Wednesday night's sunset

December 11, 2014 - Thursday

-4 degrees/clear/calm

Pentoga Road

Arg, I'm about ready to take this old Mac computer and play Frisbee with it. It's slow, occasionally freezes, has the spinning ball of death, and does other things that drive me nuts. I can't complain. It's been a wonderful machine considering that it's ridden on multiple snowmobile trips, been dropped, used on wildly rocking boats, piled with other luggage in the back of float planes, been packed on my back while scaling steep mountain sides, and quite possibly, has been wet more than once, something that's not recommended for high-end computers.

I'm told the hard drive is slowing down; it's not spinning like it used to. The caches are clean and various tests show me that the RAM is barely being consumed. In other words, my beloved MacBook Pro, is old.

I'm thinking of purchasing a Google Chromebook in the near future. I got one for Mom while she was here this past summer and I was really impressed. They don't do a lot... especially when it comes to gaming and other goodies, but they do well for working on the internet. I look at it this way, if I don't like it, I'll give it to Sargie (who's used Mac is slower than mine) and I'll simply have a new SSD hard drive put in this computer in hopes of eeking out a few more years.

Wednesday saw me in the fish shack bright and early applying the finishing touches to the electronics. I mounted the head of the sonar and tweaked a few things. 

Eyeball high... just where I can read the screen.

Within two hours, I had the shack loaded in the back of the old truck and was on my way to the lake.

I found I could easily pull the shack the hundred yards out onto the ice, no problem. I drilled the holes, set everything up for the initial test run, and soon discovered that everything worked well. I mean, with anything new, there's always a glitch, right? Not on Wednesday. 

Putting on the finishing touches before loading the shack into the truck.

The shack is lightweight, the electronics work well... I'm looking forward to using it all in the months to come in the name of putting meat on the table.

Oh, fishing? I didn't catch anything, but didn't expect to. This was more of a test run than a fishing expedition.

It was like fishing in an aquarium... minus any fish

Packed an in the travel mode.

I spent much of the afternoon cleaning the mess that Andy and I made in the barn last week. Me? Personally, I never make a mess, but that boy's a veritable Pig Pen. Yeah... 

Ready for the next mess...

I purchased an outdoor light, one that works with a motion detector, last fall, but due to the early cold temperatures, never got it installed. It was 21 yesterday afternoon and sunny with no wind. No time like the present.

It took a couple of hours, but the unit is now mounted and wired... and just like the fish shack, everything works! The planets in my universe must have been aligned yesterday.

I made my way over to Iron Mountain to ride back with Sargie. We grabbed a burger then took our time riding through Florence, Wisconsin, a small town about fifteen miles from Pentoga Road. The lights were beautiful.

I have a meeting with my money man this morning in Iron Mountain. No doubt he wants my help counting my vast millions that have multiplied over the past six months. Failing that, he'll tell me that my modest retirement account is doing okay and other than tweaking it here and there, we'll stay the course.

Sargie works early today and tomorrow. Saturday is her birthday and we'll be going to Green Bay to shop and celebrate. I'm going to take my Kindle and do some reading while sitting with the other husbands in the middle of the mall.

But first, it's time to pour that all-important cup of coffee, listen to the news, and think a deep thought or two. Whoops, no deep thoughts this morning. I'm saving them for my meeting with the money man. I mean, I only have so many and I don't want to use them all up at once. 

Because after all, a man's work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

One flag, no fish.