Well, my birthday was a pretty good day! At least after you scraped all the crapola off the first half of the day!

My day began with truck driver baloney. The one who messed up Saturday was going for the trifecta. Basically I told him we were fixing to have a come to Jesus meeting. The man has told so many lies that he can't determine what is truth and what is fiction any more.

He had made the deal that he would be at work on Sunday at 8 am. About ten minutes before six he called and told me he had a headache and thought he was getting the flu. He asked if he could delay his return and go to minor emergency to get it checked out. I agreed but only after asking him to keep me informed. Later in the day I talked with another driving buddy of his and I was told that the "sick" driver never intended to come in before four in the afternoon. I decided at that point to penalize the "sick" driver and not let him come in until Monday mid-day.

Monday morning about seven he began calling wanting to come in. "This is costing me money", he exclaimed. Yeah, right, kind of like he cost the company money when he wrecked their truck!

Finally about eleven Monday morning I called him and told him to circle his wagons and head back to the jobsite.

Minutes later I took a phone call from the ER in Ballinger and the young woman informed me that on Sunday, the "sick" driver came there seeking medical care after he was involved in a vehicular accident involving a truck of mine that jack-knifed and hit this man.

I said, "What?"

She repeated herself and I told her, "Lady, that man was the driver who jack-knifed the truck."

So we once again have an employee who wants to make his own rules. I referred the young woman from the ER to Krl and Krl explained the proper protocol, that this driver had been asked if he was all-right not only by me but by Rick who is the safety and insurance man. Both times he answered he was fine. Krl went on to explain that if injuries are non-life threatening, the insurance company has their own care network. So, for the time being, the lady made the driver's file "patient responsible for fees".

Krl tried to go ahead and report the accident, but with it happening on Saturday and Monday being a holiday (for my birthday), the reporting portion has been closed.

Lots of excitement in our area yesterday! The force of the explosion from the refinery in Big Spring could be felt and heard in our location. The smoke was VERY visable. The local volunteer fire department and the volunteer EMS both responded. From visiting with them, while the explosion was bad enough (five injuries, only one hospitalized), it could have been much worse!

Back to my day Monday. About noon we decided to light a shuck and go to town. Eat out, run some errands, buy groceries! We were about half way there when my phone rang. It was Memama and Pepa and they wanted to know what we were doing. I told them we were on our way into town. You could hear the disappointment in Pepa's voice. He told me we should have come their way! I told him if they wanted to, meet us In Midland and we would eat. He told me O.K., he would buy my birthday lunch. I told him he and Krl would have to work that out because we already had made a date.

We flipped our schedule and began making all our stops. We had walked out of the grocery store (our last stop before eating a late lunch) on the way to our car when Pepa called me. They were in Midland, "now where?" I made a snap decision to go to The Cattle Baron and gave him directions. This was my first test of how well I am getting to know Midland. I told him, then called back and changed the name of an intersecting street. Krl and I were fast approaching from the total opposite direction. We arrived at the intersection and I pulled over to take a call from Pat (wishing me happy birthday) and when we got off I still had not heard from Pepa so I called him. They were already at the restaurant one block away! Talk about good directions!

The restaurant looked closed. Krl went to the door and checked it out. They were open. However, we were the only customers in the joint. We had a good little waitress, the salad bar was outstanding, the steaks good. Though the crab legs were not quite up to standard. Before Pepa knew it, Krl and the waitress had conspired and the bill was paid! Heh! She is a sneaky little booger!

We had a good visit! They came prepared, bearing gifts and birthday cake! Memama had a sack full of gifts. I accused her of walking through her house and just picking items up! She has kept some of the neatest things from my past. Some items I don't even know how she ended up with them. Yesterday one gift was a new shirt. (I be stylin'). Another was a copy of the Roscoe Times Newspaper which had a picture from a Boys Club trip in the 1960's. Fred and I were both prominently positioned in it. The third gift was my old pilot's log book from when I was learning to fly and getting my license. It stirred a different era in my life. Last but not least was a birthday card which is a small book. I read about half of it last evening. It is very sweet.

So, my birthday was a good day.

By the way, my birthday cake (the whole thing) is an Italian Cream Cheese Cake! Ummmmm!

Krl and I got home and were so stuffed from our late lunch we didn't even eat a main course supper. We just ate dessert!

I had just gone to bed last night when Jeanetta called to wish me a happy birthday!

By the way, I heard from everyone but Kali, Addy, and Trc and the girls. (Although Trc sent me a gift, it didn't make it because of the holiday!

This morning I got up and my trucks were "right on"! Zero bales ont he ground!

Happy Birthday Kathryn Grace!

Have a day!

FATHER, thank YOU for a wonderful day yesterday. Let's do it again!