Settling in

Handsome Hombre and I went on a road-trip to a big-box store yesterday.

We went to Menards which is similar to Home Depot and Lowes. Miami has Home Despot and Lowes but there are no Menards in Miami so HH had never been in one.

There are advantages to picking out one store and becoming familiar with the layout. We spent about an hour-and-a-half there.

While there, we ran into a woman who is the co-owner of a Electrical Contracting firm. She was shopping for a job that was nearby. She admitted that she was a "Home Depot" girl but the supply chain is still in tatters and sometimes Menards or Lowes will have something that Home Depot does not have in-stock.

She said that they have an upcoming job and two of the items they need, power distribution centers, are on back-order with a projected 286 day wait time. That is 286 WORKING DAYS. More than a year of calendar time.

As we walked away she was on the phone with her husband discussing the possibility of using different kinds of conduit hangers because the preferred type was not-in-stock...

Handsome Hombre and Southern Belle finished mowing the yard

A fellow has to keep his perspective.

I went into the house to grab an iced tea and while I was in the house the two love-birds had grabbed two push mowers and were mowing the yard.

My initial reaction was that I was miffed because I had been using the one mower in the garden.

I had to pull Mower #3 out of the barn and get it started.

And then I was hit by the clue-bat. They were mowing the yard. I didn't ask them to do it. They saw something that needed doing and stepped up. I don't have to do everything around the place.

Burning brush

Same deal later in the evening. I started burning brush. I stacked it in the garden to burn because wood ashes are good fertilizer and I might as well burn the brush where the ashes will do some good.

Handsome Hombre joined me.

He wondered if I had a pellet gun.

I do have a pellet gun.

He was thrilled to shoot at a soup-can flipped upside-down on top of a Tee-post.

Southern Belle joined us. She enjoyed ventilating the soup-can, too.

They are better shots, off-hand, than I am.

After half an hour, Southern Belle slyly asked "Dad, did you get your nap today?"

No, I had not.

"We can watch the fire if you want to hit the rack" Southern Belle graciously offered.

Private time for the couple has been in short supply since Quicksilver has been born. Sitting around a fire on a clement, breezy, Michigan night was almost like a date for them. Mrs ERJ had put Quicksilver to bed and I was agreeable to letting them keep fire-watch, just the two of them.

It was good to see my daughter looking so happy. Handsome Hombre liked Michigan much better on Friday than he did on Tuesday when it was mid-30s and raining all day.