Santa and Mrs. Claus, aka Yooper Brother Mark and Sheri, arriving from the North Pole, via the Caspian - Gaastra Fire Truck.

December 20, 2015 - Sunday
21 degrees/party cloudy/calm winds
Pentoga Road

I'm running a day late and a dollar short this morning. It's all Sargie's fault.

I was going to get up at 5 AM, my usual time, for the day, sit quietly, contemplate, think deep thoughts, write a bit, and enjoy a good cup of coffee. I started to rise, but she turned over and made me promise I'd come back to bed. It's her day off and the girl loves to snuggle.

What's a guy to do? Occasionally, sacrifices have to be made. So, taking one for the team, I returned to bed, threw an arm over her, closed my eyes thinking how soft and great smelling her hair was, and drifted back into a deep sleep. The next thing I knew, it was 8:30. End of that story.

Saturday was a busy day. I walked my usual three miles in good time, but was surprised when I noticed our local lake wasn't yet frozen over. The wind blew so hard Friday night that even with temperatures near zero, it kept the water open.



I later hiked to one end of the lake and found ice had begun to form in one of the bays.




It's going to be awhile before ice fishing begins. Last year, we'd been fishing for six weeks by this time.



The next order of business was to clean the screen that sits atop the flue of the wood stove. Burning soft wood causes it to clog. I make the climb to do some basic maintenance two or three times each winter.



Amazingly, the tripled layer stainless steel pipe stays quite clean, but oh, that screen.

 

It was a bit slippery on the metal roof. There was just enough snow to make the footing hazardous. I ended up walking on the ridges to keep from slipping.

There are some places and times where Brutus just can't help. This was one of them.

I chugged into town and took pictures of Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus. 

The Clauses are driven around the community in a fire truck, announcing to all that they have arrived and ready for the good little girls and boys to gather at the fire station. Parades of munchkins with parents in tow arrive soon after. It reminds me of a living Norman Rockwell painting. 

Small town America is still alive and well in the UP.

Yooper Brother Mark and Sheri are probably the best Santas I've seen in a long time. Mark uses a deep Ho Ho Ho and with a white beard, he looks like Santa.



The perfect Mrs. Claus, Sheri stays at Santa's side, helping with the little ones, always ready to hand out bags of goodies.





I left the Santafest and made my way to the hardware store to purchase some new sanding drums for the Dremel. Everyone's friend, Pegge, was definitely in the Christmas spirit.



I rode over to Iron Mountain yesterday afternoon with Mark and Sheri so I could ride back with Sargie last night. We shopped a bit and it turned out perfect as Sargie had a grocery list. I purchased what we needed while she finished working. We had a nice trip home together.

Last night was spent watching a movie and relaxing. The rest is history.

Mom arrives on the noon flight in Iron Mountain Monday. Sargie has proclaimed that today will be cleaning/wrapping/laundry day on Pentoga Road; well, until 3:30 when the Packers/Raiders game begins.

So with in mind, I'd better finish and get busy running the vacuum sweeper. 

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...