The view from the outhouse
Tuesday February 9
Good morning from Silty Slough. Mayor Cooper has issued a “Brass Monkey Alert”.
Please move all brass monkeys indoors. The temp is showing -15 here and -24 at the Skwentna airport. I’m glad there is no wind. I planned on going to town today with Roger to line up more building material and haul a septic tank back out on Thursday. We are going to delay a bit until the temp at least gets to the goose egg.
I haven’t written for over a week. Kari, the boys, and I made a trip to town last Tuesday and came back Sunday. We made a trip into Anchorage on Wednesday to see my cardiologist, stop by Costco, and pick up Steve’s truck. Just a checkup, didn’t talk about my heart much, mostly about flying, woodworking, and pex plumbing tools. Why would a heart guy know about pex plumbing tools? I don’t think they use them in the operating room do you??? He prescribed a different cholesterol medicine. It’s an injection I give myself twice a month. He says 50% less chance of a heart attack and other benefits. That’s good enough for me. Went to the pharmacy and it was $1700 for a 3 month supply, $1400 with a discount card. Fighting with Medicare part D to get it approved.
My Cpap machine died almost a month ago. Medicare wants a new $5000 sleep study before they will replace an $800 machine just because the medical coding system changed since I was first diagnosed. Anything the government touches it complicates,screws up, and multiplies the cost by about 10. I can’t see why you Trump hating liberals want the government to control your healthcare.
Not hearing much from the Trump haters about President by cheating Biden. Maybe voters remorse has set in. What a circus Joe and the Hoe have along with a freak sideshow for a cabinet. The Peter from South Bend is talking about requiring the COVID vaccination before flying domestically. More government control is what we need. Wonder if they are going to require a shot if you jump the fence at the southern border?
The trip back to the cabin Sunday was a cold one. We had 44 sheets of plywood and a cooler of food on my sled. Kari had Bonnie, Clydes partner had 440 pounds of propane in her. Kari also had the boys in their kennel, 7 totes of supplies, and pulled a tub sled behind her freight sled with 2 one hundred pound propane cylinders. We waited until about 2 for it to warm up to 10 degrees. The trip went fine, the last 20 miles the sun and temp dropped. Kari got pretty cold. I was happy to see the outhouse light on in the distance through the trees. That means the electrical system is still working. Kari took her lighter load up the ramp first and headed up the second hill by Al’s. Near the top she was pulling hard, her skis were barely touching the ground and she couldn’t make the slight curve in the trail. Once you let off a bit to let the skis come down and steer you can make the turn. Trick is not to let off too much and stop on the hill, then you can’t get going again. She was stopped. Meanwhile I barreled up the ramp with 1800 pounds of plywood. At the top I have to make a more than 180 degree turn to head up the hill toward Al’s. I was also light on the skis and didn’t make it all the way around the turn, so I unhooked my sled and headed up to get Kari going so she could get to the cabin and warm up. Got the often used tow strap and pulled her on up the hill. Actually I just guided her sled where it needed to go. She did the pulling. I unhooked on top and she went on to the cabin. I headed down and hooked up to my sled at a better angle and headed for the cabin. I unloaded the totes and she and I unloaded the big white cooler. Actually it should be called a warmer today because it is protecting all the cold goods from freezing. My fingers finally got cold removing all the ratchet straps from the load. Enough for now, time to go inside, warm up and have a bite. The two hot dogs I picked up at Three Bears this morning were heated in the microwave in a minute and eaten almost as fast.
Found out the Super Bowl was today. I guess we missed it. Cooper said that he, Teddy, and I actually won because we didn’t even know exactly when it was, who was playing, and didn’t even care. For a bonus we got to miss the half time commercials. I’m happy that the big companies waisted some of their advertising dollars on us. I flew my boss to the Super Bowl in Miami in the 70s in a Piper Navajo. I also flew some of the NFL teams on 747 charters. Brett Favre was in the back on a couple, didn’t even know who he was.
Yesterday Kari and I unloaded Bonnie and the rest of the pane. Bonnie and Clyde and Earl are now full for next winter. We can use 100 pound cylinders for the rest of this winter. We had to shovel about 3 feet of snow off the plywood stack and pack the snow around it so we could unload the 44 sheets I brought up. I’m taking both sleds in with me tomorrow so I crawled under the freight sled to unhook the tub sled. I just rolled over in the snow when Kari decided to flip the tub sled over to dump the snow. The hitch swung over and hit me pretty good just above the left eye. Dog gone that hurt, but after a few choice words we were both laughing. Kari said it was good I was a hard head. I guess I shouldn’t have brought up the double indemnity clause in case of accident for the life insurance the other day.
Both sleds are hooked up and the machine is fueled and ready for the trip tomorrow. All that is left is to change the propane tanks at the generator and the cabin so Kari doesn’t run out while I’m gone. That would be a cats-ass-trophy.
Time for a snack and a nap. My right foot is really hurting but I don’t want to mention it to Dr Kari. She may make me drink some of that awful concoction she made from Dr Bubba’s internet clinic. They say to ice it. Maybe I can just leave my right boot at home tomorrow and it will feel better.
Cooper, Teddy, and I would like to hear from some of you Trump haters about how good things are going. Just wait it will only get worse. I guess you are all speechless.
Stay safe and healthy, my friends.
Thank you Lord for watching over us.
I’ll be in touch.
Blue skies!!!
The View from the Outhouse 