Q: Why did the snake cross the road?

A: To get to the other side... which happens to be right by my mailbox.

Oh yes, this "little" fella was lying on the edge of the road by my mailbox yesterday afternoon! When I pull up to get the mail or drop off outgoing mail I have to get out of the driver's side and walk around to the mailbox, because I can't reach out the passenger window... Luckily I saw this thing before I got out of the car, or else you probably would have heard me scream from 50 miles away. :) I thought it was dead, because it didn't move an inch when I pulled up beside it and leaned out my car window to take this picture. However... it wasn't there this morning. Yikes.

The Calm

Well, the first holiday weekend of summer 2007 has come and gone. Historically Memorial weekend can be a wash if the weather doesn't cooperate... This Memorial weekend weather was no exception, although the off-and-on rain and cloud cover didn't seem to stop too many folks from heading out on the lake. PCM was hopping all weekend, as I'm sure you noticed if you were here. Naturally, yesterday was gorgeous -- sunny and warm. I know some people got to enjoy a little of that before packing up and heading home. So, thank you to everyone who spent your Memorial weekend with us in Pontiac. I hope everyone had safe travels home.

We are open from 7am to 9pm every day from now till Labor Day, and Just Jackie's is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day as well.

The next event on the PCM calendar is the Pontiac Spearfishing Tournament June 16. Even if you don't scuba, you might enjoy coming down to Hollingsworth Cove that afternoon for the weigh-in. It's from 1 to 3 pm.

Cheers!

Good Morning Pontiac!

It's Saturday morning of Memorial weekend... I'm sure most of you are still sleeping! But a few are starting to stir. We had a nice dose of scattered showers yesterday... enough that I didn't have to water my flowers this morning. :) The campground appears to be full, and if last night is any indication... there are lots of people in town this weekend, hoping to enjoy the unofficial first weekend of summer. Puhleeeeaaase let us have long periods of sun today. Cheers!

So... is it going to rain this weekend?

Who knows. But let's hope not! The temp is supposed to be in the 80s this weekend. But the forecast has been calling for a chance of rain pretty much every day. But it's only a chance! The lake is still high. But it's starting to go down. If we're lucky it will go down a liiiiiiiiiiiittle bit more, and we can re-open the lower road. That would be handy. Sorry... nothing else really to report. That's it for now.

A Few Brave Men

Heard from Mike today (that's him in the center). He sent me some pictures and the following e-mail:

"We are inside the compound at the Sadat police station. It is in the city of Al Qaim. The Marines with me are Bennett, to my left, and Bader, to my right. Top gunner on the 240 is Hernandes. They are my body guards. I usually ride with them. What I am wearing is a ballistic vest. The coveralls we wear are made of Nomex, a fire retardant material. We are equipped with either m-16s or in my case, an m-4. Our pistols are Barrettes. Nomex gloves and special vented Wiley Glasses, etc. The Humvee to our rear has a 50 cal. We travel in usually a convoy of six."

He also called today, and he sounded well! I know he reads this blog, so if you would like to leave him a message you can leave a comment and he will see it!

No Thru Traffic!

Thought I'd let you know the lower road is temporarily blocked off. You can still park on the lower road, you just can't drive through. The lake is not over the road, but because of the current lake level the cable that runs across that road and attaches to the dock has some slack in it -- a gust of wind can pick it up off the ground a good foot. So we can't have anyone driving over it. Just be aware that there is a rope across the road. Hopefully the lake will go down a bit, and we can re-open the road. Thanks for your cooperation.

Blessing pics

Here are a couple of pics from the 2007 Blessing of the Fleet. The Stieren family (below) was pictured in last week's Ozark County Times! Yep, that's right. PCM got a blurb in the paper about our event, and this picture was printed along with it. Chris Geroff and his daughter, Valerie (left), won for best costumes. Click here for more pics from the event. Remember, all you have to do (if you don't already use snapfish) is create a user name and password to view the photos. It's easy.

A Little Catching Up

Sorry, sorry, sorry... that there has been such a lapse since I last updated the blog. Lots of catching up to do here.

First of all, I have some very sad news to report... Glenn McGee, of Ava, passed away early Sunday morning. He and his wife, Iva, keep a houseboat at the dock, and they spent many, many weekends here. They were here over this past weekend, and from what I have been told he suffered a heart attack on his boat early Sunday morning, and he died. The PCM community is deeply saddened. There is a visitation tonight from 7 to 8 at Clinkingbeard Funeral Home in Ava. The funeral is tomorrow (Wednesday) at 10 a.m., also at Clinkingbeard's.

On a much lighter note, the Blessing of the Fleet on April 28 was a wonderful success thanks to the many people involved. More than 40 boats were blessed by Fr. Paul. Thank you to those who participated. Also, prizes were awarded to the Yeager clan, a.k.a. "The Vikings" for Best in Show; Chris and Valerie Geroff for Most Original Theme; and Skip and Angie Dechau for Best Costumes.

The Pontiac Relay for Life team sold OUT of food, which included several dozen pounds of fried fish, plus a pig roast, sides and desserts. Several people came up to me and said the food was awesome. So... way to go team! Also, the Original Uncivil Servants performed, and they rocked the park. This was the first event they have played for PCM, and it won't be the last. :) We sold out of all Blessing t-shirts. As of now I am not planning to do a re-order. If you really, really, really want one, let me know. It's not too late to do a re-order. I just need to hear from you asap. And finally, a whopping $3,000 was raised that night for the Pontiac fireworks. THAT IS AWESOME!! Bill Bauer worked the crowd, and sold seven tickets to his infamous "One Minute Club" -- a donation of $300 will get you in the club, and you can brag to your friends that you bought a whole minute of the fireworks display, coming up on Sunday, July 1. Plus he sold several raffle tickets to the big drawing coming up the night of the fireworks -- it's for a $500 gift certificate to PCM. Many other prizes are given away that night as well. If you haven't bought your raffle ticket yet for the $500 drawing, DO IT! It's only $10 for one ticket or $25 for 3 tickets. See Bill or me.

What else... well, it seems we had quite a bit of rain last week, so the lake has gone up a bit. Not over the lower road by any means, but it's getting up there. Other than that the weather has been beautiful. Maybe summer is here to stay. Let's hope so.

I'll post pictures from the Blessing soon.

Cheers!