August, 2017
Hey, it's late January. I wanted to see a little color for a change.

January 27 2020 - Monday morning

26 degrees/cloudy/calm winds

Pentoga Road

Obviously, I love taking pictures, especially those that involve nature, but I'm tiring of everything looking black and white. Unfortunately, during the winter months in the North Country, we're limited on choices of exterior colors. I think that's the reason I enjoy thumbing through one seed catalogue after another.

They're colorful and bring hope of warmer days to come. 

Amen.

I just opened my smartphone and see that Sargie and I are now enrolled in an unlimited data plan. For years, we've kept our data usage throttled down to the bare minimum, mostly because we couldn't receive a good signal at the house and of course, the cost. 

When Mom fell ill this past fall and we were desperate to talk to either her, my sister, or the hospital, there were times we had no phone service. The satellite telephone (VOIP) is lousy at best and a cell signal was non existent. We found ourselves plowing through the snow and parking in Jambo's yard at the top of the hill to send and/or receive a phone call.

With the cell booster came a near perfect signal. We found we could talk like normal people on our cell phones from the comfort of our living room, but the satellite service, both for internet and phone, has remained horrible.

I called our cellular provider and asked what could be done. I assumed unlimited data would be prohibitive as they charged $15 for every gigabyte of data beyond our normal 5 gig limit. In talking to the representative, I found that for another $30 a month, we could talk and video beyond our wildest expectations. 

Sargie gave me an Alexa Echo (Amazon) for the car this past Christmas. At the time, I hesitated to install the thing as it required data through a smart phone, something we had little of.

Not any more.

Yeah, I know, I'm a tech geek. For an old guy, I do pretty well, but then at the age of 92, Mom had an iPad, was on her second laptop computer, had a smart phone, banked and shopped online, constructed spread sheets, and of course, emailed me daily.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

We're looking forward to our upcoming drive to the southland in a few weeks, bebopping to the sounds of the 70's and 80s on Sirius radio, and being kept informed by Alexa. In other words, we're all decked out. 

Watch out Mississippi Brother Garry and Miss Jody, here we come!

Sargie and I made it to Green Bay and back yesterday in good shape. At one point along the way, I received a text from Yooper Brother Mark. The poor guy had been on his roof, enjoying the UP's most favorite wintertime activity, shoveling snow from the roof of his garage and shed.

Doesn't he look as though he's having fun?

The boy sounded absolutely exhausted and I suggested he borrow my Minnesnowta, the snow removal tool that works so well for me.

He said he thought he would.

Sometime later, I got another text and picture  saying he had no trouble at all fitting my new blower into the back of his truck. 

Wait a cotton pickin' minute. It was the Minnesnowta he was supposed to take, not my new snowblower.

Ah, we have fun teasing each other, that Yooper Brother Mark and I. He did borrow the Minnesnowta, but said the snow on his roof was too heavy, deep, and hard packed for it to really be effective. 

Lest you think I'm exaggerating about the amount of snow we've received this winter, our local Home Depot in Iron Mountain was taking some preventative measures on Sunday.

We pulled into the parking lot just to observe.

Green Bay was a busy place and Costco was no exception. 

I talked to one of the clerks who remarked that the time to shop is Monday through Thursday when the crowd tends to be much smaller. Friday through Sunday sees a huge influx of shoppers.

Lesson learned.

Sargie and I chomped on burgers and fries and sang and talked our way back to Pentoga Road, arriving home shortly after dark.

Today's going to be an active one. I'll go for my walk at first light then after, try to enjoy the UP's most favorite wintertime activity on the garage roof and that of the storage shed in back of the barn. 

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

Sargie's in her element, an all day shopping trip