A post in which Gary comes*

I woke up this morning to sun, quite surprisingly.  It has been raining all this summer, and yesterday was to be the sole dry day in a week of rain.  It has rained so much that it's always a bit of a shock to see the sun. 

Since I had the sun, I decided to make hay.  There were things I needed to do.

I went to White Horse Road flea market to buy a lawn mower.  If I could get the mower here, I could either mow the grass myself or have it done at some point, but I had to have something to mow with.  Unfortunately the guy who has been selling nice re-conditioned lawn mowers over there since year one was NOT there today.  Of course.  After some searching around I found a pair of jeans I could use to make cut-offs, and a pair of shoes I wanted.  Eventually, I found a guy selling lawn mowers, but they were pretty busted looking.  He wanted $80 one he had that looked decent, and he had a hard time starting it.  After looking at the other mowers he had on offer, which had parts hanging off of them and stuff, I decided I wasn't going to buy from him.  The mowers he had had clearly been used by a landscape company or something - used hard, and pretty much used up. 

I was discombobulated.  I needed to get this done today.  But Gary was on the way.  After a brief debate with myself, I headed for Anderson to the Jockey Lot, calling him as I did so.  I haven't really ever looked for lawn mowers there.  Ordinarily I would just have enjoyed the trip, but I was on time constraints today.  After finding lawn mowers for $120 and then for $150 (a Snapper, but still), I was pretty discouraged, but eventually I found the good ole' boy down there with four on offer.  After some debate, I bought one for $75, loaded it up, and headed home.  It's smaller than the one I had (which was a nicer mower too) but it's lighter; and of course the fact that it runs is pretty invaluable. 

I ran by White Horse, bought my shoes (I had waited to make sure I had enough to get my mower first), and got everything home and unloaded.  I was just about to get in the shower when Gary came in.  Fortunately, he was fine with waiting while I got ready.  I ran through the shower in record time, and we went to lunch at Corona's.  We had meant to go to Gourmet Pizza, but I was so distracted I pulled into the wrong place, and we just decided to stay.  Lunch was good, and I settled down and we started visiting.

After lunch we headed back to my place for a long and relaxing afternoon.  It rained, but that was fine - I didn't have to be out in it.  I had thought about going over to Kimbley and Laura's today (I had been invited, and I really wanted to taste that cheesecake), but when I sent a text they didn't respond.  That was OK.  Gary and I lolled on the couch, watched TV, and just hung out.  It was great to spend the time with him, and I really needed the relax time.  It was a nice afternoon.

But he was working tomorrow, so eventually he had to leave.  After he left, I fried up some potatoes (which turned out lovely - reminding me that it's hard to beat simple things done well), and made a tomato and cucumber salad out of some of my produce.  I also finished up the carrot soup today.  That didn't turn out so great.  I put way too much ginger in it, and too early in the cooking cycle.  As a result, it tasted funny.  Because I had left it all in the crock pot so long (the carrots were tough) it tasted kind of scorched.  But it wasn't burned.  It is edible, it just doesn't taste so great.  I figure I'll take it for lunches this week and then throw the rest away. It's not worth freezing.  But if one thing was going to come out good this weekend, I'm glad it was the cheesecake. 

I ate taters and salad while I watched Food Network Star, cleaned up the kitchen, and went on to bed.