Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Winter Insulators? Who Does That?
Hello everyone! Well, time for more fun with dad and I. This was our third time out looking for insulators in the winter. Hard to believe we did this 3 times. This story is the next winter after the last time. So, let’s get going…
It is a beautiful sunny morning. But very cold. There is at least 2 feet of snow on the ground. Any sensible person would be at home sitting next to a roaring fire and drinking coffee! But, no, here we are walking down the tracks looking for insulators. In January. Dad figured it would be a great time to check out a couple of spots that had insulators we were unable to get at in the fall. I figured it would be a great time to stay inside and drink coffee! We are outside. I am already frozen and we haven’t reached our destination yet. After walking about 10 miles we arrived. Okay, it was only 1 mile (nearly 2km) but in this weather it felt like 10 miles. 
It was a swampy area where there had been a fire in the distant past which burned some poles which ended up falling into the swampy area complete with cross arms and insulators. I guess they did not wish to slosh through the swamp to retrieve the insulators when putting in the new poles after the fire. Even the new poles had old insulators so this may have happened a long time ago. Or they may have reused some old insulators from somewhere else. Whatever. At this point in time I was not exactly excited about insulator collecting. Old bottles were much more to my liking.
But dad preferred insulators. So here we are. In the fall the cross arms with insulators were sticking out of the water which really wasn’t too deep, but the ground was very soft so we could not get at them. I tried to convince dad that the insulators would now be frozen in solid ice. But that did not deter him. Fortunately the wind had cleared most of the snow off the ice so it was easy to see the cross arms. As usual dad suggested I go first. Dad was a bit heavier than me. Quite a bit. So he figured it would be safer for me. Thanks. That was one time I would have liked to weigh a lot more than I did. Off I go.
Fortunately the wind swept snow along the tracks was very hard which made for easy walking. When I got to the edge of the swamp I pounded the ice with my long walking stick. Yep, solid. But I proceeded slowly. Ice in these swampy areas is not always solid all over. Got to the cross arms on the first pole. I call back to dad that it is safe. So he ventures ahead. I hear a yell, dad is sitting in the snow waving to me. Kind of odd, I thought, but I waved back anyway. A train came by at that moment. I looked back again to see how dad was doing and there he was, still sitting and waving.
His lips were moving but I couldn’t hear anything. Removed 2 insulators and looked at dad. Now he was pounding on the snow and tossing snow in the air! Amazing, so I went back to him. It was rather windy and cold with that train going by. The snow was whipping against dad’s face. I couldn’t believe it, he had fallen through the snow again and was up to his chest in that snow. Do you realize that’s the third time you have fallen through snow like that, I said. Never mind counting, said dad, dig me out. We should have brought a shovel, I said. I should have brought someone else with me, he said.
To be continued.
Steve and Muffin.
© 2020 Steve McLeod.
20/20 Investigations, Inc…The Palace, Chapter 11.
Giuseppe is gone! But how? I know he was dead, so he couldn’t just get up and walk away. That means someone else is out here Muffin. And they left Giuseppe’s body here as a warning for us. Meaning that they will kill us if we don’t leave. They are trying to scare us again Muffin, but are we going to let them scare us? Meow, meow!=Yes, it worked, I’m scared, let’s go back home! Sigh. First thing to do is get out of here Muffin. Meow.=finally some good sense. I look around outside the window but don’t see anything so out we go! We head back to the main door and go inside. One more thing to do Muffin, here, can you reach? Meow.=Yep.
After she’s done she jumps back down. Uh, Muffin, I was holding my arms out for you. Meow.= Your head was closer. She steps down onto my shoulder. Okay, now we head back outside and look around a bit more. Meow, meow?=Are you looking for sore feet? Muffin gives one huge sigh, then out we go. We just walk around a bit looking at the different stone planters. It’s a beautiful moonlit night, though not a full moon which was good. That would have illuminated things a bit too much for whoever is watching us. I bend down and shut off Muffin’s mini headlamp and whisper something to her and off she goes by herself.
I walk around a bit shining my flashlight in different directions. Finally I stop and sit on the edge of a stone planter and turn my flashlight off. It was quiet out there that night. I heard some kind of peeping off along the shore, but that was it. Muffin returns a few minutes later. Any problems Muffin? Meow.=No problems. Okay, let’s head back in and get some sleep, it’s going to be light in a couple of hours. Meow, meow?=Someone is trying to kill us and you want to sleep? We get to our room, everything seems to be in order so it’s off to bed. Even Muffin settled down quickly, she was tired after our busy night. The rest of the night passes quietly.
I actually get to wake up Muffin this morning. Meow?=Morning already? Yep, time for some breakfast, the girls won’t be here for another 2 hours. After breakfast we’ll walk around the island for a bit and enjoy the scenery and just relax after last night. Meow, meow!=Outside? Good, let’s get going then! It’s a fairly long island, a little over 1 km in length (.7miles), but very narrow and there is a nice path to follow making it easy walking. Muffin and I are having a wonderful, relaxing time out here this morning, it’s a good way to clear our heads a bit so we can think about what’s going on out here and why. We stop and look at some of the sites along the way, but there’s nothing really out there to help us in our case.
On the way back we spot Rossana and Olivia coming over by boat and they naturally beat us back to the palace, which is okay. It’s so peaceful out here we are in no hurry to get back to work, though we know we must get started again. But where? I also want to come in after them to see if they act surprised to see us alive. Let’s be quiet Muffin and listen to them talk a bit. Meow.=Right. We get up to the kitchen door and wait. They aren’t in their bedroom, says Olivia calmly. Well, I guess we’ll have to wait for them, replies Rossana. She was also very calm. Could we be wrong? But Olivia says right away, Wait? How can we wait, what if they don’t come back? They might have been killed. We should start looking for those jewels ourselves, Olivia continues.
We need to look for Steve and Muffin, says Rossana. We don’t have time, said Olivia. She sounded quite irritated now. Meow, meow.=Something doesn’t sound right. I agree Muffin, but what is it? Suddenly Muffin is gone. Great, I hope she doesn’t get caught, whatever she’s up to. She actually comes back fairly quick, and…
To be continued.
Steve and Muffin.
© 2020 Steve McLeod.
