Travel, Chase, ready or not, Christmas blues

I drove to Amarillo late yesterday so I could work out of the office here in Borger this morning. I have three meetings and an interview to participate in today so it should be a full day. I got into Amarillo a little after 5 pm yesterday and ran some errands for Mama before I went to the hotel. I called Chase to see what he was doing but he was on his way to class to take a final. We spent some time together after he got done with the test but it was getting pretty late for me.


He did okay in his class. He made a A for the semester, which is as good as it gets but he was a little disappointed by the lower than expected grade he got on his final. All in all it worked out pretty well for him. I think he is on the right track as far as career related course work. Time will tell. He took time to help me set up my new iPhone before I called it quits and started to get ready for bed.

He has an interview with Sprint today. I think it is the second interview. He is hoping to get the job with the expectation that cell phones will provide a more regular source of income over the long term vs. other retail electronic devices. It is also more of a hands on service required than sales that can be easily made via the internet. When commissions count, the web does not seem to be the salesman’s friend.

I will not get to spend much time with Chase today. He is working until 8 pm or so, so I told him I will come by the mall and see him there. Maybe we can have some dinner together. I am always up for Subway. If I was there with Mama it would be Chick-fil-A, but I think there are other acceptable fares with Chase.

We have made arrangements for all our things to be delivered to the farm on the 14th. I am not ready but I am praying the Lord comes through in a big way to allow us to get the roof on the shop. Otherwise we will be covering our items that can be moderately exposed to the air with a tarp and hoping for the best. All the items that will require more care will be squeezed into the front room of the farm house. It will be an interesting time.

At least there are enough walls up to break the wind so we will have fighting chance to keep stuff covered and well protected. Grandpa is going to build one of the shop walls with materials we picked up from the lumber for last Saturday. That should be a big help but without a roof, everything will be pretty much out in the open on the shop slab. At least it is on concrete. In West Virginia, we never had that. It was always dirt or gravel – and we were happy for the gravel spots.

More calves should be on the farm this afternoon. They are the three that I talked about the other day. That will bring us back up to fifteen sucklings with the older seven growing well on the grass we have remaining on the drought withered pastures. It is amazing to watch the growth process happen in real time – real slow time. All the little steers need is grass and water and they grow bigger and bigger; I am still amazed by it.

Things are starting to aim toward Christmas now. I suppose it is inescapable since we are in the first week of December, but I do not feel ready at all. I will not have any extra money to get anything notable for Mama or anyone else this year. We will not go without, but the usual fanfare will be somewhat subdued.

At least we got to have a little Christmas with the grandkids while we were in Florida for Thanksgiving.