Hey There!
It's 8:40 AM EDT, 71°F, Humidity 64%, Wind 3 mph S, cloudy, AQI 41
Yesterday was a good day overall. I went through my morning routine not feeling rushed for a change. I spent the morning on the back screen porch, which was very relaxing. DW made a breakfast of eggs, sausage, some leftover potatoes, and toast. A good way to start the day.
My main task of the day was to go to the campsite and mow the lawn, so I began to prepare for that. I wanted to check the Kia to see if it still started, and no - the battery had died. So I put the charger on the battery and let it sit to charge. I gathered up other tools and took off for the campsite.
The grass was quite thick and wet, as I hadn't been up to mow since July 20th. If course, in all that time, the battery on the riding mower was also not charged, and additionally the house battery for the motor home was also dead. Fortunately the motor home itself started up, and I let it run for a good long time to insure the battery would stay charged up.
Because the riding mower requires someone sitting in the seat to keep running, jumping the battery with the car was tricky. Fortunately I had a set of jumper cables, so I attached the cables, started the car, and then sat down to try and start the mower. It started up, but now I had to find a way to disconnect the cables from the mower's battery. At first I tried to place cement blocks on the seat, but two of them were still not enough weight. Next I tried to position the jumper cables so I might be able to reach around and disconnect them quickly before the engine died, and this ended up doing the trick. I left the Venza running for a few passes with the mower, then tested to see if the mower already had enough power to start. It did, so I went over to the Venza and got off, disconnected the battery cables, shut the car off, and started the mower again. A little good fortune goes a long way.
It takes about 90 minutes to mow what I keep mowed, but because of the thickness and dampness of the grass, I had to slow down a little. The clumps grass I was leaving behind made the area look like a small hayfield. I ran out of gas just about as I was through the main section, so I filled the tank up and finished the job. I always like mowing, but only if it goes smoothly without a hitch. Once I got it started, all went well. I did not take the time to run the push mower for additional trimming, because I was getting a bit tired.
Then I went inside the cabin and cleaned up, It seems I had left everything strewn around the place from the last time I was there. No doubt I thought I was coming back soon, but I didn't. So I straightened up, put things away, swept the floor, and generally cleaned up as best as I could without water.
The ballgame came on, and I listened for a bit to rest up, but I still had to deal with the house battery on the motor home. I went over and tried to hook it up to a solar panel, but the MPPT controller kept giving me an error code. I looked it up, and it's possible the battery itself is so low it won't take a charge. So I decided to take the battery home and work on it here rather than up there.
I listened to a few innings of the ballgame before deciding to head home. I stopped for some sweet corn at a stand run by a young man trying to pay his college expenses by growing the corn. It's good corn. 2 ears for $1.50, which is an excellent price.
When I got home I listened to the rest of the game on the radio. The day featured a split doubleheader, and we lost the first game while winning the nightcap. Today we can either split the 4-game series by losing, or take the series 3-1, which would be excellent.
Dinner was baked Alaskan pollack with green beans, a few potatoes, slices of mozzarella with tomatoes and oil, and one of the ears of corn. Lots of food, all delicious. We ate early because I was playing poker in the evening.
The game is always fun, and the company and conversation is great. One of my colleagues had had an art opening in Buffalo the night before, which sounded like it went well. I was ushering, so didn't attend. He apparently was having a run of luck, because he won a hand of draw poker with a straight-up royal flush (no wild cards), the highest hand in poker: AKQJ10 of clubs. He was dealt four of the five cards, and drew the final card to make the straight flush. The odds of getting that hand are pretty high - by one estimate, ~1 in 674,000 or so. I've never seen a natural royal straight flush in my life, so it was an event. What a fun evening!
When I got home DW was watching the Womens's Pro Baseball game between the LA Queens and the NY Heights. The game was tied when I walked in, and I got blamed as jinxing the Heights because they proceeded to let in 4 runs and lose the game right after I showed up. They had been on a roll, so this was a tough loss. When that game was over I watched the rest of my ballgame until it became a blowout. I spent far too much time cruising videos once the game was over, finding myself still up at midnight. So I finally packed it in and went to bed much too late.
That's all for now. 'Til We Meet Again!