9/3  Tuesday.  Worked from home, went to put checks in bank.  Got stuff at Lowe's for filling pots,a nd explored getting mailbox put up.  Think I know how to do it.  Came home and worked outside in yard. Called Roanoke County, who will come Thursday to pick up old fridge that was just sitting out there.  And piled up brush for them, and cleaned out the area in front of the house.  Can be a nice garden I think.

9/2 Monday, Labor Day.  Called PF to see if they open. They were so I went and had a great workout, chest and shoulders, arms and abs.  Perfect.  Later went to Maureen's for a trial run of our new Brooklyn Grill business.  She had some folks over for sausages and onions, and I took Lulabelle and my guitar, Marty (since it's a Martin).  Played a while.  I guy named Eric, a neighbor of Mo's who is Vanessa's cousin, and his two sons came over.  Nice boys.  Eric just really liked hearing me play.  And Timmy, going into the 5th grade, was fascinated.  I let him play it, showed him a chord, and he loved it. Later he told us he was selling his Xbox and buying a mandolin.  I told him I'd help him find a good one.  He was smitten with it.  Nice to have some musical influence.  Mo says he plays his Xbox all the time, so to want to give it up, well, I think we have a new musician in this world.

9/1 Sunday.  Got up and went to Mo's for breakfast, french toast, berries, very good.  Then went running on the greenway near her house in Salem.  Ran about 4 miles, though it's not very well marked as to distance.  That's what it said on the map on the greenway.  Coming back, near the end, a woman passed me, about my age I suppose but in very good shape.  We talked a minute while running.  When she was quite a ways ahead, I decided to catch her.  I had to run not only her speed, which was fast for me, but faster to catch up.  It was hard but I did it, then ran with her for a while, but couldn't keep that up.  I sprinted the last few hundred yards at the end.

Don't think I worked out.  Came home.  Can't remember much.  Must have been nice. Played the mandolin, named it "Lulabelle." It's a blues mandolin, mainly, and there's a great blues song, Lulabelle's Here.  So, when I arrive, Lulabelle is here!"  Practiced the blues a lot.

8/31

Saturday.  Got up and met Maureen at the Salem Farmer's Market to go to yard sales.  Got some tomatoes, etc. at the market.  Did great at yard sales. Maureen is great at finding things.  Got a big supply of creatine, unopened, for $10, and then a great chair for the back porch, and a couple of little metal tables for it, at an estate sale. Frankie loves the chair--will post a pic soon.  Now my back porch is perfect, with an air mattress I bought at a yard sale the previous week.  I got some little decorative pots at the estate sale, and on Tuesday got some soil and put three plants in them.  One basil plant--we'll see how it does.  One aloe vera plant, and one pot with little flowers. Don't ask me what kind.  Pretty ones.

Found a great little consignment shop Mo knows about. Got a great pair of shorts--size 36 and they fit!  And a shirt.  Then at a sale at the Roanoke Academy of Gymnastics, I got a bunch of great shirts and a pair of brown shoes.

After that, I went to pick up my new mandolin downtown.  I gotta say, I'm in love!  I can't put it down.  Played all evening, but was very tired from the day.

8/30

Did in fact workout at Planet Fitness.  First, got to Betsy's and ran from her house to Wasena Park.  Had driven it to determine the distance, which was about 1.5 miles there and back.  So I ran there and then extended it a bit by running the loop over the bridge and around at Wasena Park.  That was several tenths of a mile, and then ran back. The hill after leaving Wasena Park is killer, very steep and not short.  Did that, then it leveled off. To extend the run some more, I ran up the hill by the steps I typically run beside Betsy's. That hill is much shorter, but even steeper.  Deadly.  Then ran down the next street and circled back to Betsy's. I'm thinking it was about 2 miles total, but lots of hills.

Walked to PF and worked out.  Did good upper body workout, except for chest and shoulders. Heavy arms, lats, back, and abs.  Perfect, just what I needed.  Came back home later and played guitar for a while.