What's the deal. I came down here to crack the whip and tend to business and get in and get out and finish this job.

But...................

it appears some people don't feel the same urgency. Yesterday about three in the afternoon the electric company beeped us and we had a handful of minutes to shut the plant down. Electrical demand was too high. Actually, the day before they had beeped us but no one heard the beeper. Edwin, the gin manager is trying to find out if the fine is for each violation or a one time deal. If it is a one time fine we will continue to run.

As of this morning we had enough modules to run into Friday, but not all day. Producers are trying to harvest but they are having a hard time staying ahead of us. This morning we sent module trucks to South of Laredo to begin hauling what we hope will be a thousand bales of cotton. That would be in the neighborhood of seventy modules. I think they will haul between six and nine a day so that would take some time to get them here. Crazy thing is our module hauler is home in Oklahoma and he left two drivers and three trucks here. I don't know where his other trucks are. He had five and the gin had two.

I know. Patience is a virtue. I have a problem being virtuous I guess.

I am kind of bored right now. With the plant running only one shift and with the electric company shutting us down in the heat of the day we have modified our hours to run five in the morning until they shut us down. If they shut us down. That could mean if they don't have a demand problem we could run fourteen hours.

I think they are trying to avoid a "brown out".

So, I am working on the employee roster and payroll report for the accident insurance and also working on the tax deposit. Good old office work. Don't we love it!

I drove to Kingsville last evening and picked up pizza for supper. Actually it will be last nights supper and probably a meal today.

I had a late night call from Krl. I had turned the lights out and already was studying my eye lids when my cell phone toned. She couldn't sleep so she was checking on me. She said Ollie has had a hard couple of days. She called upset about her rental car company wanting money she didn't have and the insurance company dealing with her wrecked car not tending to business. She reported that Addison's Dad was fired by TDJC last week for too many call ins, that her mother could no longer work where she was working because she didn't have contractor's insurance, that she (meaning Ollie) wanted me to sell her the S-10 (which she can't afford becaused the new motor sitting in the NAPA shop is $1900, if you want tires, a steering wheel, and a seat that is extra), and that she wants to relocate to Abilene (I don't think so).

I don't mind trying to help someone if they are trying themselves, but we have and she hasn't. Until she quits feeling sorry for herself and pulls herself up by the boot straps, it will never get any better. She and I had a deal, and she didn't own up to it.

So there!

I think the whole key is that we all can't be the boss and sometimes we have to do things that we don't like in order to keep going. I don't like being gone from home nine months of the year (over seven at St. Lawrence and working on two down here). When I return to Abilene I have until October the tenth to be in place at St. Lawrence for this years run.

I think maybe my biggest eye opener was when the family business, thanks to those unethical managers employed by foreign companies, began to have problems. It wasn't a fun ride, and we got to the point where Krl and I were selling lots of stuff because there wasn't money to make our pay. I finally realized that regardless, I could provide. More importantly, I had to provide. There wasn't a choice.

Those times helped form and forge the ways that I conduct business and handle money. Just because times are good doesn't mean they will last forever, and when times are bad we hope they won't last forever.

Here's to Happy days ahead!

Have a day!

FATHER, thank YOU for not giving us more than we can handle. Thank YOU for life lessons learned the hard way.