Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate
The first one said, "Oh my, it's getting late!"
The second one said, "There are witches in the air,"
The third one said, "But WE DON'T CARE!"
The fourth one said, "Let's run and run and run,"
The fifth one said, "I'm ready for some fun!!"
"Ooooh," went the wind
and
OUT WENT THE LIGHT
and the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight...

(A song I sang for many years with my elementary music classes during the Halloween season.)

October 31, 2012 – Wednesday – Halloween

31 degrees/partly cloudy/windy

Pentoga Road

Boo! Consider yourself scared.

I’m listening to the wind chimes play their frantic tune early this morning. Seems as though the ghost of Hurricane Sandy is still rattling these parts. The wind is to die down in the next day or two and I see where an inch of snow is forecast for Saturday.

I read assignments for quite a while on Tuesday morning. The students are beginning to break into their predictable groups:

a)    those who are always on time and turn in top notch work

b)   those who are always a day late, yet fairly reliable

c)    those who have suddenly discovered that the end of the semester is coming, realize they are way behind in all their classes, and have made a conscious decision to try to catch up, resulting in sloppy work that either is marked way down or returned with my usual quip stating, “This must be for another instructor in a different ALST 300 class. Please turn in the assignment you prepared for MY class. Looking forward to reading it. Thanks!” It’s a game that’s played semester after semester.

I attacked the stand of popple trees with pent-up, frustrated, post-assignment, energy and filled the truck with wood chips. It took a full twenty minutes to shovel the future mulch into a pile in the orchard. I’ll spread it next spring.

The house needed cleaning. Burning wood is economical, warm, and is the only practical way for us to heat, but it’s dirty. I vacuumed the floors and ran a dust rag over most the surfaces in the living and dining rooms. It’ll suffice for now.

I finished taking the tailgate off the truck. Some people would say a gateless truck might look… junky. I tend to think that it makes the Man Truck look more manly; a mere battle scar marking the battles of life.

I measured and calculated then went to town and purchased a few 1x6’s with which to make a new tailgate. Hopefully, that will be completed this afternoon. Rather than fold down, it will lift out. As I told someone, the new tailgate is a stop-gap replacement for an eventual wooden box. At this time, I don’t have the money, time, effort, or energy, to replace the entire thing. If the power plant of the truck were in bad shape, I’d simply scrap it and look for a man truck replacement, but the engine is strong, the transmission stronger. I really can identify with that old truck. The mind is good. It’s the body that seems bent on falling apart.

Arriving home, I fixed clam chowder and let that simmer while I folded a couple of loads of laundry. After a quick shower, I hopped in the Blazer and made my way to Iron Mountain and parked the car so I might ride home with Sargie and keep her company. I’ve got to go to her old house this morning and take a load of goodies from the garage to Goodwill, so thought I might as well accompany her last night and this morning as she drove home and to work. I'll go over to her old house from Iron Mountain. It's on the way.

Sargie hard at work on Tuesday evening

I almost waited too long. The sun was getting long in the sky. A deer slowly walked out into the road and I didn’t see the thing until it was almost too late. I managed to miss him, but it scared the puddin’ out of me. After this, if I drive in the late afternoon, I’ll need to make sure I leave well before dark.

Sargie and I were both tired last night. I don’t think either of us woke or moved until the alarm this morning.

I’ll ride back to Iron Mountain this morning then pick up the Blazer and continue on to Sargie’s old place to pick up the stuff for Goodwill. After, I’ll drop it off and come back to build the tailgate and work around here. It’ll be a busy day.

Geesh, it’s almost 7 AM. Where’s the sun? Guess I’ll get another cup of coffee in preparation for greeting the day.

So are the tales of Pentoga Road…