Travel, Joshua, the dogs

The trip over to Cori and Nate’s went without incident although there was an 18-wheeler that did his very best to wipe us out – literally. He pulled into our lane as we began to pass him. I had to stand on the brakes to allow him into the lane, but we managed to stay on the road, avoid him impaling the front fender of the little van and keep from getting rear ended by oncoming traffic. That was the extent of danger we were aware of as we traveled the almost eight hundred miles.

We had pretty high hopes for the power steering pump since Grandpa and I worked on it. We were not able to replace it because the replacement requires pulling apart the front clip of the car, jacking up the engine and renting a special tool to pull the pulley before the little pump can be unbolted and replaced. So we cleaned the reservoir and the lines and hoped for the best. The plugs and plug wires were replaced and the transmission fluid and oil were changed. So we were in better shape than before the work was done. We just had to listen to a moaning power steering pump for the whole trip.

We arrived pretty late. Cori kept the kids up past their bedtime in order for them to greet us as we pulled into the driveway. Brittany, Paige, Cori, Mykenzie, Grant and Blake all rushed up to meet us at about 8:15. We were in a big way of making the rounds hugging each other when Joshua came out onto the porch. Mama teared up immediately. It was good to see him and it was a complete surprise. I think Jake was as excited to see him as anyone else. For Mama it was a pleasant toss up.

In order to get to Florida Joshua had caught a ride with a friend from Victoria who has family in the area where Cori and Nate live. She is on her way to take her female Boxer to meet a male in New Hampshire. She and her husband have been seeking this opportunity for several months and were not sure of the timing of the female dog’s heat. As it turned out, she was ready about ten days before they expected it, which got Joshua over here in time for the wedding. He will have to go back as soon as the breeding routine is over – probably on Friday evening after the wedding. We will have everyone here for the wedding but Becky.

This morning we will go to the beach and get sunburned collecting shells. Joshua showed us the huge bag of shells he collected the other day when he and the girls went. It had several unusual ones in the mix and all of the collected shells were large; not the normal little ones we commonly find. Mama was excited about the treasure and hopes to repeat the haul today. That is rarely the case, but it is always the anticipated outcome.

We were up early this morning, as is typical when we share the house with little ones, and Chase and Jake are pretending to sleep while the house wakes around them. Dodger and Lucy are the real alarm clocks and noisemakers this morning. Lucy is not the least affected by being in a new place; Dodger is not acclimating well. He is truly a farm dog and is wholly out of place in the house here. I am not sure how things will eventually work out over the next two weeks, but Mama and Victoria were thinking of how much the children would love the dogs while I was thinking of how little the adults would like them.

We will all accommodate for the sake of the kids, bit it would have been better to leave Dodger at home.

Texas is rough on Jake, sighting in, car repairs, the work ahead

Jake, Chase and Mama went to a local park yesterday afternoon. Jake, obviously, had never been on a merry-go-round before so Mama stationed him in a sitting position, facing outward with his legs straddling one of the posts. Chase began to spin him – as one would expect. As Jake began to feel the effects of centrifugal force he was pinned up against the post – the one he was straddling – trying desperately to keep the pressure off his “tenders”. As he screamed for Chase to stop the spinning him, I am not sure if the cries only yielded the opposite results. He escaped the ordeal unharmed but describes it as the second “most scariest” time of his life.


I am afraid he did not fare much better when we went to pick wild plums yesterday evening. Twice we had to cross a barbed wire fence – which Jake has never done. On the second pass he got a very minor scratch from a barb. The problem we were having is that he insisted on crawling through the fence as you would enter a tunnel, head fist, rather than sideways, one leg at a time. “Papa Tim”, he stated, somewhere between bragging and complaining, “I’m bleeding.” I told him not to worry about it. Leaving a little blood in Texas would only make him stronger. I have a scratch on my right arm that runs from between my thumb and index finder up my forearm to the bend on my elbow. I got it trying to keep him from getting a scratch on his back. Later that evening he showed his scratch to his mom in full bragging mode.

Chase spent some time last night sighting in my .222 rifle. Tonight we will shoot it. I will have to sit down and clean all the rifles after we are done. It had been over fifteen years since any of them have been fired when I fired several rounds through the .222 late last year. That is how I know the scope needed a careful sighting. I bought a bore sight which uses a laser inserted in the gun barrel to help align the scope. Using the laser required a low light situation and since conditions for that are not favorable before about 9 p.m.(past my bedtime.) I had not taken the time to do it. We will see just how well it worked tonight.

Grandpa spent most all day yesterday working on the little van. It needed a lot of little things done; an oil change, transmission filter and fluid change, plug and wire replacement and the power steering pump changed. He got all but the power steering pump work done. He had a problem with the oil filter but we finally got that done after I got home. We should be ready to travel on time with the car in the finest shape it has been in for more than two years.

As we talked about the work that remains to be done at the farm I realized how badly I need to get there to help. There is only so much Grandpa can do by himself. Many of the tasks ahead will require two men. Victoria is a big help to Grandpa but she lacks the skill and the upper body strength to help with some of the more rigorous tasks. It will be nice when the Lord gets us there. I am praying for early next year but I will take whatever God gives us.

We are going to rake the meadow today in order to collect some of the good alfalfa Grandpa mowed down the day before yesterday. It had to be mowed in order to control the overgrowth of weeds sharing the ground with the good grass. We do not have a baler yet so we will collect the hay the old fashioned way; we will pick it up with pitchforks, pile it on a wagon and take it to the shed.

It will be good practice for when things get really bad.

Jake, hunting, preaching

As we were on our way home from church last night Jake called his mom and his dad separately. I do not know if Dominique was at work or not but the way Jake started the conversation was hilarious. He said in a very official voice, “This is your John Deere dealer calling. You have not paid your payment for this year and ..” He began to crack himself up at this point because the rest of us – and his dad too – were all laughing. For an eight year old, I thought that was pretty clever.


Every conversation included the time and temperature. He is fascinated by the heat here. I know and you know that it gets equally hot in New Jersey but he has not been so acutely aware of it to this point. Having the temperature display on the little van only encourages the focus. “Mom’, he began, “it is 8:32 and it is still eighty four degrees. Can you believe that?” By the time we got to the farm the temperature had fallen to seventy eight degrees which did not seem to him to be worth mentioning any more.

He also rehearsed the itinerary for today with Mama and Grandma. He has Victoria’s schedule down pat for the next several days and corrected both Mama and Grandma on the hours she was working. He affirmed the activities he and Mama had agreed to and confirmed that I would be leaving for work very early. Then he turned his attention to Chase – who, disappointingly enough – had no plans. At that point Jake started to create some for him.

Grandpa was not feeling well last night so Grandma fed him McDonald’s rather that pizza. I ate neither. I am not sure I ever want to get there –regardless of my age. Grandpa is only fourteen years older than I am so I am not that far away from requiring a special diet; just not McDonald’s. Chase and I ate egg sandwiches the other night. That might be a healthy staple especially since we have a dozen hens laying one per day per hen; just hold the lard or McDonald’s might actually be a comparable fare…not!

As we got home last night the dogs seemed curious about something moving in the field across the road. After some watching we saw what they were seeing, a skunk. We got the shotgun and the .22 rifle and watched but as circumstances would have it, as soon as we were ready to address the problem with lethal force, we could not see it any longer. It was too close to dark to go hunting it, but the whole idea really caught Chase’s attention. So everything is now stored safely where he can get to it more quickly.

Speaking of Chase, we had some good conversation on the trip over and I continue to sense that his heart is aimed in the right direction. Of course, there are always worries of those things unspoken, yet influential, in a young person’s heart so Mama and I will continue to be prayerfully watchful, but I do not have the level of anxiety that she does concerning his direction. I did ask that he would continue to respect the authority Mama and I have been given over him and to trust the experience we have in life as he seeks direction for the many little decisions he must make in the very near future. It will save him a lot of hurt.

In his preaching last night, the assistant pastor expounded Psalms 19. One of the memorable things he said concerning the judgments of the Lord was that he would rather have the correction than the consequences. Correction is embarrassing and sometimes grievous but it is short lived. Consequences can, and often do, last a lifetime. Even the youngest of my children is aware of that truth.

I have decided that, going forward, I will submit to correction. I am weary of enduring consequences.

Job search, packing and planning, Rosie, goals met

I have to give credit where credit is due and recognize Chase’s efforts to secure a job. He has been interviewed by Sears and will go today to get his drug screening done. He is also returning his application to the Verizon kiosk in the mall on the recommendation of a person working there whom he met while working at Chick-fil-a. It always helps to have someone to recommend you to a prospective employer.


He and I will be leaving for Bowie today – sometime. I hope to be out of the office by 11 a.m. so we can leave by 1 p.m. That would put us there in time to make it to church, but I do not know if I will make that departure time or not. There is a lot that I have to take care of today in the Borger office and much of it is time bound and dependent on others. We will see.

We both spent some time packing up for the trip which extends into the next three weeks. For me, it will be a month before I get back to the Borger office. It is a challenge to set things in motion that will carry on the work in my absence for that length of time, but thankfully I have very capable staff that make my life pretty easy. It amazes me that my peers think I have the worst job in the asset when I think I have one of the best ones. It is a secret I should guard carefully and enjoy it as long as it lasts.

The A/C did not get looked at yesterday so we started off the night pretty hot. It did cool down significantly outside. The temperature this morning was sixty one degrees. Inside the house it was still seventy six degrees. I guess Chase got too cold last night as he watched the beginning of the playoff series because the fan was turned off on the A/C unit. When I went to bed it was only circulating hot air. I almost restarted it this morning before I left but decided against it since Chase is not very cold tolerant.

Mama and Jake are enjoying the farm. Mama was picking green beans just before I called yesterday afternoon. She remarked how much of a strain it was on her back. I do not know if Jake was helping or into some other activity but he was on her heels as we talked. Between comments and Grandma coaching Mama on what to say I was having a hard time understanding the conversation. I warned her about the coming rain so I think she went back to finish up what she had set aside until later.

Mama told me Rosie must have been bitten or stung the night before because her face was very swollen. They gave her Benadryl and it seemed to help. She was eating and drinking okay so she will recover. This is after she was sprayed by a skunk on Saturday night. I am not sure if farm living is the life for her. We will have to be very careful with Lucy in her time there since she is even smaller than Rosie. All in all, I would rather the stings or bites happen to the dogs versus us.

While in Decatur this time I will be able to conduct interviews to cover the job one of my ladies is vacating in order to take a job in another department – thankfully in the same office. The one leaving has a wealth of experience and insight that will help in getting her replacement grounded very quickly. It is always helpful to have a good resource nearby. Most everyone will be happy with this choice. For those that aren’t, tough luck.

It has been a mad dash to get some of these things done in the time offered, both things at work and things in our private lives, but it all seems to be coming together – and in better ways than I had hoped in many cases. Finances still weigh heavily on us but that seems to be the national norm at the moment and the Lord has allowed me and Mama to do a lot with the little we have.

Tax time next year will complete the payout of the loss we suffered on the house in New Jersey. It has been three years since we had to sell at a loss of over $65000. Many of our friends in the area will not recover the setback for a decade or more.

I feel blessed.

A/C, weddings , work

It is a good thing Mama and Jake headed for the farm yesterday. The air conditioning unit at the house quit working yesterday. When Chase called me to tell me it was pretty hot in the house yesterday evening I remembered noticing that the outside unit did not have the normal water around it on Saturday afternoon. Chase and I were replacing the battery in his truck and we had made several trips out the back of the house to where the truck was parked. The concrete pad where the condensing unit sits is usually wet, but it was not on Saturday afternoon.


It did not register with me at the time. It was a pretty warm night last night. Even Lucy did not want to stay in the house. I propped open the back door to let as much air in as possible and she camped out on the concrete stoop outside the door. Even thought the temperature inside the house (89 degrees) equaled the outside temperature, it felt much cooler outside. Since we are not in the country, the doors were closed and locked for the night sometime after dark and we sweated through the night. I will call this morning to see if it can be repaired.

Mama and Jake must have arrived safely. I called her as I was leaving Guymon, OK on my way back to Borger and she and Jake were east of Wichita Falls. That put them about a half hour from the farm. I never heard from her again last night so I am assuming all is well. Once she gets there she is pretty well disconnected from the world. Besides, between Jake and Grandma I am not sure if she will be able to have a private thought much less a private moment.

Chase has had several interviews over the past couple days, most notably at Sears, but he has talked to Best Buy, and several other retailers about working in their electronic departments. We still have not talked about Bible College but it is one of the subjects I intend to cover as we travel to Bowie tomorrow. Hopefully, it will be a profitable four hours together, although neither of us will have Mama to guide the conversation for us.

I am assuming Brittany is in Florida with Cori and Nate. They will be leaving either tomorrow or Thursday for Indiana to attend the wedding of one of his sisters. I hope the parents are more gracious to the guests than they were at Cori and Nate’s wedding. That was a strain. They even tried to slip out of the reception without saying goodbye. I can only imagine the conversation as they drove home from New Jersey. The rest of us had a pretty good time and it seems to have worked out well for Cori and Nate.

Brittany mentioned that she and Andrew might stop by the farm on their way back from the honeymoon. It would be a nice gesture since Grandma and Grandpa will not be at the wedding. With the trip they are trying to save for at the end of July, they are not able to afford the trip to Florida and Mama and I are not able to cover it at this time. In addition to the money worries, the farm has to be tended to daily and the only ones left to handle those daily feeding chores are Grandma and Grandpa. Mama tells me I may have to take on those responsibilities if she goes with them to West Virginia for the family reunion and the renewal of the wedding vows.

I suppose I could work that out.

Jake’s canyon visit, next - the farm

We took Jake and Makaila to Palo Duro Canyon on Saturday. Chase had promised that he could find the caves he and Seth had explored last year and, if not, we were still going to be able to hike a bit, eat a picnic lunch and let Jake feel the Texas heat. We decided to pass up the gift shops until after we had gotten some of the energy out. It is always difficult to sense the expectations of a child when you are explaining to them the coming activity, but with Jake it has generally been a good experience to share things of this nature with him. Saturday was no exception.


We stopped as we usually do at the first pull off as you enter the canyon. It is one of the best spots to get an overlook of the canyon. The weather was overcast and a bit chilly. Mama was remarking about the atmosphere not being up to the predicted temperature yet. She had dressed for the high temperatures, not what we were walking in at the moment. Having done that – along with the requisite pictures – we moved on. The sun did come out quickly and I was wishing for the morning temperatures.

Chase had us pull off the road at what he thought was the correct spot and we began the trek to the caves. As we were about half way there, our trail was crossed by a group of people riding into the canyon on horseback. That thrilled Jake. After about a fifteen minute walk, we came to the caves and crawled up into the opening. Jake and Chase were excited. Makaila was genuinely frightened. Mama was just happy we had arrived – she always questions Chase’s sense of direction.

It was large enough to walk upright for the first fifty or so yards but quickly shrunk down so that we had to stoop to pass through. A little further and we were bent over pretty good as we made our way into the darkness. Jake was thrilled; Makaila not so much. Chase activated the flashlight on his phone and the five of us shared the little light in the complete black for about a three or four minute expedition that wound through the limestone passage to an opening near the top of the cliff above where we entered.

You have to understand Mama and darkness to get a sense of the conversation that accompanied us through that tunnel. Chase was in front with Jake. Chase had the light. I was in the middle followed by Mama and Makaila. Mama hates the dark and was constantly ordering Chase to shine the light where she could see it. That proved difficult because of the turns in the passage. It was slow progress. There were several bumps to the head before we reached the light again. But everyone agreed that it had been fun. I think Makaila lied.

We slipped and skidded our way down to ground level and looked back up to the entrance. Jake wanted to go again but no one seemed as keen on the idea as he was so I went back through with him. It was a much faster trip than the first time and we were quickly through and back down to the canyon floor. As we walked back to the car Jake began to wonder if I were taking the right path so I pointed out the print from Mama’s shoes to him and we began to follow them. I doubted myself a couple times until I spotted a couple distinct pieces of trash I had noted on the way in – crummy, but useful landmarks.

When we got back to the car Jake scolded Chase and Makaila, “You guys were wimps. I was the only one taking risks.” Mama and I were obviously excluded from the rebuke, but Chase and Makaila took up the gauntlet and the ragging continued throughout the remainder of the day. All in all, it was a fun day. Jake bought some gifts at the little shop where we had to take Makaila to get a hamburger because she would not eat the food we had brought – tuna salad, egg salad and peanut butter and jelly. Jake’s only disappointment was that he had not found a cow head to take back home. But you have to know Jake to know how he stressed over that!

Mama will be leaving for Bowie today. She is excited to show Jake the farm. I have more of a worry that his sense of expectation will not be met in that – at least not after the first few hours. It is a pace of life he is not used to. There will be no TV, no restaurants, and no pool. However, there will be plenty of work to do; not the sort of activities to which he is accustomed. The saving grace of the experience is that Mama Kim is there.

We will have to wait to see if that is enough for an entire week.

Safe arrival, Jake and Lucy, on the road again

Mama, Jake and Chase got home safely yesterday evening. The plane arrived on time – about 5 p.m. Brittany, Makaila and I got there in time to meet them at baggage claim. As delighted as I was to see everyone – especially Mama – I did not anticipate how much luggage they had; six large suitcases, three carry on bags and the assorted personal items. Aside from having the big van, I would have had trouble no matter what vehicle I had brought. After folding down the back seats, squeezing the four passengers on the two middle seats and force fitting the luggage in the back we headed home. Fortunately it is only about ten minutes from the airport to the house. I will miss that when we relocate to Bowie – whenever that is. It is currently a priority item on my prayer list.


Lucy and Jake hit it off pretty well but soon Jake, who is used to a ten year old Dachshund, tired of her energy. For about the first two hours he chased her around the house as she ducked behind everything available, including my legs. He managed to catch her several times but did not retain possession for very long. As they were getting settled into bed he sadly announced, “Mama Kim, I can’t sleep with this dog.” So she was confined to her kennel for the duration of the night. Sometimes that cage is safety and she knows it.

Brittany, Chase and Makaila went to her house so Chase could say hello to the parents and I have no idea what time they got home. I was long asleep by whatever time that was. When I got up to go to work this morning, Jake was asleep on the couch with the TV still on. I turned on a lamp and turned off the TV before I left the house, but in the confused arrangement of the house this morning I failed to pick up by computer bag. I was almost to Borger before the oversight dawned on me. I had to turn around and go back. It was a good thing I left about forty five minutes earlier than normal since all that time was wasted returning to Amarillo before I could get to work.

Brittany will leave this morning to go to Arkansas. I do not know how long she will stay there but being there on a Sunday is good planning since many of her contacts there are through the church. I repacked her car so I could fit one of the rear seats from the little van into her packed items. Her car really is full now. Mama squeezed a few items in to be delivered to Cori but they were mostly small. We both made sure there was room for her suitcase and bathroom bag – but just barely.

Mama and Jake will head to the farm on Monday carrying Lucy with them. Chase and I will follow on Wednesday. From there it will be on to the wedding followed by a few days of vacation. Cori and Nate will be able to breathe a huge sigh of relief when this month is over. Their generosity has been a great blessing to all involved and a considerable strain for them.

Such things are never easy and rarely convenient. Maybe that is why a fortune cookie message seemed so relevant to me when Mama and I were out to lunch with Mrs. Patrick several weeks ago. “It takes more that a good memory to make good memories.” Often it takes time, herculean effort and enormous inconvenience to register the great memories, but mostly it takes an attentive heart and the realization that every moment can be a memory.

Having anticipated this for some weeks now, it seems to have come upon us suddenly. I cannot imagine how Brittany and Andrew feel.