Awake: 6:18 am Temp 49 sleep 6+25 sunny overnight @ Nicktown.
K & I attend 8:00am Mass in Nicktown, check our local mail & then motor to Wal-Mart & Martin’s for groceries in Indiana, PA.
When we arrive @ the Foote Castle @ 10:30am, we see bags of gravel, sand, & cement sitting near the dry mixing area & wheelbarrow, ready for action; Kevin had done his prep work this morning. He asked me if I thought Kathy would be interested in being the dry mixer; “it would streamline our efficiency” he says. When I approach her with this idea, she says: “I have to read a book to Matthew & Andrew first & then I will.”
Our concrete factory started humming about 11:15 am & continued without a hitch until around 1:15pm. Matthew helped Kathy with the measuring, pouring & dry mixing of (2) parts cement, (4) parts sand & (6) parts gravel; all in a plastic rectangular pan. Then I dumped that concoction into the wheelbarrow, added water & mixed with a concrete hoe until pliable enough for Kevin to work with. After dumping that load onto Kevin’s designated spot, the process started all over again as another dry batch was usually waiting to be dumped into the wheelbarrow.
We break for lunch @ 1:20: beef stew with noodles, buns & fruit salad.
After lunch, our efficient concrete machine spins up again for another (1.5) hrs before running short of gravel & we have to shut down for the day; it was good timing (3:50 pm) as we usually leave & return to Nicktown around this time anyway. Kevin was pleased with the chain gang efficiency today + the weather.
Katrina calls from Denver during our chain gang concrete factory operation; she reports her stats on the latest ½ marathon run; unfortunately I couldn’t leave my concrete mix alone long enough to have a good chat with her so I passed the cell phone on to Kathy, hoping to get more details. As reported by Kathy: Katrina felt really good about her performance today as she ran the entire race with only two comfort stops in (2) hr, (10) min; as one of her friends used to say: “sounds good!”
Back @ our motorhome, we clean up, change clothes & walk to attend 6:00pm vigil Mass.
DVR movie with popcorn: “The Corn is Green” with Bette Davis, Nigel Bruce, John Dall, Joan Lorring, etc. Thoughtful acting in this story of devoted middle-aged teacher Davis in Welsh mining town coming to terms with her prize pupil. 1945. Good story with a twist.
After the movie, we couldn’t help but watch more of the Olympics in Beijing.
Lights out: 11:31pm
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