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.