Tammy Loves Her Blue Ice Cream in Hayward - May 15, 2013

Word of the Day

Sarchasm - The abyss between the creator of witticisms and the intended recipient who does not find the humor in it.


Once again, I hooked up the trailer hitch to the Acadia so we could haul the big boat to Hayward. Unfortunately, there was no way that the boat trailer would fit over the ball on the hitch that worked so well to haul our U-Haul trailer. Thankfully, the trailer hitch we used on the Gator for hauling the boat fit on the Acadia AND worked on the boat trailer. The ball was smaller and the trailer settled onto it just fine.

I'm glad I have a TomTom. Although the dealership claims to be located in Hayward, it isn't. It's about 10 miles outside of Hayward. The TomTom directed us correctly to where we needed to go...out in the middle of nowhere. I got a really good feeling from the service personel at the dealership...lots better than I got when HTP and I dealt with the dealership in Eau Claire. Of course, I'm not sure when they'll actually get to work on the boat. They have to order the parts from Lund. But, as I've said before, we can't use it right now in its present condition and sitting out in our garage wasn't getting it any closer to lake worthy. At least we're one step closer than when it was sitting, taking up valuable garage space.

After dropping off the boat, Sarge, Tammy, Little Jon and I drove on down the road to spend the rest of the day in Hayward. We enjoyed the pizza buffet at Coops where we bumped into our deputy sheriff (neighbor and friend)as he was having lunch with what looked like every deputy sheriff in the area. There was a fleet of police cars out in the parking lot when we pulled in. Apparently, Coops' pizza is more popular with the local police than Dunkin Donuts. I have to say, the pizza was very good and fresh. The salad bar was very good too. But what really intrigued Tammy was all the stuffed animals all over the place and the racks from a multitude of deer...but best of all...there was a HUGE aquarium with live fish. There were bass, rockbass, bluegill, sunfish, and crappie. She loved it.

We were encouraged to leave our car parked in Coops' parking lot while we strolled (two strollers) down the main street of Hayward, checking out all the shops. Of course, with two young grandchildren, we couldn't actually do more than window shop with many of the stores but I was amazed and pleasantly pleased that there so many shops that had doors wide open and extra wide aisles, encouraging people handicapped with small children in strollers to enter and browse. Of course, I couldn't resist the local crafters' merchandise. I did resist a bit but I was able to pick up a nice gift for my step-grand-daughter who is graduating soon from high school. Some really nice homemade bibs and pajamas for the grandkids, a nice birthday gift for D Buddy, and, of course, I couldn't resist purchasing a new cutting board (encouraged by Sarge who told me that I really NEEDED a new cutting board), and then there was this pottery shop... I now have three new coffee mugs. It's a good thing that I don't go to Hayward all that often.

Of course, a perfect ending from a perfect afternoon (the weather was just right), was a stop at the ice cream store for ice cream cones. Poor Little Jon was too young for this treat but Sarge gave him a couple of tastes from her cone. Tammy is a bit young for the treat too and we'd planned to get her a smoothie or a thin milk shake but the gal was working in the shop offered to give Tammy a free ice cream cone so Tammy ended up with a small scoop of cotton candy ice cream in a cup cone. Blue ice cream. Oh well, it was free and Tammy loved it and the color matched her dress. She was very happy with her ice cream cone and Grandma was able to make it disappear before blue sticky fingers and face were cleaned up. No blue fingerprints made it into the car and both grand-children fell asleep on the way back home.

Random Quote of the Day

I have found that everything wants to kill you. For some things, like fast food, or riding a bike, it just takes longer.

Devin J. Monroe (1983 - )