haemoglobin is the key to a healthy heartbeat

I meant to go to bed earlier than this so that I could avoid what happened this morning, since I unintentionally slept until noon. Oops. So I threw on some clothes and went upstairs to find my parents enjoying the heat on the back porch, where they promptly mocked me for my laziness. My dad wanted to go to a farm supply store and needed a ride, since he can't drive yet due to the fact that hitting the steering wheel in an accident would be a v. bad thing for his still-healing breastbone. He told me that the place was "north of Chariton", but I should have questioned him more specifically, since north of Chariton = much more than a couple of miles. Or, at any rate, I should have eaten something before going, but we both survived, so that's something.

The farm supply place was quite the operation; the guy who owns it used to know my granddad, since they were both in the seed business, but their shop is way, way larger than my grandparents' store ever was. They sell work clothing and every kind of farm implement you could want, including what my dad went there for -- a three-foot-long thing that looked like a mophead that had been cut open and all the tassels laid out in a straight line. Apparently you can douse this mop thing in fly poison, hang it over the entrance to your cow pen (or anywhere that they have to walk under), and thus treat your cows for flies without having to spray them directly all the time. Genius. But since dad hadn't been up there since before his surgery, we hung out so that he could catch up with the guys and I could sell a couple of copies of my book to the woman working the register. Yay.

After that, we drove home, got diesel (and had a fifteen minute conversation there with the son of one of my dad's old friends - the friend is dying of stomach cancer, which is absolutely awful), and came home. My mom made dinner (roast beef, potatoes, carrots, zucchini and squash, yum), and then I started working on Nick and Ellie. I didn't get a lot of words written, but I got a few written, so that's exciting - first time I've written anything since Mexico, and first time I've written anything for them in a month (or more). But now I need to go to bed if I'm going to get up before noon tomorrow -- goodnight!