December 12, 2014 - Friday
17 degrees/clear/calm
Pentoga Road

I wish I could get the fire going in the wood stove this morning. It's a happy fire, the type that's nice to stare at when in a trance, but not very good at putting out warmth. Its time to crawl up on the roof and remove any suet from the screen that keeps the bats and birds from flying down the flue. It's the first to clog during the heating season. 

Thursday morning was a different one. I attended the meeting with my money man and when I was asked how many years remained on the mortgage, I couldn't remember. The bank that holds the loan is right across the street, so after the meeting, more out of curiosity than anything else, I walked over and asked a teller if she might look up that information.

She scanned her computer screen and informed me I had a thirty year loan. I told her that couldn't be possible, so she asked a coworker who glanced at the screen and said the same thing.

I haven't had a drink in years and it's been a generation or two since I experimented with mind altering drugs. How, I wondered, would/could I ever agree to a thirty year mortgage when I refinanced the house three years ago? I'd be ninety years old before the place was paid for!

I trudged back to the money man's office and informed him. Since he's custodian of the fund that makes the house payment, he gathered his financial calculator and hurriedly punched in some numbers, all the while muttering that it wasn't possible.

So, back across the street I went again and this time, asked for a loan officer and the branch manager. Both looked at a computer screen and said that my loan was for originally for fifteen years with twelve remaining. 

The branch manager laughed and said he'd given me back fifteen years of my life. I didn't laugh and told him his tellers had previously taken away fifteen years, so we're even. Such are high stakes finances.

At any rate, all is well in the life of a multi-hundredaire.

Since it was almost noon, I remained in town so Sargie and I could enjoy lunch together. 

Back on Pentoga Road, I measured and attached an old pair of cross country skis to the Clam ice fishing shelter. 



I also figured out how to mount the sonar/fish finder at eye's height. We're looking good.

That welding clamp is an integral part of the high-tech electronics system in the Clam.

Modern marvels. I spent no small amount of time figuring out how to attach a broom stick handle to keep the Clam half open should I want to sit out of the wind, but enjoy the sunshine. A groove was made in the wooden slat with the grinder and it's a mighty piece of fencing wire that holds the stick to the aluminum brace. 

Time was also taken to sort through the mess of ice fishing tackle and ready it for the coming season. I now have three ice fishing rods ready to go at any one time, all three with different lures. Should my line break while I'm fishing, I no longer have to worry about retying the hook. Last time, it took me almost an hour to spear the little eyelet and tie the light line. Now, all I have to do is pick up another rod and begin fishing again. The retying can be done later at home under the magnifiers.



Sargie was home early and spent last sitting at a table in the living room wrapping gifts. It was a nice evening...  quiet and Christmasy.

Sargie works early today and hopefully, will be home early this evening. I'm going to spend most the day in search of meat for the table. A man has to do what a man has to do.

After all, his work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

Whoops, those long cross country skis didn't fit into the Blazer. I later cut a foot off of each.