It's Sargie's birthday!
I'm fairly certain she'll turn thirty one of these years.

December 13, 2017 - Wednesday

9 degrees/moderate snow/calm winds

Pentoga Road

Happy Birthday to my beautiful bride. She's still sleeping in these dark, cold, early morning hours and hopefully, will continue to slumber into the mid morning. With the temperature in the single numbers and the snow falling at a pretty good clip, I doubt she'll be lying out on the deck working on her tan anytime today.

My favorite optician in the world deserves to sleep as long as she wants. It's her special day. 

Again, happy birthday, honey. I love you.

We left home fairly early for Iron Mountain on Monday morning.  After dropping Sargie off at the beautician's to have her hair done, I continued to the local Jiffy Lube to have the oil changed in the Kia. Several more errands were run around town before I swung back to the beauty shop, gave Melinda, our friend, a big ol' hug, gathered Sargie, and zoomed back to Pentoga Road.

Sargie declared that Tuesday would be house cleaning day. 

I swear, she must have attended the Mom School of Housekeeping. Not one dust was left unswiped.

I commandeered the floors and stairs while Sargie handled the dusting and furniture. It was later in the afternoon before she pronounced the house clean from top to bottom.

With our inch-a-day of snow policy, I decided there was enough to warrant moving the Tundra and snowblower from the storage container.

The cowling on the snow machine was opened as I checked the oil and wiggled a wire or two. 

It's no secret, I love the older model Skidoo Tundra snowmobile. This one, purchased last year, is my third. The first was used for trapping and ice fishing while I lived in northern Maine. Luke has rebuilt it and the old beast is still running.

The second Tundra was a workhorse during my Arctic Circle days. I drove it through blinding blizzards, in temperatures dipping into the -50 range, through overflow (slush) on countless rivers, across open water, over mountains, and while navigating the hundreds of miles of flat plain on the North Slope of Alaska.

Depending on it more than a person should any machine, the Tundra saved my life more than once. I dug into the snow and used the track as a roof during a surprise blizzard. It pulled me from chest deep, quicksand-like snow another time. All I could do is reach up and hang onto the handlebars. Another time, I was standing alongside the machine on some questionable ice when I started going through the surface on a large river. Once again, I clung to the hand grips and pressed the throttle as it whisked me away from danger.

My current Tundra is an old workhorse of questionable vintage, but I don't care how old it is. In fact, it's unimportant. That particular model hasn't been manufactured in years.

My third, and probably last, Tundra and I have a lot in common. We're not fast nor are we good looking, but for the most part, we're dependable, slow and steady. Sounds like a fitting partnership to me.

Speaking of mechanical dinosaurs, the old Toro snowblower roared to life on the third pull. Not bad for a thirty-five year old machine that hasn't been started since last April.

 

Meanwhile, inside the house, Sargie spent a bit of time doing some last minute decorating. 

I think I'm safe in saying we're ready for Santa's (and Mom's) arrival.

Today belongs to Sargie. Other than doing a bit of packing for Thursday's departure to Indiana and picking up Mom's car from the mechanic's, the day belongs to the birthday girl. No doubt, there'll be a drive and a Coke involved at some point.

I'm going to make Sargie her favorite cake this afternoon, a double layer German Chocolate with extra coconut in the frosting.

I heard a rumor that Hambone, along with his mommy and daddy, are coming armed with pizza later this afternoon. Sounds like a perfect time and we'll let Grady lead us in singing Happy Birthday before digging into our bowls of ice cream and cake.

Meanwhile, the heat's on in the shop and I may migrate in that direction until Birthday Girl awakens for the day. There are one or two little projects I need to finish.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...