enough through screen while on a roof. I don't know what Pete's reasons were. They were bad yesterday, but they were atrocious today. Pete and I didn't really feel them biting. Black flies, for those of you who don't know your biting bugs, feed by taking small bites out of you until you bleed and then swarming around and drinking your dripping blood. So yesterday, I had a few times when I would reach up and find running or crusted blood when I didn't really know that I had been bitten. Pete was worse. We kept telling him how bad he looked, with blood running from behind both ears, and clots all around his hairline. Yesterday was bad, but today was atrocious.

We had a lot more roof to do, but it went well. Still we didn't leave the roof until  5:45. It didn't look good for getting to the pet store.

By the time we left, we were all tired. Roofing is hard work under the best of conditions. For a time the sun was out full and it was so hot on the roof, I was burning my hands on the shingles. The bundles weigh eighty pounds and someone has to carry them up the ladder. The roof pitch was steep enough to make me nervous. On top of that you have to be somewhat precise. You have to pay attention to rows, and set each shingle right. And did I mention that the bugs were atrocious? Behind my ears,  the skin is still hot, and swollen from all the red bites. I can't imagine how Pete feels. The lengthy description of his state that follows is not for the faint of heart. It started off about the same as yesterday. By ten we were telling Pete how bad he looked with blood running from behind his ears, and clots all around his hairline. And it just got worse and worse. He was off  the roof at one point, and I asked him if he was OK. He said he had to get down because he couldn't see through the blood that had run on his glasses, then he joked about it and told us that Caribou lose half a pint of blood a day to bugs. This led Kurtiss and I to discuss, at some length, how much blood a caribou might have, how we might find out, and how much blood Pete had actually lost. Later we started up a refrain from yesterday, telling Pete he looked like he was from a horror movie. By the end of the day it was hard to look at him. There had been so much blood dried behind his ears a few times that his glasses had gotten caked on. I think I will end this here. It is important to note that Pete was in no serious danger and seemed to be a lot more bothered by the strain of roofing than the bites. Just leaving, Jim joked that if we got pulled over for speeding we would just say we were rushing Pete to the hospital. Kurtiss said it looked like Mike Tyson had gotten a hold of Pete.

We were too late to stop at the dump and get the paddle boat that I had seen earlier in the day, when we were dumping shingles. Maybe Pete will bring it back for me, next time he is over there. It was so pretty sitting on top on a roll off dumpster. I climbed up and looked it over. The rudder had come undone and there was one hole in the hull, but other than that she looked sea worthy. You know for all my cycling, and dreaming, I have never pedaled on water. Some day.

Jim complained the whole way home. Kurtiss and I were trying to decide if we should try to make it to Watertown. This set Jim off on a whole new tangent, complaining about how the truck might break down and we couldn't make any plans. But it made Pete remember that Bear might have some fish medicine. Bear, of course, being a man whose birth certificate reads Ed Lemcke, who lives around the corner from me. Bear is a big woodsy man. He hunts and fishes and will make very rude conversation, especially if drunk and prompted, at the bar on Saturday night. I am not sure how he earned his name. I heard a story once of him shooting a bear in his kitchen in self defense, but it was told by Bear while he was drunk, so I wasn't so sure. He does wear the bear claw necklace to prove it though. So this Bear, it seems keeps tropical fish, literally just around the corner from me. Who woulda thunk it? I though I was the only crazy fool with more than nine fish in the town of Number Four. I guess it shouldn't surprise me that much. He lives up to his teddy bear side as much as any man named Bear should. In the bar on Saturday night he will admit some reasons why he likes hugs from woman, that I won't share here, but he does have a cuddly side.

So I called Bear when I got home, and he had the stuff, just a mile away. Very good. We drove over and caught him just in the middle of putting out feed for the deer, that he loves to watch. He says the small buck will be in his freezer this winter. It is an interesting, but logical, breed of animal lover up here in Number Four. We saw his fish, five tanks full, and a beta that had hatched this morning. We sat on his porch awhile. I had to hang out because I didn't want to chase away the deer at the feeder. That would have been more rude than inviting myself to take a seat and chat. More Number Four Etiquette quandaries. I saw a downy woodpecker at the feeder. We didn't see the bears that come later at night, but we heard about them. And we talked about the parade and Unirondack/Number Four relations.

At dinner, at the bar, that Kurtiss and I felt was hard earned after ten hours of roofing, (besides Thursday night is all you can eat spaghetti night at the Old Saw Mill Inn, and  a Number Four social event), we got to hear Pete's family's reaction to his bloody self. Apparently his 13 year old daughter screamed when she saw him. He avoided his wife by getting quickly to the shower. She still had plenty to say about it. With all the blood washed off, you can see the bumps all over him. Those are the same bumps that I felt on my neck and ears when I was just in the shower. My hair rinsed out black after I shampooed, by the way. I have to share when I get that dirty. It makes me proud. I guess I have digressed. So Pete's wife basically says he was stupid for getting so bitten. He was more conciliatory , and not joking. He says he has never been bitten that bad, and will never do it again.  I think he meant it. Seeing him is enough to make me use bug spray once in awhile.

Pete had shared my fish concerns with his daughter. I had to tell them again of Arizona's plight, his diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment. I didn't actually get to swab antiseptic on Z. The stuff that Bear had just  goes in the tank. You'll have to stay tuned to see how Arizona does. Please send your well wishes, care of me.

I think that is the end of three busy days in Number Four.

Good Night,
MiXiM