I started the day on Saturday much the usual with a 6'ish roll out to a cold floor and and even colder outside temps in the 40's. It was time for a long sleeve shirt and pants while in the cabin and with the portable fireplace on for a couple hours to take the chill off. It was miserable outside with a cold rain dripping from the tin roof and fog all around. I like about an hour of this weather but I'm a sunshine guy and I can always get cool in the shade from the heat but when it cold damp and overcast with the heat on its time to head south. That's just what we will do 3 weeks from today as we head back to Florida. I know I'll probably be miserable at times with the humidity, mosquitoes and the heat but the a/c makes it comfy and I can wear shorts and ride my bike and play pickle ball daily. I love the mountains and the cabin but with weather like this it doesn't take much to convince me Florida is calling my name plus I can get my garden in and everything is flat there, oh well.
I did take off on a hike to the top of the mountain shortly before breakfast as the rain drip had ceased to just a drip occasionally and I think that was due to the heavy fog. The woods were wet and I noticed the deer had cleaned up one area of the corn placed there by neighbor Gerald to bait the deer. It's that time of the year and hunting season will be in full swing in a couple weeks. Gerald blessed us with some sausage and hamburger from last years kills and it is so delicious. We have an abundance of deer in the area and a couple of really nice full grown bucks and does and they should be tasty as they have eaten organic from my garden almost nightly. Their favorite is parsley, beet greens, black eyed Susans and black raspberry leaves. They did do a couple of nights on the tomato, lettuces and kale plants as well as Nancy's hydrangeas.
I piddled around after a semi-mountain breakfast of sausage patties, fried dippy eggs with a chopped up jalapeno and a garden tomato which held me until we had some guacamole and salsa before supper at the Tracy's around 4'ish. We were having a Mexican supper there with enchiladas, refried beans and yellow rice. We started a game of 6-handed Spades to 1000 which took us nearly 4 hours to play with supper in between the 10 or so rounds. The gals whupped us big time as we kept getting beat on going Nil(that means you do not take any tricks). It is a fun game either with 4 or 6 persons as we played the night before with Kaitlyn and Jake 4 handed. You use 2 decks of cards and remove the 2 of clubs from each deck and deal 17 cards to everyone and thus you have 17 tricks to bid on or bid Nil. One time 2 of the 3 of us went Nil and made it as the gals try to give you a trick which costs you a 100 points if you take a trick, oh well it is a scream and so competitive as its always gals vs guys.
We enjoyed the great supper as Kathryn is a suburb cook like Nancy and after the cleanup we settled into another 4 or 5 rounds which found us(guys) losing big time. Carol and Dan wanted to surprise us by coming up and then celebrating our 40th with a card and cake. It was a great celebration and we have tons of plans for this week and then Dee and Mike and their youngest daughter and family are coming for the weekend. It should a week of gastronomic delights with eating in and out as we travel to the Boone/Blowing Rock area on Tuesday. I just hope the weather clears up especially with the little kids coming over the weekend. We never let the grass grow long under our feet as we love to entertain and be entertained.
Well the Ray's let the second game in their playoff series get away from them and now they will be eliminated if they lose the next game which will be played at home, thankfully. The huge rowdy fans in Houston were a plus for the Astros plus they have two of the best pitchers in the all of MLB, LATER
