40 Years Together.....

It was 18 below 40 years ago tonight when Glenda and I were married. I was, and still am, a very lucky man. It's hard to imagine anybody putting up with me that long, but through all the good times and some very bad ones, we've always been a team. Yeah I know that's a cliche but that's the way it is.
So, to celebrate, Johnny threw us a little party and invited 15 or so of our very good friends. It was so cold but everybody came. From all over the cities to some very good friends who drove down from northern Wisconsin just to spend a couple of hours with us.
When we got home, there was an email card from our good friends in Texas.
Like I said, I'm a lucky man..... Thanks guys...

Ice, Ice, Ice, Ice Baby!!

No, I haven't decided to become "The Norwegian Rapper" though I'm sure I'd be quite good at it. It's just that I've had ice on the brain this past week.
"The Great Indoorsman" and I got The Hotel California off the ice Monday night. Things had froze up real good so I was able to yank her out with my ATV. I walked away from her and only went back this weekend to see what was inside. Well, there was a couple of ice covered splitting malls, a cribbage board and cards, assorted pieces of ice covered wood, seat cushions, chairs, tackle, a frozen beer and an open bag of Skittles. You notice I used the word "open". There were green ones, red ones, yellow ones, purple ones and god only knows how many more colors of the little buggers all over the floor. It took forever to pick up all those little ^*(*(@#^%$#$* guys. I did try a couple, however, and they are quite good... But I digress.
Once I dragged all this stuff home to unthaw I noticed that the underside of my ATV was totally incased in ice. I had been told that is not good so decided to unthaw the green machine. I got a little electric heater and it took me about an hour to get the back side unfroze. I took a break and went in the house to warm up and eat some fresh, warm banana bread that I knew was a cookin'
I told Glenda what I was up to and she suggested a hair dryer. I thought that was a wonderful idea, so armed with one I headed back to the garage. Actually it worked quite well and when I was done I decided to blow comb my hair. Yes I do have hair left under my baseball cap!
So now everything is unthawed. We did walk down to the boat landing early this morning. Heck it was 10 degrees and no wind. It seemed almost balmy. But once again I digress. Dang I gotta quit doing that...
At any rate, I wanted to check out the landing and any plowed roads leading west. After all, there are still crappies to catch and I do have "The Voodoo Lounge" all ready to go.....

Livin' it up at "The Hotel California"??

Ah, once again the intrepid walleye fishermen hit the ice. We actually caught four this year. Stone and Uwe stepped up and caught two each. Nothing big, but better than our last couple of years. Of course, the weather cooperated and dumped a bunch of snow on us Saturday when this picture was taken.
Sunday morning when I first headed out to start chipping the hotel loose it was 17 below. Three hours later we dang near got it to shore before getting hopelessly stuck. Later Glenda, Conley and I shoveled a path from the lake to his driveway so we could get my atv unstuck. We had our plow guy plow a bigger swath to the lakes edge (he got stuck too), so we can try to winch the hotel off the lake tomorrow night. I'm still not sure how that is gonna go.... We just gotta try.
This will be the last year I launch "The Hotel California". It's getting to be too much work for me and Glenda and I can't, and won't, rely on our friends to kill themselves hauling my stuff on and off the lake. It's been a good ride with the hotel but all things must pass.
Thanks to Johnny, Stone, Uwe, Tommy B. Brian and Conley. Of course, a special thanks to Glenda for putting up with all of us. It's been a good ride.....