Blackbird crapping in the dead of night
2002-08-20

Ahhh, I treated myself to 10 minutes extra sleep this morning. It meant I had to scramble and of course it rained for the first time in forever so I was a couple of minutes late, but it was worth it.

Neil called last night and wanted to know if we wanted to go out and watch the Monday night races. I said I'd check with M.E. She was beat and wanted to nap. I did too, but I couldn't sleep so I went. I had to drop off some papers at the club any way. I planned to be home early.

It was a beautiful night, good breeze for racing, even better breeze for motoring around with a Corona. Only three of us showed up, Neil, Johnny the chin and I. We went from mark to mark just watching and talking. Niel is looking to buy a new 47 foot boat. I'm not sure why he needs a boat that big, but he can afford it so....

As we came in from racing, we swung by my boat and up in the top set of spreaders were two cormorants. They are black birds that have only two purposes in life, to eat and then to crap out everything they eat. In a few hours they can completely ruin a whole boat. I was pissed. We spent almost an hour Sunday cleaning up their mess and they were back. I had Neil drop me off on the way by. They didn't move. I took one of the lines and flipped it at them. They looked at best mildly annoyed. The second flip was much better, I almost took one of thems beak off. They left taking their crap to somebody elses decks. I ran some trash bags up the lines so they would flap just above the place where they were sitting. It is a temporary measure, but I had already called my rigging shop and asked them to put bird spikes up. Bird spikes are little plastic spikes that sit across all the flat surfaces on the mast. There is no place for the birds to land and if they try they get a very pointy and unpleasent surprise. It is kind of expensive, but after you've spent 2 hours trying to clean up this foul smelling cement like waste, it is worth any price. I got back to the club and Charlie Brown was there. I had one beer with him and headed home. I was in by 9:00.

M.E. didn't get much of a nap. Puppy was in a playful pain in the ass mood and tormented her all night. We were both asleep by 10:30. As usual, it wasn't enough. I still need a nap. Tonight I have the membership meeting for Mike and Claudette. Should be a piece of cake. I'll get there early and get a slip for the boat for the night and get set up for racing so I don't have to rush tomorrow. Today I'm playing in the chemicals at work. Wish me luck!

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