Some got, some didn’t, weather

Although Chase did not perform in a stellar fashion, he got his driver’s license none the less. He said he did the worst on parallel parking; having to go back and forth several times before the tester was mostly satisfied. It is one test he will never have to repeat. We even dropped off Victoria’s car at the mall so he could drive himself home after closing the store last night. I did not check for damages to the car this morning. He is quite pleased.


Victoria did not get her dog. The puppy tested positive for parvovirus and will have to be destroyed. It was a huge disappointment to her and Mama. It still cost her $35 for the test at the vet; a fact which upset Mama a good bit. Victoria will get most of her money back. The pound put an electronic tag in the pup before it was taken to the vet. That was an additional fee; another fact that really upset Mama. “What kind of place would offer a dog for adoption when you were not 100% sure it actually could be adopted?” She finished the conversation with, “We will not be back!” Mama and Victoria are not pleased.

Victoria is still planning on going with us to see the Great Pyrenees pups although she wants a dog of her own. Rosie is mostly hers but in reality she is Mama’s dog and those two older ladies deserve each other. I am not sure what to do for Victoria. I never really am sure.

This week will finish up what has become a very difficult two weeks. Our system of ranking people is demoralizing at best. There is very little I can do about it. I was able to mitigate some of the coming disappointment by getting raises and promotions for three of the ladies that work for me. The rest will have to take whatever I am allowed to give them. It is not a performance enhancer and it is discouraging as a manager to have to work within these guidelines when dealing with people and their careers.

The winds are out of the north today at 40 – 50 miles per hour. Temperatures will be dropping into the twenties from near sixty degrees this morning. Predictions are for snow and freezing rain by morning. It is shaping up to be a delightful winter. Grandpa said that the Farmer’s Almanac was predicting a mild, wet winter for the area. We will see how it plays out, but for now the prediction holds true.

The wet weather slows down some of the work we are doing on the farm but in ways it works to my advantage since it slows down the need for money to supply materials for the projects in progress. The well was to be drilled in the next week or so, but that too is pushed back. That expense is one that I am glad to have held off a few more weeks.

The window of my office I Borger looks out on the bank sign for the Borger Bank. It has an electronic marquee which they update several times a week. As it rotates through the programmed display, it also displays the time and temperature, which makes it kind of fun to watch the temperature change as the day progresses. I have been in the office for about an hour and the temperature has fallen almost twelve degrees this morning.

Mama is going to love this!

New arrival, Chase, Becky

Victoria will go to the attending vet and get her new puppy this morning if all goes well. He is a mix of some sort and if he grows into his paws will be a big dog. Mama and Victoria are fixated on having a baby anything around. I suppose we could chalk it up to therapy for both of them. I do not think it has proven less expensive than saving the pup we recently lost, but I think this dog has a greater chance of proving useful to us in the future – providing his home is on the farm.


I found an ad yesterday out of Wichita Falls, TX offering Great Pyrenees pups for $125 each. Since the last breeder Mama spoke to was offering them at the bargain basement price of $600 I showed the ad to Mama. She immediately called and found out that there are sixteen puppies in the brood and the parents are on the premises. The owner has a small farm where he raises goats. The large dogs have been raised with his goat herd and they have proven very effective in discouraging predators. The man suggested Mama get two pups to increase the dog’s ability to watch the property, but with Victoria’s dog and one Great Pyrenees I think we should be fine.

One trick to keeping them vigilant is to never allow them inside the house. The year and a half old Great Pyrenees that we saw here in Amarillo has been totally spoiled by the foster owner. The lady at the adoption display told us that he sits by the back door and whines whenever he is let outside. That is not the outcome we are looking for. Whether or not Mama will allow that to happen is another question altogether.

Chase should be going to take his driving test this morning. He is going to do fine whether he passes or not this morning. I am of the opinion that failure often produces more profitable and lasting results than passing the first try. It may be humbling to have to retake a test but it will always solidify the answers in your memory – especially the ones you got wrong the first time.

I remember a test I took as a final exam in a College Prep chemistry course. The test was one hundred questions long and I missed only one. To this day is can tell you what the question asked and the answer I should have given. That happened in 1974. I am sure I missed questions on tests other than that, but that one really stuck with me even though I made the highest grade in the class. Chase blew his last driving test by exceeding the speed imit. Guess what he focuses on now? As far as I am concerned, it was a good failure.

Victoria will be going to the farm with us this coming Sunday afternoon. She has Monday off and she wants to help Mama select a pup from the Great Pyrenees brood. She will bring the pup back to Amarillo and Mama will keep it until Christmas, I expect. We are planning a longer time at the farm during Thanksgiving, but I do not know if we will station the pups there until Victoria is there to care for and train them. She is still wrestling with the timing of going to the farm. I, personally, am in favor or her going in the spring unless she can get a transfer to the Wal-mart there before that. She is weighing the options and fending off Grandma’s urgent requests and not so subtle guilt trips.

Becky is home now and seems to be enjoying it. I do not know if she has found work yet, but I know she is looking. Please keep her and Charles in your prayers.

Brittany, Cori, Chase, work

Brittany drove down from Colorado Springs to visit with us for the weekend. She got in late on Thursday and left after dinner Sunday. Thursday night was a bust for me as far as visiting was concerned. I went to bed a little after 10 p.m. The rest of the household stayed up past midnight talking. Mama was really feeling it the next morning when she had to get up to take Chase to work at 5:30 a.m. Chick-fil-A was providing breakfast and lunch for volunteers at a free dental clinic organized by the city of Amarillo. Chase was very impressed by the idea and the execution.


Mama, Brittany and I worked on the garage on Saturday. Brittany left with a carload of stuff we had been keeping for her and I got to empty several totes and boxes from long term storage. Mama has been giving out the beanie babies as special incentives to our little ones in primary church. The kids love it. When I walked in on Sunday morning they were all playing with the ones they had been given. It was happy chaos – just like we like it.

Brittany made it home safe last night. It is about a six hour drive for her; a little more than Mama and I make to Bowie every month or so. I do know that it is a much more beautiful drive – at least for the last hundred miles. While she was here she found her wedding dress at David’s Bridal and got a job offer to boot. She is taking a business card from the owner here to her local store to apply for a part time job there. She was excited.

We are praying for Cori who is sick with what appears to be a stomach virus. She called Sunday morning to ask our help in prayer. Mama got an update Sunday evening and she was better but not good. I know she is still stressed out over organizing the Mission’s Conference at her church. It begins on Wednesday and goes through Sunday. There is a lot to take care of as well as the three full time charges she usually attends to. Keep her in your prayers.

Chase has done fairly well in keeping up with his room so he and Mama are going to go Tuesday morning – Lord willing - so he can take his driving test again. He is much better prepared now than he was the first time. I think he will be a good driver. It will just take him some time to get the experience to make wise decisions as he learns.

He is attempting to cool things off with the girl he has been paying attention to. Statistically, those suggestions fall on deaf ears and I feel his will remain statistically unimpressive. He spent the day with her family painting an apartment being rented by an older sister who is having a shotgun wedding in December. That evening the family and Chase ate pizza and started a movie before I picked him up. Way too cool things off Chase.

I asked him if he was ready to get married. His stuttered answer was, “Not financially.” When I relayed that to Mama she choked. I only smiled and continued a conversation we were having about what he should be looking for given the fact that we have not eliminated the possibility of a pastoral calling on his life; whether or not I did any good remains to be seen. Brittany thought the whole thing about Chase having a girlfriend was pretty cute.

Today is one of those days when I would rather not have come to work. I was off Friday, sort of. I did not go to the office but I might as well have. I spent a lot of time answering emails and taking phone calls. But I was not at the office. Having taken that time off, it is always anticlimactic to have to go back. I have about five little battles I am fighting through right now and though none are life changing in their scope, they are distracting none the less. They are like mosquitoes pestering you as you try to take a nap, until they get enough blood or you kill them, they re not going away. So today is swatting day.

My goal is to not injure myself as I put down these little pests.

Snow, dental work, truth

The forecast was for one to two inches of snow. The actual will be over three inches. It really is beautiful to see; not so much fun to drive in, but beautiful to see. I ended up leaving for work about two hours later than usual. The roads were not bad but it was a slower drive than usual. The melting snow will soak in slowly and get deeper into the soil than rain would have, so it’s all good.


Mama is none too excited about it but by the time she has to get up and going it should be clearing up. Temperatures are above freezing and the precipitation is now all rain so the roads should be clearing but wet. The wind is still brutal. I have not heard a wind speed announced but the gusts last night were near forty miles per hour. With what I drove in this morning I imagine we are not too far from that. That is what makes the cold so unpleasant.

Mama goes to the dentist this morning. Neither of us is excited about that; her for the physical discomfort, me for the financial discomfort. It is one of those things that we just have to grin and bear. I have some little cavities, but nothing the scope of what Mama needs now. We are going to begin with a repair of an old filling and fill a new cavity. There are several other repairs on the docket for her but we are going to be forced to go slowly with all of them. Chase and Victoria also have some needs bringing the total to over $4000. Insurance will pay part, but since this dentist is out of network, our part will be about $2200. Ouch!

Mama and Victoria went to the library to get some books on dogs. I am told we have two appointments in Fritch on Saturday to look at dogs. The two of them seem determined to get another puppy – for the farm, you understand. The problem is that the dogs they are looking at range in price from $600 to $1200. That is not going to happen. If that much money it to be spent it will go toward animals we can raise to eat. After all, this is not the Philippines. Speaking of the Philippines…

At church last night we had a Philippino national preach. He was delightful. He related one instance of a funeral where he was asked to speak. Before it was his turn a local Deputy Major spoke and attempted to be inclusive of all the religious groups present. He related getting to Heaven to taking a trip to Manila, their capitol city, saying that just as there are many roads and many forms of transportation to get to Manila, there are many ways to get to Heaven.

This Baptist preacher, knowing he was next began to pray for wisdom. He got up and offered that there were indeed many ways to get to Manila, “but what if we keep traveling?” he asked. What if we go to America? Are there many ways to get there? Can you go by burro, or car? No there are only two ways to get to America; by plane or by boat. What if we keep traveling, let’s say, to the moon. There is only one way to get to the moon, by rocket ship, so too, there is only one way to get to Heaven, by the Lord Jesus Christ. He added that there is only one accurate map that will get us to Heaven, the Word of God. His speech was not applauded as was that of the Deputy Mayor, but he left the assembly a joyful man.

I wonder if I would have done the same.

Work, farm updates, Chase driving

My meeting with my boss went fairly well yesterday. He is the kind of person that is always looking for more detail, more numbers. As long as he is willing to instruct me on how to do the calculations he needs I am willing to do the math. He seems pleased overall and I am happy with that.


We talked for a little more than an hour before both of us drove to Guymon to attend a farewell lunch for one of my peers – his direct report. It was a pleasant lunch with about fifty people. A local barbeque place catered the event and it was very good. Several people gave a brief story about something that Eric had done and everyone seemed to enjoy the time together. It gave me time to talk with the people that work for me in that area and access some needs that I will address today.

One of the persons I spoke with was the employee that had been causing some difficulties in the staff there. She and I had spoken early in the a.m. and had cleared the air about what needed to be done in the future to avoid a repeat of the situation, so the face time was good. She responded well and I hope things will be better even though I had to knock her down a peg or two.

Wise Electric will be coming to the farm today to talk with Grandpa about a pole I have asked them to set so we can have power for the well we are drilling. Rain in the area has held everything up which is okay with me. I need the extra time to get the finances together. If the cost of them doing the work is higher than the cost of running the electric over from the house, then we will know what to do. In the short run I will have to take the cheaper of the two options. It is not like we will not use the wire we would run for the well for something else when we make the permanent power drop for the new house.

Chase drove for most of the time we were out on visitation last night. It was his first time driving at night and he did well. He told me he liked it better than driving during the day because it was easier to see where other drivers were – especially during lane changes. He, Mama and Victoria stayed up late watching Captain America. I was in bed not too long after we got home. These 4 a.m. mornings take their toll.

So far Chase has kept up with his room and the plans are for him to repeat his driving test on Tuesday next week. I think even Mama is ready. She told me that they just talked on the way home from getting Chase at the mall yesterday afternoon. According to Chase, he was driving in some pretty heavy traffic and Mama did not panic or even suck in her breath one time. For those of you who have driven with Mama, you can understand the miraculous nature of that comment.

The guesstimate for rain today is 60%; a little less tomorrow, mixed with snow and ice. No one here is going to complain since we are about thirty inches behind on our seventeen inch annual rainfall.

No one but Mama – she hates ice on the roads.

Rain! Work issues, sleep issues

The weather service is predicting snow and ice for us here in Amarillo Thursday morning. That ought to delight Mama. I am pretty sure by the time she gets up and going that it will have cleared up but that is way too hard to forecast. For the first time since I have been paying attention there is also a 90% chance of rain forecast for tomorrow. That is almost unheard of here on the high plains. Praise the Lord! For those of you who are not nearly as interested in rain, it is a real blessing for us.


Bowie has a 50-60% chance of rain over the next several days and Grandpa told me last night that we may need to get some cattle to start eating down the pasture; the grass is really taking off! That is an answer to prayer for us. Tanks are filling up and the grass is growing, just like it is supposed to when there is sufficient rain. Maybe the hurricane in the Gulf is pulling this wetness down on us, but whatever it is we thank the Lord.

I have to drive to Guymon, OK today for a going away lunch for one of my peers. He has been a great help to me and I am sorry to see him go. His daughter has a medical condition that requires more help than he is able to get in Guymon – where they have been living – so relocation to Houston is a tremendous blessing to him.

I go through my goals review with my new boss today. I am a little nervous about it, not because I am not a good performer, but because the things I do are rarely ever noticed – until they are not done. The less I am noticed, the better job I am doing. It will be interesting to see how that plays out in his mind. I know I will not get a promotion while I stay in this job since I am already at the top of the range for this position, but a good raise would be appreciated.

I also have to fuss at one of my direct reports about her bad conduct. Of course, it all came to light after too long a period of time; after it had gone on too long and feelings were raw. But that is the way things usually happen. Most of us will suffer through bad experiences until we blow up when the situation could have been resolved much sooner. Dealing with these things in my group is one of the blessings of management.

I have been taught that it is better to have a good group of individuals working together than an exceptional group of individuals that cannot get along. Creating a hostile working environment is never productive regardless of the amount of output from a given group. Having good or average people work together is very often more productive that having great people fight each other. And it is my job to make sure everyone gets along so the work can get done.

Mama and I need to get our bed back. We are sleeping on a couple of twin mattresses as we look for a bed frame to put our king size bed on. We had to give up our sleigh bed because it is just too big to fit in the small bedroom at the Jennie house and I would like to find a way to have some storage under the bed if possible. For the moment it looks line we will have to go with a regular metal frame because everything else is far too expensive. She was awake as I left this morning and had been since about 2 a.m. I have to deal with that before the “unhappy” hits.

The song lyrics, when Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy, is very true.

Let there be light! Revival, Chase, Becky

Lights are on at the farm house. Power was restored to the house on Friday, I think. Grandpa was pretty proud of the feat because he had to do quite a bit of prep work on the connections we needed outside to have the power we needed in the outbuildings. We are still not sure if the wiring in the house is safe to leave powered up all the time. We will have to tear out a lot of sheetrock to do a thorough investigation and rewire where needed, but having power back on is a big step forward.


The well is the next major step in getting the property back to working conditions. For now it has rained enough to begin filling the tanks to the brim so any animals we have on the pasture will have plenty of water. Grandpa will still have to haul water for the confined animals – for right now that is the chickens but a hog building is under construction. When the smaller tanks are spilling into their overflows it will start to fill the large tank, which is more like a lake. That will thrill Grandpa. The only image we have of the lake when full is one on Google maps. To see it in real time will be exciting.

Revival is over at our church and it was a good one. The evangelist was from Louisiana; Baton Rouge to be exact and he had a delightful sense of humor. Most of his humor was given in one liners and it was nearly impossible to keep up with him in my notes. He had been saved in his twenties, poorly educated, raised on the bad side of town, hard to the core as a teen. The fight he learned as a youth served him well for the Lord. He has not backed down from anything and has spoken his mind freely and it has led him before some great men. Those in his state legislature know him well and he has met several presidents. His life’s verse is Proverbs 18:16 “A man’s gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men.” It certainly has proved true in his life.

I laid down a challenge for Chase this weekend. I told him I would not allow him to retake his driving test until he has kept his room neat and clean for seven consecutive days. (It is actually only half a room since he shares with Victoria.) I have tried every lecture I know to get the point across. I know he understands because such attention to neatness is a requirement at his work – and he is doing quite well in that area of his life. So the mess he leaves on the floor, the mess that he sleeps with, is driven by rebellious spirit and I cannot allow it to go unchallenged. I wish it was more fun but that is what makes parenting such a joy.

Since he is going to New Jersey in a few weeks, I would like to have that one detail brought to light in his mind. I know that whomever he lives with will understand that his sloppiness is a reflection on his character more than it is my parenting skills, but it still comes back to me and Mama and I would like to avoid the embarrassment if possible. I hope that is not too selfish.

Chase is a really good kid and I get to feeling like I am harping on the one outward fault that I see in his life. It seems like a battle worth taking on because I have seen men who treat their wives like cooks and maids, and I do not want Chase to have such a fine delineation of duties in his mind that he falls prey to those stereotypes. If that happens, I can honestly say that I was not the root cause of it. My love for my wife and children has expressed itself in meeting every need in the home, from the work I have done to support it financially to cooking and washing dishes often, mopping and sweeping floors, cleaning bathrooms, etc. My kids have often laughed as I teased my wife by telling her as soon as I finished washing dishes I needed to change the oil in the car. It was always in jest. I love to serve and I would love for my children to adopt that life attitude, rather than loving to be served. I see Chase straddling the fence and it worries me.

Becky is home. She seems to be enjoying the pup Charles got for them while she was gone. I know she is enjoying the liberty of life as a civilian again. Charles has her enrolled in several classes but I forgot the projected outcome of those studies. I know she will be looking for work and I am praying she will find that – she seems to always be able to succeed there. We are hoping they will be able to come down for either Thanksgiving or Christmas; time will tell.