I confess, I have been derelict in my blogging duties.

I don't know why, and I am not going to look a gift horse in the mouth, but I have been setting an alarm for about the last week and I have been studying my eyelids when it has gone off. That is until today. I woke seven minutes prior to the alarm going off.

I have been tired. I have been sleep short. I have gone since the twenty-fifth, my last day off, and I will go to the sixth of this month until my next schduled day off. Add to this the quarterly reports I was working on and I had several nights of close to midnight work in the home office.

This past week I had done the parts store, after starting my week helping K.O. on Monday. On Friday I had agreed to fill in for K.O. so he could go to Oklahoma. I was going to work forty-eight hour straight. Friday, Friday night, Saturday, and Saturday night. He expected to return on Sunday morning.

K.O. had a difficult time leaving. We had ice and his destination had even more than we did. I encouraged him to leave, telling him we would handle whatever came up. It might be ugly, but we would cover it one way or the other.

Finally he got in his pickup and left.

Our deal had been for a base line pay, tied to shift work. We knew how much I make in a regular day and how much added pay I could make in an exceptional day.

I had loaded bedding, my bag, three changes of clothes (I was afraid as wet and muddy as it was I might need to change to stay warm), and a few grocery items. The plan called for me to spend the nights at the jobsite in his travel trailer, waiting for the alarm to sound alerting me to switch trucks under the auger.

K.O. tells me how physically demanding this job is, and I have no doubt that day after day, week after week it takes a toll being on site and on call twenty-four/seven. I was game for the job because it would enable K.O. to do something he really wanted to do, even though I did dread it.

I am not the kind of guy who enjoys not having anything to do, so I thought I would be able to stay busy loading bales, loading seed, and loading and hauling burrs locally for cattle feed.

I would be wrong. On Friday they battled wet cotton all day long and by days end they had ginned twenty-four bales, all day. I had hauled one load of burrs, loaded one load of seed, and loaded one load of bales, all of which were finished on my watch. The majority had been ginned prior to seven Friday morning.

Late Friday the head ginner came to me and told me, "We are all very tired. This wet cotton is difficult to gin. We are going to shut down and not gin until noon or there about tomorrow. Go home, and return tomorrow."

I checked in with the office, just to be sure. When I headed to Abilene I called Krl to tell her of the new developments.

K.O. told me that whatever time the head ginner told me, to take and hour off because he is notorious for starting early.

Saturday morning I got up, dressed, went to the barber shop and then headed to Anson. When I arrived there I was well ahead of the scheduled time, even with the cushion. I began starting trucks, forklifts and loaders. As luck would have it, it was good I got there early as two trucks refused to start without serious encouragement. In fact it was after the plant had started that I got the last truck started.

After ginning thirty-six bales, the plant went down just prior to the anticipated shift change. I went inside to investigate and learned they had a broken seed auger flight which had stacked the flight in about four inches of shaft instead of it spiraling for a foot and a half or so. As luck would have it, it was a left handed flight and they had no replacement or flighting. They were going to have to remove the damaged auger from under the gin stands and then heat and bend the flight back into proper shape before welding it. They informed me it would be late before repairs were completed on the auger and then it would have to cool down before re-installation could take place.

The manager told me, "Go home".

I returned Sunday morning between six and six-thirty (once again trying to ward off an early start). I started all the equipment, having to boost only one truck. Then I sat and waited. Finally I went in to K.O.'s trailer and turned the television on. About nine the plant came to life. At one o'clock my first truck came to load seed, and about mid afternoon I saw K.O., for the first time. He asked me to stay on while he dealt with an issue in Abilene and finally about six in the evening I relinquished command of my post.

By the way, they ginned about sixty bales Sunday. I shipped two loads of seed, one load of bales and hauled one load of burrs for the day.

K.O. can't believe my good fortune of getting two nights off in a row. Of course he was wanting to know if I was going to cut him a deal for the time I was on site. I told him while I sympathized with their pathetic production, I was on site.

It will be interesting come pay day. Since I did work Sunday, I only lost one shift of the four I was scheduled for.

We had guests at our home last night. Ollie and one of her Liberty Tax girls came to Abilene to train the new marketing manager and the Liberty Tax girls in Abilene. It was a pretty good evening. It turns out that Ollie has moved into a house with two of her three girls that work for her. I had a good time kidding her employee Chelsea. I asked her if Ollie had ever shown her her set of surgical equipment? She looked at me weird until I told her when Ollie was little you could ask her what she wanted to be when she grew up and she would respond, "A body parts salesperson". It took her a moment to realize I was hinting that Ollie might be a serial murderer. We had a big laugh.

The girls wanted me to get them up early so they could be at the office by eight. I gave them a choice. Six or Seven. I get up prior to six and I spend the hour bathing, doing personal hygiene, and getting dressed to leave by seven. Although they wanted six-thirty they opted for six. When I woke them, I made Ollie sit on the side of the bed so I knew she was awake before I retreated to my bedroom and bath.

When I left the house just prior to seven I did a double check on the girls, then I called just before eight to be sure they were on their way.

While Ollie had place an order for the supper menu last evening, tonight their boss is taking them to Lytle Land and Cattle for dinner.

When I woke this morning, I could hear the steady sound of rain. It is beginning to get wet in our part of the world. Usually a wet winter makes for a good crop year the following spring and summer.

We can hope.

Rian is flying out today going to a seminar in San Antonio. He paid for Erica to accompany him. He is going with two deputy Superintendents from Central office and another principal.

Pepa is continuing his therapy. He doesn't like it, but I think it is doing him some good.

Have a day!

FATHER, thank YOU for YOUR blessing of rain. I lift up Rian and Erica for YOUR care and safe travel. I continue to lift up Pepa for YOUR gifts of healing and care. FATHER I continue to seek YOUR guidance as we move forward. Bless-ed by YOUR name.