Saturday was spent celebrating sister-in-law, Bonnie's retirement from teaching.

July 2, 2017 - Sunday
60 degrees/partly cloudy/breezy
Pentoga Road

I just came in from outside and am so sick of all these mosquitoes! Would someone come and take them away? 

The hungry little critters number in the millions of billions and though they aren't arctic Alaska bad during the summer months, they make going outside a miserable experience.

It's been almost a month since the 7.2 inches fell in a few short hours and the water table is still on top of the ground.

Having a lake in the front meadow doesn't help. It's slowly receding, but with a daily downpour of rain (yesterday's amount was .8 of an inch) the water table refuses to sink under the surface.

I guess we'll see if Carl the Weatherman is telling the truth. He's promising some sunny and warm weather, several days in a row. Carl occasionally lies, you know. I hope he's telling the truth this time.

I talked with brother-in-law, Steve, yesterday, who will be logging off the property. We have decided to wait until winter to begin as the ground is thoroughly saturated. There's no where for the water to go except onto the surface.

Yesterday was a fun one with most of it spent at sister-in-law, Bonnie's, surprise retirement party. Bonnie is well known throughout the area as an excellent high school educator. 

Many of the Milligan's were present and we had a fun afternoon sitting and gabbing.



I had a good talk with Patricia, another retired educator, and found we had much in common. Seems it makes no difference where one has taught, Maine, Michigan, Alaska, big school, small school, cities, villages, tribes, clans, etc. etc. We educators all speak the same language and basically, children are children, regardless. 



It also has dawned on me that we old-timers speak a different language than the newer educators and parents. In my generation, self esteem was earned, not given, but now we live in the age of entitlement and EVERYONE'S automatically a winner. 

Uh huh... 

The gathering was a great success and we talked and laughed the afternoon away. At the end, the Milligan's promised we'd see each other on the 3rd to celebrate our country's birthday. Derek and Leah will be hosting the Mighty Milligan Fourth of July Celebration. 

Sargie and I were talking yesterday on the way home. Today, Sunday, is the first day in weeks, possibly months, that we can call our own. She doesn't have to work, there's nowhere we have to be, we're not expecting any company, there're no appointments or outside obligations. Good grief, this has been a busy spring and summer.

With that being said, I think I'm going to load my Sargie into the car later today and we'll take a nice, leisurely drive through the countryside, sip our Cokes, eat some chicken tenders, and simply enjoy each other. Who knows, we might even stop and smell a rose or two along with the way. 

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

So are that tales from Pentoga Road...

JC Model, sister-in-law, Nancy, paused just long enough for another snapshot to be added to her bourgeoning portfolio.