For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Later that day we landed a new case, but one that sounded quite simple and easy. However, we have had those kind before and they turned out quite differently. However, Sky wanted to take this case, which was to look for an elderly woman’s lost ruby brooch. I said it was okay, but if they encountered anything unusual, they were to call for help right away.
So, Sky, Carine, Penny and Aasta left that afternoon. They had to travel to Paris where the lady lived. Sky told Kat and Dawn they would be my bodyguards while she was away. “That means you do not leave him alone,” she told them, “not even for a minute.” After she left with her team, I was in the library with Dawn, Kat, Annelie and Nelson. “Are the donuts ready yet?” asked Nelson.
“The girls have not said anything yet,” she reminded him, “but it will not be much longer.” Nelson is just the same as Baldwin was, he loves his donuts, oh, and coffee. I then saw Karen walk past the library doorway. “Come in here Karen,” I said, “join in our little conversation.” “Okay,” she said, and she sat down in the chair beside my wheelchair.
“I think it is time for a little talk,” I said to her. She knew that did not sound good. “Um, with everyone here?” she asked nervously. “Everyone will leave, except for Dawn, Kat and Galyna,” I said, “Kat and Dawn are my bodyguards and Galyna is our counselor. Now, please remove your contact lenses.” She looked at me, though not too surprised, and she removed them.
“Someone once said to me, your eyes sparkle like…” And I finished it for her, “like shining emeralds.” “Someone does remember after all,” she said, “I will apologize for the way I did things, but I have always been kind of a fun type of person.” She was blushing a lot right now. “Yes, I do remember that,” I said.
Meow,meow!=Yep, me remember too, have lots of fun with Engle!” “Yes, I always did like Engle better than Karen,” I said, “too bad they changed your name.” “I know,” she agreed, “so much happened that I still do not understand. I know you will now throw me off your team Steve, but before you do, please help me, I desperately need help, please. Then you can tell me to leave and I will go, honestly I will.”
“I never said anything about throwing you off the team,” I said, “but we do require honesty here, so, please be honest with me.” “I will Steve,” she said. “Now, what is the problem?” I asked. “I wish I knew,” she said, “two men have been following me for some time now, then one day they shot at me. I ran home and told my parents, the ones that adopted me, and they just laughed and said I was just making up a story to get attention.
But that is not true. After a month they shot at me again, so I ran to the police station but they did not believe me either. They just said I had an active imagination. But I have no idea why anyone would be after me, it makes no sense. I have no money or anything else valuable. One day I managed to get close to them without them seeing me and I heard them say they are not allowed to kill me yet until I take them to the little shack.
Do you remember that little old cabin we found one day?” “Yes, I do remember that,” I replied, “we were only out there once.” Meow,meow.=Me remember that too, it fun looking around old tiny house. “Yes, we were hoping to find some buried treasure, or something,” I said chuckling, “but why would those men want to know how to get there?”
“No idea,” she said, “but I tried a couple of times to find it, but without success. There must be something important out there though.” “Yes, if they are willing to kill you, it must be very important,” said Galyna. “It was on my original parents land,” said Karen, “but there is nothing out there, except rocks and trees.” “We found it by following an old, barely visible trail off the kids biking trail,” I said.
Meow,meow.=Yep, then we go by big rock and you put me on top where I could see real far. “Could you find that place again Muffin?” I asked. Meow,meow.=Maybe, if could find big rock again. “I know what you are thinking Steve,” said Kat, “and the answer is NO!” I chuckled again. “I will not be able to go,” I said, “but Muffin could lead a team in there.”
I then called everyone in to the library and explained things to them, and that Karen is really Engle. “This is not a real case,” I said, “it is a private matter, so I will not tell anyone you have to help out, it is volunteers only. I will ask Rock if he is willing to lead the team that goes, and I want 10 volunteers to go with him.” “I will gladly lead the team,” said Rock.
“Muffin, Storm and Rusty will go along too,” I said. Mac, John, Miles, Hawk, Astrid, Tracy, Kristina, Catalina, Sigurbjorn and Sapphire volunteered to go. Actually they all volunteered, but those are the ones Rock picked. I gave special orders to look after Muffin. The next morning they left early on their way to Sweden…
To Be Continued.
©2023 Steve McLeod.
Good morning everyone! It is a cool, cloudy morning here, but we did have another spectacular sunrise today. I did try for some more pics, but I was not too pleased with the results this time. I will check them better later today and perhaps I will show one of them tomorrow. Yesterday was nice and sunny and quite mild, above freezing anyway.
There is supposed to be flurries again today. I remember one cool, cloudy, late fall day. It was late October, no snow on the ground, but it was just slightly above freezing, so I decided to check another area along the railroad for insulators. I was by myself this time and I left fairly early in the morning. I drove down a seldom used trail as far as I could, then parked.

This is not the area of the story, but is another spot I went to another time.
From there I had to walk about 1/4 mile to the tracks, but it was nice easy walking. I got there in good time and began walking east and after half an hour I had found nothing. I was nearly ready to turn back but I came to a high hill and decided to check on top, hills were often good areas to find insulators for some reason. Climbing that hill was not easy though, it was very steep with dry loose soil and rocks.
I slipped many times and nearly fell once, but I finally made it to the top. I did start finding insulators right away and about half way along I spotted a pile of crossarms in among the trees. That was common to do way back, after all, why haul them out of these lonely spots? This turned out to be a great spot, there were more insulators than I could carry out of there.

This is looking the opposite direction of the above photo.
I carefully sorted the insulators and just kept the very best to take with me. I also found one insulator that was very different than the others. They inside threaded part was so different that it would not screw onto the wood pin very well, just part way since the wood pin was too fat to go all the way inside. That was kind of strange.
With the thousands of insulators my dad and I found over the years, we never saw one like this one. On another later trip further down this section of the railway, I found another one of these insulators, but in a different color. They are the only two I ever found. I later discovered they were used back in the 1880s and different wood pins were used for them originally.

This shows an insulator on a pin that would be attached to the side of a pole.
You probably do not know what I am talking about, it is a bit hard to explain. Now, I had to come down that hill, with my backpack quite full of insulators. I looked, picked out what I thought was the best way off that hill and began climbing down. I did not get far and I slipped. The rest of the way down was a bit of a blur, meaning, I fell the rest of the way.
I landed with quite a thud at the bottom and just lay there for a while groaning. Several of the insulators broke, but that odd one survived. My left arm and leg were paining terribly and I thought I might have to leave the insulators behind. After walking just a short distance I decided it would be best to leave most of them and come back another time.

These show regular upright pins with insulators.
So, I kept a dozen and headed back, very slowly. I did make it back okay, though I was 2 hours late, according to the schedule I had left. There was no serious damage done anyway, a few days later I was nearly back to normal.
I did go back and retrieve the insulators I left behind, and found some others as well. But that is a different story. And I was not alone that time. Hmm, the clouds seem to be breaking up a bit, perhaps we will miss those flurries. I hope you all have a great weekend and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2023 Steve McLeod.