Bad Weather

Coker, Alabama

Weather: low 68 degrees, high 85 degrees, mostly cloudy skies, windy

There was severe weather north and east of us for most of the afternoon. Hail, high winds, tornadoes, heavy rain. This weather was coming from the same front that caused so many problems west and northwest of Alabama. Tomorrow is forecast to have better weather.

I found the leaking fitting on the water heater bypass valve. Taking the faulty fitting off, I looked at it with a magnifying glass, but didn't see any cracks or any other problem that might cause the leak. I went to Lowe's and bought another fitting and installed it. I'll check again tomorrow to see if the leak has stopped.

We mow the lot that we rent here in Coker, and we bought a mower last summer for that task. At the end of last summer, the mower started skipping badly, like there was water in the gasoline. Today, I drained the little bit of gas still in the tank and put new gas in. The mower started on the first pull, and ran fine for most of the time I was mowing the yard this afternoon. Then, it started acting as though the carburetor needed to be adjusted. I'll see what I can do with that before the next time to mow.

There's not much on TV on Friday nights that we care to watch, so we watched the movie Blood Diamond with Leonardo DiCaprio. I'm not a DiCaprio fan, but this was a pretty good movie. The plot involves diamonds that are mined in the parts of Africa where civil wars are being fought. The wars are financed by the mining of diamonds that are used to buy weapons. There's a message involved in the movie, but I chose to enjoy the action and scenery. Africa is a beautiful place, but it seems as though wars are always being fought over some cause or another. The people who suffer are the ones who want peace the most.

Thomas is spending the night with us. We set up the sleeper sofa with the air mattress for the first time. Talk about easy. Turn the switch on until the desired firmness is attained, put sheets and a blanket along with pillows on the air mattress, and go to bed. Tomorrow, we'll take everything off, turn the switch the opposite direction, suck the air out, and fold up the bed into a sofa. Done!

More later, be safe.

Today's Town - Dahlonega, Georgia: The Heart OF Georgia Wine Country

Not all who wander are lost.