Ann's husband, Gary, sharing an English muffin with a wild piebald deer that calls their yard her home.

November 12, 2015 - Thursday
44 degrees/cloudy/light rain
Pentoga Road

I almost skipped writing this morning. Wednesday was a ho hum day and there's only so many ways one can describe vacuuming the seats and carpet of an SUV, or hauling an old snowmobile into the barn in an attempt to squeeze another year's worth of use out of the thing.

I arrived home from Iron Mountain around noon on Wednesday. Thinking we were taking the Blazer to Indiana this weekend, I went to the Jiffy Lube place for a quickie oil change. Half the Upper Peninsula was in line before me. I pulled in, sat for thirty seconds, then pulled out. The Blazer wasn't really due for an oil change for another 600 miles, but thought it was better to be safe than sorry. That idea was nixed and I came on home.

So time was spent cleaning and vacuuming, making the Blazer pretty on the inside...  well as pretty as a 1997 SUV with lots of miles can look. 



I next turned my attentions to one of two old snowmobiles that have been sitting in back of the barn. I need one or the other to run this winter, simply to haul my ice shack around on the lake. The first one I towed to the barn used to run, but when I removed the first spark plug and witnessed water running out the hole, I knew I might be in trouble. I think that machine is going to require more than a squirt of starting fluid in each hole and a pull on the rope.

I towed that snowmobile back to it's original place and on a whim, attempted to start the second machine, one that hasn't run in two years. It sputtered to life on the first pull then died shortly after. It was threatening rain and I didn't want to do my simple shade tree mechanics outside, so I postponed any major mechanical surgery until next week. I'll bring it in the barn and see if I can eek some life out of the thing, at least enough for another year.



So that was my day. Pretty lackadaisical. I really wanted to invent home fission or fusion, but I ran out of daylight. That'll have to wait for another time.

I talked with my sister yesterday afternoon and she recommended we not attempt to bring home Dad's boat this trip. My brother-in-law recently had a knee or five replaced and he's not been able to prepare the trailer for a fairly long road trip. So, with that being said, we fell back on Plan B and will take the Kia, which gets roughly twice the mileage per gallon of gas than the Blazer.  

We're planning on leaving Friday afternoon and since Sargie's behind the wheel, I'll let her decide how far we go until we stop for the night. The plan now is to arrive at Mom's sometime Saturday afternoon in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Brutus will be staying at his favorite kennel, the one that allows him to run and play with other boarded puppies. I think it's a canine social thing and he absolutely loves it.  After being glued to a boring old man day after day, I completely understand. 

Sargie's off today. I know she wants me to vacuum and clean the Kia in readiness for the drive. She also mentioned something about cleaning the house and doing laundry... and in the same breath, mentioned how much easier it is when two people work together rather than one. I was hoping to play in the shop, but I'm not certain that's going to happen. Sargie has other plans.

After all, man's work is never done.

So are tales from Pentoga Road...