I had just placed my few items on the conveyor belt, the last item being a machete. I decided to buy one to hack the trunks of the ragweed. That is some tough stuff.

A family got in line behind me and they were all dressed up in their Sunday best. We were waiting for the guy in front of us to get back; apparently he left his wallet in the car.

So, the dude behind me – the dad, probably 40-ish – starts looking at the soon-to-be-my machete. I found that rather odd as he grabbed it to spin it around on the belt for a better look. Then he mentions the saw teeth on the spine of the machete to cut branches. I don’t remember his exact words as after he as violating my space I was too busy putting together a snappy comeback. Still, it was odd.

After his saw comment, I almost responded with “Yeah, when you hack the bodies into pieces with one of those sometimes you need a saw to get through a bone.”. I mean it was close to flying out of my mouth.

Now I don’t judge people, but sometimes you gotta read your audience and make a quick decision on whether or not to scrub the mission. I decided I didn’t want to scare the two young daughters and, honestly, these days there are some who may not find my humor funny. I decided to not become the subject of a 911 call and newspaper article. I assume there might be a wee bit of embarrassment to go along with that, too.

Afterwards I thought back to the old guy I saw in the store some years back who was struggling with loading a giant bag of dog food in his cart. Just as I asked him if he “needed a hand”, I grabbed the bag to help him. I looked down and he did; he only had one hand!

He looked up at me as I apologized and he was laughing. My guess is it’s not the first time he has had a good laugh over his missing appendage over his probably eight decades on the planet.

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Before the “Machete Near-Incident “, I got outdoors early and did some yard work on a nice cool morning. I got new spools for the string trimmer and they made a huge difference. The old one that broke was also definitely worn out.

I got quite a bit done with the trimmer and it’s looking better but there’s more to go. The spraying over the last few weeks certainly made a difference but a few plants survived and the dead ones are still standing; they all gotta come down. After a sharpening party with the new jungle-cutter I’ll be out the next few mornings chopping down weeds and doing more trimming. With it staying cooler longer I can be out getting more done.

I’m really sick of looking at this junk for the dump piled up outside. I’m going to get all the unpainted wood loaded up in the truck and take it back to the old dump pile past the pond and pile it up for habitat as it returns to nature.

That will shrink up the dump pile considerably and I will have less to haul off and pay to dump. I’ll call a scrap metal person to recycle the metal pile so they can make some cash, it saves resources and it stays out of the landfill.

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I had no idea yesterday was International Bacon Day. It never showed up on my calendar on my phone. Chocolate and turkey have their holidays recognized…wtf? Respect the bacon!

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That’s it for now. I’m off to bed. Thanks for checking out today’s post. Please check out Day 1 to see how my blog started out.

Shawn