Creatures in the Mist.....

Over the past few months, I have received hundreds of cards and letters (okay maybe one or two, or maybe none at all) asking me to continue the saga of Onid and Asil who debuted in this blog last year in this post. So, back by popular demand, here is the story of how Onid and Asil met oh so many years ago. 

It was the fall of 1988 in Fergus Falls Minnesota and Asil was once again walking the walk of shame after another night of hard drinking. The County Fair was in town and being a carnie she was used to waking up in strange places and was familiar with this walk. As she walked the lonely tree covered street next to the swamp she wondered why she does this to herself. Why, night after night does she drink to excess and wake up in another strange house? The sun was just hitting the eastern horizon casting an eerie light on the morning fog.

It was then she noticed a shadowy figure on the road through the mist. Her head was pounding and her vision still a little blurry but indeed saw a figure was walking in the opposite direction of her, each step bringing them closer and closer together. In the mist she could not tell if it was man or beast, although it walked upright, it was slumped over like something that was other than human.

“Did one of the freak show creatures escape?” she thought. When the figure stopped 10 yards in front of her, it noticed her for the first time. The naked creature before her was Cro-Magnon like with a large mis-shapened head, hairy back and grotesquely arched feet. It had huge hands, huge arthritic hands that looked like they could crush your skull with ease. Sadly, not all his body parts matched the size of his massive hands. When Asil looked over the creature she noticed that he had a very, very tiny ...... nose. The creature stared back with curious eyes. “Are you okay?” Asil asked. The creature just grunted in return. “What’s your name?” The creature grunted something in response that sounded like “Onid”.

Definitely must have escaped from the freak show she thought.  Asil always had an affection for the strange and unusual so she looked in her purse for something to feed him. No food, but at the bottom of her purse she found a can of Bud Light leftover from the 12 pack she drank the night before. “How did that get in there?” she thought. She rarely leaves a beer undrunk. Tentatively she removed the beer from her purse, opened it and offered it to the creature. Onid drank the beer, crushed the can on his forehead and grunted “Onid Ba!”. “I have no more” Asil said. “Onid Ba!” he said again. Asil did not know what he was saying or what to do, so she continued on down the road. A few minutes later she looked behind her and noticed the creature was now following her holding his hand out calling “Onid Ba!”

She finally got back to her run down trailer in the carnie section of the fairgrounds with the creature trailing her all the way. As she sat in the kitchen holding her pounding head all she could hear was “Onid Ba” outside her door.  Opening the refrigerator, which was empty except for a couple of blue cans of beer. Out of desperation, she pulled out a few cans of beer and set them outside. “Ba!” the creature exclaimed as he grabbed one beer after another and drank them. The creature content Asil climbed into bed to sleep off yet another hangover.

Hours later she woke up and peered out her kitchen window to see the creature asleep on her stoop, empty beer cans scattered everywhere. 

The aftermath

It was painfully apparent that this poor creature could not function on its own so she took it in. She eventually learned his name was indeed Onid and as she suspected “Ba” meant beer. She also taught the creature how to dress (some of the time), use indoor bathroom facilities (most of the time), feed himself (not a sight for anyone with a weak stomach, especially if he is trying to use chopsticks!) and even taught him how to drive a her truck with a 5th wheel, her truck with a camper, a 4 wheeler and even a tram (God help us all). Spectators come from miles around to see the tram driving creature that mumbles into the microphone. Taking advantage of the liberal laws in Minnesota, they eventually married and are now living happily ever after for almost 30 years traveling the country going from fair to fair.

So, that is the story of how these two lovebirds met. In case you are new to our blog and are curious what these two creatures look like, here are a couple of pictures from some of our past encounters. If you want to read how we met them back in '14 you can read it by clicking here. 

Although he cannot read, he does enjoy looking at the pictures!

I don’t know what reminded me of this story. I actually wrote it some time ago, sent it to a few friends who know this infamous couple, but never had the guts to post it. As we all know, paybacks can be hell! But as we get ready to  hit the road there is a chance that we might, just might, if we are lucky, have a Onid and Asil sighting! We are all packed up and are waiting for word from up north that they are ready to plant.

The weather here has been just as crazy. The week started off with some beautiful weather in the 60's. I was able to work outside 5 days this week. I spent two days working on steel trim corners on the house. Not really picture-worthy. We also spent two days cutting and splitting wood. I think we are pretty close to being all set for next winter already!

A pile to be split, a pile already split and another pile waiting in the tractor wagon!

The wind has been relentless. According to the local news, it has been the windiest year in over 20 years. But on one evening the wind relented and we were able to sit outside for happy hour and enjoy the evening. 

Zoey wanted to see what was going on up there!

I was even able to sneak over to the neighbors to help them put snow block up on their garage. At the time we thought we were putting it up for the snow to come next winter. We were sadly mistaken. 

The end of the week end downhill quick. Barb got sick with a miserable cold that just does not seem to get better. The winds picked back up with sustained winds in the 30-40mph range and gusts much higher. Friday night also brought 2" of rain, hail and thunderstorms. That in itself would not have been so bad but then the rain turned to snow. The combination of the wind and snow pretty much shut down the entire west side of the state all day Saturday, into Sunday.  Not complaining, we need the moisture and I am glad that the 2" of rain did not come down as snow. We did not leave the house all weekend other than to walk the dogs and get firewood. 

So here we sit, waiting for "The Call" from North Dakota that the snow has melted up there and they are ready to plant. But that is not likely to come anytime soon as they too got pounded again, on top of the 30" they got last week. Except this time they got freezing rain along with the snow and winds. This combination wreaked serious havoc on the power lines. There are 60 poles down within a couple miles of the farm, a total of 250 down in the area.  They have been without power for almost 24 hours and are not expecting it to get it back on for at least 24-48 hours more. 

Thanks for the pictures DeAnne!

I started writing this post earlier in the week, and since then Barb and I have decided not to wait for "The Call". The hitch itch is pretty bad and we are leaving. Headed north of all places. Not far enough to have an Onid and Asil sighting, but we have found a pocket of the state that has not received any of this winter weather and is forecasted to be in the mid 60's all week. So, wish us luck, here we go!