Yep, up and at 'em again!

Darn it!

It has been a wild and wooly week and the forecast says more of that to come!

Work has been very busy, thankfully. EVERYONE is trying to do something! I continue to be amazed at the differences between the local farm economy and the wind farm economy. Even more astounding are the differences between companies as well as "in" company divisions! One man will come in pricing an item and try to deal on it, telling us he can get the same item a couple of dollars cheaper in Minnesota. I tell this particular person buy it in Minnesota and pay the freight to get it in here! It is not unusual for him to leave and before the day is out one of his co-workers (from another division) walk in and buy everyone of the same items we have on stock and ask us to order more of them in! It is wild! Of course they don't understand doing business the way we do either. If we have a box of bolts that the seal is broken on, we will pour them out and count them before we invoice them. They are amazed and shake their heads saying they could care less if they are short or long, "Hey, it's not my money".

We have other companies beginning to arrive. Of course we had been told to expect an influx of an additional five hundred workers April 1 but the wet weather delayed this. We are now beginning to experience new customers wanting to "infringe" on established customer's dedicated inventory. I think I have given the spiel so many times that I could do it in my sleep! "If you want or need us to place specific items in inventory during your time in our area we will be more than happy to do so". Blah, blah, blah!

My Thursday "off" wasn't really off at all. I had places to go and things to do. I began at the doctor's office, followed by a trip to the out patient pavilion to do blood work, EKG and other "pre-surgery" testing. This coming Wednesday I am going to have an elective procedure. I am having some fibroid cysts or masses removed. Thankfully no-one seems to be too concerned about them. My doctor and my surgeon think it is just an inconvenience for me and a revenue opportunity for them. The cysts don't appear to be a problem but they have become uncomfortable enough that they need to be dealt with. Initially we were going to remove three but now that has risen to six, this procedure. I am so confident this is going to be a success I am already planning a second go round. Actually, the reason for this is if they use a "general" to sedate me they can't roll me over from back to front. If they use "local" they can.

What a way to lose weight!

After finishing up at the out patient clinic I headed back to the house.

As our luck would have it Krl had an appointment with her doctor at the same time. She was so sure he was going to take off her cast. He didn't. Three more weeks! Which really messes up our plan for one of us to be fully mobile! I've warned Krl that when she got well it was my turn to be sick and I was going to be really really sick! She thinks I am a horrible patient already!

Since Thursday was the end of the month, I had told Pat I would come in to help close the month and do the trial balance in preparation for doing monthly statements! It seems that each time I help with these I am finding "little" things that help expedite the program. Pat had copied all the signed invoices so we just needed to check it all off. While the procedure is different, the goal is the same as we had at the old office! Biggest difference is the parts store is on a much smaller scale! The monthly statements I carried to the post office wouldn't have made a wart on a bad day's backside at the old office! Those girls who copied and put together those bills on a daily basis should have made more money!!

Of course my Friday was spent stuffing envelopes! Biggest problem was there was a problem with a computer program that held the customer names and addresses and I couldn't print the envelopes. I hand addressed all of them!

When I finally went to the post office I had them grouped into "in town" and "out of town", adequate postage and those needing additional postage! I did learn one thing that might be of value to you in the future. While first class mail went up for the initial weight, the additonal weight went down in price. Seventeen cents! Put that in the memory bank!

It was with a great sense of relief that I returned to the store!

Rian had called me to tell me they were going to be in Abilene for a wedding this weekend. He said Memama and Pepa were wanting Reid to stay with them and he wanted to know if they were "up" to company. After a round robin discussion everyone agreed it might be good!

Rian and Reid stopped by the store as they came into town. It is funny, to Reid two things define Roscoe. The railroad tracks and the grain elevator!

When I left work about six thirty Friday I decided to stop by and check on Reid and his playmates! When I arrived there Memama was getting ready to take Pepa to the ER at Sweetwater. They were concerned he might have a blood clot or blockage because one of his legs was really swelling! Even so, they weren't ready to call off the exercise with Reid. Jake was taking him to the Golden Arches Dinner Club while Memama and Pepa went to the ER.

I headed home but not before taking a two hour diversion "in route". After drive time and time spent at the diversion, I walked into the house shortly after ten in the evening. I had been gone over fifteen hours! Then the phone got crazy. They were moving Pepa to Abilene by ambulance to do a doppler test on his leg. The Reid plan had to move to the next phase so Meme and Dandy were on for Saturday. When I got out of the bathtub, it was almost one in the Saturday morning. Yuk! Reid rode to Abilene with Memama, Rian met them at the hospital, got Reid and took him to the hotel and put him in bed with his Momma and Rian returned to then hospital to sit with Memama. About one forty five they released Pepa to go home! No clot, no blockage. At least not in the vessels. I swear I think when they see he is on Medicaid Medicare and has a supplemental policy they want to ring the bell for eveyone all around! Dollars for the house! On me! I remember when money was secondary! I guess now the oath calls for promising to spread the wealth around to all the other colleagues!

I met Rian and Reid for breakfast at IHOP. (I knew we should have gone to Denny's). Afterward, Reid went with Dandy to pick up Meme and go to the Zoo. I have never been to the Zoo on a speed seeing trek until then. It didn't take Reid long to look at each different display. It reminded me a lot of Chevy Chase in Vacation at the Grand Canyon. We were probably in the Zoo an hour and a half or two hours, then it was on to Fort Imagination! Reid enjoyed this more than the Zoo. From there we went to the airport! Reid is so facinated with airplanes! We decide then that we need to do some of our regular Saturday things and headed to the house to get our grocery list! By the time we arrived, Reid was sacked out! I got Krl inside and brought
Reid in to lay him down and he woke up. "NO!" he said. And we loaded back up and went to the grocery store. We got one of those carts with the kid car on the front. I think Reid ran over everything in the store! It was hillarious! He would turn that wheel like mad and he would still go straight and run into something! We would come out to the end and I would give that basket a tug and spin it and Reid would just squeal with glee. Of course we couldn't go to the store without allowing him something. He had earned a little money pushing Meme's wheelchair.

It was a pretty good day. Reid is a good boy (actually better than his Daddy was) but both of them are and were handfuls! Reid loves to swing and every time we came by the house we would spend a great deal of time in the back yard. I will say that Reid is tough as a boot! I forget how tough little boys are!

We only had one major altercation before Reid figured out who the boss was. It cost him his popsicle and a lengthy time out. But I won.

Finally, close to five we dropped the little man off with his Dad. We did get to see "little bit" there as he had come in for the wedding.

All that was left of our day was to return home, pick up some coupons for gas discount (they had to be used yesterday) and run both Krl's SUV and my work pickup to and from the fuel stop! When we finally got slowed down and in the house, we realized we were tired!

But it was a good day!

I did call and check on Pepa. He thought he was some better today. I had to razz him about I had covered for them again!

Krl and I had talked about going out but we decided to stay in! Ain't peace and quiet nice! Actually we were both physically tired and I was hurting a little. I told Krl that it would appear we might have scheduled Wednesday's surgery just in the nick of time because one of those cysts is really bothering me!

Well, have a day, we did!

FATHER, abide with me!