Route 2, Box 143

TimexFiles Cass Lake, MN 56633

Greetings Thomas:

I’m going through the drivethrough at Taco Bell and I’m really interested in a Chilito and two softshell Taco’s. The bags pretty big, but when I drive down the road I start going through the bag and I find several mismatched socks, a set of keys that don’t seem to fit anything, a computer file that I accidentally deleted from my PC, three of Mom’s recipes that she can’t find, and at the bottom of the bag, rolling about in that brown sugar fallout is …your watch.

Anne plugs up the toilet and tells me the next day. I look at the situation and know that I’m going to need real tools and a real plumber. Lee comes over with his power drain snake and we send about 75 feet down the toilet but the thing just does not seem to suck down the way it’s supposed to. Finally Lee goes out to his truck and brings in some big two handed pipe wrenches, a propane torch, a eight-pound sledge hammer and a tall brainless helper plumber. We pull the toilet up off the floor and the brainless guy goes to work pulling some pretty disgusting stuff out (do you actually use that toilet). Finally, his eyes light up (which is a surprise because he’s a pretty dim bulb) and he pulls his stinking, slimy, dripping hand out of the drain pipe. He walks over to the sink (yours) and washes what I guess is poop off himself, opens his hand and says “her’s the problem!” It was your watch.

Jim and Cathy returned on Monday from their ‘cabin’ which is really a house in Wisconsin. You may have heard them talking that they recently purchased a used telephone pole from the local utility company. It was a might big project to get it up (they’re using it for a television antenna) and stabilized in the ground. Supposedly it’s about 30 feet in the air. The reception from the new antenna was quite improved but several days ago the antenna seemed to quit working. Jim had buried an underground cable feeding from the antenna to the house and suspected that a gopher or some underground animal had nawed (sp?) through the wire. He dug the whole thing up (leaving the hole thing) and found it to be absolutely perfect. Sunday morning Cathy was looking outside the window and saw a bald eagle sitting on top of the utility pole with the antennal. That afternoon Jim hired the local televsion man to come out and check the mechanics of the antenna. The guy showed up with a panel truck and some climbing equipment. He climbed about half way up but was stopped by a small nest of hornets that had landed there. He turned the wasp killer on them, waited thirty minutes while he and Jim had a cold drink. Finally as dusk was appearing and the moon was rising (which it was not for another six days) the repairman went to the top of the pole. At first Jim did not hear what the guy was saying, but finally understood that he was to stand under the pole while the guy dropped sometihing to him. Although it was now dark he saw the repairman holding a luminous object about the size of a softball or medium sized bass. When it fell it glowed and made a just audible humming noise. Back in the house Jim and Cathy set it on the kitchen counter. The soft leather package was crudely sewn together with grass strips. Inside the leather wrapping was an oval birchbark box. They cut away the leather thong holding it together. Three glass balls, one blue, one gree and the other a tangarine color fell to the counter top along with your watch.

How’s the food?

How’s sleeping?

How’s the water?

How are you?

We’re thinking of you and hoping that you are having a super cool knarley sweet time there on beautiful lake Andrusia!

Love you,

Dad