Sorry for the hole in blog posts, let me explain!

But first a commercial! Happy Birthday Drew (aka Baby Moses) Freeman! Big #3!

What a last few days!

Thursday I worked on the little Peterbilt a little, and I decided to do some maintenance on my pickup.

I had been hearing a chirping noise and finally decided it was an idler pulley on the the front of the motor. I replaced the idler and as I was replacing the fan shroud, I hit the fan. It had some play. Further investigation revealed the water pump was going out. Chris did have it too though. I removed the faulty pump, but took a farm pickup home Thursday night.

Friday morning I was running Abilene errands when I got a call from Jason. The seal on the first stage cylinder on the forklift he has leased, turned loose again. I called my hydraulic shop and they began trying to find where the seals were we ordered two weeks ago. Turns out they are lost in transit. While they worked the phones, I checked every other possibility, even trying to find the man who bought a shop that had closed inventory. Ultimately we settled on new seals Saturday delivery!

Then not too far after lunch the driver on unit # 424 called with a truck problem. Turned out it was the power divider. I began making my way to Roscoe to finish the little Pete as the driver limped #424 in.

The only good luck was that this driver was coming in to graduate from TSTC Saturday morning any way!

I worked on the little Pete and my pickup until between 1:30 and 2 in the morning. Pat even came out and helped me with some things I couldn't do alone! (Thanx Pat!). Anyhow, I finished the Pete and I drove my truck home.

I got home close to 2:30, put on some laundry, fixed a sandwich, grabbed a bath, waited for the washer to finish, put my clothes in the dryer, and finally got to bed between 3:30 and 4. My alarm went off at eight minutes til seven.

Destination Dallas, Texas. The Dawson unit to be exact. All I will say is it is crazy. It took me two hours to be processed in to visit Ollie!

The first twenty minutes of our visit Ollie just cried. Which made it very hard for her Dad. It had been two months since her last contact visit (by the way all of her visits at Dawson are contact visits). I didn't know who she was going to hug, me or the Dr. Pepper I had bought downstairs. I also brought her some M & M's and some chips, but she told me if I came again to bring her five DP's. I told her she didn't need five.

We had a good visit. Way too much ground to cover, but I will say she is well. Still discovering stuff about herself and why she is there. She does have a job waiting on her when she gets out and is making other plans, which I will let her tell everyone about in her own time frame.

It was hard to leave her there. 38 days from today, I think. She will walk out the front door.

For those of you who have never done this jail or TDCJ visit, it takes a lot out of you!

Drove home. Fielded a lot of missed calls, which the most important of all was informing me that one of the Loop truck drivers had a stomach bug. K.O. was turning flips fitting everyone where they needed to be. We talked and agreed on a plan and began working it.

Sunday morning I was headed to Coyonosa to repair the forklift, driving back by Loop to get driver envelopes. To be safe I threw in enough clothes for 4 days in case the bug made its rounds among truck drivers. Sure enough, before I got by Roscoe my plans changed. The sick Saturday driver was still sick. I came to Loop and ended up being a safety or relief driver.

This morning I have already had calls. The evil bug is making its rounds. The day bale driver is now ill.

I have already reserved my room for tonight.

That is O.K., because I need to have a face to face with the one driver who is not playing well with others.

Gotta get!

Have a day, and play well with others!

FATHER, I know you will get me through this. To YOU be the glory! Great things YOU do everyday!