Mowing And Family Time

We invited daughter Tiffany and her husband Kenny, along with granddaughter Hailey, her husband Toby, and great-grandbaby Tyler, over for dinner yesterday. It was going to be a simple affair of hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill, along with baked beans and homemade potato salad, but Terry still had to run to the grocery store to get some of the things we were going to need.

While she was gone, I finished mowing the rest of the backyard that didn’t get done the day before. It was a lot of work, but it looks much better out there. I’m glad I got it done, because the temperature is supposed to rise again starting today.

It was sometime around 5:30 or 6:00 when everybody showed up, and Toby got assigned grill duty because Kenny and I were outside with my truck. There were a couple of settings I didn’t understand, and he went through them and got everything set up the way I wanted it. There is also a storage compartment under the rear seats that had dividers for carrying rifles. I liked the storage, but I didn’t care about the rifle part, and the dividers took up extra space, so Kenny took them out. He also secured the rear floor mats that were not sitting right because whoever installed the storage compartment originally didn’t make adjustments for them.

We timed it right because we got done just as the food was coming off the grill. Besides being a great guy and a successful cop, it turns out that Toby is also a pretty good hand with a spatula and a propane grill. Everything was delicious, and we all had plenty to eat.

Today Kenny and I are going to wander through the gun show at the Elks Lodge around the corner, seeing what there is that we can’t live without. If there is something, it better be darn good and at an amazing price, because I don’t have any room left in my gun safe. But even if we don’t find anything, it’s always fun just hanging out with Kenny.

Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an autographed copy of Tinder Street, the first book in my Tinder Street family saga. A simple trip to town, a chance meeting with a pretty young woman, and a few words were all it took for Lucas Wirtz to flee his family farm and the abusive father who dominated it. Following Rachel McNally to the big city, he had no idea how much his life and the world around him would change.

Chronicling the days leading up to World War I and the events that followed, Tinder Street is the first book in a saga that will take readers from rural farms to a major industrial city in the Midwest, across an ocean where German U-boats lurk waiting for a target to come within range of their deadly torpedoes, to the bloody trench warfare of France, and home again. Lucas was one of those soldiers, a man who hated the thought of killing, but did his duty. A duty that would haunt him long after the last shots were fired.

This is also the story of the simple working-class people who built America. Farmers, factory workers, streetcar conductors, midwives, and public servants. Their joys and sorrows, their wins and losses, and how these people who struggled together to build a better life for themselves and their children changed a place named Tinder Street to Tender Street, a reflection of one family’s devotion to their neighbors.

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 Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 30 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

Did you know that you can find all of my books and sign up for my free author’s newsletter on my website at www.nickrussellbooks.com?

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. Is this a new plan to improve employee morale?

Thought For The Day – You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. – Dr. Seus