...are often good. Rain starting today shortly after dog walk and lasting until well after naps. But then the clearing—first a subtle lightening of the gloom, then the occasional shaft of bright, and then clear blue sky, and you start to ask yourself if it really was a rainy day.

But you are quite sure it was, and are thankful for it because the powder room got trimmed out and the staircase walls got their sixth coat of paint (searching for just the right color).

And when the sun finally broke clear, there was just enough time to realign the misalignment; and now we have 2/8ths of a boardwalk/pier.

And, as we were sitting down at the water's edge, admiring the stubby pier we noticed gulls working up and down the shore, delicately dipping their lower bills and scooping up tidbits (like skimmers). Apparently it is an early hatch of some kind of shad fly, although with the cold water, it seems far too early for the main explosion.