I am baazhausted. I am so ready for this next Saturday to be behind me.

For those of you that don't know, this coming Saturday is the final show of the year for the equipment project. And that thrills my heart. It seems that any spare moment has been spent working on the project. And I'm tired of it! This goes back to June when the doctor released me. It's been a long summer. Of course if we can find the time we plan on doing a total rebuild before next season, but not until after we take some time off from it.

As taxing as the project has been physically, it has been even more demanding mentally. K.O. is beginning to realize what I have always said about when you fix one thing it affects something else on it adversely. We have begun to try to figure out how the dominoes will fall prior to spending the time changing a configuration. I suppose the project is most frustrating when you spend the time changing something and the desired results are not achieved and you spend more time putting it back the way it was. One day I pulled down and re-installed a three spool hydraulic control valve five times before I reached the configuration that yielded the results I was looking for.

This past weekend, K.O.'s brother Danny was in. Actually he was in specifically to work on the equipment project. Danny is extremely gifted when it comes to building or fabricating and his assistance was greatly appreciated. Landon, K.O.'s and Danny's nephew, has put a lot of late night time in as well.

Saturday was a long day on the project for me but even longer for K.O. and crew. I left their shop shortly after eight in the evening. We had a very good day to that point, and lacked only addressing one major problem. I'm not saying that everything else was ready, but it was done in broad strokes with completion just a matter of budgeting time. I guess it is much like an outline or mapping. Once you know what you need to do it moves much more rapidly. We had a discussion before I left about the last problem area and K.O. and Danny asked me if I had a preference on the re-fab. I told them what I thought but to use their best judgement. They chose to use the #2 fix on my list and worked until two in the morning before they could test the system. It didn't do the job. K.O. said it took the wind out of the sails when that occurred and they decided to call it a night.

Danny began work on the project about eight-thirty Sunday morning and worked until about noon before they had to get back on the road. The most productive part of K.O. and my morning was gathering parts to make the #1 fix on my list. We decided to take a break after lunch because K.O. needed to tend to somethings for his business and I needed to run a few errands and spend some time with Krl. Gotta keep some perspective here.

Priorities.

It wouldn't have taken much for me to sack out in my recliner. But I didn't.

We did go to bed early. I guess that is the age and exhaustion figuring in. By eleven in the evening my eyes were done resting and no matter how much I tossed and turned I couldn't convince them otherwise.

I have a business proposal that I needed to work on and I decided there is no time like the present! I came into the home office and began preparation when I realized my printer is in need of a black ink cartridge. No problem I thought, I will prepare the document and save it on a floppy disc. Then it dawned on me that my computer at the parts store does not have a floppy drive. Now I am trying to decide whether to find a blank CD. Then it will be a decision of which is less trouble, trying to figure out which drive is what on this computer or finding my laptop and preparing it there. My desktop is Krl's old work computer and it has multiple drives and it seems I spend all my time chasing which drive I am needing to put the disc in!

One of these days I am going to pay attention to which drive is which.

I have tried to limit how far I am looking forward. When I think about all the miles and everything that has to be done by October it is mind boggling. So I have broken it down into this week, through Sunday, then Monday and Tuesday (Tuesday is Chris's annual tool sale), and then the remainder of that week is section three and the beginning of the equipment move to the seasonal jobsite.

Normally the GM expects me to be in place at the jobsite by October 1. On Friday he and Frank
the Plant Superintendent stopped by the parts store and spent about an hour and a half with me. During that time he told me he wanted me in place by October 8. The one extra week was greatly appreciated. I know that he really wants us there by Sunday the 7th because that is the Fall Festival at the Church. That means I prefer to be there the 6th which is when the men make the festival staple of German sausage (about 10,000 lbs worth, which will be sold on Sunday), the women and children prepare the gymnasium and outdoor areas for the bake sale and gaming activities, finally they will cook ribs and sausage behind the facility and residents will gather around the pits and beer kegs and enjoy a little fellowship. Early in the evening, a group of men will put meat on to cook for the Sunday noon meal at the festival. Sunday it will be all business for the residents as they have assigned jobs for the day.

Frank told me part of his crew has begun to arrive on site and plant preparations are almost complete. He and I didn't voice it but we know after the record setting year of 2005 and speculation that this year would surpass it, we are faced with a daunting task. I look forward to being with our friends there and I look forward to seeing and working with our co-workers again.

I am not looking forward to being gone from home six or seven months.

But we will do what we need to do.

I've got to get my cell phone book out. I got a text message from "E" and I found I have no idea how to forward it. I guess I am going to be thrust into more technology.

While the equipment project has been a welcome diversion in many ways. It has been difficult in others. When I got home yesterday I showered and Krl and I talked. (She keeps telling me how alone she feels because I spend so much time either at work or at the project.). I was telling her that Sunday was a difficult day for me. I guess watching K.O. and his brother Danny work together and observing their non-verbal communication that has developed over a lifetime, made me sad that I won't ever experience that again with Fred. It is really strange too that the moment this hit home was I was sitting in the parking lot at United. It was like I was on a time delay.

I guess it took my mind that long to step away from the project and see beyond it.

Rian is scheduled for some surgery either this Friday or a week from tomorrow. It wouldn't hurt to lift up a little something on his behalf.

I think I am going to try to lay back down.

Have a day!

FATHER, then sings my soul.