September 29, 2016 - Thursday
50 degrees/clear skies/calm winds
Pentoga Road

It just dawned on me, I didn't have my camera out of my pocket yesterday. For the first time in... years... I didn't snap one picture. 

Some think I take so many pictures because I enjoy photography. I do, but that's hardly the reason. In fact, I've cussed at that camera banging around in my pocket more than once. 

I take so many snapshots because I can unload them on my computer and 1) see the details of what I'm working on, and/or 2) see, up close and personal, what I missed in real time earlier in the day, flowers, the garden, lawn, people, places, etc. Rather than look into a haze with a fuzzy hole in the middle, I can enlarge each picture on the computer screen and see faces, lots of color, and intricate particulars. Since I have enjoyed writing for years and already have the pictures at hand, I include those. Today's writing will just have to be sans pictures.

Wednesday was a pleasantly relaxing one. After arriving home from my walk, I washed and scrubbed the little freezer in preparation of taking it to the neighbor's. It cleaned up really nice, especially after I'd gone over the entire exterior with a Mr. Clean Eraser, one of those sponge-type things that makes hard-to-remove scuffs magically disappear. 

Convinced that it was as good as it was ever going to be, I loaded the freezer and hauled it to Marion's, our neighbor. She was tickled with the trade as are we. 

After all the rain and chilly weather, I wasn't in any hurry to delve into a project, but it was entirely too nice of a day to stay inside. I felt lazy and enjoyed sitting in one of our old plastic lawn chairs in front of the barn, enjoying the sunshine and warmth. 

I turned on the radio that is part of the sound system in the shop and grew frustrated when only one local station was clear enough to listen to and even that had some static. 

Radio signals don't penetrate the walls of a metal pole barn very well. I needed some sort of external antenna. It was time to spring into action. 

So much for sitting in the sun.

Initially, I was going to mount an old car antenna on top of the barn and thread a wire back into the shop. I was up and down the ladder several times, measuring, looking, estimating, and muttering, when it occurred to me that I was about five feet short of having enough wire.

Hmm, if only there was a way to tap into the cable that ran from the outside TV antenna into the shop.

I studied, I ciphered (as Sargie is fond of saying) and I experimented. The inside antenna box had two cable connection points. How could I could utilize one of those?

The flimsy radio antenna wire was bent and fashioned and finally fastened into the cable box. SUCCESS! 

I now receive several stations, some from as far away as Iron Mountain and one from Marquette.

Sargie was home early last night. We enjoyed left over chicken and chili for supper and had a quiet evening. She closes tonight, another long day for her. 

I'm going to walk up to Neighbor Mike's in a few minutes for coffee then be back in time to ride with Sargie down the road a few miles so I can hike back. After that, who knows? It's to be a nice day and maybe I'll just plop my backside in the old plastic lawn chair in front of the barn and enjoy the sun hitting me in the face while listening to the radio.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...