Thursday September 24, the 268th day of 2020

Twila walked up to the house and had a second telehealth appointment with Dr. Ausi in Pittsburgh. He told her her test looked fine and to continue as she has been unless another episode occurs. I think she is doing fairly well since she can walk up here and back. 

Frank and Lue drove to Wexford. Lue had an appointment. She got a good report. She is to continue physical therapy for at least six more weeks.

The Autumnal Equinox occurred this morning at 9:30, the moment when the sun appears to cross the equator, heading southward. The September equinox can occur at any time between the 21st and 24th of September. On Wednesday, the sun will rise exactly in the east (90°) and will set exactly in the west (270*).  

In the afternoon, I took soil samples throughout the yard at about a dozen spots. I will send them to the lab at Penn State and they will tell me whether or not I need to lime the yard. Most people lime their yard each year but I had once read it is wise to get the lawn tested and not waste the money unnecessarily. When I did the test three years ago, the report said not to put down any lime for at least three years. I also got samples from Twila’s yard. 

Dude was up for a day.  He took Twila to prepay for her funeral and to do some financial business.

Frank brought in an Amish man to give me a price on building new front steps out of wood. He took measurements and will get back to me. I already have a price for building the steps out of cement. Carpenters, willing to do smaller jobs, are very hard to find.

Jarret Furnish preached today. Jason is down with his dad until the end of the week. It was a Candidating sermon.

Frank and Lue came over for dinner (turkey breast). Missy made vegetable soup this weekend and Missy sent me over a jar of it. I asked Hannah how school was going. She said good but she would rather be in school on Wednesdays. C-L doesn’t go on Wednesday and Hannah said they give the students too much work to do at home. Lue said that Danny would agree.

Today was the coolest of the past 129 days. The last time our average temperature of the day was at 46.8° or lower was May 13. The high of the day was 61°, the lowest high temperature in Clarion since the high of 58° on May 31. 

A few weeks ago, I had purchased a kit of wand extensions for my pressure washer that included a curved piece to put on the end to pressure clean the gutters. Today, I power-washed the siding and the gutters. I was surprised how well the extensions worked. I was able to reach up 15-20 feet and it did a good job and I am now able to clean out the gutters without using a ladder.

Today was the coolest of the past 110 days. The last time our average temperature was this low (52.3°) was May 31. 

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who became the court’s second female justice, died Friday at her home in Washington. She was 87. She died of complications from metastatic pancreatic cancer.

I hadn’t yet tried Deb’s haddock with the baked potato before tonight. I got it to go and I was glad I tried it, as it was a very good meal.