Bad weeks, healing, seasons

This has not been a stellar week for me. Without whining over the details there have been some changes made by my boss which, I feel, really diminish my job. On the good side, two of my peers and I were talking late yesterday and both of them are feeling the same sort of quiet dismissal from the operations side of the business. A sort of, “we’ll call you when we need you” placement. That does not give me a warm fuzzy feeling about the future of this position.


God is in control and for some time now I have been preparing to leave this job. I have been in no particular hurry because the things I want to do are not in place in a way that could support me and Mama, much less the farm. But I will now need to be more vigilant, more focused toward those goals. I told Mama last night that I need her to be more like Grandpa and Victoria in her attitude toward money. Raise your hand if you think that change is coming soon.

For the moment, I have a great job and a plate full of directives for the year. There are other job opportunities out there and I have the contacts to tap into them when needed, but I do not feel the need just yet. Remember a while back when I was talking about the possibility of being laid off and how that might be a good thing? We might be back to those thoughts. After all, I am pretty expensive to keep in my current position when it could be filled by someone less tenured than I am. God is in control.

My inner ear infection is abating and I am less unstable in ordinary circumstances. I did notice as we were visiting our pastor who is in the hospital for knee replacement surgery, that quick head movements – looking back and forth between people in conversation – still make me dizzy. The antibiotic does not seem to be helping. I was not planning on continuing past today with it but I will still need to treat the sinus infection with elderberry until it clears up. It is encouraging to know that we have elderberry growing on our farm; fresh berries work so much better than dried.

The rains have finally come back to the area. We are officially out of drought in Montague County. Amarillo is a little different. I was listening to a report yesterday when the meteorologist said that June and July were the months of heaviest rainfall in this area. I found that news shocking until I thought back to my childhood and realized that we had a shower at about 4 p.m. almost every afternoon through the summers. We’ll see how it works out. We will take any and all precipitation.

Speaking of which, it is raining now in Borger and snow is predicted overnight; up to two inches again. It is actually better than rain because of how much it soaks in and saturates this hard ground here. It is like “time-release” rain. Everyone I talk to here is excited about it.

The seasons here are less distinguishable than in West Virginia and New Jersey. Warm winter days hint of Spring long before the season really changes. Last week the temperatures were in the seventies. People were out in shorts and sandals. Today the temperatures drop, the snow comes again and coats will in vogue. It is harder to tell where we are on the seasonal scale. One older gentleman I work with told me he knows when spring has arrived by watching the mesquite. “When it buds”, he told me “winter is really over.” Now we have a gauge for this season.

For this weekend, it is still winter.