Wow!

What a wild and woolly week. The job was very very intense for the most part. Lots and lots of research, but I think when the dust settles it will payoff and the books will show one of the best weeks in the store's history if not the absolute best! I will go out on a limb and predict this as an ongoing occurrence over the next few months and possibly years.

Chris and I stayed busy enough yesterday that we didn't get stock put up. He was working at it when I was leaving. During a brief counter lull I began separating and alphabetizing invoices and then began a bank deposit. Pat was going to Steph's for the weekend so I was trying to help out to expedite her exit. I am trying to take a little more off of her schedule. Hag had come by and wanted me to stop and visit with him before I went back to Abilene but things didn't work out. A new water pump at a place south of town was messing up and he and the water well people were down there working on it. Hag and I are going to try to do lunch one day next week.

Memama and Pepa got home yesterday afternoon. He got to stay an extra night in the hospital after his treatment. Pat and Memama both have told me the medications they give him kind of brings out the wild side. Memama had a long night Wednesday night as Pepa hardly slept. He kept telling her he was going to crawl out of that "pen" they had him in. Worst thing was when he was undergoing his last treatment, all the sudden he sat straight up, which is a no no because of the needle placements. They were very concerned he might have punctured his bladder or something worse. The doctor and nurses had serious doubts that Memama and Pat could handle him too. So, they got to stay the extra night. When I stopped by their house to check on them on my way home I told Pepa that they were disciplining him for mis-behaving.

Memama had known of Pat's plans for the weekend so late Thursday evening she insisted Pat call Hag and had him come and pick her up.

I had a very productive Thursday off work. K.O. and one of his employees offered to help me retrieve the piece of equipment I had been working on. I needed someone to help me get motivated. I had left the house about nine-thirty or ten, ran a couple of errands then headed for K.O.'s house. From there we left with his service trailer and a big truck. As a partial payment I fed our group in Sweetwater at Chicken with the Runs. We had talked about Ma Allen's but things didn't work out. It had been four years since I had eaten at CwtR (better known as Little Pablo's). It was still very good food and plenty of it!

Some of the tires and wheels had been borrowed off the equipment so we had to borrow some back. Finally about six in the afternoon we hit the road headed back to Hawley. Once we were there we discussed a plan for getting the equipment running when we discovered K.O. didn't even know where the gas tank was. I poured eleven gallons in and a half hour later we had the engine running. Not smoothly but it was running. It had been eleven years since it had been started.

At the parts store yesterday I loaded my wagon. I have fuel filters, spark plugs, spark plug wires, and I ordered a carb kit! One day this next week we will mount an offensive and try to tune up the engine. Next will be checking out air lines and electrical wiring. I was kidding Chris that he was making money by having me work at the parts store. I have an account there and pay a little on it along but don't seem to make any headway towards paying it off. It's like Lrn would be if she was working in a shoe store. I was conveying this dilemma to a friend and he was telling me when he was a newly wed, his wife took a job at the local grocery store. The employees were allowed to make tickets for items and it would be held out of their pay. After a few weeks the store owner asked my friend when he was going to pay him for his charge bill at the grocery store. My friend told him he had hoped his wife's pay would cover the charges. The store owner told him the wages would be a good start but what about the rest?

I may have to have a raise just to pay my parts bill!

The piece of equipment has a large flat surface, eight foot wide and probably eighteen feet long that rests on the ground. During the last few weeks I had noticed the signs of digging around the back portion of this area. I was wondering what kind of "guest" might be living there. I thought skunk. Pepa thought possibly a rattlesnake den. Turns out when we moved the piece of equipment we uncovered a rat's nest and a maze of tunneling. One of the inhabitants was huge. Probably four or five five inches from the ground to the top of its shoulders and it was probably two feet or slightly over from tip of nose to tip of tail! In fact it was so large that Fred's Chihuahua pups turned tail and ran! The rat was larger than them. I don't know where "Goliath" went. He disappeared in the tall grass. I am just thankful he vanished rather than attack!

I am curious how much damage the varmints did to plastic and rubber air lines and the insulation on the electrical wiring. Oh well!

One last tidbit of news. I had been asked to remain silent until after Wednesday. Rian called me to tell me that they are expecting again. He was excited. I'm not, but will be for him. I would much rather see them limit their family size and be able to afford some frills for the kids as they grow up rather than struggle to make ends meet. I've been there and it is a difficult situation. Maybe he will be a better provider. I had actually already heard that they had decided to try to have another baby a few weeks ago. Rian didn't substantiate this, but made it sound more like the immaculate conception. I did go out on a limb and told Rian they would just have another ornery bratty little boy! I can hope can't I? Late December is when their due date is.

Do you think they may be Catholic?

If they had been saving all those wet diapers they would have been dry by then!

I am undecided about my day. I have things to do, but I seem to have a crick in my back. It may be more important to rehab my back and be ready for next week.

I do have three quarterly reports to do between now and Monday. None will be be difficult, just a little time. I probably should be more worried about the end of the month at the the parts store.

Have a day!

FATHER, thank YOU for seeing me through the week! Rest me quickly, rest me well. Bless-ed be YOUR name.