Recess is over. Please return to your real life. Thank you.

Yesterday began with a quick drive to the equipment yard where Black Sheep has been parked. I haven't been comfortable leaving the truck there because at some point during the season, one of the door locks began to malfunction. I was hopeful it was something simple, but that is never my luck. What I found was a worn out lock where the linkages connect that go to the door latch. You could turn the key round and round. If this lock was going to deter thieves or vandals they would have to be easily entertained. I was a short distance from the dealership so I loaded up and drove there, gave the parts man the VIN number and he began pecking on his keyboard. After ten or fifteen minutes he sat a bag down on the counter with three complete locks and one internal tumbler. "Here is a lock kit for that truck", he proclaimed. In order for all the locks to be keyed alike, both doors, the glove box, and the ignition tumbler would have to be replaced. What I had hoped would be a minor adjustment was now becoming a major time investment. The two doors and glove box replacements took about an hour, the ignition switch was more of a pain. After removing the switch I had it where I could work on it. This was the first time I had ever attempted removing a tumbler assembly. After determining a course of action I began coaxing the old tumbler out. Once it was out, the new piece went in pretty easily and then it was just a case of re-installing the switch. As soon as the switch was in place I fired the truck up to charge the batteries while I put tools away. A quick look at my phone told me it was noon.

I should've been working by the hour.

After a quick stop by the house I was on the errand trail. Lowe's, Petsmart, UPS, Walgreens (I hate that store), and a stop at a truck shop where the company had left two trucks for some minor repairs. We are over two weeks there and Friday when I stopped in I had been assured both trucks would be ready early Tuesday. When I was there Tuesday afternoon, neither was ready and wouldn't be until Wednesday at the earliest.

While the trucks have been in the shop, I have been trying to explore options. Trc and Krl are in agreement that the trucks need to work, but not something that just trades dollars. I'm looking at things two ways, me finding something for them to do and leaving it with the drivers and finding something for the trucks to do with me driving one of them.

I'm looking at other options for me as well. I will be so glad when I grow up and know what I became.

Late last week I was going to the downtown post office. I was only two or three blocks away, on my regular route, when I was detoured. Due to a construction project I couldn't make my right exit off South 1st and loop around and go North on Pine. I was forced a block farther east and made a right and went one block and made another right. All the sudden it was a flashback in time. In front of me was a badly deteriorated building. Windows were boarded up, the front door chained. But it all looked vaguely familiar to me. I made the block and returned for another drive by. Closer scrutiny revealed a faded sign, Boys Club. When I was growing up and a member of my local Boys Club, we used to travel to Abilene for basketball games, tournaments, boxing and other activities. I can't recall the Abilene club ever coming to our town, but transportation might have been a problem. When we would go to Abilene, George, the Boys Club director would simply requisition a school bus. One of the perks of small towns. I'm sure for the Abilene club to come to us it would have required multiple vans, packed with players.

For many of us, these inter-club games were our first experiences with integration and blending of the racial lines. I think when I was in high school, there was one black in our school.

If I am remembering correctly the Boys Club building I drove by yesterday was where Randall "Tex" Cobb, at the urging of Dick Felts, had his first golden gloves bout in the mid seventies.

Now the boys club is merged with boys and girls clubs of Abilene with multiple locations from area churches to the "Y".

Pat had called me yesterday and told me she couldn't meet me for lunch. I was disappointed, but I do understand. She told me that she had a stack of books that she would drop by the house before she left town. Last evening just about dusk, I was in the front yard with a tree man, trying to figure out what needs to be done to our trees when my phone toned and Pat told me she was just a few blocks away. She and Kay, a childhood friend, were in a hurry but took time to inspect our bathrooms and sat down for a brief minute to visit.

Man, I am glad she didn't want to do lunch, I would have been starved by then.

As for the trees, the man I was meeting with is a certified tree arborist. (I thought they were natives in Australia.) I wasn't too happy with the word he was giving me about the trees. Eighteen years ago, these trees were pretty small. Now they are huge. He is telling me they are on the down turn of their life, and probably in five to ten years, they will have to be cut down and rooted up. He was telling me that the average life for our variety of tree is thirty years. For a Live Oak it is ninety years. (I guess that's why they call it "live".)

I hope you had opportunity to see the pre-Orange Bowl segment "Two man band" about the Louisville band. It was very touching and very impressive.

I had a busy day, but it felt good to do something other than unpack.

Have a day!

FATHER, fill me with YOU. Expand us.