July 23, 2020
Being of Unsound Mind (An Ozark Hilton Travelogue)
Timothy Birdnow
Sorry for not posting yesterday; I went to the world famous Ozark Hilton where I luxuriated until yesterday afternoon. When one is in such a zen place it would be just wrong to worry about the blog and world events.
Tuesday was a strange day; mix of dark clouds and sun and humid as the Everglades. About half way down there it started pouring, and I discovered - to my chagrin - that my windshield wiper blades were shot. They just smeared the rain around a bit on the windshield. So I had to drive on the highway half blind (with the other half being no better thanks to my terrible vision) and it was a rather scary ride. It didn't rain very long though; I was out of it in a few minutes. Thank the Lord for very big small favors.
It rained then stopped then rained then stopped. Eventually I got to my turnoff in steady rain and had to make the turn very quickly because I had several cars behind me. It's always hard to find that turnoff; it gets overgrown and I leave it that way to avoid unwelcome visitors, but it makes it hard to find and I had to take the turn unsure if I was at the right spot and hope for the best; with the rain it was tricky to tell if it WAS the turnoff or I was driving myself into the drainage ditch.
At any rate I made it there in one piece.
I had a few surprises; my road had a little creek running down it, a brook created by runoff from the main road. That worried me; it would be easy to get stuck in that ! But the land dries up quickly.
Also, the roof over my newly minted porch (which isn't a roof at all but some old vinyl siding I threw up there to cover it) was leaking like a White House intern. The porch was soaked. (I'm going to have to put a real roof over that sometime soon.) So I spent a lot of time trying to maneuver the siding to stop the rain, and seemed to succeed, but by then the rain stopped completely. Oh well.
Critters were scarce yet again. There WERE a lot of crickets, as in late August. I fear it's going to be an early winter.
I did see a bee. One. No wasps (thank the Good Lord for that) but a single bee, who came and sat on my porch chair as soon as I vacated it. I got up to take care of some chore and this little gal (I assume since male bees are usually small drones) flew over and perched her saucy backside on my chair. I don't know what had her so enamored of the chair; it is a wooden kitchen chair that I keep in the cabin until I get down there. But this bee wouldn't get out of my chair, and I sounded like Archie Bunker yelling at her to get out. Eventually I came up with a solution; I lit a cigar up and blew smoke on her. She got up rather annoyed and I snatched the chair away, taking down into the "yard". Never did see any others or figure out why she was so interested in sitting in my chair.
I had that happen with a black wasp once. (A red one would just have stung me.) It sat on my futon one night, right next to me, and stayed there for a couple of hours while I read. Made an occasional buzz but otherwise just hung out. I often call it my pet wasp. Eventually it got tired and went home, wherever that may be. That was a number of years ago.
Oh, I did have one tick on my, too. I have seen no ticks there this year, which is amazing as that place used to be chock full of them. I would wear sandals so I could see to pick them off; they would get under socks and completely infest my ankles otherwise.
Anyway, while it was raining it cooled way down, but the heat and humidity returned by nighttime. I had a fitful night; the air was heavy as Rosie O'Donnell and thick as extra chunky peanut butter. My kerosene lamps just made it hotter in the cabin, too. I always run them all night; it's much better than blowing them out and then fumbling around in the dark, not knowing if some creature was creeping up. Burns up a lot of fuel, but what the heck.
So I was glad when I came home. They were predicting more of the same with storm clouds but I never encountered any. I'm thankful; I really do need to change those blades.
So anyway I'm home safe and sound (well, maybe a bit unsound in mind, but you already knew that.)
Sorry for not posting yesterday; I went to the world famous Ozark Hilton where I luxuriated until yesterday afternoon. When one is in such a zen place it would be just wrong to worry about the blog and world events.
Tuesday was a strange day; mix of dark clouds and sun and humid as the Everglades. About half way down there it started pouring, and I discovered - to my chagrin - that my windshield wiper blades were shot. They just smeared the rain around a bit on the windshield. So I had to drive on the highway half blind (with the other half being no better thanks to my terrible vision) and it was a rather scary ride. It didn't rain very long though; I was out of it in a few minutes. Thank the Lord for very big small favors.
It rained then stopped then rained then stopped. Eventually I got to my turnoff in steady rain and had to make the turn very quickly because I had several cars behind me. It's always hard to find that turnoff; it gets overgrown and I leave it that way to avoid unwelcome visitors, but it makes it hard to find and I had to take the turn unsure if I was at the right spot and hope for the best; with the rain it was tricky to tell if it WAS the turnoff or I was driving myself into the drainage ditch.
At any rate I made it there in one piece.
I had a few surprises; my road had a little creek running down it, a brook created by runoff from the main road. That worried me; it would be easy to get stuck in that ! But the land dries up quickly.
Also, the roof over my newly minted porch (which isn't a roof at all but some old vinyl siding I threw up there to cover it) was leaking like a White House intern. The porch was soaked. (I'm going to have to put a real roof over that sometime soon.) So I spent a lot of time trying to maneuver the siding to stop the rain, and seemed to succeed, but by then the rain stopped completely. Oh well.
Critters were scarce yet again. There WERE a lot of crickets, as in late August. I fear it's going to be an early winter.
I did see a bee. One. No wasps (thank the Good Lord for that) but a single bee, who came and sat on my porch chair as soon as I vacated it. I got up to take care of some chore and this little gal (I assume since male bees are usually small drones) flew over and perched her saucy backside on my chair. I don't know what had her so enamored of the chair; it is a wooden kitchen chair that I keep in the cabin until I get down there. But this bee wouldn't get out of my chair, and I sounded like Archie Bunker yelling at her to get out. Eventually I came up with a solution; I lit a cigar up and blew smoke on her. She got up rather annoyed and I snatched the chair away, taking down into the "yard". Never did see any others or figure out why she was so interested in sitting in my chair.
I had that happen with a black wasp once. (A red one would just have stung me.) It sat on my futon one night, right next to me, and stayed there for a couple of hours while I read. Made an occasional buzz but otherwise just hung out. I often call it my pet wasp. Eventually it got tired and went home, wherever that may be. That was a number of years ago.
Oh, I did have one tick on my, too. I have seen no ticks there this year, which is amazing as that place used to be chock full of them. I would wear sandals so I could see to pick them off; they would get under socks and completely infest my ankles otherwise.
Anyway, while it was raining it cooled way down, but the heat and humidity returned by nighttime. I had a fitful night; the air was heavy as Rosie O'Donnell and thick as extra chunky peanut butter. My kerosene lamps just made it hotter in the cabin, too. I always run them all night; it's much better than blowing them out and then fumbling around in the dark, not knowing if some creature was creeping up. Burns up a lot of fuel, but what the heck.
So I was glad when I came home. They were predicting more of the same with storm clouds but I never encountered any. I'm thankful; I really do need to change those blades.
So anyway I'm home safe and sound (well, maybe a bit unsound in mind, but you already knew that.)
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
07:34 AM
| Comments (2)
| Add Comment
Post contains 835 words, total size 4 kb.
1
Sounded like a wonderful alfresco experience. At times your descriptions make me wish I could join you down there, Brother, but then I stop and think about how my camping days were mostly in a Wind River tent, which got dumped due to its stinky smell after being bagged up. And I'd have to drive many hours to join you anyhow.
Glad you got home OK!
Glad you got home OK!
Posted by: Dana Mathewson at July 23, 2020 10:22 PM (DJw/m)
2
Well Dana you are welcome if you ever do make it down this way. It IS a wonderful alfresco experience, although I have a lot of building material down there still so it's kind of like staying in a construction site. I'm going to wind up using a lot of that for firewood one of these days.
Also, although it's a very rural part of the state, I do have some neighbors not too far off, and a state highway, so it's not like I'm completely in the wilderness. I do worry about medical emergencies, though; they closed the medical center in Ellington and now I don't know where I'll go if something happens. I have to find a new hospital in a reasonable distance.
But it sure is nice to sit out on the porch at night, or watch the sun set from the "yard" (the porch faces east so I have to go down to my "parking lot".
Also, Bear Mountain is right across the Greenwood Valley from me, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a black bear wander in some day. Their numbers have been increasing in Missouri for some time now, and there has been a problem with them invading suburban neighborhoods. If there are any bears on the mountain eventually they'll make their way to my cabin, I'm sure. And I doubt the old place would stand up to a hungry bear.
Also, although it's a very rural part of the state, I do have some neighbors not too far off, and a state highway, so it's not like I'm completely in the wilderness. I do worry about medical emergencies, though; they closed the medical center in Ellington and now I don't know where I'll go if something happens. I have to find a new hospital in a reasonable distance.
But it sure is nice to sit out on the porch at night, or watch the sun set from the "yard" (the porch faces east so I have to go down to my "parking lot".
Also, Bear Mountain is right across the Greenwood Valley from me, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a black bear wander in some day. Their numbers have been increasing in Missouri for some time now, and there has been a problem with them invading suburban neighborhoods. If there are any bears on the mountain eventually they'll make their way to my cabin, I'm sure. And I doubt the old place would stand up to a hungry bear.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at July 24, 2020 06:58 AM (0CCNP)
27kb generated in CPU 0.0228, elapsed 0.242 seconds.
37 queries taking 0.2284 seconds, 186 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.
37 queries taking 0.2284 seconds, 186 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.
