It's a decent birthday

This morning I decided to take a horseback ride down to the river bottom. I didn't go all the way to the Missouri River, though. I simply rode down Old Coal Mine Road....

and over to McGrew Mine Road, which took me back to...

the highway home.


The trouble with those roads to and from the river bottom is that they're shaded, and biting flies of various kinds lurk there. Even though I applied rub-on fly repellent to Blue's head, neck and ears, he still had a terrible time of it, as you can see in this very brief video:




I ate some cereal (with good fresh Jersey milk) before I left on the horse; this was an unfortunate choice, since Cliff, when he got up at 10 o'clock, announced his intention of taking me out for breakfast. Oh well, there's always pizza for lunch.

Cliff is glad to go the extra mile for my birthday. He even bought me two sets of rusty wheel weights for my Oliver tractor; of course, he'll be painting them for me eventually. I know this because I was with him when he bought the paint. That's his brother Phil on the left; he picked the weights up for Cliff, since he was at Cook's Tractor in Clinton yesterday anyhow. Phil's friend, on the right, asked Cliff, "What do you need the weights for?"

I had to laugh out loud at the question, since he could have just as easily asked, "What do you need the tractor for?"

Cliff's answer was, "Because the tractor looks better with wheel weights on it."

Haaaaaaaaaaaaa!!! That's some good, sound reasoning.

Then we were off to Higginsville to the tractor dealer who sells Oliver parts. Yes friends, Cliff spares no expense on my birthday: He wants my Oliver to look good.

That's a piece of plastic he's holding in his hand.

It's the first item listed on this bill: "strip.... $150." Seriously!

I'm pretty sure I over heard the proprietor and his wife making plans to visit Hawaii after Cliff made his purchases.

By the way, this is all written tongue-in-cheek; I am the first one to tell Cliff, "If you want it, get it; you only live on this earth once."

Thanks to all the wonderful birthday greetings from my readers and my Facebook friends.