Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Coffee And Thoughts For Thursday. #2
Good morning everyone! Time to get a coffee, sit back and relax with us for a bit. I almost thought we would have a sunny morning, or at least a sunny start, but the clouds moved in quickly putting a stop to that idea. Oh well, we did have a mainly sunny day yesterday, except for all the clouds which covered the sun much of the time. And it stayed cool for most of the day, warming up in the late afternoon.
But it was very windy too, much like this morning. It has been a very windy year so far, quite unusual. I was hoping on a walk to the river this week, but due to all the rain we had it was impossible to even get started on the path, just too much water. But I am going to try again tomorrow and see if it is any better. Providing it is a nice day too. It was supposed to be very nice, now the forecast has changed a bit. Quite a bit actually.
Oh well. There is always next week. There are very heavy clouds out there now, making for a very dull kind of day. That kind of day that requires lights to be on inside. But it is a good day for coffee and doing inside projects. Muffin and I had a good playtime this morning. She gets good exercise during our playtimes. She really flies around this place, running and jumping, having a great time!
I do not get much exercise with it, but it is fun anyway. It is one of those slow sort of days. I really do not have much energy today. I think it is because of not getting enough outdoor time. It is kind of hard to get outside when it rains most days. This kind of weather is hard on the arthritis, and my back. So it slows me down a lot.
Still not much bird activity, but there are still the blue jays, chickadees and nuthatches that come regularly throughout the day. Other birds stop in now and then, like the evening grosbeaks (6 of them), American goldfinches (2), plus grackles and cowbirds. The gulls come early each morning and the hummingbirds are here too (3). I tried hard to get some good pics of the hummingbirds yesterday.
The sun would shine nicely and I would be waiting. The hummingbird came and the sun immediately was covered by a cloud. That happened time after time. Quite amazing really. But I finally did get some pics of them in the sun. By that time I was getting kind of stiff standing so still for so long. Part of taking pics of birds.
I only saw one chipmunk yesterday and that was Pocket. The neighbors cat is spending a lot of time back here now and that is keeping the chipmunks away. And when the cat is not here, the dog is here. Sigh. But it is still a beautiful day! Today is blue day for our pics, except for the featured image at the top which is our new female squirrel. Well, time to get my garbage out to the street. Thank you for stopping by, have a great day everyone and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2022 Steve McLeod.
The Investigators, Inc. Ghost Town Mystery. Chapter 14. John Returns.
It was not too long and the remaining team members were back at the chateau once more. They came slowly into the library and sat down. But just as Axelina sat down she spotted Jake and jumped right back up. “You!!”, she yelled. “That’s right Ax lady,” said Jake, “I am here to stop you.” “Never!”, she yelled and went for her gun. But Rock had already been informed by Baldwin to be ready and he grabbed Axelina by her arms squeezing tightly.
She screamed and struggled a bit but calmed down quickly when she realized it was pointless. Annelie went over and took her gun and her shoulder gun too which each of the girls wears all the time. “Check her left wrist girl,” said Jake. “Oh, nice knife,” said Annelie. “Now her left ankle,” said Jake. “Yeah, go ahead girl,” said Axelina sarcastically. “You do anything to her and you will not be using these lovely arms again,” said Rock firmly.
“Okay, okay, you win,” she replied. Annelie took another knife from under her jeans. “Hmm, someone likes knives, I see,” said Annelie. “One more,” said Jake, “behind her head, down her neck.” Annelie checked. “Wow, this is a beauty,” said Annelie. “Yeah, I have killed a lot with that one,” said Ax. “That is how she got her nickname of Ax,” said Jake, “she cut down people with that knife.” Looking at the knives on the table Rock relaxed his grip on Ax and she was able to reach Annelie with a kick to her hip.
Annelie screamed and Rock hit Ax with the back of his hand knocking her into her chair. He was about to go after her but Jake stopped him. “You do not want to kill her,” he said, “let the cops have her. She will not live long anyway. There are at least 15 contracts on that lady right now, she will never live long enough to get to trial.” “Naturally you would tell everyone where to find me!”, yelled Ax.
“No Ax, I did not tell them where to find you,” he said calmly, “but news travels fast. I can’t help what my friends do.” “Yeah, right, you pig!,” she answered, “well, at least I know that your precious Steve is gone from the scene and those stupid fake talking cats! Those ladies did a great job there.” “Oh, they did not do it,” said Baldwin, “that was the work of someone else.”
“There are more people out there in that heat?”, she asked. “Yes,” said Baldwin, “there are at least 2 groups out there right now, besides the ladies. Apparently there is quite a treasure out there and it is attracting a lot of attention.” “I should have gone after that treasure myself,” grumbled Ax. “Well, you will not need it now,” said Kat glaring at her. Ax laughed at Kat, “well, I am glad you lose the most!” Kat started across the room but Baldwin stopped her and told her to sit down again. She did so reluctantly.
Meanwhile, back to the ghost town… “Where do we hide these gems?”, said C. “Hmm, not really sure,” said the man, “wait, the old mine office, it is closest.” So they headed over there quickly and in through the back door and down into the cellar. They dug a hole in the dirt floor with a shovel that was there and buried the gems nicely and covered the spot with the boxes that had been sitting there.
Then they went back up and hid, watching to see what the others did with the gold. “Hey John, look at all this gold!”, the woman said joyfully. “Whoa, there is enough there to last us the rest of our lives,” said John, “told you I would take good care of you.” “I never doubted you John honey,” said Jill. “Okay everyone, get moving this gold over to the hotel before those ladies get back,” said John.
Soon they were all busy hauling that gold. “It is going to take them a while to move that gold just carrying it like that,” said the man, “but, that is their problem. We just sit and wait to see what happens when those ladies get back.” It was nearly dark before the ladies returned from the mine with their machine. They just drove right on down the road, but, there were two large trees down across the road blocking them.
They looked at the problem and realized they could not move them. “There is a chainsaw in the shed by the house,” said Maggie. So they turned around and came back. By then it was completely dark so they decided to wait and leave early in the morning. As they were eating both Maggie and Val shrieked and pointed to the window. Even Mel jumped when she saw a glowing white face in the window…
To Be Continued.
©2022 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 