Words, goats, Christmas Music

During work today I had several discussions about words. The first was with the lady who is the head of our education department. She and the man who hired me were in a bit of a competition to get me in their respective departments and he won the argument - only to lose it now. It is looking like I will be moving into the education department as a trainer for the company. When that will take place is not clear to me at this point but from the discussion of interest I had this afternoon, it will be early next year. There will be a great deal of training required on my part to certify for the position as they envision it, but I believe it will be a good move long term.

Later in the day my little group of peers and I got into a discussion of often misused and mispronounced words; particalar vs particular, nuckular vs nuclear, satistic vs statistic, alumnium vs aluminum, aks vs ask, expecailly vs especially, irregardless vs regardless, etc. It turned into a fun discussion. From out of the blue one of my coworkers wanted to tell us about one of her redneck relations who confused the entire group gathered for a get together of some sort by talking about “the comma in the air.” Complete with exaggerated hand motions; “You know? The comma in the air? You can’t spell the work right without it.” Someone made a wild guess and ventured an interpretation. “You mean an apostrophe?” “I don’t remember what you call it. It just in the air and not on the line.” I can relate to that conversation.

Mama and I took our lone nanny goat back to Bowie this evening because she needed to be with a billy again. I do not know who missed in the last attempt but she should have had kids by now and we are kidless at the farm. Rick was telling us when we dropped her off - well after dark - that he had 36 little kids running around in the paddock next to his house and that 27 of them are little boys. Mama and I are hoping for a different outcome but we will take what we get. I think both of us have un-spokenly decided that we will whether any of the males we get -or sell them when they are young. She and Victoria will not even get into the lot with our little billy because of his unusual aroma and the fact that he loves to rub his stench onto whatever clothing they happen to be wearing. Since it is natural for a billy to pee all over his face and neck they can build up quite the smell. I am told that the little nanny goats love it. So much for good taste.

I like the way many retailers waited until after Thanksgiving to get the Christmas items in full view but I have not heard much Christmas music in any of the stores. Granted, I have not been in that many stores since Black Friday, but we are sadly bereft of all the familiar songs. Not only the Christmas carols (those are decidedly religious in nature) but I have not heard Burl Ives’ “Have a Holly Jolly Christmas” or Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas”. To be perfectly honest, I could go the whole season without hearing any of the tunes as Elvis rendered them, who did about as poorly as many of the pop singers since him, but I do miss the sounds of the season.

Yesterday I heard and interesting statistic (or satistic, if you must); that women who gain weight over the holidays live longer than the men who point it out.

Visiting Dad, shopping our way home

Mama and I left for Chappell Hill after I got off work Wednesday. Our mid-work service had been on Tuesday so we did not have to miss it to make the trip. I felt a little urgency to go and I also felt pressured to stay at the farm over our days off; there is so much I have to get done here. But the bottom line is that there will always be a lot to get done here and Dad will not be around too much longer. As difficult as it is to spend time with him - mainly due to distance - it is all we have to give right now. And it is always worth the ten hours on the road and rough sleeping arrangements at the house in Chappell Hill. Martha goes out of her way to make accommodations for us but when Mama goes with me I have to sleep on the floor because we cannot share a full sized bed having spent nearly thirty years on a king bed. It is typically only one night though. All that for an hour with Dad - which means the world to him; even with his inability to connect.

He was far more tired this time. Mama and I spent about an hour conversing with him but since he was having such trouble trying to converse - disconnected sentences and scattered thoughts - I started reading to him from the Bible. Mama seemed to feel he understood that better. I sang him the song I sang to Mom the last time I saw her and he seemed to enjoy that too. From his broken string of sentence fragments, the best I could gather was that he was trying to tell us about a dream he had - an unpleasant one at that. After we had been there about the hour he began to sit quietly and stare off. That is how we had found him when we arrived. I asked him then how he was doing and he responded that he was “sitting here not really thinking about anything particular”. He went back to that as we left. We prayed with him (He always enjoys that.) and we headed home.

It took us five hours to get there. It took us ten hours to get home. Mostly because we shopped our way home. After we left Dad we headed to one store and waited for them to open -about a fifteen minute wait. We were able to get everything we wanted there, check out like it was a normal shopping day and headed to College Station for another store. That one we had to wait for almost an hour  before it was to open and the line to enter the store was about a thousand people long - really. Mama went in and chatted with the staff at the door while I waited for the line to dissipate. When I finally walked around the building and got in line it was down to about 300 people, but it still took me about twenty minutes to get in.

Mama and I found a few things both on and off of her list and then the dreaded part began. We got in line to check out. I was in line for over an hour to make it to a register to buy what we had picked up as we perused the store. I was a little disappointed that there was not more in the way of really good deals. It was the same way at Lowe’s this morning. Maybe I had high expectations, but nothing looked like it was any more discounted than an average sale item. Not like last year or the year before. Maybe it was just me, but it did not seem worth the effort.

I am not sure how retailers made out overall but it looked to me like Black Friday was no big deal this year.

Working well, visiting Dad, eating

When I rigged up temporary power at the well house slab so that I could have lights at the chicken coop, I got a breaker box big enough that I could run power for the well also. I did not have the breaker to run the power to the well until the following weekend but as soon as I had it I made a late evening trip over to the breaker box to install the breaker and finally power up the submersible pump in the well. It hummed quietly and started flowing a steady stream of water onto the slab. That was a good discovery. Now I can complete the building and get the well properly set up for use at the garden, the barn and the coop/pig area. It will be a real blessing once it is done - hopefully before winter is over.

We had a dinner at church tonight which substituted for our normal Wednesday night service. It is the only time we have a service on other than the normally scheduled day. It was a huge feast and Mama and I are not necessarily basking in the blessing of fullness. The only problem with these dinners is that they happen so late in the evening - much later than we would normally eat dinner. That, accompanied with advancing age and declining digestive capacity makes for a rough night. This too shall pass; more than likely to my abdomen and Mama’s hips.

Since Mama and I did not have plans for Thanksgiving this year and since Victoria is working that day (2-11) I decided it would be a good time for us to travel to Chappell Hill to visit my Dad. It has only been about a month since I have seen him but I am starting to get the same feeling about him that I had about Mom shortly before she went home. I do not put much faith in feelings but it does give me pause to make sure I take the time to be with him in his declining days. Like happened with Mom, I will not be there when the Lord does call him home but I can be there off and on when possible until he is called home. I know he is ready. That is the one clear thought he has day to day.

Mama and I will not miss the big meal on Thanksgiving because we have a big dinner planned with the National Guard unit in Wichita Falls, TX on Dec 3 and we have a dinner with our Sunday School class on Dec 16 and a fancy dinner with the company I work for on Dec 17 and several big dinners planned when some of the kids are here for Christmas. In between those dinners I have a Christmas lunch at work on Dec 6. It is a good thing Mama and I are not in a serious weight loss program right now. Ours is more of a casual approach.

We are striving to limit the weight gain through the first of the year. To do more than that is too much of an emotional strain.

The dog house, FBI

Victoria and Grandpa have been building a dog house in our back yard. It is not your typical dog house. It is eight feet wide, eight feet long and six feet tall. I am going to refer to it as our Canine Birthing Center. Victoria wanted a way to raise the pups Kira is going to have in a couple weeks somewhere outside the house - for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that I do not want the smell, the cleanup and the noise in the sunroom. At least with the pups being born this time of the year we will have less flies to deal with. I am not sure when the newborns - after they arrive - will be relocated to the birthing center but I have been told the plan is to let Kira deliver in the sunroom and soon thereafter move the litter out of the house. Of course, this will require a heater be run in the building. I have yet to see what type of door is to be installed but we will need a good one to seal it up against the cold. (I can already begin to see this as an epic failure. But I will certainly give it a chance.)

We had our second test for FBI tonight and I believe we all did well. I made a perfect score on the last test which was a complete surprise. I did not follow through in the same way on this one. I told Mama that the problem with this test - over the Life of Christ - had me a little more worried than the last one because all of the material was so familiar. So familiar that it made studying it difficult. I have found in my years of testing that when you feel more comfortable with the material you will be tested on you tend to let down your guard and not fully concentrate on getting the information perfectly categorized for testing purposes. Case in point, I focused on certain things - sequences, Chapter themes and required verses - more than on the more trivial items. Because of that I was thrown off by the very first question; who was the High Priest that presided over the trial of Jesus? Second to that was, Who was the former High Priest that also took part on the trial? You miss one, you miss both. I missed both. My focus was not there because I thought I already knew it. Oh, well. One test to go and this semester will close.

We have a dinner at church tomorrow night but that is little pressure in regards to the timing since Mama is off this week. She made a pot of beans with ham today and we will take that for part of the meal. I do not know for sure what she will be taking in addition to that. Grandma and Grandpa will be back over today so that Grandpa can continue to work on the birthing center even though Victoria is working. It may actually get done on time. But Mama will be occupied through the day entertaining Grandma.

My only lingering question about the Birthing Center is what to do with the building when we are no longer breeding dogs? A playhouse, maybe.

Slow day, dinner with the seniors, chicken catching, very windy

Work today seemed brutally slow. It was one of those days when you think a lot of time has passed but the clock told me than less than ten minutes had actually passed by. And it continued that way through the entire day…until just before we were packing up to go home. Then we got some lengthy and difficult calls that took us up to the minute the office closed for the day to resolve. Isn’t that the way it usually works out. The good thing was that just my boss and I were left in the office for the last hour but we were able to field the calls and get the clients the help they needed to close out their days also.

I was in a bit of a rush to get out of work on time because I was scheduled to meet Mama at the church so we could go to dinner with the seniors from our church. As it turned out, I got to the church about ten minutes before the pastor’s wife go there. I thought the bus would be waiting on me so I hustled to get there so I would not hold them up but Mama had told the pastor’s wife that I would be about fifteen minutes late so she thought she had that much time to finish her tasks before getting to the bus. We went to a Mexican restaurant in Boyd - one of the pastor’s favorite spots to go to eat. It is the restaurant of choice when missionaries and evangelists visit our church. It is good food but we prefer one of the Mexican restaurants in Bowie. None the less, it was fun. Mama and I split a meal because we knew neither of us could eat a full portion of food; and it saved us about $10.

When we got back to the church we went to the Lowe’s Market to see if they had any of the advertised hams left in the cooler. They did not so we went home, got changed to go chicken hunting at Victoria’s house and went through Chico to the little Lowe’s Market there. They had one ham left of the special they were running - today only. We got it and headed to the house. We had loaded up two cages, the step ladder and two Mag lights before we left the farm. It turned out that we did not need much lighting because the dusk-to-dawn light the power company installed when they hooked up to the house gave us lots of light even in the coop.

Once we were in position at the house we got the ladder into the coop and caught all but five chickens that will be taken to Brittany Wycoff for “processing”. We needed teh ladder since the chickens have always roosted in the rafters of the coop building. I guess they feel better being higher up. The five we left are both to appease Mama )she thinks they are the younger of the hens and still laying) and also little Alisa who wants her daddy to buy Victoria’s house to keep the flock from an untimely death. Maybe she won’t notice that ten hens are missing. Mama was fretting about the caught and caged hens were to be fed and watered for the few hours they have left to live but I think we can figure something out.

For now they are under a blanket in the bed of the truck. After all, it is going to get pretty cold tonight.

Cori and Nate, chicken news, reluctant upgrades

More updates on Cori and Nate. A very good friend of ours who was a missionary to Ecuador told Nate as he and Cori started deputation not to spend any money on suits. He had found that that is one of the items people supporting you will want to buy for you. Nate listened. Sure enough, a retired missionary couple bought Nate two suits - very nice, very expensive ones. The story behind the purchase is that the wife ordered one suit but she thought her husband wanted to her to buy a gray suit. When it was shipped to them she found out that he had wanted her to order a tan suit - which is what Nate had on the “wish list” the church asked them to give them before the conference. Of course, the wife felt terrible that she had misunderstood and started getting the suit packaged up to return. Whereupon her husband, worried they would not have time to get the return and the new order processes in time for Cori and Nate’s arrival, asked her to go ahead on keep the gray suit and order the tan one also. Nate was pretty pleased. Cori was thrilled. 

Cori and Nate are home now having traveled back from Tennessee after the conference. It won’t be home for much longer - since they will be selling the house soon - but it is home now and I know they were all happy to get there. A particularly fun thing that happened while they were at Pastor Mike’s church is that Savanna took a shine to Pastor Mike. It seems she likes the grandpa types. I can only hope her love for Papi helped with that attachment. It gave Pastor Mike a chance to show off also. He is the type that would love that.

Mama and I have had a couple of chickens die in the last couple weeks so she is starting to get worried. That and they are really off on egg production now. Where we were getting more than a dozen per day and we are down to about 4-5 per day. I do not think we have to worry since several others that raise chickens are getting the same results - other that the deaths we have had. Some of it may stem from the failed integration of the young ones we raised from hatchlings then put with the more mature flock. Chickens, we found out, are not an “inclusive’ species. Rather, they are brutal in protecting their own little flock.

Mama and I are going to start looking for new phones. I loathe the idea since I remember a time when life was much simpler without cell phones; when a house phone - one that hooked up to a land line - would last forty years, vs these new electronic gadgets that wear out even with minimal use in two years or less. I remember when a really nice home phone cost less than $100 and a basic model was practically free. But I also remember that some service plans cost a small fortune - especially for long distance charges. One month when Mama and I were talking every day on a land line I got a bill for $485; which, if I remember right was about what it cost me for texting when Brittany got started with her first cell phone. So it is a toss up of sorts.

What others feel is a liberating convenience, I feel is a tether for convenience. What they feel is a revolution in communication and connectivity, I feel is a thief of our time to develop deep personal relationships and a  task master of our days and nights - causing people to waste hour upon hour of time to imbibe mindless trivia for the sake of feeling a part of something when they are really not.

Nonetheless, I will grudgingly move forward in the norm and try not to sneer to offensively at the salesperson who tells us how wonderful all of this is.

Cori and Nate, the mannequin challenge, the things kids say, Victoria’s house

Cori and Nate and the kids are getting to enjoy some pretty big blessing right now. They are at Franklin Road Baptist Church with our old friend Pastor Mike Norris. He was our pastor while we were in West Virginia - after we went from the Church of the Nazarene to Ripley Baptist Temple; a long story but one worth telling if there were time. Mike Norris baptized Cori as a very young Christian and the fact that she and Nate have been called to the mission field is especially meaningful to him because she is one of the fruits of his early ministry. He is not treating them differently in the blessings they are receiving, but he is certainly more personally involved than he is able to be with others who he shares less history with. Cori is enjoying the reunion with old friends from years long ago; Nate and the kids are enjoying it as well.

Things continue to move along at work. Today we had our Thanksgiving Luncheon. It was not quite as good as a church social but it was close. I feel sorry for those who do not get to participate in the dinners we have at church; they are incredible. After the lunch, in the later afternoon we did a “mannequin challenge” for our marketing department. Each of us was put into position and our marketing director did a video of us as though we were mannequins. There were about twenty of us in the video as well as his wife and two week old baby. It was interesting - and fun. We were each given a turkey as well today. Like I said earlier, this is a good company to be working for.

Victoria and Erin are texting back and forth and Erin was sharing with Luke what was going on the night he was born - nine years ago. She related how she had daddy stay up all night because she was so excited to know her first child was coming. But after they finally went to the hospital expecting him to come right away, he waited until the afternoon of the next day. His response to the story, “I’m sorry I didn’t come when you called.” 

Along the same lines the little ones we pick up for church (three Chinese children - one little boy and two little girls) were arguing about the fact that we always pick up the two girls at their house first, then we go to get the boy. Well, this Sunday, the little boy wanted to know why he could not be first and we explained that we come by the girls house first on our way to get them. Still unconvinced, he argued further while the girls countered each attempt to convince us. Finally, Yilin, the older girl, said, “No, no, no. There’s two firsts. our house first then haven’t you ever heard, ‘ladies first’”. His answer was much like mine would have been. “Who makes these rules?”

We are still waiting on an answer about Victoria’s house, but it is getting close. For the moment it is a toss up. We are not sure where it will settle out but we are hoping for a sale.

Nuances, Veteran’s day, tantrums

One of the challenges of learning a language is capturing the nuances. Words do not always mean the same thing you expect them to mean. The same is true in learning a job language. What one company calls a specific set of items may not translate to your new company. Sometimes adapting to new meanings of words that mean something totally different to you is key to communicating with a new set of coworkers or peers. It has taken me the first three weeks of this job to learn how things are phrased and how certain items are referred to to be able to understand how to effectively ask the right questions so that I get the answers I need. I think I am making real progress now.

I remember when I worked at the pilot plant in West Virginia when we opened a valve to allow flow to the reactor, we called “valving in” the feed. At the process plant across the river when they were “valving in” the feed it meant that the valve stem was closing and the flow was being stopped. Imagine the confusion if someone had worked at one place for twenty years and then transferred to the other facility. Everything about establishing flow to a vessel would be backwards. It is akin to that with the terminology I am having to cross into. But I do not want to loose the “old” meanings of the terms because that is what many or our customers still speak. I am, however, learning to translate - both ways.

To any Veteran reading this posting. Thank you.There are many of us in this United States of America that have not forgotten nor taken for granted the sacrifices you made for our freedoms. If you are wondering whether or not it was worth it, the danger you faced, the friends you lost, the battles you survived when many others did not, the answer is, YES. Even in our most humble and contrite moments we may never be worthy of the price you paid in our stead.

On the flip side of that sentiment are the tantrums of those (who recently lost the presidential election) who have been taught that they are always “winners”. That their every thought is a wonderful idea. That every desire they have ever entertained is a worthy pursuit. That life owes they everything they want simply because “everyone is special.” There are real dangers with teaching children that they should alway win. First, it’s a lie and deep in their hearts they know it to be a lie. Second, it is not true to life. They will find out how tragically untruthful their education has been at some point - so teach them to learn from mistake and failures. It will be a blessing to them later. Third, since they know they are being lied to, it fosters the motivation to think that anything they want to say should also be counted as  true; regardless of how much they know it to be a lie. Truth is not a popular concept in this current culture. While we are coddling a generation that has no moral compass, we are quickly losing a generation that was guided by one. A generation that viewed honor and civility and decency above what is comfortable to most of their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. 

Who knows what will come out of this current situation. I do not, but  I do know this, there is a clear path back to the moral standards that made America great. We are just too self-righteous as a culture to walk in it. At least for now.

Training, temporary solutions, Victoria’s house

Since I stayed up on Tuesday night to see the election results and since last night was church night and since we went to Lowe’s after church last night I went to bed when we got home and slept until just before the alarm went off this morning. None the less yesterday was a full day, spent mostly in training at the Decatur Civic Center - my old stomping grounds from ConocoPhillips. It was an 8-5 class and we spent all that time actually in class - lunch included. It is the class I am going to be teaching starting January next year. If things go as I am forecasting, it will require travel at least once per month. I think Mama and I can handle that. The training I got to take on Tuesday has already proved very useful in my daily routine. It was set at a pace I could actually keep up with and process enough to retain. The training yesterday was more about doing performance evaluations for individuals in the field. I may never use it but I can certainly teach it - since I have spent years doing that.

Today was pretty fast paced at work. But I had time to go over the book I brought home from the training yesterday and redo as well as augment my notes while the information was still fresh on my mind. I am beginning to feel like I am actually helping in the daily work we are doing. My coworker are calling on me for help in the more routine tasks and I am handling all the emails one day per week and first in line to answer all phone calls on another day each week. I am not completely comfortable on all the emails or calls but help is generally very close. When I do start handling the assigned training, I may be moved off of this team into a different department but we will cross that bridge when we come to it. At least I can be of some value to the company in a dual role since they have invested this much training in me at this set of tasks. 

Another temporary solution I was able to get done for Mama was rigging up a light in the chicken coop. In order to increase our egg production we need some way to extend the light the chickens are exposed to. Victoria bought a couple of battery operated lights for us to put in the coop until we could do better but it requires a lot of batteries to be more than a two or three day solution. So as I was praying about it yesterday I got the idea to rig up an outdoor breaker box at the slab I have poured for the well house and get power through it to the coop. God even gave me a great idea, quick and easy, for supporting the breaker box at the slab. At the coop I rigged up a temporary light in the place I have wired for a permanent outdoor fixture. Since I got off an hour early this afternoon I was just running out of daylight when I flipped the breaker for the wiring to the coop. When doing electrical wiring, it is always fun to see it really work when the switch is turned on. I will have to do some completion work tomorrow evening, hopefully before dark, but the light is burning and working off of the switch wired for it. Mama should like that.

We may be close to selling Victoria’s house. please continue to pray about that. Also, Cori and Nate may be close to putting their house on the market. More prayer needed there as well.

A night off, testing and training signage

I took the night off from writing last night and went to bed as soon as we got back to the house from FBI. I figured I was not obligated to write my blog every evening - it is not like I have a vast following or earth shattering news every weekday night. But this gives me an outlet for writing and hopefully it encourages others along the way. Maybe giving a laugh or two as I get to relate life as I see it.

Last night was our first test of this semester and all of us were worried about it but as we got to the church Bro Daniel Wycoff came out to greet us and told us how easy the test actually was. We were on time for the class but he and his two children that attend the class with us and Ed Howard - who they bring to class from the nursing home - started the test as soon as they got there; at 5:30. By the time we arrived - at 6:20 - the Wycoff clan was long since finished and Ed was half way through his test. He usually takes more than an hour to complete a test. He is hampered by a recent stroke but he still plugs on. On a normal test night he continues on his test for a couple hours as we continue with class. But he always finishes and he always passes.

We ended up starting class a half hour early while Ed continued on his test. That put us out of class at about 8:50, vs 9:30. But by the time we got home I was ready for bed. I had worked emails all day at the office and had had some really involved learning experiences in the seventy or so emails I had to respond to over the course of the day. All the while, I was looking over the notes I was studying for the test that evening. It may not seem like much but I was more than ready to leave the office when the five o’clock hour came.

Today I spent most of the day in training. The training was over the very program I am trying to master for work so it could not have come at a better time - and it was quite helpful. In fact, as I got back to work some time after 3 pm, I got a chance to put some of the lessons I had just learned into practical use. It is not very often that that happens in life. Not as dramatic as learning CPR and walking out of class to find a person collapsed and unresponsive, but it was at least encouraging to use what I had learned in a helpful way. 

As a humorous side note, we were discussing properly stopping at a stop sign when Mama related that she always makes a thorough stop at the stop signs that have the ALL WAY signage below. She told the office that had given her the warning ticket that she makes makes sure she stops all the way - just like it says. I had to smile so she knew something was up. I explained that they used to be called 4-WAY stops since a stop sign was at each corner of the intersection but sometimes there are three or maybe five roads coming together, so the signage was changed to ALL WAY so it could be used more generally. She said, “All along I thought it meant you had to stop all the way.”

All I could say was, Well, that too.”

Sitting and setting, pigging lines/out, traffic stops

I have spent eight hours each day for the past two workweeks sitting. I did not realize just how much I enjoyed the activity and the freedom I had during the past year as I struggled to find a job. I am not complaining. I just miss the hours of movement I have lost in taking this job. But I have to realize that God is setting up the perfect circumstances in my life to bring about the blessing He has for me and Mama. I just have to be patient, obedient and willing to follow along as He leads. There are many times in life that we end up just having to wait and continue to do what the Lord has us currently doing. I believe it is called, faithfulness. 

At work we got to talking about pigging lines today. Pigging is a process where a “pig” is sent down a line in order to push out contaminants and debris in order to clean the line for service. A pig is a plug of any material that fills the line and compresses without letting the air pressure behind it to leak past as it moves through from its starting point to the open end of the line. Some pigs pretty crude and others are very sophisticated. When I was in Argentina we pigged a line and aimed it to blow all the contents out to sea - since the entire facility was built on a barge. When we pressured up the line and opened the valve to blow the pig through it  we blew several dozen pigeons out into the open water, whereupon the sharks had a very messy feast. The water looked like boiling blood. 

My supervisor and I knew about pigging but the rest of the crew did not. She shared her stories of line blows using pigs and several injuries that resulted from poorly placed personnel. While I was working in the Decatur office for ConocoPhillips a man in New Mexico on one of our worksites was killed because he was looking down the line as the pig shot out at him. It was a sophisticated, reusable one. It was a sad incident to report. Fortunately, that is not normal. My colleagues agreed that the only pigging they were aware of was pigging out.

Mama went to the feed store in Muenster after she got off work this afternoon. On a round about way back she stopped at Grandma and Grandpa’s to visit with them and with Norman and Seth. That is where she was when I called just after getting home at about 5:30. Soon enough she was on her way home but got stopped in Bowie on her way home and got pulled over by a Bowie Police Office. It appears she had failed to come to a full and complete stop at one of the many stop signs as she wove her way through town on the back streets. She did not get a ticket, just a warning. Breaking down, sobbing uncontrollably probable helped out. Just kidding! She said the officer was polite, as was she, and he felt like a warning was sufficient. We will see.

The only traffic ticket I can remember getting is for the same thing - failure to make a full and complete stop. When I went to the Justice of the Peace to talk to her about it - I thought it was unfair since I was the third car in line stopped at the sign - she threw the ticket out. Turns out that the same office had written twenty five tickets for the same offense at the same stop sign on the same day.

I did not want to be there when the officer got a dressing down.

More rain, the TENS unit, study

It looked like Fall today; overcast, dreary, the sidewalks littered with leaves. It was a nice change when contrasted to the dry, bright, dusty days we have endure through the long summer. We are supposed to have cooler weather to further emphasize the changing of the season by the end of the week. I have not looked ahead to see what the forecast is for winter in this area but we will take what comes as we come to it. If freezing weather ever does come, there are a few things I need to do to get ready but I will not do any winterization until needed. Mama and I will just enjoy the mild, moist days ahead of us.

At work one of the ladies in my Client Relations group brought her TENS unit to work with her. She is having trouble with her neck and back. When she was asked about it by the other lady in our group she volunteered to loan it to her. A gesture readily accepted by the borrower. But a short while later as she was allowing the unit to work on her she shrieked in pain and fumbled to get the unit turned down. She had it on a progressive setting which quickly ramped up to the point of hurting her. Still later she began making faces as the unit shocked her neck near her facial muscles. She and I face each other so, thinking I had been noticing the facial contortions, she remarked. “That’s not me.” “Yes it is.” I answered, “I can see your face from here.” 

All in all, it has been a pleasure so far to work with this company and especially this group. Our new supervisor keeps prying me for insights into how to do her job better but she is doing fine for the moment. At least she catches her mistakes quickly and is able to defuse any bad reactions from poorly chosen wording. Ultimately, I think she will do well for the time she has the current position. Today I was able to handle most of the calls I answered. I think I had to go for help three times out of the twenty five or so times I took a call. Better, but still in need of much improvement since becoming a supporting member of the team is the goal.

Mama and I studied a while tonight for the test we have Monday. As I worked through the questions on the syllabus I began to see a way to arrange my thoughts around the necessary answers. At first the volume of information was a bit daunting, but right now it looks manageable. I have told Mama repeatedly that I want to remember the facts for a period longer that is necessary to do well on the test. I hope to make the information a permanent part of my understanding of the Bible. Unfortunately, my brain seems to leak the facts as soon as I quit dwelling on them.

I have determined that if I could remember 20% of everything I have learned in my life to date I would be an incredibly smart individual. Unfortunately, I am probably closer to 5% retention. But I tend to like being average.

Rain finally, chicken lovers, nick names

Several of the mornings this week have been overcast but this morning the overcast skies finally distilled into rain. It was not much but it was some. The next couple days have a pretty good chance of more significant rain but we will not celebrate until it comes. Until then I will continue to water three times per week through the fall; if it really is fall. The temperatures make it difficult to tell the season. The only true indication of the season at hand is the ever shortening days.

The Burn’s family has continued with their investigation of Victoria’s house. They have gone to the house each evening this week. Monday they just piddled around. Tuesday they met with Daniel and James Wycoff (both of whom are both working as plumbers) in order to get some insights into the possible layout of the plumbing in the house. Neither of them saw a problem with the way Zach wanted the bathroom laid out. Tonight they met with the man who installed our septic system. That was an interesting visit. The bottom line is that the septic system is doable but the old hand-dug well must be filled in with some type of aggregate that will seal it off. Not a difficult task but an additional one. Zach does not seem bothered by the additional work but he has not made a final determination in purchasing the house either. Zach has also talked to the title company about the purchase process.

While they were there at the house last night their daughter, 4 year-old Eliza, overheard Mama telling her mama that we were going to catch the chickens we have at the house and give them to the Wycoff family so they can be killed and eaten. At least Mama did not use the word “butchered”. Even though I am not sure Eliza would have known it’s meaning it is still a angry type of work. Anyway, Eliza was deeply saddened about the expected demise of the hens and told her mama, “I don’t want the chickens to die.” I do not know what she heard in response, but she was still pleading with Mama to spare the chickens as they talked tonight. You know how it is with murderous Mama Kim. Once she gets her head set on something it will get done sooner rather than later. Secretly, Eliza thinks purchasing the house will spare the chickens from certain death.

Work continues to be a bit overwhelming but I am getting all the needed help. And the crew I am working with seems to be adapting well to me. Tonight my boss, Sara and my peer Colin were trying to come up with a nick name for me. By their own admission it should not be unkind or overly silly so they wrestled with several while I sat smiling but not participating. Colin suggested that it have something to do with the Encyclopedia - they consider me well read. Eventually they came up with Tim O Pedia. But that was not sufficient so to put an Irish twist to the name they revised it slightly to Tim O’Pedia. 

I am not sure if it will stick but it if far more flattering than several of the other nick names I have been stick with.

Mama’s day at the races, crowded time spaces, drinking from a fire hose

Mama spent the day at the races in Ft Worth. The church school met with a local church school and competed by age/grade category in several long races. The longest was two miles - for the older teens. The shortest was one mile - for the smaller ones. The medium grades were sandwiched in between with the mile and one half distance. In all categories our students came in second place or less with the more competitive students from Ft Worth  coming in an unquestioned first place. There were only three or four competitors in each category so second place and after was basically a giveaway. I have no idea if there was any kind of real practice for the distance but I do know that there was little motivation to really compete. On the bright side, everyone who actually competed finished their race.

Mama and I are slowly adjusting to the tighter schedule. We try to break up the chores at the farm to inside and outside tasks. The inside tasks usually wait until after dark and the outside tasks are raced to completion in the quickly fading evening light. Fortunately, the early dusk gives us a good deal of time a to get the inside chores accomplished before bedtime. Since Daylight Savings is ending this weekend there will be a short reprieve in the very short evenings; at least until the days move to their normal wintertime brevity.

This evening I hung a gate I brought back from Chappell Hill at the opening to the pig building. The goats have made claim to the area and are giving it their unique aroma. The culprit is Boomer - the only billy goat we have. Not to mention, both Boomer and Kai  are a real bother when we go to get feed out of the container we have stored in the pig building. They butt, bump and hop on either Mama or myself through the entire routine. So about a month ago Mama asked me to put up a gate and the one I found in Dad’s shop was perfect - or nearly so.

Work is a real challenge right now. A good friend of mine referred to the learning process as having to drink from a firehose. That is a pretty accurate description. As I was in one of many calls where I needed to ask for help - if not turn the call over to someone else - I remarked that I did not feel like I was pulling my weight. A coworker chided my remark by saying, “And you’ve been here for seven days now. Get with the program.” That was a pretty good encouragement to me. I am doing better but the unbelievable scale of nuanced questions asked are more than any one person can master in a lifetime - much less a week.

So I won’t be too hard on myself — yet.