We went to the lake this weekend for some rest and relaxation. On Friday we left at 5 pm (not good timing) and had to drive down Highway 280 to get there. For those of you who do not live here, 280 was once this highway that people used to travel on, but then the developers came and put down a red light every few hundred yards for about 20 miles, so now people use the road to waste a lot of time and gasoline sitting still. I won't complain too much since I don't use the road but a few times per year, avoiding it like the plague. However, I do wonder why developers are exempt from taking responsibility for upgrades to increased infrastructure needs that result from building mega-mansion treeless gated neighborhoods? I make some dumb mistakes from time to time, but THANK GOD that I was not stupid enough to buy a house out there.

Once through that, the trip became relaxing. The lakehouse is in such a quiet area. It has tons of windows, but no window treatments, because when you do not have neighbors blasting 30,000 watts of "ambient baseball field mood lighting" at your house, and dogs barking every second 24 hours a day, one does not need window treatments. So, I caught up on some needed rest that I cannot obtain at my own home due to inconsiderate neighbors (can you feel the anger bursting from your screen?): 11 hours on Friday night, and 10 hours on Saturday night. Like a rock.

We took Ruby on a walk to explore the area (Coosa County) which was inhabited by agricultural Indians as late as the 1830s. This field below has a lot of white quartz arrowheads just laying around on top of the dirt. We picked up a few of them.

Ruby likes to go on walks, but it was too hot outside for her.

So she lays down, mid-walk, on the dirt in a feeble attempt to cool down. I had to remind her a few times that she is a DOG, and that dogs like to go on walks outdoors. At least other dogs do.

I'm not sure what this flower is, but it's pretty.

We also caught some crickets and grasshoppers to use as bait for fishing. We had already tried various fake baits - worms, spinners and other lures - and the fish weren't biting.

The fish liked the live bait, but they were little pickpockets who nibbled them away to nothing.

Ruby doesn't like boat rides if the engine is running, but we took her on this trip and used the trolling motor to get around. Eventually she discovered that there were bugs hopping around inside the box, and she went nuts trying to get to them.

Ruby had a good day and passed out when we got back to the house. She loves her ball very, very much.

After her nap, she found some shoes on the floor and tried them on, but they were a little too big for her.

We didn't catch any fish this time. The water surface temperature was 90 degrees (it felt like a hot tub when we went for a swim), and fish don't like to bite when the water's that warm. Or so I was told, instead of "you suck at fishing". Ha.