Hey there!
It's another bright sunny day this morning, with that nip of fall still evident in the air. Temperatures are now starting out in the high 50s to low 60s in the morning. It makes it nice to sit outside with a cup of coffee to start the day, although today I am working in the office as I write this because our cleaning person is coming in about 30 minutes and the office is the place I tend to hang out in when she arrives.
Yesterday was an unexpectedly busy day. The first thing I did was take a run to fill the car with gas, then I headed out to the camp site with the intention of mowing the lawn. Along the way, however, I got the urge to stop by a small lean-to site with a pond operated by the county. I parked the car and started to walk in, but I took a wrong turn, even though I had a GPS app on my phone showing the way. Once I got straightened out, I took the 1/2 mile walk to the area. It's a nice secluded space that I believe not too many in the county are aware of. There is enough garbage to indicate people do hang out there and build fires, and the two lean-tos are not in terrible shape. During the weekdays, and especially now when school will soon be starting up, it's a great place to hang out and do an overnight camp. One thing lacking is an outhouse, and I believe that's on purpose to discourage long-term camping. There is a cute little pond, and a hand pump for water. I would expect in the summertime and early spring that bugs would be a problem. Once I got there, a passing shower fell, and I took refuge in one of the lean-tos. It passed in less than 15 minutes, and once it did I headed out. A nice, quiet little break from the everyday routine.
I ran into some heavy-duty road construction making my way to the camp site. They were putting another layer of gravel and tar on top of the current surface. I wasn't sure how good an idea this is. Perhaps it's cheaper than ripping up the current surface and re-building from scratch. Winter does a number on the roads here, and I imagine come spring the issues with the methodogy will reveal themselves. For now, it will provide a nice surface for driving. I noticed they did the same thing in the neighboring village on one of their major roads. That road really needed it.
The fun started after I got to the campsite. I am not a particularly careful man at times, and as I went to fire up the mower, I was too lazy to move the hand mower that was slightly in the way. Once you start the rider, getting off it means starting it up again. So I thought why not just push myself past the push mower? Mistake. As I was pushing my way past, apparently a hinge that keeps the deck up from the ground became loose and fell off, so that the front of the deck was now scraping along the ground. I seemed to have sheared off a cotter or hitch pin that held the hanger bar up.
This necessitated a trip to the local grocery/hardware store. Not knowing what size pin I needed, I bought four small ones for a total of $1.75. After no small effort getting the deck to sit up on a cement block, and re-adjusting the hinge's screw (which was very tightly screwed down), and some more bending and lying on the gravel surface, I managed to get the hinge in and get the hitch pin secured. Then I was able to mow the lawn with no more issues. But I paid the price in body pain.
I stopped off on the way home to buy some corn, but my local stand was bare, so I had to make do with a small local grocery store. I bought a cream soda to assuage my pain.
I ended the day by watching a ball game and nursing my aches and pains. I felt sad for the opposing team, which is a bad team. They seemed not to have their hearts in the game anymore, and were just going through the motions to get through the remainder of the season - another 5 weeks. Kind of sad to watch, really.
I've got an interview later today for my podcast, and am dropping off a car for an oil change. I have enough punchouts for a free one! But on the whole I will be taking it easy today to sort of rest and recover. I notice these days that I miss my walk and get antsy in the morning when I don't go, which I take to be a good sign. Keep moving!
'Til We Meet Again!