Oh, what a fitful night I had.

I went to bed early, to waken shortly after midnight, sweating profusely. Brandy was having a bad night as well and wanted out, so we moved to the living area of the travel trailer for the remainder of the night.

Settlements, that is what has been going on. Hourly yesterday, then work began in earnest on the bale truck and seed trucks and their respective drivers. Since we have let go of two of the seed trucks (or given them a reprieve to return home at least for a while), and since we are limiting the loading hours to daylight only, it has cut down our loads by almost forty loads a week.

I try to load shipping and receiving numbers as well as weights of the seed loads on a daily basis. Since there are no lease trucks running seed that I have to furnish the drivers for, it has really streamlined this operation. In fact only one seed truck is leased with me providing fuel and charging it back to the truck owner.

Bales are a different story. There are thirty-nine loads on a sign out sheet, so usually I pick a sheet up shortly after it is finished and begin loading that info into my laptop. Best part is there are no trucks using slip seat drivers.

This has been a long story, but I can whiz through my settlements like a champ! This morning Krl had the corrections laying on the table and I have already made them, so my day is looking good!

Yesterday afternoon Krl and I had talked as I labored over my keyboard. She had informed me we needed just a few staple items from the grocery store, but more importantly she had a hankering for pizza. Those of you familiar with our location know that the closest full service grocery store is in Stanton, 37 miles away, and in that store they have a Pizza Pro! Depending on which girl is working, it will either be the best pizza you will ever eat or the worst.

While we were there, we picked up some ready made salad and we had a meal ready to eat. While standing at the checkout line I thought the pizza might be suspect, first of all because the good girl wasn't working and secondly because the pricing appeared to be too cheap!

Krl had ordered two pizzas, one our regular fare (beef, mushroom, bell pepper, and black olive), and the other being a splurge pizza of beef onion and jalapeno. So far I have eaten half of the splurge pizza and so far I have found THE jalapeno and ONE piece of beef! It is kind of like a treasure hunt because the girls used the toppings so sparingly! It would be sad if it were not so hilarious!

Yesterday's pizza is a far cry from when we first discovered Pizza Pro with their three pounds of toppings. Rian, Krl and I could eat on a medium for a couple of days!

Tomorrow is a maintenance Sunday. Thank goodness. I need the break! I can't wait until next weekend when we get Saturday and Sunday off! In a really strange move, I am giving my seed trucks off from this afternoon until Monday morning. Bale trucks are pending performance.

Here at the plant we are very quickly closing in on our record of 2005. This morning we were 8,000+ bales away. We are hearing rumors that Oasis Gin, near Seminole, Tx., has broken our old record and completed their season this past Monday. So far we have received no bale count, although we are hearing that they only averaged 475 pounds per bale.

Our average per bale weight has stayed just over five hundred pounds. If in the end we do fewer bales than them, we still might do more lint pounds than Oasis.

This morning I was in the office doing some calculations and found that our bales per module average is settling very rapidly. We had maintained 12.43 for a long time, but this morning it had dipped to 12.27. This could mean that the 180,000 threshold is disappearing as well. In fact the GM told me he thought that 180,000 was not realistic anymore.

Yesterday afternoon the GM, a patron, and myself were talking in the office. The GM said when we get through he didn't know if we were going to have a party. I told him, he should know, he will be the one that makes that decision. With that he told me that there would be a season ending party and it would put the one at the end of the 2005 ginning season to shame! He said we may have steak and ribs, and instead of thirty thirty packs, he was getting sixty thirty packs. That may be overkill, but then it is the GM's swan song as he is retiring effective the end of the ginning season! I accused him of trying to get all the employees and the patrons who help with the party inebriated so he can quietly slip away.

We are one hand down for today. Herberto went to his cousins quincinyetta. Once again, Julio and Santos are holding down the fort. This will be the first test of Herberto's will power since he left for two days and came back six days later.

One thing is for sure out here. Many of the employees might not speak very much English, but they can calculate their paychecks and they have already begun to realize that bonuses are approaching one thousand dollars for an employee who has been here from the start. While the gin pays so much per bale to it's employees, we pay fifty cents for every hour an employee works, start to finish. We have begun week 23 of the season.

Well, I've rambled and rumbled. Hope you have a good week end. May it be restful, renewing and blessed.

FATHER, I know it isn't me, it is YOU who keeps me going. Rest me, renew me, restore me. Thank YOU FATHER.