Fry Day

OK, I will try to keep things upbeat. Somebody told me yesterday that I am always a happy camper. It is difficult to be happy, upbeat smiling, or anything positive when the temperature has been in the triple digits all day. In fact, it is nearly 7:00 pm and it is still 105º outside. But here goes: my happy, happy day.

My happy, happy day started out before 5:30 am. I arose to get the coffee going. Cycling for that Spouse o' Mine and I was to commence at 6:18 am. I fed cats in the grotto by the little fish pond, donned my cycling gear, filled a bottle, and that Spouse o' Mine and I headed out into a fresh, early morning.

We had not ridden a quarter of a mile from our house when we heard a vehicle honking frantically behind us. I thought it was a friendly (and funny) neighbor, honking and waving "good morning" to us (and thereby waking all the Wabaunsee residents in doing so.) This is where "happy camper" and "positive" always skew my judgement. This pickup man passed us, shaking his finger at us. Not a hand-wave. A finger shake. He gets points taken off at the end of the day for mean idiocy. Nitwit man. Mean old man. I could go on. But I won't. But he spoiled the next four or five miles of my ride. But then our conversation bounced back to fun and funny things, and the mean old nitwit man was more-or-less forgotten.

That Spouse o'Mine rode in to work, and I turned around and headed back home: a twenty mile ride this morning. It felt pretty good!

As soon as I returned home I started what has been the week's task in the scorching heat: water anything that is still alive. Not to mention, I am still an active participant in my family's Great White Pumpkin Contest. So out to the pumpkin patch I went. I have seven vines out in the pasture, five of which look OK. One looked wilted this morning, and one looks positively bad. There were lots and lots of bugs around, and I made the decision in a fit of competitiveness, to bugspray the daylights out of my patch. I usually go the non-pesticide/organic route in my gardens, but I want to be a top contender in this Great White Pumpkin Contest! Sorry, pumpkin bugs. I watered and spayed bugs and then left. Time will tell.

Hot, hot, hot, all the rest of the day. Water this, water that. Sunscreen!! Sunscreen!! Sunscreen!! Where's my hat? Find a hat! What a fun day it's been.

This afternoon I planned to hole up for the remainder of the day, but found some errands wanting to be run, so I cajoled myself out the door by promising myself to stop by the local county fair to peruse the quilt entrants. That was sort of a bust - not at all for want of fine quilts, but the display was really dismal: folded-up entries, overlapping each other, and all covered by plastic. And then, the fair people wanted us to vote for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd-most popular. How can you vote if you can't see the *!#%?*! quilts??!

OK, back on a positive note, I came back home and sat in the drapes-drawn darkness of my living room and watched the Tour de France. I tell you, that race has saved me this week. Those guys are racing through the Pyrenees and it's cold and windy and rainy and...ah! One can only imagine.

Well, tomorrow is another day, Scarlett.

~ The end.