Paradise Regained

After a rushed morning, I am back at Laura Lake, ready for a nap, but it's too late in the afternoon or too early in the evening, so I will just hold out until bedtime.

First thing this morning, I had to do three loads of laundry I had neglected to do while I was working in the gardens. There was a certain amount of cleaning, too, plus placating an anxious cat who was against my leaving. Rascal hates it when his people abandon him.

I mowed part of the lawn, but the rest will have to wait until Gary comes back and we can move the stacks of weed and yard waste that I've piled up until we can load it on his trailer.

Then I was off but not for the campground. I first had a storytelling performance at Birch Hill Nursing Home in Shawano. I go there two or three times a year. It was the usual type of performance, with a couple of stories and a few songs that the residents can sing with me. They must enjoy them because they keep asking me back.

Back on the road for only half an hour, I noticed that there was steam rolling out of the right side of the engine. I stopped in Mountain and took a look. It was not the old radiator problem that plagued me when I was out west. This time, it seems to be tied to the fan of the heating and cooling system. There was a burning smell. I found I could drive as long as I didn't turn the fan on. It was a warm day, but I used nature's cooling system by opening all the windows on the car. I made it here fine but will have the engine looked at when I go back home on Thursday.

Gary has been feeding the chipmunks with peanut butter, bird seed, and peanuts left from our Christmas stash. I brought peanuts in the shell. We now have a chipmunk herd scurrying around begging. I thought one cat was a nag, now four or five insistent chippies are at my side whenever I move out of the camper. One of them has a burrow right next to the site. If we move at all, he alerts his compatriots.

The rose breasted grosbeaks are complaining because Gary moved the feeder a bit.  They will be even more upset when we put up the hummingbird feeder tomorrow and the air becomes heavy with hummer traffic.

Gary is brown from his days in his canoe. All the time I was in Seymour, he sent e-mails describing the sunny days.

Now I am here and it has just begun to sprinkle. Figures.

Maybe I will take that nap anyhow.