Fire In The Sky

Last night we had a pretty bad thunderstorm. About an hour later, after it had stopped, the sun was setting and the sky was still very cloudy. It looked very eerie as it was sort of copper looking outside from the sun shining through the clouds. Of course I went outside and snapped some pictures of the sky. All I could think of was Deep Purple's "Smoke On The Water". Especially the line "Fire in the sky." That is exactly what it looked like. It was one of the coolest looking skies I had ever seen. Anyway, here are the pictures.

Rain rain rain

With all this rain I don't have to worry about watering the garden. In fact, it may be getting too much water. I am getting some peppers and a few tomatoes. The basil is coming nice as is the cilantro. If the tomatoes get too much water then they can get too much inside the tomato, then when you cut it open, it is full of water. This happened to some of them last year. Anyway, here are some pictures of the garden now. You can see how some of the tomato plants are 3 times the size from when we planted them.


Peppers, basil and cilantro.












Tomatoes. The American flag is the site of where we buried Nemo, inbetween the two garden beds.

New fish

We buried Nemo Friday night and Saturday we were at Petsmart to get a new fish. Baileigh wanted a goldfish so we had to get a bigger tank. We went with a 10 gallon tank with filter and the whole set up- minus the heater. We started off getting one fish but figured the tank was big enough and she really wanted two so....we got two.


The all orange fish is named Goldie and the orange and white one is Nemo II, but we just call him Nemo.

I'd rather get a couple of fish then a dog or cat. Actually, I like to watch fish swim around. I may even one day get a heater and some tropical fish. I wonder if a small striped bass would fit in the tank. :-)

$10 for a bike ride?!?!?!

I decided to go for a bike ride today and wanted to go Chessequake State Park and go on the wooded trails. When I got there there was a line to get into the park. As I was waiting for my turn to enter I noticed the people in front of me look as if they were exchanging money with the person in the booth. I thought there is no way they can be charging to get in the park. Sure enough they were. $10!!!!!!!! As if we don't pay enough in taxes for the privilege to live in this corrupt, criminal run state, now they want to charge $10 a car load to get into a park!! Hey Corslime, are you on crack!!!!

I cannot see paying $1 to get into this park let alone $10. I mean, I wanted to ride my bike for an hour or so. Even still, what do you get for the $10? It's a park. I'll be damned if I am going to give Corslime, the biggest crook of them all, any more of my hard earned money than I have to.

So instead of biking on wooded trails, I went to the Henry Hudson Trail in Keyport. Albeit not a wooded "mountain bike trail", it is nice to ride. It is paved and goes from Aberdeen to Atlantic Highlands. There is a southern portion that goes from Freehold to Marlboro and Aberdeen, but I have never ridden that part. There has to be a place to ride a mountain bike on wooded trails that is free. But then again this is New Jersey so probably not.

Goodbye Nemo

Last night I had to tell Baileigh that her pet Betta fish Nemo died. She loved this fish so much and it broke my heart to tell her. She was very upset as she cried while saying goodbye to her beloved fish. I would be lying if I said I didn't get teary eyed and choked up watching her.

Today we buried him in the back yard by the gardens. We put an American flag in the ground along with the two plastic plants that were in his tank. After we put them in she said "daddy, I just want to stand here for a minute". Again it broke my heart.

When we went inside she then asked "When can I get a new fish? I want a goldfish and name him Goldie". I guess Everybody deals with grief their own way. So, needless to say tomorrow we will be off to the pet shop to look at goldfish. Hey, it's better than her wanting a dog.

Goodbye Nemo. Baileigh will miss you and always love you. Come to think of it, I will miss him too.