I am still kicking. Very weakly, but I still am kicking!


Leave it to be on the day of the seasonal work when you feel your absolute most horrible for everything, EVERYTHING, to go to h-e-l-l in a handbag.


Yesterday morning, three thirty-five in the morning, I am on the couch coughing and gagging when my phone rings. Pedro.


"Hey boss, it's me Pedro. I am trying to leave the motel here in Andrews and my truck won't start", he said.


As much as I wanted to tell him that only two people call me at such absurd hours of the night, him and Stinky, I refrained. Now that Stinky is no longer in my employ, he can call someone else. I might end up making someone a package deal.


"Have you checked your cable connections?", I asked.


"No", he said.


"Check all your battery cables on the batteries and on the starter, grab them and try to turn them", I said.


After a minute, "Boss, they're all good", he said.


I told him, "I have to get my day going and then I will deal with you."


Of course this is billing and pay day. I always take a bill in to the office, and I place pay envelopes with my on the ground people situated around the compound.


I got this done, hooked the service trailer to Krl's Expedition, moved my tool box and other selected tools, booster cables, battery tester and other such items. Finally I walked into our trailer and left her a note.


I gassed up her rig and hit the road. After a brief while my phone rang. Pedro once again.


"Boss, what are you going to do, are you sending someone or what?", he asked.


"I told you I would handle it and I meant it, you calling and pestering me won't get it done any quicker", I said.


I know I was sharp, but I don't care. I had a good idea of what I am going to find once I arrive in Andrews.


Upon my arrival, I immediately retrieved my battery tester and connected it. Fourteen volts. Plenty of juice. I called Pedro, "Where are you at? I am at your truck."


It took him a few minutes to get rounded up and out there. Get in the truck and hit the starter.
Click. I began grabbing cables, twisting and turning them. Hit it again. Varroom! I grabbed my wrench and snugged the connections.

Time, two minutes! No cables. Just common sense.

"Boss, what did you do?, Pedro asked.

"I moved the battery cable on the starter", I said.

"Which one?", he asked.

"The big red cable on the top of the starter solenoid", I replied.

"Oh, I didn't see that one", he said.

Huh?

Over two hundred miles to and from. The best part was I picked up super Sonic breakfast burritos for Krl and me, and I treated myself to a java chiller!

When I arrived back at the compound, I unhooked the service trailer and took Krl to Garden city to do her weekly banking.

When I returned my seed poker had told Delfino the incline ladder had a broken caster wheel and he could not load seed any more. I told Delfino to ask Fernando what he thought we did before we had the incline ladder.

I donned a dust mask and went to rewire the problem trailer for the third time. I felt pretty comfortable with it this time.

Then back to Midland. Yuk. I hate that drive. I purchased caster wheels and stopped by HVP to get some part they had ordered for me, along with some add on items. They already had the special order items on a ticket in the computer but when it came time to set them on the counter they could not find them.

Back to the compound. Did I say I hate this drive?

By days end I had driven between three hundred fifty and four hundred miles!

This morning my phone began ringing about twenty until seven. I made a snap decision that if it was that driver with the same problem, I would tell him I would get him going and then send him in to the yard with the truck. I have too many things going on to have to baby sit.

It was Rian on the phone. Pedro, you are safe. (Just don't get too comfortable).

I made my shift change rounds. Decent shape. One truck in, taking a nap while they finished strapping his load, three other loaded trailers.

After a while, my phone toned again. The trucker who had been napping was calling.

"I just left the plant and I blew the motor in my truck, threw a connecting out the side of the block!", he said.

"Where are you?", I asked.

"At Rhonda's old convenience store", he said.

He had made it two miles down the road.

Kind of sounds like my luck.

Surprisingly, he told me that was part of trucking. This was the first time he had every thrown a rod in fifty years of trucking.

So I had to go back to the drawing board. I used two outside trucks yesterday and luckily they were still in the area. I had one bale load Delfino was building on the ground and a load of motes that I planned on moving.

I love it when a plan comes together!

I have been building my settlement spreads for the week. I loaded my first bale sheet and need to go into the office to load seed. In due time. Worst part is I haven't loaded seed tickets since Friday.

I have found that after I get past the initial coughing and gagging, doses of dayquil, tylenol, and antibiotics, make me almost human again!

And here is today's excerpt from the book I continue to read:

Recognize the beautiful and wonderful things around you, and bless and praise them. And on the other side, the things that aren't currently working the way you want them to work, don't spend your time energy faulting or complaining. Embrace everything that you want so you can get more of it.

The words "praise and bless" are worth their weight on gold. Praise and bless everything in your life! When you are praising and blessing you are on the highest frequency of love. In the Bible, the Hebrews used the act of blessing to bring forth health, wealth and happiness. They knew the power of blessing.

The dictionary defines blessing as "invoking divine favor and conferring well-being or prosperity". So begin right now to invoke the power of blessing in your life and bless everything and everyone. Likewise with praising, for when you are praising someone or something you are giving love, and as you emit that magnificent frequency, it will return to you a hundred-fold.

Praising and blessing dissolves all negativity, so praise and bless your enemies. If you curse your enemies the curse will come back to harm you. If you praise and bless them you dissolve all negativity and discord, and the love of the praising and blessing will return to you. As you praise and bless, you will feel yourself shift into a new frequency with the feedback of good feelings.
(excerpt from The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne, taken from Lisa Nichols contribution).

Powerful words.

May your day be blessed!

FATHER, Bless-ed be YOUR name! Make me whole, make me what I should be in you grand plan!