I started the day much the usual with a 6'ish roll out to my cup of hot green tea. This morning the temps had warmed from the 40's to the near 60's which was still pretty nice out and it stayed that way for most of the day with a nice breeze to keep it comfortable in the high 70's. The humidity has stayed away but we really need some rain and the forecast is for some today(sat.) when we have guests coming with their two huge dogs, oh well. I did my morning routines after my quiet time and the posting of this ramble which is now a quick hike to the top of the mountain before breakfast and back. I'm loving the hike which means I do not have to stop and wait on Nancy. I did this twice today as she was getting ready for guest with her normal cleaning, baking and whatever. You would think the Queen of England is coming but I'm thrilled she treats everyone this way with her fastidious preparations.
I decided since most of my yard work was completed to do some maintenance on the golf cart and riding mower. It's been awhile since I last changed oil on either one so I worked on the golf cart first. Cleaning the air filter and then changing the oil and blowing out the dust from the engine area with the air hose. I then worked on the riding mower which so much easier to change the oil as the oil export tube is up from under the body whereas the golf cart was underneath and required some ingenuity to get to the plug. While at it I sharpened the mower blades so as to be ready for next years initial cutting which is usually knee high grass. I may cut the grass here one more time but the growing season and the lack of rain has just about stopped the grass from growing. Those two tasks kept me busy until lunch time.
After lunch I took off on a longer hike up the mountain and back a different way and then rested a spell on the back porch in the shade and nice breeze. It was another perfect day for being outside but the sun was quite strong out in the open. We cleaned up and headed to Sparta around 3'ish for a stop at the grocery and then the drug store before heading over to Mechelle's. We picked her up and headed to where we knew the folks who owned the pumpkin patch. They use to have a shop that specialized in curios, jewelry, wine, etc out near Mechelle's place and they even came to Cornerstone for awhile. They have discontinued the shop for health reasons and now lease their 80 acres for pumpkin planting and there were thousands of them laying around. The one that were being harvested for resale were marked but all the rest were for anyone and as many as you wanted. We loaded up about 30 or so and headed to the eatery called Crave for supper. Gerald and Kay loaded up a whole pickup truck full which they give to their cattle and horses.
It's Italian/American and the place was hopping for Sparta. I tried their calzone and Nancy had a grilled chicken over linguine. It was OK, but nothing to write home about and reasonable in price. Gerald and Kay joined us along with Mechelle as we haven't seen them in a couple weeks. We then headed over to the fair grounds for the high school rodeo. There were some really good cowboys and cowgirls all high school age who participated in the usual events and the bull riding event had some mean bulls. Yikes only one rider managed the 8 seconds on a bull and another rider got hung up on a mean bull and it looked horrible initially but he walked away after finally getting dislodged from the spinning animal. We saw lots of old friends and former neighbors and I met a new state trooper who lives in town who was sitting in front of us and was a friend of a friend .
We got back to the cabin just before 10 and it was shower time and then I checked the Ray's game in Toronto and they are now assured a playoff spot with the win. It wasn't long until it was horizontal lab for me, LATER
