Is Ron out in Ducky??

[Mugwump]

..somewhere??....seems he mentioned a yearly Memorial Day weekend get together...??

[Ron Sower]

I'm back and alive still!  A couple excursions behind me now.
I went to Virginia. Flew into Reagan National. Flight was good. Got in around 10pm. Took me about 2 hours to get my leased car straightened out. I won't even go into that. I actually arrived at my motel room outside of Richmond around 3:10am! Next morning up around 10am then drove to Roanoke to visit my friend Rich Crites. He and I taught together for 7 years. Great times back then. Rich was really in rough shape, but about what I expected. Reminded me a lot of my Dad in his last few months with cancer. I had no idea that my visit would make him as happy as it did. I don't know how many times in the 2 days I was there that he was so happy I came all the way to see him. We talked a lot about his grandkids, and the rest of the family. We took a drive up on the Blue Ridge Parkway and just sat there in the car listening to the silence and birds and looking out over the Shenandoah Valley. We spent a lot of time in field trips with our students on the Parkway. I also got to know his wife a good bit. She's a lovely lady, his second wife. It was tough to leave him.

Leaving him I went to the Richmond area where my son's family and my sister live. I had a great time with them. My son wasn't there. He was in New Orleans on business, but the grandkids and I stayed pretty busy. The middle one, Elijah, is 9 and when I'd asked him earlier in the year if he thought he'd like to collect stamps, he said he'd like to try it. We had a great time together learning the beginner stuff, because I took him about $100 catalog value of some decent stamps which I hope he will grow to appreciate in the future years.

Getting home I had several house deals to get worked up before leaving for the cousin meetup trip to Twisp, WA. Yes, Mugs, Lucy and I went off for 5 days in Ducky with the Burban pulling us there! Great, lazy (for the most part) time. However I did have 4 offer s come in on homes I have listed. Internet service was poor, but managed to get things covered until I got home. After getting home I spent about 3 solid days working on getting the offers into contract. Almost there now with all of them.

Not doing much fish stuff at the moment, but I did have a young guy give me a potfull of zebra danios and a few white clouds today. I put them out in a 55g that is 1/2 of rainwater, daphnia and mosquito larvae. The larvae were gone tonight and the zebras were diving into the moss clumps in the bottom and frantically swirling around. So I guess this will be my summer breeding project. Any ideas on how to get the most fry to survive while leaving the parents in the tank. It's mostly bare bottom with moss clumps. Should i try to cover the bottom with moss?

G'night all. Good to be back with you!

[Mugwump]

..It's really nice to see you back, Ron. I'm sorry to hear about your old friend's illness. You did, as good friends do, gave him some happiness and peace of mind in his later days.

..and wow!...you have been busy travel'n.. Those trips in 'Ducky' sure are relax'n I'll bet? It makes me wish that we had one too. We could grab a few g'kids at a time and show them some the wonderful sights that exist around our region.....or do some serious bass fishing somewhere..

I'm not sure how many survivors you'll get with the danios in that tank....Dennis and Bill will have the better answers....