August 7, 2008

View of the day-Al puts the final touches on the oil change on the General.

Oh, the day held such promise...sun shining, some wind blowing...out of the east as it always does, it seems...no rain in site and no fog during the night as was forecast.

We waited until 2pm before going out and doing a test...16%...back to the camper. Al dropped Marilyn at the Do It Center just out of town on his way to take the test to the elevator. He was going to pick her up on the way back, but got held up buying an oil filter, so Marilyn walked the half mile back into town...good thing the purchases were light and a little exercise never hurt.

We killed time back at the camper, then Al went out change oil on the General and after Marilyn showed up, we did another test...14.8%...back to the camper. Then we decided we might as well go to the Medicine Rock Cafe for supper...old people's supper at 4:30pm.

While we were there, one of the long time harvesters that had retired this year was passing through and saw our pickup and decided to stop in for an ice tea and a visit. This was the first summer in 28 years that he had not gone on the run...he claims he sure didn't miss the headaches, but did miss some of the people he had gotten to know over the years. He said the border hadn't gotten any easier to cross...while he was trying to jockey the leftover equipment he had left at various stops on his former run...they weren't any easier on him.

We thought we would go out an try it one more time around 6pm...14.8...it hadn't changed a bit. We can't figure out what the problem is with this stuff, we only have 60 acres left to do, but it just won't cooperate. It's a good thing the spring wheat isn't ready or Al would really be looking for a rope to throw over the auger...

Marilyn has two reasons for depression...she forgot about the bingo in town last night and our job at Bismarck...the farmer has his neighbor combining it because it is ready to go. We figured it wasn't going to be in the books this year...unless we could have gotten the rye done and made a quick move up to do the wheat then come back for the spring wheat here in Gettysburg.

No bright lights for Marilyn...