We have had rare north winds this week. My friends and I have worked hard for a total of two trout. Five of us spent four hours today going all over Aransas bay and came back empty handed.
The summer crowds are upon us and, as usual stressing the facilities.
The pool folks have been out the last two days to try to improve the pool conditions. They found and repaired an air leak today that they hope will help. They say there are just too many people using the pool for the filtration system we have. It could mean that we need more than three days a week service also.
I talked to a man who was here today to give Rob a bid for security cameras. Last evening my son was on the pier at 2:30 am when an unsavory character asked him for a ride to his house in town. Despite his apprehensions, he did give him a ride. What the guy was doing here, I have no idea. There have been the usual late night arrivals from the area who come here to fish. I sure would have liked to have seen the security booth built and manned.
Lights are out all over the complex. Only two of the eight on the tennis court are still working. Only one pool light still works. Both lights are out between my place and 108.
We had a lot of thunder and lightning yesterday, but not enough rain to wet the sidewalk. I have been watering around the buildings with well water most of the last two days. No one is turning on the sprinklers and the grass is really dry.
The new loads of sand are now blowing all over the place. I've never seen so much sand in the parking areas and on the sidewalks. Someone I had not seen before was shoveling some of it today. He has a long way to go and cars parked all over the place does not help.

Here is a note from Jim Sikes. What an accomplishment! Congratulations Jim! The beautiful picture he sent did not copy into the blog. If you contact Jim, I'm sure he will send you a copy of the picture.

I hope you won't think me vain, but I just have to tell a few friends.

"SPIN"; silk painters international, is having it's international convention in Santa Fe this summer. There will be people there from a dozen different countries. There will be an art show made up of paintings from these countries. They will only select about 30 paintings. To be included in this selection is one of the highest honors you can receive from the field of silk painting. It is a juried exhibit, meaning that three judges from the field of professional art painters and teachers will select and judge the paintings. I submitted two of my painting for consideration.

I never really believed that they would pick one. I saw the paintings at the last exhibit and I can tell you that I didn't belong with that group. Boy, they were good. Anyway, I got a letter Monday from SPIN in Maryland. They informed me that BOTH my paintings were selected for exhibit. I couldn't believe it. I just sat there on my 4 wheeler, down by the mail boxes, and cried with joy. I wish HELEN could have been there. So, that's it. Out of hundreds of entries, two of mine will be on exhibit at Santa Fe Community Collage Fine Arts Center July 31 through August 6. I will be there for the full time enjoying classes and other activities, including the Santa Fe Opera. If my muscle disease would just go away for that week, I would be very happy.

I am sending a bad photo of one of the paintings selected. It is not the photo I sent to the jury, That one was much better. It is 2'x3' in size. It is on 10 momme Chinese silk, with silk dyes. No paint. All of the smallest butterflies are painted on the back side of the silk, with an ink emphasis added to part of the wing on the front. I have never seen this done before. Maybe that's what caught there attention. Who knows? The other one is even bigger, 3'x4'.

Regrets for bending your ear.........Jim and the furballs

Roofing repairs began last week. I talked to Frank Berryman of Berryman Roofing out of Ingleside. He said he is doing an evaluation of our roofing situation for Rob. We need to see at what point we cease repairs and redo the whole roof. By Tuesday afternoon his crew had cleaned up all the broken tiles from 602 and 604 and replaced them. They removed some of the rotten plywood and replaced it with new wafer board.
Today's Express-News newspaper has an article that says the trout fishing has really turned on in Copano and Aransas Bays. I can attest to that. Last Tuesday I made a quick trip to Mock Reef before I had to leave for San Antonio. The trout were big and hungry. The largest was 21 and 1/2 inches long and hit a DOA lure.

Last week's storms seem to have helped the fishing. This weekend was great weather with light winds. You had to take a number at the fish cleaning station. Lap reef in Copano seems to be the hot spot. I caught some at what we call "the pipe".
The storm did bring down some more roof tiles. A second row has fallen off from 602 and a new slide has started above 604. We had six inches of rain on Thursday morning.
Another sewer problem flooded from between 201 and 108 to run onto the beach and all the way around in front of the 700 building.
We had a big crowd this weekend, but the good news was that parking was not a problem. Either the rental office is issuing fewer permits or Paul is turning some away who should not be here.