63 Miles in Three Days!

Another beautiful day in Kansas!! Carol and I got out relatively early this a.m. and I got in nearly 21 miles. That makes a total of 63 miles in these past three days! Feels really good! I told Carol that I was going to turn around about the 10 mile mark today. (She normally rides longer rides than I do and I wanted her to know that I didn't want to "hold her back".) So when we reached a little over 10 miles I said that I would head back at the next corner. I haven't talked to Carol since to find out how many miles she did today.



We had a wonderful ride...including seeing a young fox..in a most unexpected place. We were headed out to ride Illinois Avenue (a mile south of Highway 50 and running parallel with hwy 50). We went up over the viaduct and then headed east through the south edge of Careyville. Being cyclists, we notice dogs. We both saw this small to medium sized "dog" at the edge of the road..right in front of a house in Careyville. When it looked up I thought it kind of looked like a fox 'cause it had big ears. Then he saw us, hopped in the air, pivoted and went down into a culvert under the people's driveway. It was then we both saw the bushy red tail and kind of simultaneously said, "Look...a fox!" As we got even closer, of course watching the culvert, he stuck his head and front shoulders out and just looked at us! Carol and I agreed that he looked pretty young. I've seen fox (foxes?) in town before, but not recently and usually they were at dusk. This was about 9:45 a.m. He was a real treat to see!

A kind of funny thing happened on my ride home. I was on College Lane, less than two miles from home, when my phone rang. It was Patsy. She wanted to know what I was doing and when I told her, she said, "Gee, if you're out exercising I almost hate to tell you why I'm calling." She was thinking about going to Roy's (wonderful, delicious Roy's...yummmmmmm) and wanted to know if I was interested. Interested, absolutely...but I knew I had to have a shower and it would take me quite a while before I would actually be able to go, so we decided to do Roy's another day. So...dear Patsy, I had an orange and a granola bar for lunch. Just how yummy does that sound!?!?!?! I'm still craving Roy's!!!!

After getting home and cleaning up, I took Schiz to Dillon's Nature Center to walk. She's never been there before and WOW!!! were there ever a lot of new smells to absorb! She was "plum tuckered out" :) by the time we got back to the car...in fact I even carried her for a little ways. But I didn't feel guilty about leaving her at home a little later when I went to run a few errands.



I've been searching for sewing machine cabinets...or parts of sewing machine cabinets. I've hit most of the antique and junk stores, the Salvation Army, Goodwill, even a used furniture store. Today a friend suggested I try Allied Painting, so I went out there. Sure enough, he had exactly what I was wanting. (Plus we had a great conversation...turned out I know his wife very well..but I didn't know he had Allied Painting.) He had the framework (with 3 drawers even) for drawers. Here's what I'm doing with them. I did these first three several years ago (several like in "more than 25" years ago) and now am trying to do some more to sell at the Hutchinson News' MONSTER Garage Sale on March 14.

It's hard to take pictures of these newer ones as the glass isn't connected to the frame yet. They are pen and ink on glass. The "frame" is the part of a sewing machine that the drawer sets on...the framework of the drawers I guess. The ones I bought today are a little different than these...the top and bottom of the frame are a little wider..about twice as thick as the side piece. I brought them home and spent some time dismantling and scrubbing and sanding and steel-wooling them. Tomorrow I'll take them out and touch them up with a little stain and hopefully by mid-week they'll be ready for some glass.

Tomorrow's supposed to be cooler and much windier so I doubt I'll get in a bicycle ride...but it's Saturday and it's warm, so I'll find some garage sales to go to!! I love garage sales!!! They're fun! I went to several today...bought a old walnut picture frame that's gorgeous..for 50 cents! Think I'll look into getting a mirror put into it. And a brand new brick red hand towel for a dollar! ??? I dunno..I just liked it!

Well...enough for now. Hope your day was a pleasant as mine! More than once today I thanked God for giving me the opportunity to do the things I can do. Beautiful weather, beautiful scenery, great friends, good health...and it goes on and on.