I suppose you're wondering ...

I suppose you're wondering why I'm sitting here in my undies in the middle of the day writing a blog.

Let me back up a bit.  

This morning I was going to take the dogs for a walk along the service road that runs off the Lucasville side road.  Been there lots of times.  It's one of our favourite spots.

You can imagine my surprise when my car decided to turn right at Beaverbank Road  two kilometres before my intended turning point.  Sometimes I just don't know WHAT my car is thinking; but since I was in the car and it was travelling at speed I felt it unsafe to jump out so decided to tag helplessly along to see where it was going.   

Apparently at some point in the past I had mentioned an abandoned radar station that was located 15 km up Beaverbank Road and my car had remembered that and felt that today's fabulous weather was a good reason to have an adventure.  Who am I to argue with a compact car with a mind of its own !

The radar station opened in 1950 to fill a pressing need to watch out for an imminent Soviet invasion.  By 1964 the technology was already out of date and the station was slowly shut down.  The only building remaining is the operations building in the top left corner of the image below and that was our destination on today's hike.

Roads and power poles that once serviced the people living there are the only other things that remain.  

 The long road that leads to the remaining ruins bears a warning.

Since "E.A." clearly wasn't deterred by the warning, neither were we.  

The remains of the operations building.

Some folk find graffiti bothersome but I like it.

Sometimes it raises some interesting questions: "Who is the wind?".   I guess that's as good a questions as "Who has seen the wind?".

"All Monsters are Human Cool"  could prompt a good discussion.

I wonder how they got up there to paint that flag ?

I usually try to get inside these buildings but in this case the "entrance" was fifteen feet off the ground and rather perilous to reach so sadly I had to settle for just seeing the outside.

And checking out some nearby ruined structures.

It was a very hot day and much of the walk revolved around finding ponds and puddles for the dogs to cool off in.  Turning to head back to the car I was struck by how far we had walked to reach our destination !

Yep.  Up over that hill and another kilometer past that.   Heading back we sometimes managed to find prettier side trails that took us off the blistering hot concrete.

And back to my car whose idea this whole outing had been, but who had opted to chill by the side of the road while the dogs and I went on our forced march.

And that brings us back to the present moment.

And me sitting in my underwear.

Do you wanna know why I am sitting here in my underwear ?

Tough luck -- I'm gonna tell you any way.

No wait.

I'll show you !

TICKS !    

I just took 14 Ticks off Sooki.  When I idly itched my belly button and found one gleefully hiding in there I pretty much stripped everything off and subjected myself to an inspection in my full length mirror.    My jeans are in the wash and the dogs have been checked again and again.

Stooopid car !

P.S.  I am a malicious person and press the ticks between pieces of Scotia tape.