Cleveland isn't bad.

I finally got Stacey going and made it to Cleveland. The first challenge was finding a place to park. We ended up in the parking garage of the Stafford(?) Hotel. It was getting late so we ate in the little cafe in the hotel. It turned out to be delicious. I thought my BLT was better than Stacey's Reuben but she enjoyed it. We left from there and did a walking tour of the area. There's a lot of good architecture downtown and few drunks. We went through a couple of arcades where Stacey scared me by looking at expensive jewelry. We bought some excellent chocolates and some good macaroons, finishing up with a coffee for Stacey and hot chocolate for me. Back to the car and we drove around for a while. I finally got a look at one church I've been seeing from the road when I drive through to Perry. It turns out there are two identical churches only a few blocks apart. That must have been a good church salesman. We went over the 25th Street bridge which I wanted to show Stacey and found ourselves by the West Side Market. It was too late to go there but we went to the Penzy's Spice store and spent way too much money. I hope that will hold us for a while. All in all, a pleasant day. Last weekend, my cousin Matt and I started clearing part of a field that is infested with locust thorn. Those of you who have never met a locust thorn are fortunate. Every part of the tree is covered with thorn except the leaves. The trunk of a mature locust thorn will have thorns growing from the trunk with thorns growing at a right angle from that and yet more thorns growing off those thorns and so on. The tips of the thorns break off under your skin and fester. We were cutting them off with the magic sword ( Sthil FS 90) and dragging them to a trailer with a hook but Matt is now using a pitch fork to allow him to stay farther away. He and his daughter Samantha worked on that this Saturday while I worked around the house. I'll have to see how they did. I moved the sheep and steers into the south pasture. It grew much faster than I planned to keep for the winter feeding. The north pasture isn't to bad so I decided to top it with the bush hog. That way, it will grow more evenly and maybe have more tender tips that the animals like. I hope to reseed some of it too. I got it done but my ass is killing me. I've got to get better seat cushions on these tractors. I'm not back to my regular physical capabilities. I doubt I could manage more than four hours real work per day. This is making it easier to accept the idea of retirement. I need to get down to one job. Stacey spent the last few days with her sister at the casino in Windsor and at a wedding shower. She didn't loose much. I ate the refrigerator clean so she can cook again. It's raining today so we may go see a movie. Take care all.

She didn't make it.

Stacey's mom came home from the hospital, got to check on her dogs and died that night. Since I'm still off recovering, I was able to take the time to help Stacey out as best I can. Now, they're sorting through all the accumulated stuff and trying to get the house ready to sell. I'm trying to stay out of the discussions as much as possible. I'm trying to use this week to build up my strength to go back to work on the 24th of August. I'm only able to do about 2 hours of hard farm work a day. That's about 10 times the amount that I do in an average work day. I should be ok. The Traffic.com stuff may get me. Those batteries are a bitch. The animals are fine. The chickens and guineas are patrolling the yard and the mosquitoes and flies are much lower levels. They look good in the yard. The guineas chase the cats around. Frankly, it's better entertainment than summer tv. It's Stacey's birthday and if I can get her dressed and off the phone for a while, we're going to Cleveland to stooge around. It's 10:30 already so I'm not optimistic.

Same old, mostly.

I continue to heal well. My friend Mikey has helped me weed. My cousins have been helping with yard work.It's all good. The fair went as well as could be expected. We did get a sheep to lamb in time. Stacey got Best of Show for her cherry pie She never did that with a cherry pie before. She got some other ribbons as well. I took a Second with my Gluten Free Almond Cookies. Stacey says the cookie class is especially tough so it's a real achievement. Of course, she's my wife so she could be just shining me on. The fair just didn't seem right. The weather was beautiful. Where were the tornadoes, the straight line winds and the massive lightning storms accompanied by flooding? It just wasn't right. The only thing our gardening this year has produced is cucumbers. Stacey keeps trying to come up with new ways to fix them. She keeps telling me how good they are for the joints. I recognize this for what it is. She's trying to get me to eat them up. As our only garden produce, I guess I'll have to. My Mother-In-Law is in the hospital for a heart attack. The docs put in a stent and she should be fine. Right now, she's so doped up that she has no idea of where or what. Her son and granddaughter had to drag her to the hospital, kicking and screaming. She hates hospitals. That's it for now. It's back to the front porch to read and watch the birds. Maybe I'll do an extra set of Kegels to break the monotony. I got to get out of here.