Look who got engaged at Christmas?
It's niece, Christie, who responded with a resounding, "YES!"

December 29, 2019 - Sunday morning

33 degrees/heavy rain/strong winds

Pentoga Road

We met Josh, Christie's fiancee, this past year and both Sargie and I gave him our official aunt and uncle stamp of approval. He seems to be a great guy.

Christie is an RN and works in Indianapolis. Josh is retired military, saw heavy action in Middle East, has been in law enforcement, and now is attending school studying Information Technology.

Widowed very early in life, Christie raised two young girls while going back to school to earn her RN. She deserves all the happiness in the world. 

Sargie and I couldn't be happier for both and are waiting to hear when the wedding will be.

Meanwhile, back on Pentoga Road:

Darn it anyway, the weather sure ain't purty now or for the immediate future.

It's been raining since late Saturday afternoon and there're icicles hanging everywhere. I wouldn't be surprised if we lose power before the storm moves on.

This has been a brutal winter so far. Trees are down all over our property. I've purposely not walked through the woods as I don't really want to know how extensive the damage is. There's nothing I can do about it anyway, so it'll wait until spring when walking's easier.

 My beloved Wolf River apple tree hasn't escaped this winter's heavy snow and winds. Nine years old, it finally produced a crop of fruit this past year. With one healthy limb sticking straight up, I think I'll try to make it the leader and build a tree from that. 

I was up early Saturday morning, but after observing how lousy the weather looked outdoors, I did my reading and writing, then returned to bed for an extra hour or two.

Sargie and I made our way to town early in the afternoon and enjoyed watching many in the Caspian community enjoy the old ski hill on sleds, tubes, and toboggans. 

There were mommies and daddies and kiddies of all sizes zooming down the hill that was made slick by countless others who had gone before. 

It was refreshing to see so many people opt to have family fun rather than ignore each other in favor of staring at their phones or computers.

Good old fashioned fun is still alive in small town America

I took a nap yesterday afternoon and slept most of last evening and soundly all through the night. An afternoon nap isn't unusual, but not all evening. 

The only thing I can figure out is that I might have overdosed on allergy pills. Every winter, I have all the symptoms of allergies, probably caused by the sawdust in the shop or from the fine ashes and smoke of the wood stove. 

Inexpensive Walmart allergy pills make the symptoms go completely away. Yesterday, my itchy nose and watery eyes seemed particularly bad and I might have taken a pill too many. 

Lesson learned.

Other than watching the Packers and Lions football game at noon today, we have no plans. The weather's not cooperating with my previous plans of playing outside, so it looks like another lazy day spent either in the shop or on the couch.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

Ivy's putting together a puzzle that Grandpa made and sent her for Christmas