Crapola!

I was really wanting, no, I was needing, to sleep. But, I woke up shortly after midnight and I was already working on the equipment project in my mind!

I guess I would say I suffered an anxiety attack.

I am becoming frustrated, beginning to wish I had never started it, wishing I had never committed it for the show this next weekend.

WHAT WAS I THINKING!

I guess I was thinking unfinished business. For a number of years I have needed to "prove" this piece of equipment and some of the innovations it brought with it. In fact, some technology that we were considering removing, is now common place on similar equipment. I guess we were ahead of our time!

WHY DIDN'T I Patent THEM?

K.O. had approached me in March, asking me if I might consider getting the equipment out and bringing it to his shop which is closer to Abilene. He told me he would like to learn about how it operates and would help "making some changes" and getting it operational.

K.O. is very gifted in being able to tear a piece of equipment down, analyze it, and either re-assemble it or make it better!

After we retrieved the equipment and arrived at K.O.'s, it took us just a half hour to have it running. Not running well, but running. After my next day in the parts store I arrived carrying boxes of remedies! Lubricants, plugs, wires, carburetor kit, and other sundry items. K.O. and Marolen kitted the carburetor, I took on the plugs and wiring projects. Then we began lubricating and freeing up chains and linkages.

Before long we could operate and test the equipment and we began showing it and talking with prospective customers.

Probably the biggest problems with the equipment project has been budget and time. Nothing different there. We have slowly acquired the pieces and technology we wanted to install. Everything is now on site. The time side of the equation has been even harder.

After surgery in early June, I lost the entire month of June and a portion of July. In fact even now I will find myself sometimes doing a little more than my body is ready for.

K.O. has had some other projects going on and has been in Oklahoma participating in a couple of shows. This weekend he has gone to the lake for an outing with his extended family and will be returning Monday. This has been no problem so far but I am beginning to spazz. I am in need of K.O.'s welding expertise in modifying the mount for one of the hydraulic pumps. I can turn the wrenches, I can tear down and rebuild most items, but I have never fooled myself by proclaiming to be a welder. The one final project piece is changing a couple of gear sets in the power take-off and installing the assembled unit.

I am finding K.O. and my personal traits to be very conflicting. I am early to bed, early to rise. He is late to bed, late to rise. I would rather be done early than just in the nick of time. I find I fret over approaching deadlines, he needs them to perform.

Isaac and I, probably along with Chris, are spraying primer paint today. Isaac has been busying himself cleaning, sanding and prep-ing for the primer. He worked on the equipment yesterday. I worked in the parts store. About four he arrived at the parts store and proclaimed the equipment "ready" for paint.

Once again I am finding my little work truck loaded down with steel, tools and paint supplies.

If I get there early I may install the exhaust system, install a drive line and tackle the gear sets. Shoot if it goes well I may see if I can find the welders hood.

Hey, I didn't say I can't weld, I just don't do it as well as some people!

The parts store has been somewhat slow due to weather yet at the end of nearly every day I am amazed at how many parts walk out the door.

Chris has been difficult to work with. It's odd how a relationship sometimes complicates things. He has also seemed to be extremely attention deficit and generally uninterested in the business. Yesterday saw him and D.B. go to lunch and return an hour and fifty minutes later. If I were taking my lunch and eating at the store it wouldn't really matter, but for the last month or so I have been eating lunch with Memama and Pepa. I don't know how many times Pepa called yesterday wanting to know when I was coming. I told them to go ahead and eat. I arrived about two fifteen!

I don't think it is a big issue if Chris fudges on his lunch hour but I think he should be considerate of his co-workers. I suppose the alarming thing is that I have begun to see a few tell tale signs that make me wonder if Chris is in this business for the long haul.

I talked with my "buds" at the seasonal jobsite yesterday. Krispy told me that when Krl and I move there in another six weeks, we need to pack our Easter clothes! They have been blessed with good rains and estimates are that we will eclipse the records we set in 2005.

Wow!

When I visited with the GM he told me of several developments. Of course one is the new large seed warehouse on site that will make my life much easier. The second is a proposal to transport the cotton bales over three times the distance we normally do. Instead of Sweetwater the destination would be the metroplex! Our contract calls for Sweetwater and has two years remaining. I am afraid this development could negate any improvement the seed warehouse makes. It would increase equipment and driver requirements by about 600%.

Preliminary numbers estimate 1600 loads to be shipped to the metroplex and about 3000 loads of seed to be shipped to Lubbock!

Krl didn't think the Easter clothes joke was funny as she knows we were on site for six months and two days in 2005. She also realizes that the change in destination would mean roughly an additional three quarters of a million miles over about five months or so!

Double wow!

Happy anniversary to Pat and Hag! I'm not sure how many, but it is close to thirty!

On a funny note concerning them, one of Hag's friends who works for a farm equipment dealer was in the parts store yesterday. He told me he had sold Hag a boll buggy for the cotton harvest. I knew Pat had told Hag she was getting new flooring before he could buy a boll buggy! I asked the equipment salesman if he knows how to lay flooring. He told me he thinks he is going to have to learn how!

Pat runs a hard bargain!

Quentin is lots of fun but seeing him made me sad again about his brother Casey! It is hard to believe he has been gone thirteen years next month, I think.

Have a good weekend.

As for me, what's a weekend?

FATHER, keep me centered and focused. Give me patience and purpose. Thank YOU for YOUR blessing of rain for my friends and family. I ask that YOU bless them with a bountiful harvest. Thank YOU for opportunities! YOU are good.