A nice, sunny September day, too nice to be sitting inside at the computer. The last three months of the year are usually interesting – each of them can be among our nicest months, or they can be the worst. Let’s hope September continues nice – combining in October and November is for the birds.

Gas is up to $1.459 at the Co-op and other places in Saskatoon . At the same time, the price of crude was barely over a dollar. Every time it gets windy in the Caribbean is an excuse to gouge a little deeper. I’m glad the motor home season is over.

Is it true that gasoline in Regina was at $1.289 while Saskatoon was $1.369? I’ll bet they would justify the difference as being the cost to haul the stuff from the refinery in Regina . It’s not just the big boys that are sticking it in – the locals are just as much to blame.

I phoned Ronnie Hirtle at his home – he left the hospital here Monday morning, spent a couple of days in the hospital at Porcupine Plain and is now home. He says he is doing fine; was at coffee at the Cove Thursday morning. I had to apologize for not getting up to see him while he was in hospital here. The upcoming move has us running in circles, getting nothing done, and overlooking the important things.

We are off again! Next Sunday, we join a bus tour that will take us to New York City , Washington , and surrounding areas. Reports from people who have had the tour before are positive. And again we are travelling with McConaghy Tours, in fact this will be our fourth tour with them.

We have seen very little of that corner of the United States . Once, on a bus tour to the Maritimes, we travelled through northern New York for a ways, but other than that have never been north of North Carolina . Our timing should be good for fall color; we return October 10^th. When we went to the Maritimes it was the same time of the year; color was disappointing on the way down, but once we turned west again, it was in its full glory.

One of the features I am looking forward to most is a Broadway show, Billy Elliott. I haven’t a clue what it is all about, but it’s well reviewed and we get so much enjoyment from stage shows that we’re bound to enjoy it. There is a rumor about that they may be able to fit in another Broadway show, too.

It looks like our motor home touring is over for the season. We took it in to Mr. RV for winterizing and while it was there had them check out a body separation that panicked us. If the wood was rotten it could cost thousands to fix. We picked it up on Friday – they fixed the separation by replacing some one-inch rusty screws with three inch ones and said they gripped real well. Charged me $25. Feel good time!

Also on Friday, I took the rig to Minute Muffler to check out a noise under acceleration. They found it was a manifold gasket which they couldn’t do anything about, but they also repaired an exhaust hanger with a little welding and a clamp, and didn’t charge me anything! Lucky Friday. I should have bought a 649 ticket. Both firms are going to get my business from now on.

I phoned Laurie Grimson at Mozart to see how harvesting is going. She said it is all swathed, but she doesn’t think combining is half done yet. Al and Aimee and kids are down as well as Jill and Mark, so they have three combines going hard. Crop quality is good and yields are good. Let’s hope the weather holds.