Ivy's ready for Easter with her bunny ears

March 23, 2016 - Wednesday

22 degrees/cloudy/breezy

Pentoga Road

Once again, we're back into the meteorological equivalent of the spring fling. Temperatures are yoyo'ing back and forth, up and down. Highs today are forecast to be in the lower thirties, yet by Friday, the prognosticators are predicting a sunny high of somewhere between forty-five and fifty degrees before it drops down once again. It's springtime in the UP.

I guess the folks just south of here in Wisconsin are getting slammed with a foot or more of snow today. Pushing over a foot of wet, sloppy, snow, with the consistency and weight of a wet bath towel, seems like something someone else should get to do. I'm happy to share.

Page Two:

After returning home from my usual hike, I hopped in the Blazer and delivered my metal detector to Yooper Brother Mark at the plant. I hope they find whatever it is they lost in the mud, a chain, I believe.

Mark's assistant, Ann, just returned from a vacation with her daughter-in-law, a girl's week away, in Texas. Her son and his wife live in the same area in Kansas where Jordy Nelson, Green Bay's famous wide receiver, is from. Ann held out a bag for me yesterday and inside was a shirt from Nelson's parent's restaurant. Mark received the same shirt for Christmas.

We both now have a piece of Packer's sportswear that few can brag of owning. The only problem... if we wear our shirts at the same time, everyone will think we're twins and get us confused.

The rest of the day was spent in the shop trying to come up with a new planter design. I went through a ream of paper (exaggeration) sketching various diagrams of something "different," and finally gave up and simply started building.

Those twenty-two and a half degree angles required to make an octagon had me muttering about the lack of math education I received during my high school years. 

Since Mississippi Brother Garry wasn't available and Yooper Brother Mark was working, I did what any good math-impaired person might do... I looked up the angles on the internet and went from there. 

Sargie was home shortly after 4 yesterday afternoon so I quit work and joined her in the house. I'm not sure what the final outcome and/or design of the new planter will be, so stay tuned. Of course, there's always the distinct possibility that it all might end up in the wood stove. Much of what I attempt to build does.

After making sure Sargie didn't want the antlers hanging in the living room or over the head of our bed, I designated Billy Buck's final resting place on a wall over the work bench. I've prepared eighty or a hundred tales, none of them true, so I can share Billy's story with anyone who asks.

We had a quiet evening of watching television last night. I grilled hamburgers outside and along with fruit salad, we pretended it was June or July and enjoyed the summer-like meal.

I checked on the plants in the living room greenhouse last night and found that the moss rose I planted the day before yesterday had already germinated. They are supposed to take eight to ten days, but the little buggers popped up in less than twenty-four hours. 

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all of them this early in the season. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of plants. I only need twenty or thirty, not twenty or thirty thousand.

Sargie's opening the Vision Center this morning and has a beautician's appointment after work. I'm going for my walk first thing then plan on spending the rest of the day in the shop. 

But first, it's time to pour another cup of coffee, listen to the news, and think deep thoughts.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...