Leave Early

It's dark now. I just came in off the back porch when the last light of the day passed. On any nice day we have morning coffee out there, and I love to finish the day sitting on the porch. We don't use a garbage disposal but toss all left-overs in the edge of the woods just off the back porch. Critters come up to browse and eat our offerings. There is an opossum, one large and one smaller raccoon, and a couple of foxes that frequent our buffet that we've seen. Deer and wild turkey frequent our woods and wander through the yard from time to time, and the Pileated woodpeckers are a regular presence here. We do seem to have inherited a stray cat. He shows up once or twice a day to be fed so we've been buying cat food for him, and give him some milk. He's wandered into the house a few times but goes back out and off to where-ever it is he goes. I call him the Stealth Cat. He will just suddenly be on the back porch, and just as suddenly be gone.

There's an entirely different pace living here in south central Kentucky than we had in Vegas. You learn to leave a bit early if you have somewhere to be at a particular time. In the little more than seven miles between here and town, there are only five brief areas that are passing zones. Lots of curves and hills. Driving around this area of the state you soon realize there are people that drive 35 mph maximum, and there will be farm tractors and equipment on the roads running even slower. On a narrow road you may meet a pick-up or tractor with a trailer loaded with the round bales taking about a lane and a quarter. County equipment will be out mowing along the roads. You may be contending with those 4 wheel off road bikes, or Amish buggies. A while back we waited while some farmers herded cows across the road. It doesn't matter. There are very few times we are on a schedule, and I'll gladly settle for a day where the only excitement was getting behind a tractor on the highway.

Today I did a little work on my daughter's riding mower and showed my granddaughter how to operate it. She was driving it around cutting the grass with a smile on her face, and singing the theme song to "Green Acres". We took our son and daughter-in-law to the local Mexican restaurant for lunch, and took the wife's computer in for a tune-up.

Retirement agrees with me.