This and that

We have mostly hot weather now, but that is to be expected here.  Summer is a good time to read, once the temperature is in the 90's.  In other good news, I brought in three tomatoes to ripen on the table.  They are getting so nearly ripe, and I didn't want to chance leaving them till the last minute, only to see them killed or devoured by vile insects.  You can see there's already some damage to them.

I'm reading Rory Feek's book, "Once Upon a Farm".  It's an easy read and he's a decent writer, so I'm enjoying it.  In one chapter he mentioned a book his mother had told him years ago he ought to read:  "It's All Over But the Shoutin'".  I immediately laid Rory's book down, grabbed the iPad, and checked to see if my library had it.  Sure enough!  And it's been out long enough, there was no waiting, so I checked it out.  After reading a few chapters, enough for me to know it's going to be good, I finally put it down and went back to "Once Upon a Farm", because I get confused enough without reading two books at once.  I asked my Facebook friends if any of them had read "All Over But the Shoutin'" and found out several had, and they loved it.  So that's waiting in the wings.

In Rory's book, the first paragraph of one chapter caught my attention because it's something I could have written about myself.

Yes, I love Mondays.  And sunrises.  And a new year.  I've always loved new beginnings that promise a chance for a brand new start.  Although to be honest, I think my love of Mondays came about after both kids were in school.  Cliff went to work, they went to school, and I was alone for the day!  I could garden or read a book or really, anything I wanted to do... without interruptions.  The world was mine.  I still love my alone time, which is why I don't complain too much about waking up most mornings at three or four o'clock.  

Let me tell you about my cooking marathon during the week of Independence Day.  When our son comes in from Georgia there are certain things he really likes to eat, and I try to fix many of them while he's here.  It's all terribly fattening, starchy and sugary stuff that Cliff can't resist.  Rice and raisins (rice pudding to some folks), home-made biscuits and gravy, cinnamon rolls, and all manner of cookies.  Very few vegetables, because our son has never been a big fan of vegetables except potatoes.  It's one week out of the year, so what can it hurt?  

Then Jim leaves, and I have to get back to cooking lighter and moderating portions for our own good.  If I have any younger readers, let me tell you this:  Weight takes ten times longer to come off since we turned sixty as it did when we were in our 20's or 30's.  But, here we go again.

Remember how I said I was going to give up Words with Friends?  I'm still in the process, but remember, I promised myself that I would finish all the games I already had started.  Here's the thing:  Some people only make a move once or twice a day.  When I kept thirty or so games going all the time I didn't notice this fact, because the folks who make a lot of moves daily, like myself, sort of took my mind off the slowpokes.  Even though I have turned down everyone who has wanted to start a new game, I still have some games in the air.  Funny thing is, now that I have decided to take a break, it isn't even fun playing against the few competitors I have left (except for one lady who's really good at the game that I finally beat last week for the first time... I may keep her).  Human nature is a crazy thing; my nature is obviously crazier than most.

Yesterday we had a tractor drive with some of the folks in our club.  The tractors left Mayview at 9:30, took a break around 10:30 or 11, and arrived at noon in Napoleon, where we had a delicious meal that was prepared and served by the Lions' Club of Mayview.  There was pie for dessert, and not any old store-bought pies, either.  These were made from scratch by people who know how to make a pie.  After we ate, the plan was to drive back to Mayview, but since we were only two miles from home and had enough riding in the hot sun, we just went home.  Cliff's brother went on the drive too, and had some problems with his tractor; so he went to our house too.  Then he and Cliff loaded his tractor onto our trailer and we all went to take it home to Phil's place at Higginsville.  We took Gabe along, which of course made his day.

Cliff thinks from now on we'll skip the tractor drives and just do the parades.  He gets bored, going through the countryside at 8 miles per hour.    

When we were getting ready to leave with our tractor yesterday morning, I shut Gabe in his kennel; he always whines a little when we leave, but not for long.  This time, though, after watching Cliff load up the trailer I came back to the house to use the bathroom and heard Gabe howling like a wolf... a wolf with a soprano voice.  I guess we shouldn't have taken him bye-bye so much; now he thinks he's being abused if we leave without him.  I have to admit it made me feel sort of bad to leave him howling.

I believe I've rambled enough for one day, so I'll wish you all good cheer and will be back soon to regale you with more non-adventures.

Yours truly,
Donna