It has been dry here, dry enough that Summer and I hauled a sprinkler through some shrubs to reach a certain part of the yard and then got wet while adjusting it. But this morning we have rain. It looked like it would be quite a storm but that was not the case for us – a couple of smart lightning bolts and some rain that smelled sweet, as if it carried the cut grasses of the prairie with it. It was most relaxing, and for no necessary reason I lit an oil lamp and carried it to my porch window sill.
Yesterday afternoon when I went to the nursing home, Emory wasn’t feeling well and was going to stay in his room and rest during dinner, so Kathryn and I headed out for a restaurant meal. Albion, however, is a small town platted in the center of the county to be the government center. It has one stop light and unfortunately the counter center was mostly swampy land and the roads that meander around it are paved Indian trails.
It is a little difficult to get yourself established on the surveyor’s grid system when the area was a marsh/swamp/bog when they went through – the town was plopped there later when towns already up and running couldn’t get together on who should be the county seat.
What this means is that we got lost coming back from the restaurant after we had already been wandering around lost on “s” curves going to the restaurant. We thought it was west of town – but it was west of the construction. But anyway we found this little local place where they sell fish dinners; I think you identify l a “local secret” eating place is by looking for a building that appears crummy on the outside.
Inside it was clean with big windows looking out on the lake. It also appeared to have been added on in stages – table space by table space – as the bar business expanded to service more people who wanted to eat. The bar actually was apparently really local at the beginning because even now it has about six stools – and no window overlooking the lake.
They were doing a brisk take out business and had a brand-new deck with screened in dining area. From that you stepped down to an au natural deck and then onto the pier that kinda, sort of slanted downward to the west. A wheeled cooler would not sit well on this pier, unless you chocked the wheels. Otherwise it would be an impromptu performance of “Diving for Beer” – but then again maybe they just tie a rope on a six pack and let it hang off the pier in the water. Come to think of it, maybe that’s why the pier slopes.
Hey, the sun is out.