September 5, 2013 – Thursday

34 degrees/clear/calm

Pentoga Road

The sun is just beginning to come up and I’m straining to see if it frosted last night. I guess I wouldn’t be overly upset if it did. The gardening season has been so sporadic. I think, mentally, I’m ready to tuck it away for the winter and begin anew next spring.

I’m busy grading and reading school work these days. In fact, I didn’t write yesterday as I spent most of my eye power on assignments. By the time I had written comments on all those, there were no words left between my ears for a log. They’d all been used communicating with my munchkins.

Tuesday saw me at the doctor’s office in Iron Mountain getting a yearly physical and have been pronounced outwardly fit. I’m to stop at the hospital this morning and have blood drawn. Assuming that checks out normal, I should be good to go for another year.

I like my new doctor. He’s the same age as I am with a lot in common. We spent over an hour together talking about all aspects of my life as it has to do with health while he prodded, poked, and listened. I found out he has a tadpole trike for sale like I’ve been thinking about. He’s going to get it ready for me to try this fall and hopefully, I’ll give it a test run for a week or two in the near future. For certain, I won’t be purchasing it now going into winter. Hopefully, he’ll hang onto it over the winter months and we’ll wheel and deal next spring. If not, well, that means it wasn’t meant to be.

The major score on Tuesday was finding the Habitat for Humanity store in Iron Mountain. It’s similar to a Goodwill store only it deals more in building materials. I found siding for Brutus’s doghouse and a few other goodies for pennies on the dollar. Since everything is used, there’s not a whole lot I would ever put in my home, but for a master-of-none like me who always has some sort of project going, it’s perfect. We’ll stop today and look for some trim to go with the vinyl siding I purchased on Tuesday.

I returned home shortly after noon and worked on the doghouse until evening. It was discouraging when I tried to attach the garage and discovered it was off by almost an inch. With that, I lay my tools down and walked in the house wondering why I ever started such a project. I could have built the pup a conventional box house and he’d have never known any better.

How to lift my spirits? Sargie was working late so I was on my own for supper. I searched the freezer high and low and found a package of chicken gizzards. Mmm, gizzards, mashed potatoes and good old-fashioned milk gravy; real comfort food. Add in a few fresh garden tomato slices and the meal might be called perfect.

Even after eating a pound of fried gizzards and a huge dollop of smothered potatoes, I decided to finish the leftover gravy by dumping it over two slices of bread and inhaling that for desert.

I was well satisfied with the meal until my stomach began churning an hour later. The rest of the evening was spent calling the bathroom home. We don’t eat a lot of greasy foods and the fried gizzards passed through my stomach faster than Sherman marching through Georgia… and wreaked about the same amount of havoc. Oh well, the gizzards were sure good going in!

I began relining the wood stove with new firebrick on Wednesday. Naturally, I came up short and hope to finish that project today. A fire would feel mighty good this morning to take the chill off the house.

The rest of the day was spent working on Brutus’s house. I had to take the garage completely apart and make some new cuts, but was happy after that it fit as it was designed to. The particleboard was cut and installed and cedar slats were ripped from large boards for the floor of the front porch. I began putting on the siding Thursday afternoon and that chore should be finished by the end of today. I’m beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. There may be life after building a doghouse… or as the neighbor calls it, a dog complex.

Sargie’s off the next two days and this one is going to be busy. I have to get into town and borrow a hand dolly from Mark’s plant. Our washer died and in talking with the service man, it’s the transmission. To fix it would cost well in excess of $300. Sargie has a washer in storage that we’ll be replacing the old one with. That means a road trip later today.

While we’re running around, I need to stop at the hospital and have blood drawn as part of my physical. Then there’ll be the shuffling of the washer up and down the basement stairs. As I said, it’s going to be a busy day.

I can’t have coffee this morning until the blood gets drawn which means I won’t enjoy listening to the news or any other sitting down type of activity. So, it’s time to get busy.

After all, a man’s work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road…