Good afternoon GH. It is just past 1:00 p.m. in"The City." Yes ladies and gentlemen, you read that right, 1:00 p.m. in the afternoon. Better late than never I say.

For those of you who know her, today is Chris Hickey's birthday. Many years ago, Chris and I shared a classroom for one year. She is a a great teacher and a good friend to all who know her, myself included. So even though I already said it on her Facebook timeline, Happy Birthday Chris.

Yesterday's rain storms never materialized, at least in our part of the state. So once again, I had to water the gardens of the PE this morning.

Mary and I did go to the car dealer for that recall repair yesterday. It took about 20 minutes and then we were on our way. Since we were in Holland, we continued down the road to pick up some things from Adam and Steph. We decided to take the long way home. We were on Blue Star Hwy. when I spotted a yard full of old iron things and such, or was it a junk yard? We were not sure exactly, but we turned around and stopped in. Lo and behold, I spied an old outdoor water pump leaning against the side of one of the sheds. It was marked with a price north of $100.00. Too rich for our blood, but Mary knew I had always wanted one for our gardens.

In her inimitable style, Mary located the owner of the collection and prepared to negotiate. She told the woman we were interested in the pump and gave her a tale of woe regarding our inability to pay that much and could she consider lowering the price. The woman thought about it, and came down to a much more reasonable price. Given my creaky back, Mary made sure that I could lift the pump before she made the deal. I could, she did, and we brought it home and "installed" it in our garden.

Below is a picture of the pump and some other pictures that Mary took of her newly planted garden hard-scape, something she once said she would never have. Like I always say, "The best laid plans of mice and men..."

This is the first picture of the "installed" pump.

Mary's planted rooster, with the coal shovel we rescued from our coal room in the man-cave.

Planted "Log Man."

Why not?

Yes, our house is old enough to have a coal room. We even found a piece of coal in the rafters of the room when we moved in nearly four years ago.

No trains to spot today, and I only heard the 10:30 southbound run in the a.m. yesterday.

In sports, the men in blue had the day off. The Tigers lost to the Royals, 0 - 4. My beloved Red Sox and the Caps had the day off. 

Today, I am finishing this blog after the morning walk with STWD. It was and is a beautiful day in GH. Partly cloudy skies and a current temperature of 76 ° as we near the high for today of 77° The humidity is 64%. No rain in the foreseeable future. The sun rose at 6:45 a.m. and will set tonight at 8:53 p.m. 

In between sunrise and sunset, I hope to read more, do another crossword or two, and go to the grocery store and get my 5% senior citizen's discount. Perhaps we'll go to one of the big-box home centers in Muskegon for some switch-plates. In other words, not much of any practical value. Ciao.