It must be summer once again as the goldfish are at the surface of the pond begging to be fed.

November 7, 2020 - Saturday Morning

55 degrees/clear skies/WINDY

Pentoga Road

We're grateful for this blast of Indian summer that has seen temperatures in the lower 70's. Unfortunately, I see the forecast high for a week from today is a big fat THREE ZERO with lows in the low 20's. Indian summer usually occurs in October, not November, but hey, we'll take as many warm days as we can get. The older I become, the more I appreciate global warming. 

Oops, we don't call it that anymore, it's gone out of vogue. I meant to say climate change.  

Sorry 'bout that, Al. No offense meant. 

Well, not too much. 

Okay, maybe a bit. 

Sargie and I are taking advantage of these beautiful days. I started yesterday by strolling to Pentoga Village and back. Beautiful, just beautiful.

The large central vac in the shop needed empyting of sawdust. While it was untethered from the wall and the "suck" was at it's maximum, I decided to vacuum the Kia. Someone, and it probably wasn't Sargie, had transported several bales of straw late last summer and left about half of each bale stuck to the carpeting in the trunk.

Though the small compact is mostly used for local drives and trips to nearby towns, it's still in decent mechanical shape and for hitting over half a dozen deer during the past ten years, doesn't look half bad.

Sargie has the opinion that our former family car shouldn't resemble a woods truck. With that in mind, I vacuumed like I've never vacuumed before.

(A quick side note here:  At 6:15 AM and with the sun yet to rise, Jimmy's at the living room window, pecking, wanting me to come outside to play. If he keeps it up, we may have chickadee breast for Sunday dinner.)

Anyway, where was I before I was so rudely interrupted? Oh yeah, the Kia.

Sargie finished cleaning the pint sized car by scrubbing the seats and cleaning the interior. Auxiliary vehicle or not, the interior of the Kia is clean and ready to see some action. Today will see it driven through the car wash.

We took a pleasant two mile walk on the Apple Blossom Trail while in town.

A local business is receiving a load of Boss snow plows, manufactured in neighboring Iron Mountain

I took a wonderful afternoon nap in Sargie's recliner. Feeling a bit tired all day, the hour long snooze was exactly what I needed.

The rest of Friday was spent in the shop, mostly cleaning and rearranging. We had a sales rep out to give an estimate for installing a new Generac automatic generator a couple of weeks ago. The final tally?

ALMOST $10,000!

Yeah, well, that's not going to happen. They want to do everything from rewire all our circuit panels to charging almost $1,000 to dig a trench from in back of the barn to the house. 

I recently finished a rebuild job on our old generator, one that now starts on the first pull and runs like a Deere. The machine also has dedicated circuit panels already wired in the basement. Problem is, the plugs that connect the generator to the house are located behind one of the workbenches in the shop and can't be easily relocated.

Much of Friday afternoon was spent rearranging the shop so the generator can permanently sit in one corner, ready to be called upon in a moment's notice.

We met Yooper Brother Mark and Sheri at a local restaurant last night for dinner. Ten years ago, there were almost a dozen restaurants from which to choose. Now? We're pretty much down to one or two. Our nitwit governor has ensured that many of our local businesses have gone belly up in the name of "protecting us" from each other.

To add insult to injury, we're now supposed to fill out a paper giving our name and address when dining at restaurant. 

Yeah, just like buying the $10,000 generator, that ain't gonna happen either.

I drew an ugly happy face on mine with the governor's name underneath. What is this, the old USSR? Or California? I'll go to jail before I start filling out "hall passes" when venturing into a public venue.

Whew, the old professor got a bit heated there.

S'cuse me, no apologies, but this is supposed to be a family blog, not political. It's becoming increasingly difficult to keep it that way.

Taken while on our walk in Iron River. The large building on the left is city hall.

OK, time to strap on those hikers and put a few miles under my feet. I'm taking the Trail Boss, Scott's, advice and breaking in a new pair of shoes today, a pair of Keen's with Orange insoles. 

Time to git goin'!

Just remember, every day's a holiday, every meal's a feast... but is much more palatable without a hall pass.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

A very happy Makenna