Good news, email problems, junk removal

We all got notification on our bonuses yesterday and it was pretty good news. All of my direct reports got raises that ranged from 5% on the low end to one person who got 8.5%. The payout for the bonuses was equally impressive. Everyone was thrilled to see the numbers…me and Mama included. The sad part is that it is not enough to complete any one thing but it will push a lot of projects forward at a much faster pace than if I had not gotten the extra pay. Praise the Lord!


A little troubling yesterday was the fact that my email went out about the time I was trying to prepare emails for each of the ladies who work for me. I thought I was doing something wrong so I restarted my computer twice to see if it would correct the problem. It did not. Then I called our IT group and found that a server had crashed. Just after I got that news I began to hear chatter in the office about other people having the same problem. The odd part is that it did not affect all of us. I went with another person and communicated the old fashioned way – with actual words; face to face. It was a new experience for many. Service was restored in about three hours. I got over twenty emails in a few seconds.

It would take a more creative mind than my own to imagine what life would be like if all such electronic communication was lost. Not just from the social standpoint. I am sure there are volumes of print dealing with that very issue. How closely the authors have penned their thoughts to what will actually happen is a matter that will be answered in due time. For the moment, just a few hours of lost communication was uncomfortable since a large portion of my work is directed by the requests I get via email. Days without it would require a completely different approach to getting any “work” done.

Speaking of work, when I got home yesterday, Mama and Grandpa were loading metal junk onto the smaller trailer. There is a new business opening today in Bowie that will pay for metal scrap as well as various other recyclable metals. Grandpa is anxious to try it out. Mama was glad to see me pull up. She is not used to much manual labor, especially the lifting and carrying sort, and was pooping out on Grandpa. I was her relief.

I did not get to do much but some of the heavier items had been left for me to help with. I was impressed by how much they had picked up. The trailer was loaded from front to back, stacked about three feet tall. It was full of items left by the last owner who actually tried to do something with the land. Most of it was useless – truly junk. All of it should be marketable metal. We will know today when Grandpa makes the trip to sell it.

Every place from which it had been gathered and removed looks so much better. Grandpa even ran the weed eater around the various areas to trim up the accumulated overgrowth. It is slowly looking like the kind of farm we can really enjoy sharing with our children and grand children as well as friends and other extended family.

One of the things in the back or Grandpa’s mind – and mine as well – is to eliminate places near the house and buildings where snakes can find a convenient hiding place. We have seen rattlesnakes, copperheads and water moccasins on the property. Keeping them away from the dwellings is going to be a challenge.

Eliminating the junk piles is the beginning.