How many days? So much to do!

There is a good deal of discussion going on among our grandchildren as to how many days remain before Victoria, Grammy and I arrive in Honduras. From our way of reasoning, there are at least three, perhaps four days between now, Monday, and then, Thursday; depending on how you count today. If today is not part of the count, then we will arrive on the third day from today. However, since we are already in today (their reasoning) we can skip today in the count. That is a foregone conclusion. But even that does not seem to be enough. So, what they have done is skip the day of arrival in the count. In their minds there are only two days left in the count. That works in their minds because the date of our arrival is a zero (0) day. It does not count. We would do the same. Three - Monday. Two – Tuesday. One – Wednesday. Zero – Thursday. Since today is already here. It does not count. That leaves only Tuesday and Wednesday. Two days. And their count stands at two days as of this morning. I am certainly glad that Mama and I have all three days (whether they count or not) to get everything done before we leave. We need all that time.

Mama and I are going to be very busy as we continue to prepare for the trip. Today we are getting the paperwork sent to the title company in Lawton for the purchase of the house we bid on at auction in September. Mama will be contacting the bank to get the money transferred to the title company as I overnight the paperwork to them. Also, on the docket today, contacting Roger – our mechanic – to see if he is available to get some work done on the truck while we are out of the country; making some calls to see if we can get an additional bale of hay for the cattle wo they will not run out of feed while we are gone; finalizing arrangements with the Wycoff’s to make sure they know what is need of them at the farm. Saturday afternoon I set out the second of the last two bales of hay I bought, and they will eat their way through that one by the end of next week – if not sooner. Just about the time we are due to arrive home. So, it would be a good idea to have a bale on hand to set out in case that ends up how the timing works out. The less work I can put on our backup farmhands the better.

Tuesday, we have our Thanksgiving service at the church. So, Mama wants that afternoon for baking and preparing dishes for that meal. Our pastor is getting briskets and turkeys smoked for that celebration. That is always a highlight of the meal, but the rest of the church will provide all the fixings and desserts. I am not sure what Mama plans for our addition to the meal, but she will spend a major portion of the day Tuesday getting those items ready. Early on Tuesday Mama will have to go to Muenster to get feed. Like with the hay for the cows, we want to be sure we have enough to feed the animals in our absence and enough to continue to feed when we get back. The Wycoff’s will take over the farm chores on Thanksgiving Day. We do not want them to worry over whether they will have enough feed to make the ten days they will be covering for us.

Wednesday is our final packing day. We are pretty much ready right now, but we have reserved that evening to get the final packing done. Also, on Wednesday, Mama and I will run the truck to Bowie, so Roger can work on it – if we find out he is available to do so. Since our church service is on Tuesday night, we have all evening Wednesday to get ourselves prepared to make our run to the airport Thursday morning. So far, we have three bags to check. They each, miraculously, weigh under fifty pounds. Each of us will take a carry on and a personal item. All of which will be loaded to the max. Fortunately, those bags are not weighed.

Whether or not the days count in our grandchildren’s reckoning of time, Mama and I need each of them to get all our chores done.