February 6, 2014 – Thursday

-12 degrees/partly cloudy/calm

Pentoga Road

I was up early this morning to feed the woodstove and discovered it was too full of spent ashes to add any significant amount of wood. The galvanized pail used to transport ashes was outside.

What to do? I’d sneaked down the steps clad only in a t-shirt and underwear, barefoot, and I didn’t really want to go back upstairs to dress. I did what any self respecting outdoorsman does, I walked outside clad as I was to retrieve the pail.

Later, with a fire rebuilt and dancing in the stove, a new dilemma presented itself… to finish dressing for the day and stay downstairs, or return upstairs, slide between the sheets, and press my cold body, hands, and feet, on Sargie. After all, she does the same to me and is ruthless in her quest to suck any heat from my body when she's cold. I opted for the wiser of the two; simply getting dressed and remaining up for the day. Mama didn’t have no complete dummy.

Wednesday was a yawner. The temperatures, accompanied by a hefty breeze, had sunk back to their wintry lows. I walked my usual five miles, but it wasn’t a pleasant stroll by any definition of the word. Three of the five miles were hiked directly into a brisk headwind.

The rest of the day was semi-productive, but not very interesting. I caught up on all the university work and even wrote this week’s test to be submitted for uploading. I managed to watch a bit of television, listen to some music, and towards evening, gathered enough strength to put a frozen pizza in the oven.

And that was the sum total of my day.

Sargie had to close and arrived home well after 9 PM. She has the same hours today so it will be a long one. The payoff? She has this coming Saturday and Sunday off; two days in a row and on the weekend to boot!

I’m not sure what Brutus and I are going to do today. No doubt, I’ll walk this morning and I have to run an errand or two in town after. Other than that, I’ll read and grade the stray homework assignment that has been submitted and no doubt, continue to think deep thoughts. Hey, it's the way I roll.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road…