How do you spell ‘relief’?

With the weather guessers saying temps were going to be in the 90’s today, I set my alarm for a pre-dawn wake up so I could get out painting those posts in the cool (?) of the morning.  It was muggy and warm as I headed out to try to finish up the posts along Bruce Boulevard.

As I stopped for this photo along the way, I wondered if any color would show up in the fogginess, and it didn’t.  I didn’t change this photo to black and white in Picasa; this is what it actually looked like this morning.  Kind of eerie.  My goal was to get 20 posts painted before the temps became too oppressive, and I almost made it.

With the heavy water laden air, not many birds were moving about.  I spotted this young bald eagle perched on a dead tree waiting for things to dry out.

This is not the best picture, but I wanted to lighten it up a bit to see if I could determine the bird’s age.  I think this is one of the youngsters from this year’s hatch of bald eagles.  If you look real closely, you might see the the stripe of yellow/orange along the back edge of its mandibles (beak parts).  This area is called the cere, and is a wax-like swollen area at the base of the bill.  Many young birds have this characteristic.  So, that’s why I think this bird hatched this year. 

At one point, as I was busily painting away, staff member Gina pulled in behind me at the Egg Lake access and needed to get in.  As I approached her vehicle, my glasses fell apart and one lens popped out in my hand.  Did you ever try to fix your glasses without having a second pair to see them with?  Impossible!  Apparently the screw holding the lens in had come out.  Gina was able to give it a temporary fix by twisting a long staple through the screw hole, so I continued along my way.

I disturbed this walking stick at one of the gates I was painting.  I tried to look up what kind it was, but didn’t have any luck.

Just as I was finishing up post #19, the lens popped out of my glasses once again.  That meant I had to search around in the weeds for it with only one eye. 

After finally finding it, I decided that was it for me today.  A trip to the Wal-Mart in Detroit Lakes was on the docket for this afternoon.  They fixed it lickety split, and while there I decided to get my hairs cut.  After  a stop to get some wine, I headed home.  By this time, the temps had risen to 97*!  That’s hot for northern Minnesota.

I was more than happy to hang up my keys when I got back and enjoy the AC.  Only problem was, the refuge keys I’ve been issued were not in my pocket.  Whenever I leave the refuge I put those keys in my pocket in case I have to unlock the gate to the compound after the worker bees have gone home for the day.  Uh-oh!  I’ve never lost a set of keys I’ve been issued.  I searched the rig from top to bottom, but I was sure I had taken them with me this afternoon.  I even checked my painting pants pocket to no avail.  Could they be in the Wal-Mart or liquor store parking lot?  I was beside myself, but there seemed nothing to do about it.

I fed Emma her supper, and went outside to sit with her for a while in the 95* temperature.  As a last resort, I decided to check the car.  Viola!  There were the keys laying in the driver’s bucket seat.  Some people spell relief R-O-L-A-I-D-S, but I spell it KEYS-IN-HAND!

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy