For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Posted on August 23, 2022 by stevescountry
“What do you think Chung?”, Baldwin asked. “I am not sure, he was without medication for a long time and given a medication that would help bring back that ‘nowhere’ disease,” Chung answered, “he needs more rest, but with Avina still out there, that will be impossible for him. He must go after her, or he will not rest.” “Yes, I agree,” said Baldwin, “but will that complicate matters?” “It very well could,” said Chung, “he must be watched carefully.”
Well, after a month of rehab I was finally cleared to go ‘home’, well, Baldwin’s home, since our chateau was completely destroyed. But Baldwin is having it totally rebuilt, the way it was. Fortunately we have lots of photos of the whole place. Plus there is a surprise coming for Kat and I as well, but Baldwin would not say what it was and there is one area outside with high walls that we are not allowed to see just yet.
Well, here I sit, trying to figure out our next move. So far Avina has killed Susan, Cassie, Bellamy and John. Benson lived but he may not be able to rejoin our active team membership, however, I am sure we can find things for him to do anyway. He has a lot of knowledge he can share with all of us for one thing. Jake has asked to join our team but his legs may never be the same again.
Right now he is in a wheelchair but remains very positive. His skills do not require him to come with us anyway, between Jake and Annelie they can help us a lot with those laptops of theirs. Everyone else is doing well now and Rock said he was definitely coming along on our next chase. Annelie and Krissy agreed with that. But where do we look for Avina? She could be anywhere is this world right now.
Annelie has been trying to find any information she can but came up with nothing so far. Now Jake has begun checking with his contacts to see if he can find any info that might help us. For now then we must sit and wait. As I was having my early morning coffee, before anyone else was awake, my phone rang. I did not recognize the number but answered anyway.
“Hey Steve, guess who?”, said the voice. I could not believe it at first, but it was John. “We thought for sure you were dead John,” I said, “how did you survive?” “I was at a side exit when you sounded the alarm to run so I got out quick,” he explained, “and I wanted everyone to think I was dead. It is amazing how much information a dead man can find.” I chuckled, maybe he was right.
“What did you find out?”, I asked. “Avina is in Argentina, planning something but I do not know what,” he began, “so I went there myself to see what I could find out. I made friends with one of her security guards, apparently he does not like her too much, and one night he was drunk and I was able to get a lot of info out of him.” He then told me all about the place she lives at right now and while he talked I drew out a rough sketch of the place.
The electric fence around the place is the toughest part but we should be able to dig under it. Then there are all the video cameras outside and inside, except in the basement since she thinks there is not way into the basement. But there is an old way in it seems and it should not be hard to find. And it is in a blind spot for the cameras too which will help us.
When everyone came for breakfast I told them what I had found out. “Are you sure about trusting John?”, asked Baldwin, “it may have been him that led you into that trap in Norway.” “Possibly, but I doubt it, the cats checked him out carefully and said he could be trusted,” I said, “and I believe him too.” “When do we go?”, asked Rock.
“Not so fast,” I said, “this time we will do things differently. Only some of us will go this time, we do not want to give Avina another chance to kill all of us at once. And again, it is strictly a volunteer job, if you do not want to go, it will not be held against you. This is not a regular PI case where everyone is required to join in.
The cats can only come if their human allows it, I know Muffin will be coming.” MC looks at Carine and Storm looks at Angel. They both smiled and said yes, they can go. So I have the 3 cats for sure. But everyone said yes to coming along, so I picked my team and we were off to Argentina that day.
To Be Continued.
©2022 Steve McLeod.
Posted on August 23, 2022 by stevescountry
Good morning on this cloudy and wet Tuesday! Time for coffee and a short chat, though today it is best to stay indoors. There is no rain out there however, it is just wet from previous rain. Yesterday we had some thunderstorms move through the area but they mostly missed us. We did get some rain however, especially from one storm, but only about 1/4 inch (6mm).
But because it stayed cloudy and very humid then things did not dry much afterward. And it is still wet. It is not stopping the chipmunks however, they are still busy as ever knowing they only have a short time left for gathering their winter food supply. Hard to believe that most of them will be gone in one month. There is usually one or two that will stay around longer, maybe an extra week or two.

Just depends on what the weather is like this fall. Looks like the clouds are breaking up and blue sky is showing so hopefully the sun will soon be shining too. That will warm things up a bit but likely make things very humid again too, like yesterday. If it stays sunny perhaps I can head down to the river again. If not I should be able to make a trip down there later this week when it is supposed to be sunny and a bit cooler.
Although the water level on the river is going down I doubt it will get back to normal before winter. But it might, if it stays dry enough. It does have at least 8 feet to drop yet, that is a lot. Amazing that it stayed so high all summer. And of course it meant I was unable to get to my favorite spot again this summer because of the path being under water. Oh well. Oh, I see Baxter is out here, I must give him some peanuts.

There we go, he came down right away. Oddly he has been by himself the last few days. Normally when he returns in late summer he brings his whole family with him. I hope nothing happened to them. Likely Betty, his mate, is keeping them hidden for a while yet. They must have had a late nesting this year. Hmm, I see the chipmunks are out of peanuts now too. I will fix that right away.
The food was all gone and so were the chipmunks, so I put out more and started to call them and five were there around my feet before I finished calling their names! So I put peanuts under their box for them and several small piles of sunflower seeds and soon they were all busy and happy once again. I am using more sunflower seeds for them right now since I cannot get them their peanuts right now. Only one place in town is selling them at the moment and it is quite a bit more expensive at that store.

The chipmunks like the sunflower seeds too so it is working out okay. The peanuts I have will only last until the end of the month. I had stocked up on peanuts to last the summer but did not quite start early enough. I will start in January to stock up on peanuts this time, just to make sure I have enough to last the summer next year. Well, guess it is time to try for more pictures. I hope you all have a wonderful day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2022 Steve McLeod.