Five Acres with a View

Last night, I had the best pot roast in my life at Ted’s Montana Grill. This chain was started by Ted Turner to provide an outlet for his bison meat. Jack had the Philly burger, and said it was very good.

I had met Jack for dinner after he finished work, so we could eat and run a few errands together. We went to the nearby Goodwill to look at their bikes. Since I enjoyed biking so much in Toronto, I decided I wanted to find a cheap bike to ride around here. I wanted Jack with me since he knows more about them. I found a woman’s bike for fifteen dollars that had flat tires, but otherwise looked as though it had never been used. Even if we have to replace the inner tubes, I think it will be a good deal.

We also found some cafe curtains for the kitchen. We have been talking about covering the kitchen window for ten years or more now. It faces east, and the morning sun blinds us in the winter time when the cottonwood tree outside the window loses its leaves.

It was a productive evening though I was a bit miffed this morning when I realized that I lost my cell phone. Both Jack and I heard a skittering noise as we got into the car at Home Depot, but couldn’t see anything in the dark parking lot. When I got home, I started to charge my phone, but couldn’t find it. I thought I had left it in the car, and didn’t realize until this morning that the skittering noise must have been the phone. I drove down there as soon as it was light this morning, but there were no signs of the phone where we had been parked, nor had anyone turned it in.

It is an obsolete model, five or six years old, with a flakey battery, which I have been thinking about replacing for a while now. It is amazing how cheap cell phones have become, like so many other consumer electronics.

Two friends called this morning and asked me if I wanted to go to Happy Apple Farm in Penrose, Colorado. I had never picked raspberries before. The bushes had been picked over, but I managed to find a pint of extremely ripe berries. They were so ripe that I immediately brought them home and made a raspberry cobbler, now baking in the oven.

I don’t believe I’ve ever made a cobber before, either. To judge from the ingredients, it was first made by someone who didn’t have the patience to make a pie.

I lost Dudley for a heart stopping three to five minutes today. I have been letting him off the lead for most of our walks recently. He usually stays within six to ten feet of me except for when he will stop to sniff out the neighborhood news. However, he saw some birds flying up from a thicket when we were nearly home, and took off in pursuit. I couldn’t even hear him crashing through the trees. I wasn’t wearing appropriate clothing for bushwhacking, so I had just about decided to go back home and change into jeans when he came running down the trail to find me.

I haven’t been walking nearly as much as I should to meet my goal of thirty minutes a day. Lody has been a little lame, and hasn’t been keeping up very well. I have been afraid I would lose her if I kept marching along at my normal pace, so today I left her home and just took Dudley. I don’t think she minds, as long as I managed to keep her from noticing that I am taking Dudley. I slipped out with him while she was occupied with her breakfast.