A week filled with short nights. Yuk.

I had hoped to go to De Leon for the Peach and Melon Festival truck and tractor pull. After about three hours sleep Wednesday night, I didn't think it would be a good idea to make the trip Thursday night. It would probably have meant my day would be twenty-four or twenty-five hours long. So I deferred to Friday night.

Then my Thursday sleep was short , so now I am down to the final night of the festival. Saturday night. And I have been up a while. Double yuk!

Thursday night Rian had a fourth on the econo rod and Jason had a sixth on the pro mod. They didn't think they had hurt any thing, but did have some concerns about the pro mod at the end of its pull.

Jason drove back to Roscoe, but Rian and his friend Andy stayed in the motorhome at the pull. Friday morning they began doing routine maintenance and found they had been running dangerously lean on their fuel setting on the big tractor.

Us announcers have a saying "Lean is mean". But the other side of that is "lean is expensive". Always got to have that fine line between nirvana and disaster!

When they began adjusting valves, Rian found one rocker arm laying on top of the head. The adjusting nut was broken, the push rod was wedged through the guide and into the lifter galley and closer inspection revealed a missing lifter. When the rocker nut broke it allowed the push rod and lifter to leave their locations. The lifter was at the front of the lifter galley but it was O.K. After borrowing a rocker nut from K.O., they got the tractor back together for Friday's show with about a half hour to spare.

My biggest fear would be that when the lifter was pushed out, that its void would be a "relief" location for oil pressure, which might mean other engine parts might lack for lubrication.

Luckily, that didn't happen. Devon ran fourth on the econo rod and Rian ran fifth with the pro mod. Rian said he had a really scary ride.

Best news yet, they didn't hurt any thing! Here is hoping their maintenance holds that up.

Last night, just about time for last call for the houndgirls (meaning sending the three hounds out for a potty run) we had a powerful little, fast moving storm come through.. Wind, bluster, thunder, and rain. None of the hounds wanted to get their dainty little feet wet so they opted to got to bed instead.

Just after 1 in the morning I could hear the jingle jangle of Brandy's collar and a little snort once in a while. This is what I call her little nasty dance! Finally I rolled out of bed and let her out.. I much prefer her little nasty dance to her little nasty surprise.

Twelve minutes until MASH goes off, then I'm going back to bed.

Have a day!

FATHER, bless this day. I pray for deliverance! YOU know our needs!