Yooper Brother Mark, Sargie, and Sheri, on the maiden voyage of Mark and Sheri's new pontoon boat.

July 10, 2016 - Sunday

46 degrees/clear skies/calm winds

Pentoga Road

Well, you might know it. It's Sargie's last opportunity to sleep in before her vacation ends and I could be upstairs, snuggled next to her in pretzel fashion, snoozing away. Unfortunately, I woke up at 3 AM and lay in bed thinking, and thinking, then thinking some more. I finally gave up at 4 and came downstairs.

I wish I knew why I go through these cycles of waking early. I've slept soundly for the past two months, seldom waking during the nighttime hours, then this happens.

To make matters even more interesting, Sargie and I were sitting outside by the fire last evening looking at yesterday's pictures, when the wireless router, the new one we purchased just six weeks ago, quit working. I unplugged the thing, let it sit, plugged it in, shook it, swore, turned it off and on, and did everything but dance the Hootchi Coo. Nothing I did would breathe life back into the unit. Sargie called Walmart and found they have a ninety day in-store return policy on their electronics, so we'll be taking the broken one back today to exchange for another.

Saturday was a fun one on Pentoga Road. I began by working in the garden for a couple of hours. Everything, including the fruit trees, is looking good. 

Unfortunately, the entire garden is two to three weeks behind last year. With some of the vegetables, it's going to be a race with the first frost to see which grow to maturity and which turn out to be a waste of horticultural effort. The National Weather Service is predicting a warmer than normal fall. I hope they are right. Let's see, they had earlier predicted this past spring was to be hot and dry. Whoops, guess the NWS missed that one.

The flowers are some of the nicest we've had in years

My next efforts were in the shop working on the final piece of lattice for the garden arbor. Rather than measure each piece, I stood the completed lattice up to the frame of the second in mirror image, used it as a pattern, and made my marks. 

I've already saved two days by doing so and hopefully a lot of mistakes.

Yooper Brother Mark called and asked if we'd like to spend the afternoon on the lake with them aboard their new (to them) pontoon boat. 

Sheri's introducing the newest member of the Stauber Fleet, their pontoon boat!

Mark didn't have to ask twice.

It was a perfect day to cruise along the shoreline, and see how the other half live. What I don't understand is where all these people get their money. We live in one of the poorest counties in Michigan, yet homes costing many hundreds of thousands of dollars dot the shoreline. I'm happy for those who can afford the homes and taxes, I'd just like to know how they do it.

We had a picnic on the pontoon and after anchoring, Mark and I both jumped overboard.

The water felt great and we had fun going through our school boy antics.

We inspected the pontoon boat from underneath, splashed, swam, and treaded water until it was time to come back on board.

One problem. There was no ladder. Initially, I figured I could just hoist myself onto the boat. After all, it wasn't more than three feet and I'd done much more difficult acrobatics in my younger years.

I got one foot on deck, then another, thinking the girls would give me a hand. 

They couldn't. Each was bent over, laughing hysterically.

Mark tried once, then twice, with no success. He finally got one foot up, grabbed the rail, and with me pushing the back of his lap from the water, was successful getting into the boat.

Once again I got a foot up and over and with Mark's help, was hoisted over the side. 

I learned a few things from the experience:

* I'm no longer twenty years old and able to leap from the surface of the water in a single bound.

* I am still able to swim for fairly long periods of time

* My upper body strength has diminished over the years to that of wet toilet paper

* But most importantly... I am able to laugh at myself and walk (or swim) away with my self esteem fully intact

Once home and after a quick tour of the garden, we bade Mark and Sheri goodbye. The air was cooling off and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. It was the perfect night to sit around the fire and look at the pictures we'd taken earlier in the day. 

Sleep came quickly last night. Unfortunately, it didn't last as long as I'd hoped.

Sargie and I will be heading to Iron Mountain this morning to get a replacement for the router. Hopefully, the next one will last longer than six weeks.

I have a large pork loin and roast to put in the smoker. In fact, thinking further, I may start the smoker in a few minutes. It's early enough the meat could be finished before we leave.

With that said, I guess I ought to get ready to start the day. 

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

A Post Script - 9 AM - The loins are fully smoked and the roast is almost finished. Sargie and I asked each other why we should stop driving in Iron Mountain. Why not have lunch on the shores of Lake Michigan in Escanaba? Perhaps onto Marquette and dip our tootsies into the ice cold waters of Lake Superior. 

Sargie's back to work tomorrow, but her vacation's not over, not by a long shot!

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...