This is what happens to Yooper children when they are naughty around a snowman.

March 22, 2013 – Friday

-3 degrees/cloudy/calm

Pentoga Road

I’m up, around, and spiffed up this morning. It’s tax day. After attempting to do my taxes using the HR Block free software on line and having it hang up (several times), I called the local office in Iron Mountain and made an appointment for this morning. Somehow, their complimentary software can’t get past the point when I converted my annuities over to IRA’s this past year. I’ll have a real person do it for me.

If I'm wearing camouflaged footwear, does that mean no one can see my feet and when I walk, it appears as though I'm floating a few inches above the ground? 

Sargie was off Thursday, so after writing, I tiptoed out the door and hoofed my five miles. Light snow had fallen during the night and walking was a slippery proposition. At one point, I stepped onto a piece of ice and down I went. Nothing was hurt other than my ego and I’ll live to hike another day. Still, it was a not-so-gentle reminder that I’m not quite as young as I used to be.

I worked on assignments during the morning hours while Sargie busied herself around the house. It was a quiet and comfortable day.

We went to town later in the afternoon, took a short drive, then came home and began our preparations for grilling shish kabobs. There was a regular assembly line of two in the kitchen as we prepared pork, green pepper, mushrooms, shrimp, pineapple, and baby potatoes from last summer's garden on wooden skewers.

The marinade came from ideas off the internet plus our own. In the end, it contained soy sauce, catsup, sugar, and maple syrup. I’m going to brag… we did well.

The most difficult part about grilling outside was keeping Jimmy from trying to help. At one point, I became frustrated enough that I was tempted to include grilled chickadee as a side dish for dinner, but in the end, threw some seed out into the yard and he and his buddies decided to move their action in that direction.

The shish kabobs were to-die-for good and we decided that it will become a staple, especially when the kids come home or we have company. Sargie knocked one out of the ballpark on that meal!

It’s off to Iron Mountain this morning to have the taxes figured. Sargie works today, but since she’s working Sunday, has Saturday off. The temperatures are to moderate over the next week. I’m thinking it’s time to get busy on the greenhouse before the sap begins to run. I’ve got a feeling that in a week or two, I’ll be looking back on these days of laziness and inactivity with envy.

Time to get rolling. A man’s work is never done, you know.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road…