I was back at it yesterday, using my Kubota tractor to spread gravel on our driveway and then smooth it out with the tractor’s back blade and the bottom side of the bucket loader. It’s all done, and while it’s not as neat and tidy as somebody with more experience could do, a guy’s got to start someplace, right? This was my first experience with a project like this, and hopefully as I spend more time using the tractor and its various implements, I will get better. As for the distortion in the picture of the garage, I have no idea what caused that.
Remember that big pile of gravel I showed you that I started with yesterday? Here’s a picture to refresh your memory.
It’s all gone now. I will rake the remaining stones out onto the barn road. The way the grass grows around here, within a couple of months you won’t know the gravel was ever there.
After reading yesterday’s blog, several people suggested that the next time I get gravel I have the truck driver spread it for me instead of piling it up like it was and making all of that extra work with the tractor. This was leftover gravel from when we had the backyard re-sloped and French drains installed to help with drainage problems. The company that did that work ordered it delivered and piled so they could use it as they needed it. When I do order more, I will definitely have the driver spread it for me. I’m a lazy man by nature and avoid work at every opportunity.
The fever seems to have abated, but Terry is still not feeling good. She is still fatigued and her body and joints feel sore. To add to her misery, today she has to have a colonoscopy. You can imagine what the prep must have been like, feeling as crappy (no pun intended) as she was already. We talked about rescheduling the procedure, but since it took a couple of months to get this appointment, and because of her cancer history, it’s not something we want to put off. When she’s hurting this bad and feels so miserable, I feel absolutely helpless to be able to do anything to help make it better for her.
In other news, the paperback edition of Big Lake Assault is now out and available on Amazon. Sales of the new book have been amazing. It’s received 322 ratings on Amazon with a 4.6 star out of five ranking, it is #943 in the Kindle Store out of all of the millions of ebooks on Amazon, and #20 in its category. Thank you everybody for your support, your reviews and Amazon rankings, and telling your friends and family members about the book. It is very much appreciated.
It’s Thursday, so it’s time for a new Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an audiobook of Big Lake Honeymoon, the seventh book in my Big Lake mystery series. The story begins as the busy summer season is drawing to a close in the little mountain town of Big Lake, Arizona and the locals are looking forward to a relaxing interlude before the first snowfall brings carloads of skiers to the high country. That all changes when a nearly nude woman rushes into a convenience store in the middle of the night begging for help. She tells Sheriff Jim Weber that her new husband has been murdered and she was taken captive by the mysterious killer, who seems to have disappeared into the thick forests of the White Mountains, touching off a manhunt for a phantom that cannot be found.
To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn this evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books and audiobooks to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 90 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.
And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. This is why it’s so important to always read the label.
Thought For The Day – Be careful when you follow the masses. Sometimes the M is silent.
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
Her symptoms sound familiar to me. In early July I had a 103 degree at midnight completely unexpected. During the fever ordeal many of my joints started hurting quite a bit. And they didn’t stop hurting even though the fevers did. Rheumatologist is considering a rare syndrome, RS3PE. He started me on a prednisone taper down treatment. The first dose fixed my tingling hands problem. Yay! All of my docs, primary, oncologist, dermatologist, had to look it up. No blood test for it. It is diagnosed by a process of elimination. By the way, I never got sick but I was very tired.
Nick, just wondered what your opinion is on regular people owning AK47-like weapons.
The problem with the photograph is called image distortion. That’s when the straight lines of an image appear to be deformed or curved unnaturally, creating different distortion types, including barrel, pincushion, and waveform.
You see distortion most often in photos shot with wide-angle lenses. The compromise to get more people in close bends the space around them.
Although cameras today (including the ones in cell phones) are so smart, they still get confused. The electronics (which makes shooting great pictures easier) sometimes outthink themselves.