We haven’t been away from the property much since we got home from our trip to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida last week, but we had some errands to run and decided that yesterday would be a good day to get them done.
After a brief respite in the middle of the week, the heat is back and it’s going to continue to get hotter all through the next week. In fact, the weatherman said it’s going to be the hottest few days this year. It was definitely too hot to leave Alli in her outside kennel, even with it in the shade and with her swimming pool of water.
Since we’re not sure how she would do left being left in the house unsupervised or if she and the cats would get into some mischief, until now when we have left her in the house we have put her in the big crate that came with her. There’s room for her to stretch out, or to stand up and turn around in it, but not much more than that. So we decided to try an experiment and leave her in our large bedroom with the door closed and the television on for company. Her doggy bed is in there next to our bed so it’s a familiar place for her, and the air conditioning keeps it nice and cool. I was able to use the Blink camera in our bedroom to check in on her, and she did pretty good. Several times when I logged in, she was playing with her toys, and when we got home the only thing out of place was that she had taken Terry’s pillow off the bed. That’s not a problem and it will be much easier for all of us the next time we have to leave her while we are out running around.
Our first stop was in the charming old downtown area of Northport, to check out Ander’s Hardware Store. The business opened in 1909 and still uses some of the original fixtures. We spent an hour or so browsing around, admiring some old timey things that you don’t find it places like Lowe’s or Home Depot, like wooden bushel baskets, heavy crockery urns, mixing bowls, and water jugs, and galvanized buckets and pails. It reminded me of a hardware store from back in the 60s, before the big box stores took over the world. There are some other interesting shops along the main street there that we want to go back and visit one of these days.
From there we drove into the main shopping district in Northport and stopped at Harbor Freight, which was having a big tool sale. I picked up a few items I needed, including a toolbox and some wrenches and screwdrivers to keep handy in the barn. By then we were getting hungry, so we went to the Shrimp Basket for dinner. The service is always excellent there and the food is pretty darn good.
With our tummies full, we went to Publix and stocked up on groceries for the next couple of weeks. Since it’s about 25 miles from our house to the grocery store, we try to buy enough that we don’t have to go back very often.
By the time we were done there it was getting late in the day, and since my night vision is not very good, Terry drove home. Our final stop along the way was to top off the pickup’s tank, fill up two 5-gallon cans of gas, and another of diesel for the riding lawn mower, Mule, and tractor.
Alli and the kittens were very happy to see us come home, and by the time we got the groceries put away and spent some time reassuring them that we had not disappeared from their lives forever, there was just enough time left to watch a little bit of TV and the news before it was time to write the blog and call it a day.
Today is your last chance to enter our Free Drawing for an RV camping journal donated by Barbara House. Barbara makes several variations of these, and they all have pages where you can list the date, weather, where you traveled to and from that day, beginning and ending mileage, campground information including amenities at RV sites, a place for campground reviews, room to record activities, people met along the way, reminders of places to see and things to do the next time you’re in the area, and a page for notes for each day.
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.
Thought For The Day – Misery is not a pre-requisite for change.
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!