Travel, reviews with a forward look, home

I got to spend Tuesday and Wednesday traveling through the panhandle of Texas. It is time for mid-year reviews and those are always best done face to face. I have tried to be as honest as possible with the ladies in my group as we have reviewed their goals. It will probably not be me giving them their end of year review. That could either be because I have been laid off or because I have gotten the Licensing job. Either way we needed to take a different approach to the process so they could prepare for someone else to finalize it with them. They all took the news well. What can we do but wait in the Lord?

I have to be careful how I word things so that I do not create a problem in the rumor mill but at the same time I do not want to hide what I believe I see on the near horizon so that my staff are as prepared as possible for the coming changes. Being as clear as possible has its own challenges because the hearer is always the determiner of the message.

For instance, Bubby and John were hunting one day and John started having serious breathing issues. In a panic, Bubby called 9-1-1 and explained to the dispatcher that he did not think John was breathing. The dispatcher calmly instructed John to listen carefully to her instructions. “First”, she said. “We need to make sure that John is dead.” After a momentary pause interrupted by a rifle shot, Bubba came back on the phone and said, “Okay, now what?” 

I had planned to stay in the panhandle through this morning and drive back home today but I got finished early and headed out yesterday afternoon instead. I got back home about 7:15. Mama and I had prearranged to meet me at the office so I could return the truck without her having to make the afternoon trip pick me up at work. I was too late for church but meeting after she got out of church seemed to be a good plan.

What I had not counted on was that our friend Lee Davis was preaching in the pastor’s absence – he and the group of volunteers are still in Nazlini, AZ helping in Vacation Bible School. Lee is not a short topic preacher. He tends to go over what is considered the “normal” preaching time. I had expected to get picked up at about 8:15. It was closer to 8:40 when Mama pulled into the parking lot.

 This evening we are going to pick up Victoria’s car from the mechanic. He is confident that what he has done will take care of the problem that has been pestering us for several months. So with Victoria’s car back on the road and Brittany and Andrew‘s car parked at the house Mama will have her choice of vehicles to travel around in. The truck is still in Florida with Victoria and we miss having it at the farm.

For instance, when I was unloading the water bottles I had bought at Texas Tea in Amarillo, I noticed there were two large bags of trash sitting in the garage. They were pretty ripe so I can sympathize with Mama’s reluctance to put them in the Uplander to get them to the dump. It would have taken a day or so to get the smell out of the vehicle. So I took them to work with me as I drove the truck back to the office.

It’s the small things.