Tractor investigation, late class, our truck, another storm

Saturday, on the way home from delivering the goats to our buyer in Weatherford, Mama and I stopped in Poolville to look at a tractor I had spotted on our way down. It was an older model Ford tractor similar to the one Grandpa had in West Virginia. I took quite a while with the owner as he explained the background of his coming to own the tractor and the amount of work he had done so far to restore/repair the tractor. It was mostly reassembled but there was still a lot of work that needed to be done to get it together and running. He had stopped on the restoration some time ago and decided to sell it at a loss versus finishing the project. The price he was asking was a fair price, but it was not a decision I could make on my own. I was interested enough that I asked Mama to take Grandpa to look it over.

Yesterday morning, Mama, Grandma, and Grandpa went back to look the tractor over carefully. Mama tells me that Grandpa talked with the mechanic owner for more than an hour. By the time they investigated the parts already bought to repair the tractor and discussed all the particulars still to be addressed in order to get it up and running, Grandpa was less than excited about taking on the project. Although it seemed mechanically sound, there were some issues with the hydraulics in the three-point hitch as well as some issues with the brakes. Grandpa did not think it was a project that would benefit us in the long run. So, we will pass on that one. But it was worth the time to investigate. Grandpa enjoyed the road trip and the investigation.

Mama stopped by the house on the way back from looking the tractor over and called the shop where our truck was being serviced. She was told that they were almost finished with the work and she should be able to pick up the truck in about an hour. Since she was with Grandma and Grandpa, she rode back to Bowie with them to wait on the truck. It was longer an hour, but it saved us a round trip to Bowie to get the vehicle, so it was a good decision on our part.  All told, the charge to drain the tank and flush the fuel lines cost me less than $300. An expensive mistake for sure, but not as costly as it could have been had I not realized my blunder and tried to run the truck with the wrong fuel. I will try to avoid that mistake in the future.

I have an afternoon class today. It is an internal class for my company peers, so I am can relax a bit and present the class in a more familiar style than I would to paying clients. We are doing the online class at the same time in order to get more people through the class. Last time that worked out well enough, but it has not the best approach because the online participants do not really get to participate. They just follow along silently and keep up as best they can. It works for internal purposes and I agree that it is needed to keep everyone abreast of how our classes are taught and the information covered in those classes as presented, but as a technology company, we should be able to come up with a better way to simulcast the class. That class will begin at noon and last until 4 pm. I expect to go a little longer because it is an internal class and there will be more questions and discussion, but we should not be too much longer than 4 pm.

Honduras was it by another hurricane yesterday afternoon. This one was more powerful that the hurricane that battered the country last week. Fortunately, it made landfall further south and spared some of the areas devastated last week. However, the rainfall is forecast to cause flash flooding and high water in much the same areas that are still trying to clean up from the last storm. Nate and the team he works with just got the road to the church and children’s home properties repaired yesterday to the point that busses can navigate the road safely. I am not sure if those repairs are being washed away this morning. It is a situation of growing concern for that region of Central America – and for our missionaries that serve there. BIMI and Hope Children’s Home have both set up their sites to receive donations that will be sent to missionaries in the area to support them in their efforts to safeguard and feed the people in their respective mission works.

I will be in the office early tomorrow to get Red started on the class he is teaching, but I will be working on other things as he teaches. We will see how that turns out as it unfolds but I am not anticipating problems.

Besides, I need the day in the office to catch up on some paperwork I cannot access from home.