Nasty day! The wind is swirling and cotton lint and gin dust are everywhere! It has been weeks and weeks since we have had this type day. Maybe it will be the last of its kind this season.

Lots of weird things going on out here. Most of them involve communication technology. You can be mid conversation and lose your cell phone call and move into another. All the sudden you are talking to a total stranger. Add to this the fact that I came in to my desk this morning (about three thirty) and the computer was rattling like it was processing data, only thing was I had turned it off last evening, the screen was dark until I hit enter and it came up with my shortcut screen and the modem connection flashing back and forth. I don't know what is going on. Maybe Michael Dell is looking over my shoulder. Either that or I have had someone access my computer after hours or someone has scheduled activity. Hhhmmmmm.

The powers that be think we have eight days left. I am ready. Hopefully we will have some weather that will allow me to begin palletizing some of our parts and supplies. If things work as the Plant Superintendent thinks, we should complete the season some time after midnight January 30. I do not anticipate being in any big hurry to get it all moved to its appropriate home. I am thinking that one forklift may get to go to the shop in Midland, it may get to spend the six month off season there, especially if Marvin can get a deal made to buy another one. Maybe I can get a reduced shop rate if they can work on it on their own time frame. If not I will take it home and put it in the garage and do it myself. We are entertaining the possibility of changing forklift makes again. Initially we used Komatsu, they have been a very durable, reliable piece of equipment but is priced at the top end, then we made the change to Hyster, which was a good machine priced on the lower end, but we did have some recurring problems the four years we ran them and service has to come from Lubbock. We received a quote on a new Toyota and while it is a good looking machine it has priced itself with the Komatsu and basically out of the possibilities. Enter Tailift (Tai-lift). Preliminary talks reveal a very similar machine, a company that is looking to establish itself in the market and a dealer that is breaking through (and is also located in Midland). My forklift operators do want me to find out if they must wear ties (or tais) when they operate the Tailift machines.

Krl and I are well on our way to completing this weeks settlements. We need to get solid on the w-2's and 1099's. We have the info gathered but we still have no forms to print them on. Its going to be a busy week at the office. Krl has spent part of her time reviewing settlements for this season and she ran across a few instances where the computer did not deduct deductions, it added them on, so we have basically two more settlements to reclaim the dollars that were paid out in error. In fairness to the computer, it did do the other way too. She found one settlement that it deducted a fuel discount when it should have paid it out. I suppose we live and learn, and I am still learning about how some of these programs work and how some formulas will not delete or change. The alarming thing is that Krl and I both should have caught the mistakes and didn't. Thankfully we did find them before Marvin did and hopefully we can collect the monies before he returns. You know the old adage, "It is easier to beg forgiveness than to ask permission", we may have to use a variation in this instance.

Krl and I are so tired of our menu out here. I really appreciate the meals she fixes but we are so ready for something different. Night before last she fixed my all time favorite, baked barbeque chicken! Yum! This is something that I grew up with and all the grandbabies request it when they sleep over at Meme's and Dandy's. Last evening I grilled shish Kabobs. Beef cubes, onion wedges, bell pepper wedges, whole fresh mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, and zucchini slices placed on skewers and grilled to perfection, served on a bed of rice! It was good, and we even had enough leftovers for lunch today. We may have to do the IHOP thing and have breakfast for dinner today, I did notice in the refridgerator that our chickens have started laying again (because the carton is full).

Rian has a student whose family lost their home and all their possessions late last week in a house fire in Lubbock. Thankfully injuries were minor, but everything was lost. Rian is supposed to be finding out how many family members and their sizes. He was going to talk with the Greenlawn benevolence center as well. If you are interested in donating clothes, furniture or money contact me or Rian. They need everything, socks, undies, jeans, shoes, shirts. beds,bedding, kitchen stuff......everything! Currently the family is being housed in a motel until alternate housing can be secured. Rian is hoping they can remain in the current school zone.

A quick told you so to certain people. ACU announced their new coach and it is not Coach Freeman or Coach Warren. I am still looking into the scuttlebutt about Gary Gaines (the new Odessa AD) and Odessa Permian courting Coach Freeman, but I don't expect anything to happen there. If Coach was going to make a move it probably would have been last year with Midland Lee. The only other possibility was that while Steve was not interested in the ACU position, if Steve Warren had made the move to ACU the AHS job would have been pretty attractive. Now all of this is a moot point! Play ball! All you realtors put your cards back in your pockets!

FATHER I am running on fumes! Deliver me to the end. I continue to ask for renewal. I pray for those needing YOUR gift of healing. I pray for those needing spiritual healing. I ask that YOU fill those needs. I continue to ask YOUR healing for the Highland group that suffered injuries in their accident. I ask for rapid recovery and comfort for all of them. I continue to ask YOUR comfort for Brody's family. Let YOUR glory fill the earth as we declare this is the day, YOU have made.