Successes and failures, God’s goodness

The drive home from the museum yesterday was miserable. Twice I got stuck behind drivers who are doing 10 miles an hour under the speed limit on the winding single lane roads that we have to travel from Weatherford all the way to Glen Rose, about sixty miles total. There is no good area to pass anyone safely, and it was raining softly making the roads a bit slick so it took me more than 40 minutes extra to get home yesterday, but I made it safe. So, I should not complain. At least I was in time to hurry out to feed the animals since Mama and Grandma were coming home from getting feed and Grandpa and Norman were coming home from picking up some free filing cabinets. No complaints on my part. I get very few steps on my museum days. 

From the Front

This morning, I started up the Scanning Electron Microscope and guessed at the passwords each time a password was required but was successful on all three counts where passwords were required. I have a vague memory of discussions we had with the tech who installed the microscope in the lab, but since that happened over a year ago, I was not certain until I tried what I seemed to remember. After the computer was started and the microscope had gone through its diagnostic routine, I felt like I had really accomplished something.  Having succeeded in starting up the microscope I opened it and looked inside the sample port to familiarize myself with the external controls for the sample placement once the sample port is closed. I then tried to reset the microscope to look at the sample I had inserted. 

Inside the sample port

However, after an hour of trying, I could not get an image to show up on the computer screen. I know it had worked a year ago, so I assumed I was doing something wrong. “When all else fails, read the instructions” became my default position and I got back in the instruction manual. Four hours later and dozens of attempts to find a solution, I was giving a series of commands to the microscope via the computer when an alert popped up on the screen, telling me the filament, which is used to create the electron beam that the microscope uses for imaging, was not working. Well, that is a problem I could not quickly solve.

I let Dr. Baugh know the bad but not horrible news. I assured him I would investigate how to purchase a replacement filament and investigate how to replace the filament. When I got back to the lab and has sat down at the microscope, something came to me. Earlier in the morning I had dug earlier into a little rinky-dink red toolbox that was sitting in the general vicinity of the electron microscope. In that toolbox I found a CD with the instruction manual I needed for the EDS attached to the microscope – which thrilled me - but as I re-explored that box, I found that inside that little toolbox was a tiny Styrofoam container that held 10 brand new filaments. So, when I go back to the museum on Thursday, I will replace that filament. Hopefully, that will take care of the problem. Time will tell. 

When I arrived at the museum this morning, I met Dr Baugh, and we talked about the goodness of God. How He sets events in motion sometimes years in advance so we can one day, in His time, we can walk right into a blessing. This is one of those times when we got to see His planning and His provision work out exceptionally well to His Glory and our good. 

Saturday is forecast to be a rainy day, so after soul winning, I’m going to take the time to sit down and complete our tax paperwork so I can give it to our accountant. Not one of those fun things we look forward to, but one of those necessary items in everyday life. Though we have had several severe storm warnings for our area over the past weeks, we have not suffered any bad weather. We have gotten some dry, sunny days punctuated with a rainy day here and there, but never too much rain. A quarter inch or maybe a half inch total. Just enough to keep the garden moist and the vegetable and fruit plants happy.  

Mama wore herself out of the past two days Eliza, yesterday, and Cheyenne and Aubrey today. The entertainment both days consisted of crafting, baking, animal husbandry, and general garden inspections. Mama quite wore herself out. She had fun, and I think all three of the girls did as well, but Mama is not as up to the task as she once was. This was a way Mama could interject herself into the spring break the kids had this week. We are trying to make the mot of our time with the girls. It will soon be over. 

Having completed the welding repairs on our little stock trailer, Grandpa and Norman put two new tires on that trailer so we can haul pigs to be processed the end of next week. Two is only half the number mounted on the trailer, but two will be enough to make it road worthy for now. It is little things like that that makes such a big difference here at the farm, Norman and Grandpa, take care of lots of odds and ends, making my life so much easier and the farm so much more productive. It’s a great working relationship.

More than that. It is and outlet Grandpa needs to keep him going.