Let the games begin!

As you know by now, the friend"s business that I am working with is a small family owned business. Until earlier this year the office was located in the owner's house but in April we were able to move next door. I had told them this was a good move because when the office is in your house you never leave work! Now they have the occasional inconvenience of having to make an after hour trek to the office for a rolodex or schedule, but thankfully it is just steps away.

The owner's have two boys. Both are ring-tailed tooters! They have more toys than Wal-Mart, but are usually most entertained by the simplest of gadgets. Their mother recently attended a conference in Austin where she went to a seminar on low volume-high impact parenting. Lay down the law and then show them you mean business. This has been almost comical. She has done very well maintaining a low key approach and finally it is making its point that she does indeed mean business. She will assign chores with a deadline, along with repercussions if the deadline is violated. I get tickled when she gives them a deadline to pick up all their toys and it goes by with them ignoring it and next thing you know, Mom has a trashbag picking up toys. The toys are then impounded and once a month she conducts an auction where they can use their allowance to buy back toys. Unclaimed toys go into a garage sale classification. I love to threaten to bid against the boys for their favorite toys, or to make the older one really think about if I am spoofing, trying to get them to spend their money up before the good stuff is offered.

The office is located in a rural setting. Lots of shinery and coastal hay fields surround it. The area is not to populated and its not too unusual if the boys sleep in after the office day is up and going, they will make the trip from the house to the office in their fruit of the looms. I am going to have to take a camera because one these days the boys will pay big money for some of the pictures. These kiddos will fight (the four year old thinks he is invincible, the older one is turning into a bully), but if you begin with one you had better be prepared to take on both. Big brother is influential, although the influence is not always the good kind.

The other day I ran next door to their house and when I entered both boys were in the kitchen. Lots of laughing and giggling was going on. Upon closer scrutiny I saw that there was a gallon milk jug sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor with the lid off and little brother was standing about three feet away with his fruit of the looms around his ankles while big brother was encouraging him. Right! Target practice! When I went back to the office I told their mother what was going on and she made haste to go check it out. Of course by the time she got there they looked like angels because they were mopping the floor (don't check the mop water mom) and the older one had a story concocted that would absolve them of any wrong. (I gotta take that camera to work). Throughout the remainder of the day I continued to pester both boys asking them what they scored or if they were just little dribblers!

Never a dull moment!

One of the youngest boy's favorite things is to bring me a piece of paper for me to make him a paper airplane. He will take it, color it, and in a short while it has flown more missions than allowed by law. It will be totally disfigured from flying into walls and other obstacles. Paper airplanes, a dying art.

It is going to get plenty quiet when school starts. I figure the youngest will be lost when big brother is at school. A really good thing is that the youngest has been signed up for Mother's Day Out two days a week. I won't say which one because if any of their staff reads this blog I would hate to rush them into early retirement.

I am working on the possibility of salvaging out some equipment. The business has some equipment that is used seasonally, that mechanically is sound but it is an eyesore waiting for DOT to show up. I mean it is UGLY! Snaggletooth grill, dis-figured bumper, mis-matched paint, exposed screws and duct tape would describe just a few of its attributes. I have been in contact with a company that buys equipment either like the above truck or maybe a truck that has a blown engine but is O.K. cosmetically. They will take two trucks and make one good one. Anyhow, it has been an interesting project so far. It has really been a challenge to describe. We also have some other engines from trucks we have bought for other parts. Recently we were able to trade a late model 60 Series Detroit for a substantial portion of an engine overhaul. This engine had been sitting in the floor of the fleet shop for a couple of years. Might as well make something out of it.

One man's junk is another man's treasure.

I have a friend who says his entire life he has watched his Dad buy house after house, move the family into them and begin renovations. He said his Dad has the ability to take a sow's ear and make a silk purse out of it. My friend goes on to say that he has tried the same thing and he has the ability to take a sow's ear and make an expensive sow's ear out of it.

Today will be a busy day. We are one truck short, due to mechanical problems. Actually I believe it is one of the protective circuits of the onboard computer. Might be anything from water level sensor, to throttle sensor but regardless of what it is, it won't let the engine start. I don't know if they have been able to pull code from the computer but that would be a good start. We are also still short one driver. We have one who came in Monday and filled out the application. This was half of the daily double. I did a quick telephone interview and asked the gentleman to come to the office, he told me his wife was looking for a job too. Turns out she has fast food experience, so I told him to bring her as well. Both picked up applications and by the time they got back to Abilene they had completed them and dropped them by the Better Burger. Larry did a quick interview and I believe is going to hire the wife, all we are waiting on is a pre-employment drug screen result on the driver. This couple was very impressive with the honesty, and both of them gave the impression that they are not scared of hard work. I am hopeful it will work out for all parties.

We have our standard issue of trucks running the Ab/Fw corridor today. Our Colorado truck has returned and will be in Kansas by nightfall along with a second Kansas Truck. A different truck will leave today in route for Durango, Colorado. They are really loading our wagon this week. The only beat we have missed is that our San Antonio truck off loaded and went to our core customer and was told they had no load for him. We put him in the wind because we had to have him today. Three hours later the customer called wanting to know where the truck was at and then had the gall to want him to turn back. I read an article once that said that a truck runs for pure profit four days a month. If dispatch leaves that truck sitting for one day while looking for a load, that truck has lost twenty-five percent of its profit for the month. This customer obviously doesn't care about profit. Thankfully we went in right, and could afford to come out empty. Interesting thing was I went into DAT and found loads from our customer they had given to brokers. Go figure.

And now you know the rest of the story.

FATHER, for YOUR love I am thankful. I thank YOU for YOUR mercy and YOUR grace. I pray for a blessed day today. I thank YOU for Krl and continue to ask for her healing and renewal. I pray for those near and dear who are in need of YOUR many gifts of healing. I pray for those sad and hurting from loss. I pray for those of us stumbling as we follow YOU. I pray for our spiritual family and our leaders. I pray for the efforts being made to spread YOUR kingdom. Worthy is the lamb.