Innkeeper, More Ale! Or Blackberry Brandy...Winter is on the Way

Can you believe we are still hauling grass clippings to the rubble sight? When Marianne asks me to blow the snow off the lawn so she can mow, that is where I draw the line. Anyway, we made one last trip (I hope) out there last Friday with some old dead flower stalks. Looking down into the trench, you could see that the yard work season is about over in this part of the country. There were lots of bruised apples and damaged tomatoes down in the trench that didn’t quite make the cut. That reminded me that I had better line up an onion for December and the 2019 forecast. The folks at the Colony just gave me one last year hint, hint, wink, wink, nudge, nudge. The way my mind has been working lately, I have to prepare things as far ahead as possible.

I wake up at night a little more often than I used to. One reason is that I listen to see if it is raining. I really admire the farmers and the temperament they display in these trying times. Even a small shower is a major set back in the muddy fields and yet they do the best they can. I spoke with a gentleman over the weekend who has not cut silage yet but still plans to.

Another reason for my lack of sleep is a cold and cough that caught up with me. I wake up coughing, go back to sleep and then go through the procedure again. Does anybody know how long this stuff hangs on? I am running low on blackberry brandy which is the best thing I know to use on it for healing.

I have to be careful how and when I take my “medicine”. There is so much going on as we move toward November. There is grandparent’s day in Sioux Falls, a lot of birthdays to celebrate, and of course a number of doctors appointments so they can keep tabs on my eye. If I just have a sip of brandy late in the day or early in the morning, I should be okay.

Marianne just reminded me that they are planning cataract surgery on or about the 23rd, of October, and again on the 30th. From what I understand, they will put some drops in my eye, wait a few minutes, and then do the surgery. That must mean I will be awake throughout the operation. Does anyone remember when I told the following story in this column?

It seems that a farmer had two critters, a bull and a steer, that he had to pen up together. They got along okay, but finally the steer got fat enough to go to market, and so off he went. The farmer had another bull, so he penned the two of them together. “Well,”said the new bull. “That steer seemed like a pretty nice guy, and you got along well together.”

“Oh, he was okay,”the older bull said, “But all he ever wanted to talk about was his operation.”

Please remind me of that story if and when I go into some long winded account of all of the stuff that has happened to me. Lord knows there is a lot of other things going on. For instance,I got caught up in watching those confirmation hearings in Washington and I wish I hadn’t. Opinions are like belly buttons; everybody has one, and of course, I do too. The only thing I will say is that the day we lose the presumption of innocence in America will be a sad day. Oh, and the day that the Yankees get back into the World Series will also be a sad day.

Now, back to the weather, as that is the reason for this column’s existence. I’ve been in the weather business since I joined the Navy about sixty years ago, and this has been one of the craziest of those sixty years, and it is not over yet. I figure the rains will end for the week about Wednesday, but we won’t have much drying weather until Saturday. Oh, about that winter forecast. It looks like December will be kind of rough.