Weekdays at Kaywood (7/10-13)

During Monday through Thursday at Kaywood, we immediately fell into the very different rhythm of life in the country. I mowed all over the property, using the really cool zero clearance mower that Dad has purchased for those chores. That thang cuts a 5 foot swath through grass that would stop my Lawn Boy home mower dead. I used some shooter's earmuffs that I found to create an acoustic isolation chamber, and that allowed me to listen to hours and hours of music while I worked. I guess I mowed 16-18 hours over those 4 days, and I got all of the work done that that mower is capable of around the property. Once you get the hang of the controls (you have a left and right control, sort of like driving a tank, and you push one or the other hand forward or backward to steer the thing. I only bumped into the deck of the house once while I learned to steer on the job.), it's a lot of fun. It was hot work, and thirsty work, but not too bad otherwise. It is sort of hypnotic out there, rumbling along, listening to tunes, watching the patterns form in the mowed grass.

The kids got to swim, help their grandmother with chores and shopping visits in town, and drove the 4-wheeler around and around the property. For city kids, they fell right into the particular enjoyment of country life. We played a lot of dominos (Mexican Train is our favorite game, but the kids like "Chicken Foot" too.) and watched very little TV, except for the Tour de France. After all that sun and fun, we were all crashing to sleep pretty early.

I planned on running 3 or 4 days during the week, so I set my alarm each morning for 7:05am. Not once during the trip did I have to rely on that. Why? Partly because all those 5:45 and 6:00 am runs with Gazelles have reset my internal clock. Mostly, however, because of the seemingly zillions of birds that commenced their chirping and songs at 6:20 every day. Since I was up anyway, I managed to get out and run on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings.

Those runs were all of the relaxed variety. I had thought I'd do some fartlek type runs, similar in a way to some of Gilbert's pace runs, but I just didn't get inspired to blast the pace on my own. The weather wasn't bad, in the lower 70's, but I still kept the runs around an hour's length. The courses were on the property for the most part, going all over, exploring the grounds, but I did add some miles on Browns Wells Road and Cane Road for variety. It was nice to be able to run without a serious agenda, just checking out our little corner of the world on foot as the countryside woke up. I got chased by 5 different dogs, for varying lengths of distance, but they really weren't interested in biting too much. The folks going to and fro on the roads were friendly enough, although I suspect that I was an odd sight in those parts. Not too many runners in the countryside outside Hazlehurst, MS, I'd say. :-)

I clocked 6.9 miles on Monday, 7.4 miles on Wednesday, and 6.7 miles on Thursday. I averaged around 9:10/mile for the three runs. It was all about enjoying myself and kicking off my days in a pleasant fashion, and I succeeded on that front. The Garmin worked great in the countryside, under heavy tree canopies from time to time, which was good to see.

I had an interesting visit on Tuesday with a local merchant in Hazlehurst. The mower developed a strange symptom on Tuesday morning, failing to start very well, and stalling out. After much differential diagnosis, we discovered that a fuse controlling the "Dead Man's" safety switch had blown. I checked with Mom, and she directed me to Lamar's auto parts emporium in town. I asked about Wal-Mart instead, but she insisted that I would be amused by a visit to Lamar's. With the admonition to introduce myself to him, and with some shaky directions, I was off. I found the store without too much trouble, and went inside for my adventure. Lamar himself finished off a phone call as I came in, and asked me how he could help. I held up the fuse, and he correctly identified it as a 20 amp fuse from a distance. I asked him for three of them, and he went into the racks behind the counter to search. First, he had to turn on the lightbulb hanging on the row. Next, he located the box of 20 amp fuses, and last, he selected three for my purchase. Turning out the light on his way out of the row, he did some "figurin' " on his adding machine (no fancy computerized register in Lamar's place!), and announced $2.18. Correctly figuring that Lamar was a "cash preferred" guy, I made my purchase.

Now, it was going to get interesting. I took that opportunity to introduce myself as "June Sanders' oldest son, Jay," and he commenced to talking. Mom had warned me that this might happen, but I had no idea. People say that I get carried away with talking, but Lamar must hold a black belt in Conversation. :-) He talked about knowing Mom when they were kids. He talked about Mom's brothers and her late mother. That brought up the story of Lamar's adoption from the Children's Home that my grandmother supported in a big way. And that brought up the story of him locating his birth mother after all these years (Lamar is 71 on July 27th, as he told me), through a chance reading of an obituary in the Copiah County Courier. His wife (his second wife, as I soon learned) noticed that a fellow shared a last name that matched the name that appeared on Lamar's birth certificate (it was handwritten, so it was hard to read it clearly). Further investigation involving the post office, long-distance phone calls, and various snail mail correspondence finally got him in contact with his long-lost half sister and two half-brothers, as well as his birth mother, now living in Houston. And, yes, we heard the tale of him travelling to Houston to visit with his newly discovered relatives. All this, and I wasn't really helping out the conversation much.

We finally covered what I thought was the Conversation (there was also mention of his attendance at Dad's 70th birthday party a year ago, Dad's Montana trip, and various other items that I didn't know that Lamar knew). I shook Lamar's hand one last time (I thought), and took the kids out to the car to head back to Kaywood. At that moment, Lamar's wife rolled up with his lunch. Oh, sweet Jesus, no! But, yes, Lamar stopped his wife (Jake and Sarah had disappeared into the car by now) and insisted that she guess who I was. She tentatively said that I didn't look like one of the Russells, and then I was allowed to bail her out. She then commenced with her own conversational barrage, covering Dad's birthday party (again), an invitation to their house while we were in Mississippi (it's the second street after the chicken processing plant, and the second house on the left), and the town orthodontist, who lives in Gallman, just up the road. She finished her presentation by jerking open the door to the truck, scaring the Bejesus out of the kids, who looked at her with goggle-eyed stares as she cooed over them. Impressive.

Finally allowed to leave, my simple 30 minute trip to town had turned into an hour, but it was certainly entertaining. I actually pondered places and people like Lamar in light of Wal-Mart's pervasiveness in small-town America as I drove back to Kaywood. David Wilcox's song "East Asheville Hardware" rang in my head, and I thought about how places like Lamar's were disappearing all over America as those older owners closed shop at the end of their working lives. Hard to compete with all that purchasing and advertising power, but Lamar's store, like so many others like it, are great places to shop. The price was, I'm sure, very competitive, and if I had needed advice on machinery or repairs, Lamar would have given me accurate and useful information on how to proceed with my problem. That wouldn't happen at your typical Mega-Mart. Anyway, it was a very interesting Tuesday!

Tuesday night, we drove down to the bustling city of Brookhaven (pop. 10,000 approx.) to take in a movie. The four of us saw "Pirates of the Caribbean 2," and it was big fun. It's the first time I've been in a movie theater that was not stadium seating in quite a while, but the popcorn and movie were good, and we had fun. The place was packed, by the way. If the theater in Brookhaven, MS, was full on Tuesday night, then no wonder this movie has made $200M in a flash!

Thursday, my dad drove over from Lufkin, having returned from his annual Montana fly fishing trip, and I went up to Jackson, that thriving metropolis, to pick up Mary Anne at the airport. Dad gave me an "attaboy" for the quality of my mowing skillz, and he even approved of the way that I had taken care of his mowing toy. I'm not allowed to drive the real tractor, which I don't mind, by the way. :-)

So far, so good. No sunburn, no injuries, no bug bites or stings. Success!