Thanks for the invitation, Nancy, but I'm afraid my day is full. Weather permitting, I'll be in the garden from dawn until dusk. If the weather's bad, I'll be chopping plaster from my living room ceiling. I hate to say it, but on a summer weekend, the North Fork is my second least favorite place to drive on Long Island. Only the South Fork is worse.

Donn, I found this interesting read on our local fishing site. The article below describes competition for water between Long Island surfers and fishermen. By the way we fish for stripers in the Chesapeake Bay all year. There is a decent population of schoolies most of the year. The Delaware Bay is dead. Not as many fish in my neighborhood. I would love to see my son Patrick, age 3, hook into a nice fish. Maybe on his next mancation. Mancation = Men's Vacation! www.thebassbarn.com SURF-TURF WAR 'BOARDERS' VS. ANGLERS FOR L.I. SEAS By SELIM ALGAR (); KEEPING IT REEL: Surfers teem around the Montauk Point coast over this past weekend as an angler waits hopefully for the fish to bite. August 27, 2007 -- It's a totally gnarly dispute - pitting surfer dudes vs. surf fishermen. And the ticketing of a surfing legend's fianc for illegal wave riding on the north side of Montauk Point, L.I., has only further stoked tensions between the area's anglers and its burgeoning community of wave riders. The two groups are tussling over use of a small strip of shoreline in an area that prohibits surfing but allows surfcasting. The fishermen claim that surfers make it impossible for them to freely throw out their lines into the water and that the boarders also drive fish from the coveted fishing destination. Surfers, asserting a natural right to use the shore resource, have flouted the prohibition and benefited from lax enforcement for several years. But increased complaints from anglers have led to an increase in patrolling and ticketing of surfers in recent months. Longboarding legend Terry Simms, 48, of California, said he was hassled and trailed by a parks officer earlier this summer. His fiancée, Nancy Opitz, 38, said she had finished surfing in late July when a patrol car pulled up behind her vehicle and gave her a ticket. "Nothing like this happens in California," Opitz said of her citation, which wound up being dismissed on a technicality last week. "Montauk is not just a fishing town anymore." But the fishermen disagree. "This is really the last area we have left," said Jay Blatt of the Montauk Surfcasters Association. Blatt said that casting heavy lures and sharp hooks out into a crowd of surfers puts them in danger. "The two activities are not compatible in the same area," he said. Blatt said surfers have successfully petitioned to open up all other areas of Montauk for surfing and are gradually squeezing out fishermen. "This is a fishing town. It has been for centuries," he said. "But they think they should be able to surf any time, anywhere, anyplace. They're out to usurp us." Tom Naro, chairman of the Eastern Long Island Chapter of the Surfriders Association, said the fishermen are being alarmist. "We're not trying to exclude anybody," he said. "But no one user group should have the spot to themselves." Naro also dismissed Blatt's claims that surfers scare away fish and that they are regularly hooked by wayward casts. "You have to want to hook a surfer if you're going to hook him," he said, saying that the two activities can co-exist safely. New York State Parks spokesman George Gorman said a meeting is planned on the issue in the coming weeks and that the surfers are actively fighting to have the prohibition lifted. He noted an increase in organization on the part of East Coast surfers. "They grew up and became attorneys," he said. selim.algar@nypost.com

Here in eastern Massachusetts, we've escaped any significant difficulties. We are not in a flood zone at all and most trees around our property are not in a position to damage the house, maybe the garage, but just a small branch down near the back lot line so far. We are staying in and being productive which has been pleasant. I actually was hoping for more rain than we got. I think I might have gotten 3 or 4 inches only. The local ponds were looking a little low the other day and I have shrubs in the yard that have browned leaves, so the rain has been welcome. Hoping that others have fared as well. Trudi, the only tree that ever came down in our neighborhood in 30 years here, was a willow tree. I've always heard they come down easily. At least they weren't large enough to fall on your house. I imagine you are already thinking about what you are going to plant. :-)

Jody, one of the guys in our group works on gasoline pumps. He said, they don't make them much different than back then, but, the old ones didn't go any higher than 49 cents. Yup, they were OLD. ;) Moni