The lake was calm and picture perfect Thursday morning

June 21, 2013 – Friday

61 degrees/rain/breezy

Pentoga Road

It smells fresh and clean this morning. We’ve had .6 of an inch of rain since late yesterday afternoon and my garden is on its umpteenth verse of the Hallelujah Chorus. It’s been dry these past few days and I can hear the plants gulping the water as it pours from the sky.

I see there’s a big ol’ blob of storms heading this way from Minnesota. Hopefully, it will rain all weekend.

X marks the spot. It's currently raining and I can hear the thunder in the distance.

I didn’t sleep worth a poop last night as I just couldn’t get comfortable. I’d lay my left leg on top of the sheets and the knee would feel okay for about sixty seconds, then begin to throb. I’d lie on my back, my side, elevate the leg or throw it over Sargie, all with the same results. I finally gave up early this morning and came downstairs. Monday can’t get here soon enough.

Thursday was a mixed bag. I left at the same time as Sargie and made my way to the lake. Skipping any preliminaries, I went directly to the large spawning bed of bluegills we’d fished on Tuesday. Within an hour, I had fifteen nice gillies in the basket.

The wind rose and dark clouds soon covered the sky. The fish quit hitting. I came home with a nice mess, certainly enough for a good meal for Sargie and me.

Page Two

The insurance company and hospital were both called. Sue at Pre-Op gave me all kinds of instructions, most common sense. I learned that if I had dentures, they would be removed before the procedure took place. I told her all the teeth in my head were permanently affixed.

I was also told I’d be given something to “take the edge off,” before I go under general anesthesia. I look forward to the Happy Land feeling. Since I’m a card-carrying member of multiple twelve-step clubs, I tend to enjoy those rare occasions of chemically induced euphoria. I’m the only person I’ve ever heard of who enjoyed his colonoscopy… I have no idea how the actual procedure felt, but I loved the shot they gave me beforehand and actually asked if they’d leave me in the stupor for a few more minutes following. They laughed and brought me to full consciousness. Some doctors have no sense of humor at all.

It appears as though I’ll have to be at the hospital before 6 AM Monday morning. Since it’s a fifty-minute drive to Iron Mountain, it’ll be an early morning for Sargie and me.

Page Three

I turned my attentions to Sargie’s old van Thursday afternoon. She wants to sell it and the owner of the paving company is interested in purchasing it.

After a winter of sitting alongside the barn, the van immediately started. I let it idle for a few minutes then put it in gear. It wouldn’t budge. I checked all four tires. Each was full of air. I gave the van more gas and it begrudgingly moved forward and onto the drive.

The back driver’s side wheel was locked. After a winter of sitting in one place, the brakes had rusted against the drum. I got the jack from the Man Truck, took off the tire, and pounded the poops out of the brake drum. It was rotating freely within minutes.

The next hour was dedicated to washing the van. After Sargie cleans the interior, it ought to be ready to sell.

I worked in the garden for the rest of the afternoon, replanted a couple of things, weeded and watered. The jury is still out on this year’s crop. The beets and carrots look amazing, the tomatoes and peppers adequate, pole beans great, bush beans poor. The bush cucumbers are slow, but healthy and should produce a good quantity of fruits, but the winter squash looks poor. I’m babying the giant pumpkins and adding fertilizer to them every other day. The plants are growing noticeably daily and I’m waiting for each to set a pumpkin in the next two to three weeks. After that, all other vines and fruits will be removed so all the growing power goes to only one on each plant. This is the year for the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown… I hope.

I piddled around in the barn, but didn’t accomplish much. Hopefully, I’ll make a bit of headway today. Dragging this gimpy leg around, it’s hard to stay focused on any one thing for too long.

Sargie was home early last night and we feasted on leftovers. It was quiet and peaceful and I battled to keep awake until 9, but finally gave up and went to bed. That left Sargie to have an exciting evening with Brutus and everyone knows, he's such a party animal. I think she came upstairs a short time after me and watched television in bed; I wouldn’t know, I was sound asleep.

Another wild and out of control evening on Pentoga Road

Page Four

Sargie’s off today. We’re going to bring the air conditioners up from the basement and put them in the windows. It’s not hot enough to run either, but since I’ll be laid up for a few days, we figured we might as well get them installed now and we won’t have to depend on someone else to help us later. Other than that, it looks like a good day to be lazy, enjoy the rain and storms, and of course, there’s the mandatory Grandpa nap that I’ll no doubt enjoy later. After all, a man’s work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road…

I'm attempting to change the leader on my fly line early Thursday morning. It's a good thing pictures can't record sounds. The air in the dining room still has a bluish tinge.