Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Winter Insulator Hunt, Part 2.
Greetings everyone! Here we are, back with part 2 of our winter insulator hunt, part 1 was last week. If you missed that one, my Dad and I used to collect insulators which are those glass and porcelain things that hold wires that were used for phone, hydro and telegraph. We were after mainly the old telegraph insulators. Normally we “hunted” for these things in the warmer weather of spring and fall, but this time we were out in January, when it was cold and the snow was deep. I wish I had pictures from back then, but at that time we had no camera and it was before the days of our modern cell phones.
The telegraph lines followed the railroads through our area and each pole had 5 crossarms of insulators used to hold the telegraph wires. The bottom crossarm had no wires, but the insulators were still in place and we had permission to remove them. But reaching them was often a problem. That led to our winter “hunt”, the snow was deep and wearing snowshoes raised us up enough to reach some of those insulators. However, we did encounter some problems along the way. We had just fallen into the deep snow at one pole, but we still got the insulators.
So we went on to the next pole which was shorter, so reaching the insulators was much easier. Dad bent over and I stood on his back, took the insulators off and dropped them down to Dad. It worked great…mostly. We then went to the next pole which was a bit taller, but standing on Dad’s back I was still able to reach the insulators. There was a nice light purple one which I tossed down to Dad. He caught it easily. Now, normally he would put the insulator on his snowshoe until all the insulators were down.
But this time he was admiring the purple insulator when I tossed down the next insulator, which was a more common aqua color. It landed right on the purple insulator, smashing it to pieces. The aqua insulator was not damaged at all. “You broke it!”, I called down to Dad. “Bonehead!”, was all that Dad said. Good thing he had his gloves on anyway. But we lost a nice insulator. On to the next pole which looked like it would be the last of the short poles for a while.
Dad had to stand up for this one and I stood on his shoulders this time. But it worked nicely. Then we decided to have our coffee and a sandwich. We went and sat on some rocks under a big pine tree. “Toss my coffee over,” said Dad. That’s what he said, so I did. Right at that moment Dad bent over to tighten the strap on his snowshoe. Thunk! The thermos hit Dad on the head. He groaned. “Good thing you’re wearing a hat,” I said, “you always manage to hurt yourself.” “Only when you’re with me,” he answered. I’m not sure what he meant by that.
“Toss my sandwich over, but not high,” he said. I was sure he said to toss it high, though I did not know why he wanted it tossed high, but I did so. Dad was just pouring a cup of coffee and he jumped up quickly to catch his sandwich, but missed, and he spilled his coffee in the snow. He sighed quite loudly, something he did a lot when we were together. Then he went to get his sandwich, but as he turned around his snowshoe hit his thermos over into the snow. He quickly bent over to grab it and fell into the deep snow again. I went over to him.
“Need some help?”, I asked. “No, I like lying in the deep snow,” he answered. I had to get closer to help him get up and my snowshoe kicked snow all over his face. He frantically removed the snow. Then I grabbed his arm to try and help him get up, but Dad was a lot bigger than me and he pulled me down on top of him. My knee went into his stomach and he groaned very loud and frantically brushed snow away from his face again.
I then took his snowshoes off so he could get up more easily. I got his sandwich while he retrieved his thermos, which was now empty. “Not a drop left,” he said, “I’ll try some of yours.” “Mine has no sugar or milk,” I said. Dad just looked at me and said, “forget it.” “This was your idea remember,” I said. “A momentary lapse of sanity,” he answered. The way back to the car was uneventful, which Dad was thankful for, he did not want to end up in the deep snow again that day. Surprisingly though, we did go out again another time and oh my, the things that happened to us. Well, I do hope you enjoyed our little adventure, thank you so much for reading. Have a wonderful day everyone and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2022 Steve McLeod.
The Investigators, Inc. Mystery Of The Beginning. Chapter 14.
“I, I, do not speak French,” I said nervously. “I just asked if you would like a muffin?,” she said so nicely. “Um, I, do not have any money,” I said, embarrassed. “Do not worry, it is from me, eat, please,” she said, “you look hungry.” “Yes, I am,” I said slowly. I took the muffin and she told me to sit at one of the small tables. I ate the muffin rather quickly and she brought me another. “For you,” she said, “please take it.” I did and again ate very quickly. She came out again and sat down with me. “My name is Carine Blanchet,” she said with such a nice soft voice, “what is your name?”
“I…really don’t know who I am,” I said very slowly, “I cannot remember a thing really. My head hurts terribly, I have no money, no ID, nothing. A friend of mine, at least I think he was a friend, dropped me off and told me some people were chasing me and wanted to kill me, plus, the police are after me, but I do not know why.” “Where did you sleep last night?”, she asked. I had to trust someone, and she seemed to be so nice. So I told her about the last couple of days.
“Come with me,” she said as she stood up and held out her hand to me. “Where?”, I asked as I stood up, ready to run away. “Do not be afraid, I will help you,” she said, “you come with me to my flat and get cleaned up and I will make you a nice meal.” She smiled so beautifully, so I took her hand and we walked to her flat. “You need to clean up, have a nice hot shower,” she said, “here is everything you need.” “I, I, don’t know if these clothes can be cleaned,” I said, embarrassed again. “Do not worry, we toss those and I get you some different clothes,” she said and disappeared into the next room.
“Here, these were my brother’s clothes,” she said, “he lived with me for a time, you are the same size so they should fit you.” She set the clothes in the bathroom for me, then she went off to the kitchen. It certainly felt good to get cleaned up again. I came out and went into the kitchen. “Oh, that is so much better,” she said smiling, “now you look handsome again.” “Thank you,” I said, “but, why are you helping me like this when you do not even know who I am. Maybe I am a murderer or something.”
She smiled again, “I do not think you are a bad man, but if you are, maybe you would like to change? I used to be a bad girl, mixed up in a terrible life, but I wanted out and I did it, I changed. Now I live a normal life. My brother, my only living relative, he helped me get out of that bad life. I see you, and I think, you need some help too, so I decide to help you.” “But I don’t even know who I am, or anything about myself,” I said, “I honestly cannot remember anything about my past.”
“Do you remember being married, or have a girlfriend maybe?”, she asked, “I do not see a ring on you. But perhaps this ‘friend’ you mentioned, maybe he is not a friend, maybe he knock you out and steal from you.” “I was thinking that too,” I said slowly, “and I don’t remember being married or having a girlfriend. But when you said muffin, right away I thought of a cat, a gray cat, but I don’t know why.” “Hmm, maybe you own a gray cat and her name is Muffin?”, she asked. “I really don’t know,” I said, “but now I can’t even see the cat when I think of a muffin, so maybe it was not real after all.”
“Maybe, maybe not, but it is something,” she said so kindly, so gently. She made me feel so good, so comfortable, that I was no longer afraid. We had a wonderful meal and talked all evening. “You will sleep in my bed,” she said, “I will sleep on the couch.” “Oh no,” I said, “I sleep on the couch, no arguing about that!” She laughed, such a beautiful laugh, for a brief moment a woman’s face came to mind, but she was blond, Carine had light brown hair. Because she worked at a bakery, she had to be up and at work very early.
“What is wrong with your back?”, she asked before leaving. “I don’t know,” I said, “it is just paining a lot right here.” “Let me see,” and she looked, “you have had surgery on your back, and you sleep on terrible couch. I want you to make 3 promises before I go to work,” she said with that beautiful smile. “Okay, what are they?”, I asked. “One, you go lie down on my bed and sleep as long as you like. Two, you do not open this door for anyone. Three, you stay here and wait for me, you don’t run away,” she said and smiled again, “you promise.” “Okay, I promise,” I said. She gave me a kiss and left. But…who am I?
To Be Continued.
©2022 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 