Travel, solo, questions

I dropped Mama and Victoria off at the airport this morning at 5:40. I headed back to the farm after they successfully checked in – before they headed to security. So far, travel within the United States has not been difficult. There is no way to predict when more stringent impositions will be forced upon us, but for now, the requirements are harmless. Pointless and worthless, but harmless. Although, Mama really dislikes being masked, he has endured the mask while in the airport and on the plane. I needed to be back to start work as neat to 7 am as possible so I did not dally at the airport. I did not don a mask for the time I was in the terminal. Boy, did I get some strange looks. I guess a woman can have her entire backside exposed and feel perfectly comfortable with her nakedness while keeping my face naked is a social taboo. Weird! I made it to my computer with a few minutes to spare – even stopping at Buc-ee’s to get a breakfast taco and a coffee. Mama and Victoria will arrive in Tampa around 10:30 my time. Noman will be there to pick them up and take them back to Grandma and Grandpa. That is the plan and so far, it has worked out well.

I am not often in the position that I am maintaining the farm by myself. The only change to when Mama is traveling is that I am now responsible for keeping up with the inside dogs as well as all the outside animals. That typically falls to Victoria, but she is traveling as well. Mama and Victoria worry too much about the inside dogs, but I am sure I can keep them alive until Mama and Victoria return next week. Well. I’m pretty sure.

I will have precious little time to work around the farm while Mama and Victoria are gone. This evening I will be attending a viewing for an elderly lady from our church that died as a result of the recent round of Covid infections. Her husband, who is 84, is recovering well from his bout with the virus. That visitation is scheduled at 6 pm – no time to get sweaty before and no daylight to work outside afterwards. I should have Friday evening and Saturday afternoon to work around the farm, but that is all. Saturday morning will be given to bus calling and soul wining. Sunday is church and Monday I teach a class. Tuesday the travelers will return home. A short, but hopefully well-received and productive visit for them.

With the fallen tree mostly removed from the corral, I need to refocus on the yard hydrant at the corral so that our neighbor will have access to water for his weanlings. That will take several hours to repair sufficiently because of rerouting the waterline so that the hydrant is accessible in the barn lot. Right now, I have to go into the adjacent lot to open the hydrant. Since there is no particular need for the hydrant to be stationed on the opposite side of the fence from the corral, it makes sense to put it where I need it. That obvious choice was not a priority until now.

The recent vaccine mandate has shaken things up in the US workforce but not every employer is in favor if imposing health care requirements on their workforce. The real question is, what else will be required? No smoking or vaping. No BMI over 28. No cholesterol over 100. No more than one child. If any portion of our personal health – and thereby our personal choices - can be mandated “for our own safety” where does the oversight stop? And why are illegal aliens flooding into our country exempt? Where did the idea that we needed overt measures in place to “protect the vaccinated’? That sounds insane in its most basic premise. An oxymoron. If the vaccine will protect the unvaccinated once we are forced to get it, why are our leaders saying the vaccinated are not now protected because of the vaccine they have already received? What is really going on? Maybe we will never know but we should certainly ask. To allow our republic to die on the altar of forced vaccinations is a cowardly and senseless way to resign our basic liberties and eventually our sovereign nation.

I was telling Mama last night that it is a relief to have our little patch of isolation and peace in a world gone crazy. We hope to keep it, but that may not be the case. If I am forced to be vaccinated in order to continue my employment, I am not certain what my response to that requirement will be. I will have to pray about it. That moment may soon come, but it is not here yet, so there is no sense in wasting too much emotional energy on a decision I may or may not have to make. There are many other important things to spend that energy on.