Tales from Pentoga

There were some severe storms in the area last night

July 7, 2017 - Friday

60 degrees/clear skies/calm winds

Pentoga Road

Good grief. We feel like we've been through WWIII around here this morning.

Let me start with last evening and work backwards.

After a wonderful day of working in the garden, the shop, and visiting with Sarah and Isabella, I decided to drive to Iron Mountain last evening and ride home with Sargie. She had to close and I hate that she has to drive home late in the evening by herself.

I was just five miles down the road when I hit a deer. It must have been standing directly in my line of sight, or lack of it, and I think I simply mowed it down.

There appeared to be little damage to the Blazer as it has a heavy truck bumper and front end. I can't say the same for the deer. There's a happy coyote or wolf with a full belly somewhere in the area this morning.

I was trying to beat a group of storms that were advancing to the east behind me and about ten miles from Iron Mountain. I thought I heard a funny noise, but the Blazer steered fine and the gauges were all registering normal. It was hard to tell as thunder was crashing everywhere.

Suddenly, the car swerved back and forth causing me to wrestle it to the side of the road. Evidently, something had gone through the back driver's side tire shredding it to pieces.

Normally, I would change my own tire. I've done so a million times before, but it was dark and storming and I couldn't see a thing. Why not take advantage of my AAA membership and let someone else get wet and muddy?

A call to AAA produced a wait time of twenty minutes just to initially talk with an operator, then I was on hold for another twenty-five while he attempted to find someone to change the tire. The operator finally returned saying that my wait time alongside the road would be at least two-and-a-half hours. I probably wasn't a very nice member and hung up. After I'm finished talking with AAA today, I'll probably will be a former member.

I called Sargie and asked her to meet me when she was finished with work. Meanwhile, I put the Blazer in four wheel drive and drove about a quarter of a mile to a restaurant on the other side of the highway where the Blazer is currently parked.

The owner of the restaurant couldn't have been nicer. He empathized with my situation and fed me free Cokes until Sargie arrived. What a nice guy.

I'll ride back with Sargie this morning, have her drop me off so I can change the tire and limp on into Iron Mountain to purchase a new one.

Storms? Boy, did we have the storms last night. Coming home, Sargie had to drive around trees and limbs lying across the road. We finally regained power around 3 this morning.

Once the band of storms went through, there was an eery display of perfectly clear sky and ominous clouds. It made for a beautiful picture.

Earlier in the day:

Thursday was hot. Hot hot hot.

Normally I'd complain, but I took advantage of the conditions to work in the garden and actually enjoyed sweating and getting dirty.

Flowering onions

The broccoli is about ready to harvest. I'll be blanching and putting several heads in the freezer over the next few days.

Isabella brought her mommy out for a visit during the afternoon. The two year old munchkin most enjoyed playing belly button bird. Don't ask, it's one of Dad's many creations from over sixty years ago.

Time was spent in the shop where I'm making wooden letters to trace around.

I've been using cardboard stencils for my cut and carved names, but after a while, they become soft and useless. Drawing around wooden ones should save us time and last much longer.

You already know the rest of the story, so I think I'll get this uploaded and gather a few tools to make this morning's tire change as easy as possible. The tire hangs from under the vehicle and retrieving it is a challenge. The actual tire change is the easy part.

For certain, AAA wouldn't know or care.

OK, time to put away my fangs and get ready to rock and roll.