Its That Time of the Year

As I walked out to get the paper this morning, it was about 50 degrees and a stiff north west breeze was blowing.  Along with that, the leaves are piling up on the deck.  It is on the east side of the house and leaves just pile in there and make a giant mess.  I have a leaf blower but really need a leaf sucker that not only sucks them up, it reduces the pile to a very small one.  It makes a great compost if I get it done early enough and we get some rain. 

Swedish Ivy on the tree

Poison Ivy on the Fence

I have had it with Tractor Supply as my source for cracked corn.  Last year I bought a bag of corn that obviously someone had swept up the floor and put it in the corn.  This year two of the three bags were so moldy that, so far the deer won't touch the stuff.    I will shop at Orschelin's farm store next time.  I remember the ticket for the corn was blowing across the pavement as I loaded the bags in the car so I will not be able to return them.  Dang I hate it when that happens.  

IT is Amy Potter's Birthday so that mean,  Oh Crap, it is the Master Gardener's Birthday.  We were out yesterday and I didn't even stop to think that the 5th comes right on the heels of the 4th.  When I asked her what special thing she wants for her birthday, she said, "I'm Easy."  I told her that she is anything but easy to me.  Oh well, she's a lot of fun. 

Football was very interesting yesterday.  The Big XII is all turned upside down, except Kansas who is holding up the bottom of the conference by losing to the only team they beat last year.   It was nice to see Oklahoma fail to win and K-State keep their Conference schedule alive.  I did look in to see that Nebraska was getting their rears kicked by Michigan State.  All I can really say is come on Basketball.   KU is going to be fun to watch as a  team with out a number one draft choice and a 7 foot center playing.  I think they have more real talent this year than last and should be a lot of fun to watch. 

Did I tell you that I drove a Mini Minor in high school?  It was a fun little car that was like a go-cart to drive and got 45 MPG back when gas was dirt cheap.   Ours either had a bad battery or a lousy charging system and I had to push it to get it to run.  The good news was that I could push it by hand and get it started.   If there were one or two friends there to help, it was a snap.  Today I would just replace the battery and clean the cable ends.  Back then it was just way too easy to push start it.  Besides, it really was Dad's car and not mine.   I remember it had 8.30X10 tires on it.  You had to special order them and it took a couple of weeks to get a new one.  I think that was my first experience with Michelin.  I have pretty much used that brand since.   Topeka is a Goodyear town but I had a bad experience with a Goodyear tire and an even worse experience with the dealer so I just go to Sam's club and put the best Michelin on my cars. 

Same color as the Mini I drove in High School

When Barbara and I bought her Buick, the first thing I noticed when I walked up to that car was that even though the car had less than 10,000 miles, the back tires were new and black side walls when the front wheels had white walls.   I asked the guy selling the car what that was all about.  He told me that his Mother-in-Law usually only drove that car to lunch and church with one of her friends.  One day she set the brake and drove it until she blew out the back tires.  That's why the car was for sale.  They put the best Goodyear tires on it and we bought it.  The first time I drove it on a trip, the tires were so noisy you couldn't carry on a conversation.  I tried putting them on the front where there was more weight and all it did was enhance the noise. I replaced those tires with Michelins and never looked back.  It has been a fine little car and we are well on the way to driving it until the wheels fall off. 

Oh well, better go see if I can make the birthday girl happy.  She did make me retract a snarky comment I put on Facebook. 

MUD