Today will be a misplaced Monday, I just know it! As wonderful as a day off is, past history tells me to prepare to pay for it today!

This particular day off, Labor Day '04 , was well worth any price. In fact this entire weekend has been top notch. We had no planned activities, but everyone knew there would be food, laughter and good times for any that chose to drop by! For those that didn't, it was their loss.

Krl and I spent some quality time together. It was nice to just visit and re-connect. We were both nice enough to not openly admit the real reason for this flashback weekend! We are both a little melancholy because St. Lawrence looms large on the horizon. We are both thankful for this contract, we have always enjoyed the people and of course if it wasn't for the money generated here I would have to get a real job! (Just kidding, Krl always likes to figure my per hour wage when I have been rousted from bed in the middle of the night or when I have done a back to back double covering for a shift worker!). Out of the last ten years I have spent almost three and a half of them in the St. Lawrence community. It is quite sobering to think that our time spent apart is not recoverable. This year my preparation for leaving is clouded even more due to health concerns for Krl. She is a work-aholic. When she is on the job she is on the move. I have had recent concerns over what I deemed excessive weight loss. During her doctor's visit last Friday, her doctor voiced the same concerns. Combine this with her recent problems with medication effectiveness and I am uneasy. I see visions from two years ago when I returned home to find a five foot seven, eighty-one pound skeleton of a woman living in my house. Scary part is no one ever figured out the problem. I am tempted to ask her to quit her job or take a leave of absence and accompany me but I know being isolated is no fun for her. Upside to this year is that Krl has acknowledged the potential health issues. We can do this. Everyone is just going to do their part!

I have one call to make pertaining to personnel. This is a past employee who expressed his desire to return for this fall. I hope he is still willing because I would like to have him back. If I can set good cornerstone employees, we can fill in the blanks. I continue to wait for some essential supplies. They are scheduled in today or tomorrow. Once they arrive I think it will take about four days to get them processed and in place, that would get me to Friday and then the move would be on! I think it will take four days to transfer all the equipment to the jobsite and I am being optimistic that we can combine loads effectively. My main priority is in trying to protect the two remaining weekends and to spend the majority of them at home! Employees will begin arriving the eighteenth so I know living accommodations must be in place and functional by then. Wow! I am getting a headache. I need to look at the individual pieces and not try to color the whole picture at once!

FATHER thank YOU for the good weekend and the day off! I ask for YOUR blessing as we return to the grindstone. Help us to not be overwhelmed. Help us to surrender to YOU and to let YOU work in us. FATHER I ask that YOU help me with my concerns, with KRL, with employees, with the contract. Give me the peace that comes in knowing everything will be as YOU plan in YOUR time. Purify our hearts and minds. Draw us near, keep us centered in YOU. I continue to ask YOUR blessing of healing for Rene', Carol, Michelle, and Aimee. I ask YOUR continued blessings for the ill or bereaved in our extended family. Comfort them. Surround us with YOUR angels.