John F figures out the clam dig

Same place as yesterday, but a much warmer day. poor digging in the wet sand where the waves wash in--very few clams telling us they were home. I'd brought the shovel today b/c the clam gun seemed to mangle most of the clams. I'd had a much gentler dig before using the shovel.

I walked away from the surf & dug on the ocean side of some "shows" , but found no clams down to 15-18 inches. John F had it figured it out. Dig right on top of the show. Most likely, the clam will be far below the depth of the shovel blade. You might see a squirt of mud if the clam is close, if so, you should grab it (preferably with a gloved hand). Dig deeper, putting the blade in the bottom of the hole & scraping dirt up with the blade. As the blade goes across the hole, it may graze the clam--grab it. After about 10-15 inches, get on hands and knees, dig a few more inches. Feel around the bottom of the hole until your fingers sweep across the clam. Find and firmly grab the clam's neck with thumb and finger. Slowly extract it from the sand. I haven't lost any clams--they don't seem to dig much.

Vern H. confirmed the situation at Grayland--no shows in the wet sand zone

Back up

Computer crash. HD failure Tuesday p.m. Computer warned me after numerous blue screens. Did I heed? Lost work done on tax returns. Quicken data was backed up through April 16.

I removed Hard drive, placing into other computer, which ran a chkdsk that took 19 hours. Multiple file sectors were labelled unreadable. After all that, the entire disk was unreadable.

Yesterday I went to best buy to buy a replacement 320 GB drive--cost $65. Windows XP installed in about 3 hours, including the drivers for the network adapter, the video card & sound card.

Clam digging at Roosevelt Beach: pretty poor in the surf, taking us 1:40 to get 15 clams. Cold wind from the NW and rain too. Yecch.

Sail Sand Point outrigger race

Course change: This year race started at Sail Sand Point going south to the 520 bridge and back--ten miles total.

Picked up the canoe from Bill Anderson and raced it with Vern H. Unsure as to which iako was front/back, we returned to shore to switch them, during which the race started. We caught a few boats, including Bill A and Carl C on the south side of the 520 bridge. Then they capsized. We stopped and tried to backpaddle to get in position to help. The pilot from another double jumped in to help right their craft. They got underway and we escorted them to the turnaround point. Then the race between them and us began. Now running with the wind, we found we could pass far fewer boats. Apparently, some could surf the small waves much better than we could. We caught a few waves allowing us to pull away from Bill and Carl. We finished about five yards ahead of them.

I slept almost all the way back to Aberdeen.

Sail Snad point race

Course change from Sail Sand Point to the 520 bridge and back.

Everything seems to be about paddling

Friday, April 1. It started as a day to paddle. a very gentle breeze from the east, and some medium thick clouds above. Keith L. came to the house, got his canoe atop my car. On the water at Cozzi by 8:50. We cruised upstream for about 30 min and turned back. Keith said he was too old for competition--I didn't let him get away with that and replied, "No way, you're very competitive. If you were in the same boat as I, I wouldn't stand a chance." Shortly after turning, the rain began. It started light progressed to medium but without a dry spot between raindrops. We got off the water very wet.

Sat April 2. Did it rain? I tink so. I watched the first 3 episodes of Dexter and rode rollers for about 1:48 of that--then quit--useless show. I can't think much beyond, "I'm hot" while cycling inside. mixed bread dough.

Sun April 3. Bleach is great. All right I read Barrons--boring. sprayed some bleach on the concrete wall, then looked at the house siding where I'd sprayed before. The green algae had turned clear. Bleach is great. Rack on the car. Boat on the rack. on the river for 40 minutes. Home. Whoops, bread dough had proofed for 3(!) hours. Baked bread. turned out ok in the 9" pan--dome shaped 3.375" tall and nice crumb with holes up to .75". Tuesday's bread came out discoid, I assume from dropping it into the pan--that's just not right.

The tomatoes in the basement under the kitchen have been dead for weeks, maybe months. Lights have been on them, but ten of the thirty have burned out. What a waste of $ on those LED lights. Really stupid to be an early adopter, when the regular metal halide and sodium lights are so cheap. Trimming them to the ground. now.