Starvation Island

We finally got out kayaking. I had been admonished by my friend, Laura S. (also known as Mrs. T) because I had yet to be kayaking this year. Well, wouldn't you know, but the very next day I got a call from our friend Jim who asked if we wanted to go kayaking on the Navesink River Saturday evening. So the Corp of Adventure consisting of Jim, his wife, Alice, their son, Mike, Anne and I met at Lafayette Park in Rumson and launched our vessels. We paddled down the river and under the Oceanic bridge towards parts unknown. The river used to go right out into the ocean without having to make a left turn and go around Sandy Hook. The opening has long ago silted over and now Sea Bright pretty much sits where the opening was. That's good because I didn't want to get carried away paddling and suddenly find myself in the North Atlantic as darkness approached (we launched at 6:30 p.m.). We passed by the residents of Rumson (I'm sorry, the river front residents of Rumson) enjoying the summer evening on the lawns and several boats and skidoos passed us.

We could see it in the distance and as we got closer we could discern some sort of structure on the land. Starvation Island is a small, uninhabited (so they say) island in the Navesink where the students from the Monmouth Boat Club sail during their summer lessons, take a break and then sail back. A nice day's adventure for new, young sailors. We drew closer still and I, using my acute skills of history and seamanship recognized that the structure we saw was clearly a pirate stronghold. It consisted of a rough lean-to with a pile of fire wood and something that looked like a rustic trash can. I suggested that we circumnavigate the island. The men suggested that I go first. The ladies were still far up the river leisurely chatting and occasionally dipping their paddles in the water. So, I started out, cautiously, keeping a low profile and noiselessly as possible got around the island. We didn't actually see any pirates, but I thought I could see some movement of the reeds and grasses and hear a murmuring from within. We got back to our launch site in the twilight and were glad we had escaped the clutches of the pirates of Starvation Island.

My, My, How Time Flies

I have been reprimanded by a couple of followers of this blog for not blogging. Well, I am guilty. Something must have happened since May that was worthy of blogging about. We had a picnic here for the Matawan Memorial Day Parade, I had surgery on my face that is healing nicely, we celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary and summer has already arrived. Tonight we await thunder showers that never seem to come. [There is now some light rain.] For a couple of weeks, the prediction has been for rain or showers in the late afternoon, but they never materialize. I was waiting to paint our garage doors for over a week after I primed them because of the threat of rain.

We took a trip to Rochester to visit family and to look at a house that is supposedly for sale. The owners showed it to us very enthusiastically and we liked it, but we can't seem to find out if it's for sale. Oh well. The thought of possibly selling our house has motivated us to start cleaning out, something that we have been doing gradually and talking about for some time. What do we do with all the stuff? Where did it all come from anyway? We have concluded that we certainly don't need it all or even most of it, but most of it is also not stuff we would want to consign to the garbage heap. Anne thinks we should have a garage sale. I'm not sure that's worth the trouble. You have to organize and label everything, sit there while people come around looking for little glass dishes and bowls and then make a pittance for your efforts. We have an old Coast Guard uniform of my fathers from World War II, old wool bathing suits from who knows when, a World War II gas mask (I'm keeping that), a thing that is used to convert 8mm movies to VHS tape, an 8mm projector, fishing poles, reels, tackle (what happened to my promise to myself to go fishing when I retired?), scuba fins, weights, masks, cameras, photographic equipment, oil painting supplies, watercolor painting supplies, easels, paintings, pictures, picture frames, record albums, tapes, CDs, books, books and more books, not to mention trains, trains and more trains and the list goes on.

So, you see what I mean. The task of sorting through all of these sacred possessions is a daunting one. Even if we stayed here, we knew we wanted to eliminate a lot of stuff, but the thought of moving to a smaller house makes the job mandatory. Oh shaw, I'm getting myself depressed. But, I guess it's good to know that I won't get bored any time soon.

I should put a new picture or two on here, however, that always seems to present some difficulties as the pictures don't seem to want to go where I want to put them. I think I'll do that another time, but for all of my fans, please take note that I have, in fact, updated my blog.