Sunday July 4, 2010

1618: Happy 4th of July. We got up at our normal time for Sunday, 0646, and after taking care of Ms P, we headed to the MAC. I cannot swim because of the my shoulder so I ran outside on a two mile course. Nancy went swimming. After the MAC we continued to follow our Sunday routine and headed to Meijer's. I filled the Taurus up and paid $2.79 per gallon. Today is suppose to be one of the hottest days of the summer. The high humidity will make being outside very uncomfortable.

For breakfast Nancy prepared her world famous poached eggs. I also finished the rhubarb sauce. I love rhubarb. I read a section of the paper and then took a short nap.

Despite being hot and humid we have clear blue skies. This Sunday reminds me of Sundays on my Grandfathers farm. I usually spent the month of June on the farm helping get the hay in. On Sunday mornings my grandfather and I would pick out a chicken we would want for lunch. We used a 22 rifle to shoot the chicken. The rules were that I got the first shot. You always wanted a head shot so as not to damage the meat. If I missed which was almost every Sunday, my grandfather got the second shot. It usually took 4 or 5 shots. My grandmother would then clean and fry the chicken. After Lunch which was called dinner, my grandfather and I would go to the baseball field to watch the Hubbard Lake baseball team play another county league team. The baseball field was near the beach and I always brought my swimming suit. My grandfather made me stay until at least the 7th inning until I could go swimming. It was a long 7 innings.

After a light supper my uncle and aunt would sometimes stop by and ask if I wanted to go to the drive-in movie with them. I always said yes. The drive in was near the baseball field. We did not have daylight savings time so the movie would start about 2000 and get out about 2200. I always remind my cousin Randy about the Sunday night movies and how much I enjoyed his mom and dad taking me.

1800: I just took a 2.75 mile walk. I am trying to get my walking down to 15 minutes per mile. I practiced on the tread mill this morning for about 10 minutes. My pace this afternoon was 17'50". I still need some work.

When I was a boy we spent the 4th of July at my grandparents farm at Hubbard Lake. I think we would have about 30 family members in attendance. The men played horse shoes, did some trap shooting, played croquet and listened to the Tiger's game on the radio. No TV back then. For food we had fried chicken, corn on the cob, garden grown salads and homemade ice cream and pie. When I was about 12 my dad let me shoot his shotgun at some clay pigeons (trap shooting). It was a great 4th for me.