Wednesday morning's sunrise

November 26, 2014 - Wednesday
-5 degrees/cloudy/calm
Pentoga Road

Thankfully, the clouds rolled in sometime during the night and kept the temperature from plummeting even further. On the positive side, I haven't suffered one mosquito bite in the past four months. I think they all froze last July.

Like the rest of America, well, at least for those who are Americans, we're busy preparing for Thanksgiving. 

Recipe on the right, mixing bowl on the left. I'm a man possessed.

I made four pumpkin pies last night using Grandma Reinhardt's recipe. It's a sweet concoction that Grandma made, not spicy at all, but so mild and flavorful. Once a person has had Grandma Reinhardt's pumpkin pie, every other pales in comparison... at least in our family. Mostly, I made them for Andy who has been known to inhale a few pieces of pie at one sitting.



Sargie worked around here all day cleaning, straightening, fixing, and making our home ready for our visitors.



Macrea and Baby Grady will be coming today. We're looking forward to seeing both and of course, Grandma Sargie and I will have a wrestling match over who will get to hold Grady first. She always wins that one. 

I spent a couple of hours plowing and blowing snow from the drive and patio. I use the snow blower to rid the drive of the heaviest amount, then go over it with the plow to take it down as close to the blacktop as possible.



Andy and Jessica will be flying in tomorrow on the 12:30 flight, Jess from Caribou, Maine, Andy out of Houston, Texas. They are to meet in Minneapolis and come in together. Right now, we're all watching that big storm that is coming up the East Coast of Maine. Hopefully, Jess will make it out of Bangor.

My MRI went well yesterday although it felt as though I was in that tube for a week or more when in reality, it was just over half an hour. Donning headphones, I became adept at taking a big breath, holding it, (sometimes for more than thirty seconds) then exhaling, only to do it all again.

Between breath-holding sessions, I was enjoying singing along to the golden oldies playing through the headphones until a voice whispered in my ear that I sang decent harmony. I didn't realize there was a microphone on my end and am fairly certain the guys in the booth next door were busting a gut laughing. 

Attempting to salvage some kind of dignity, I answered, "Thank you... thank you very much," in my best Elvis voice.  And when they finally rolled me from the tube, I announced, "Elvis has left the building." Hey, it was my part in entertaining the troops during this holiday season.

The roads going to Iron Mountain were dicey. I'd gotten up at 4:30 and driven partway up Pentoga Road to make sure we could navigate our way to the main highway. With four inches of new snow on the ground, it wasn't a problem. Though the trip took a longer than usual, Sargie and I made it safe and sound. 

We watched the finale of Dancing with the Stars last night... all three hours of it. I'm not sure what we'll do for the rest of this season while waiting for our next talent-type reality show to come on.

Sargie works early today. I'm going to spend part of it in the kitchen boiling cranberries. I'll also begin the not-so-pleasant task of carving up the rutabagas grown in last summer's garden so Sargie can boil and make her famous "Mighty Milligan Mashed Baigies." We'll take a huge bowl tomorrow and there won't be a spoonful left by dinner's end.

I can smell the coffee is made which means its time to pour a cup, listen to the news, and think some deep thoughts.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

Seldom more than a few feet from my side, Brutus was attempting to help me clean.

And soon was attacking the suction hose

Until he got his tongue caught in the suction