The snow and wind stopped sometime during the night and I woke up (late – nearly 8:00!) to bright sunshine and crisp temperatures outside. Have not gotten above 25 today, but the lack of wind has made things much more hospitable than they were yesterday. My weather app tells me that tomorrow will also be sunny and that the thermometer will reach to nearly 40, which will feel like shorts weather after the last few days.
As planned, the fire had nearly gone out by the time I woke up, so I made some coffee and then shoveled a bunch of ash out of the stove, which I deposited into the trash can designed for such stuff outside. Feeling the housekeeping bug, I then proceeded to do some furniture rearrangement – moved my table and wood pile, pushed some chairs out of the way, redesigned the way that I hang my sink, set up a better coat rack, then swept out the entire cabin and the front porch.
After doing so, I brought in two loads of wood and completely filled my inside wood rack. Note to self: do that BEFORE sweeping the floor next time.
Took stock of my food for a bit next. Down to 6 beers, no chips left. Sure, I have other foodstuffs, but let’s be serious here. I was taking stock of the important food. Having determined that I was running low on the vitals, I determined to drive in to Cheboygan and restock. This turned out to be somewhat of a hassle, as my car has been sitting idle since last Friday and was covered in 3 inches of snow and ice. I brushed off most of the loose snow (did I mention that, yes, I have a snow brush and scraper in my car?), then remembered that I needed to add a quart of oil to the thing. Managed to get the hood open, but could not loosen the oil cap until I got a couple of logs from the woodshed and banged on it for a while. Got the oil put in, then climbed in and cranked her up to warm up the windows before scraping off the ice.
For a horrible moment, I thought the car wasn’t going to start, but it caught after a couple of attempts (this car has never sat out for a week in sub-freezing temperatures) and warmed up everything nicely. Drove to the Marathon station in town (about 5 miles) and filled up with gasoline, then picked up a 12-pack of brew, a couple bags of chips, a gas station sandwich – which I had for lunch, along with a pack of three-pepper sauce that I found in my brain – and a big bottle of Gatorade. Needed that last not so much for the drink, but because my current pee bottle needs to hold more, if you know what I mean.
Arriving back at the cabin, I shoveled some more ash out of the stove, then put in a couple of new logs, started listening to a podcast, and promptly fell asleep. I’ve been dozing on and off for most of the day since, and – now 4:20 in the afternoon – the sun is on the way down. I plan to hit the sack fairly early tonight (sleeping is what I do best on my solitary vacations), and maybe take a walk tomorrow, in between naps.
The picture for this post is of one of the two lighthouses that I have guarding the east-west channel alongside of which I’m camped. This one is right offshore to the west – it gives its name to the Lighthouse Cabin – and there’s another about a mile or two down to the east. I haven’t taken any pictures of them this year, but there are some BIG ships heading past every day, and the sounds of them chugging along and sounding their horns, along with the sounds of the horns from the lighthouses at night, is pretty amazing.