It must be a work week day. I have been up an hour and a half. Yuk!

I had recorded my concerns about my "repeat" or "lead" employees not being on site Friday, and my inability to contact them. All those concerns were for naught. Yesterday my phone rang and it was Delfino.

"Mr. Freeman, it is me Delfino", he began. He went on to tell me he was on his way to the jobsite and was twenty miles out of Abilene. He wanted to know about his travel trailer keys and such. I had made provisions for just such an occurrence and hidden keys for the guys, just in case they called.

Delfino's journey began about eight or ten days ago when he left Guanawato (sp?) on the bus headed for Brownsville. At Brownsville he crossed and caught another bus to Houston where he visited with his son who owns an electrical contracting company. In Houston, he retrieved his pickup truck he had left there almost a month ago. After a few days he drove to Dallas to spend time with his daughter and her family before heading west yesterday for the jobsite.

Ten years, Delfino has worked for me. He has trained countless other employees, and a season without him would be difficult to deal with. In the past he has flirted with the possibility of trying to move up the ranks inside the plant, but has decided against it because it would require him to take a cut in pay to assume a training role, before he would eventually be promoted and make more money. He can do almost anything, he can do some mechanic work, he can weld, he is an apprentice electrician, and of course he is a top flight forklift operator. I have always tried to be supportive, even if he was considering pursuing other work. Thankfully, he has always chosen to stay.

Last year Delfino became a U.S. citizen. He has dual citizenship. In Mexico he has two older John Deere Diesel tractors and does custom farming. He will plow and plant for others for a part of the harvest. He is always wheeling and dealing, to take something back to Mexico on his next trip. It might be a planter, or some other farm implement. Most of the time he will take a vehicle over, and if he chooses to keep it for himself, he will sell one of his other cars or trucks.

Use to, on a specified night he would come to our trailer to use the phone. At that time there was only one phone in his home town, and his wife would be waiting to take his call. He is very good about sending money home each week. I know that last year he had a problem with a Moneygram where his wife was not able to retrieve the funds. He was beside himself, fearing that the problem was a corrupt banker in Mexico. It took about a month but he finally got his money back and re-sent it.

Delfino is an artist in his own rite, at least by his own admission. He likes to play the accordion and sing. In fact, use to when my travel trailer and his were in very close proximity, if he got a little Budweiser in him, it could be a long fitful night. Probably one of the funniest moments was last year when I went to his trailer to give him some instructions before his shift came on. I could hear the musica long before I arrived there. I knocked on the door and when it opened, Delfino was playing his accordion in his long johns! It was quite a site.

Delfino has shown me a video of some celebration in Mexico, and he is up on the stage with his accordion. I guess he is the Mexican version of Johnny Cash because he was dressed all in black.

A few year back, Delfino fell out of the graces of his South Texas employer and needed a job. I hooked him up with Edwin and it has ended up being a win win situation. In the spring Delfino is in Mexico, doing his custom farming work. In mid June, he travels to Ricardo or Robstown to work at the grain elevator. Then he switches from the elevator to the gin during the South Texas cotton harvest, and usually at the conclusion of that, he is needed at St. Lawrence. On rare occasions, if he has any spare time he will work with his son's business in Houston.

Delfino is not just an employee, I consider him a good friend!

My world is a little more right today, because I know he is in place.

I spent a little time yesterday working on my "gamble truck". I was putting together a permit book that will hold all the paperwork required to operate one of these big commercial rigs, and I was putting on the required signage. I had these graphics cut out at a local sign business. The smaller signs worked like a dream, but when I began installing the bigger ones, I had a problem peeling them apart. It seemed every other letter wanted to stay on the backing sheet. It kind of looked like Wheel of Fortune. I finally got one of the big signs on, and it looks good. The other sign was trash though. It did not help that the wind began blowing harder when I was working with the bigger signs, and try as I might to put the sheets back together, I just couldn't get it right.

On the "big" truck deal for the company, I am still $1000 apart, and I can't make myself close the deal. Is that an omen or what? I guess I am going to look pretty smart or have egg on my face.

I have rambled long enough. Have a day!

FATHER, thank YOU for seeing Delfino to the jobsite. I ask YOUR blessings on him and all our co-workers as we begin the seasonal work. I ask for safety and accord, that we would be productive.