Brittney, Dr. Eric, Me
Today's Smile in Crystal Falls

January 9, 2019 - Tuesday evening

12 degrees/cloudy/windy

Pentoga Road

I'm sitting here this evening as happy as any boy can be. After my six month dental cleaning and check up, Eric pronounced my pearly whites free of cavities. 

Yeah, I know... I'm on the downhill slide towards seventy and I'm still consumed with a little boy's dread before settling into a dentist's chair. It's unfounded, but stems from painful procedures that began sixty years ago when dentists weren't always gentle and needles felt to be the size of fence posts. 

Eric's quite the opposite. The boy doctor uses needles that seem thinner than a hair, is full of good humor, specializes singing in a falsetto voice to tunes of the 50's, 60's, and 70's, and surrounds himself with a fun staff. What more can a boy like myself ask for when visiting the dentist?

Thanks, Eric!

Cold? Holy cow, it's cold. It's not the temperature so much as the wind. If that's not bad enough, snow squalls have marched through off and on during the day.

After returning home from Eric's, I started a fire in the outside wood stove, filled the wood box in the house, and eventually ended up in the shop.

I found a piece of maple while carrying in fire wood that seemed too good to burn. I mounted the chunk on the lathe and began the hollowing process.

The bark was almost perfect and I wanted to preserve as much as possible.

In the end, I coated the outside with a thick poly that will dry clear to help seal it. It appears to be working, so well so that Sargie thinks I should apply another.

What should go inside the maple branch? I went on the internet and began looking at pictures of owls. 

I decided to turn one from a small piece of maple.

I know it takes a bit of imagination, but somewhere in that log and maple branch is an owl sitting on a branch, surrounded by greenery... and who knows, there might even be a wooden mouse in the vicinity before it's all finished.

I worked for quite a while on the piggy bank, carving and sanding. It should be finished in the next few days.

We met Macrea, Mel, and Hambone, at our favorite hamburger place in Florence this evening. Somehow or the other, I managed to forget my camera. As usual, the food was good, the company great. After talking with Hambone, I learned he's ready to spend some time at Grandma Sargie's and Pawpaw's and do some serious snowmobiling.

I can make that happen.

I'm Florence Elementary School's librarian on Thursday. Classes will be in the computer lab in the morning and library in the afternoon. I enjoy my time in the school and with the weather like it is, I might as well be working as sitting inside by the wood stove.

It's time to climb those long stairs to the bedroom. Sargie's off tomorrow, but I'll be out the door shortly after 7 AM, on my way to Florence Elementary, home of the Bob Kitties.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

There's a piggy bank somewhere in those nine pieces of laminated 1x8's.