2010 - Day Thirty...

A nice chilly start to the morning. When I woke up this morning, I found we had another quarter inch of rain in the gauge since I emptied it yesterday. Like a dolt, I went to empty the gauge, only to discover it was frozen. DUH! Anyway, I did my morning chores (reading meters, etc.) and came in and read the newspaper. That usually does not take that long. Jody got up sometime after 7, and a while later we decided I would make one of my famous egg-loafs. Hail and Hearty for a cool morning. The dog is growing more and more impatient for us to share our plates with him, and twitches like a nervous cat with every move we make before we set our plates down for him. He is certainly a solid citizen now, compared to when we got him from the shelter over a year ago. He is a wonderful dog, and I still wonder about his secret past.

Today will be a day of my choosing. As busy (or NOT) as I want it to be. I stayed in bed kind of late this morning, even though I did not really rest that comfortably. I am somewhat disappointed in my knee surgery of about a month ago. I expected much better results that I have experienced. I am not certain, but the pain in my knee seems to have taken on a 'chronic' aspect, and it seems more pronounced (or maybe it is just because I have fewer distractions) in the late afternoons and evenings. Whatever, it makes it more difficult to rest comfortably, and whenever I toss and/or turn while sleeping, I am very conscious of it, and cannot find a comfortable position. CRAPOLA. And the worst part of it is, NONE of it was covered by my already exorbitantly expensive insurance policy. Yeah, take that Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas. I could have an even more expensive policy if I opted for a deductible lower than $5,000. There is a faction in our country that says we have the best health care in the world, and I believe that, but it is CRAZY when an individual pays $6,000 per year for health care, and it pays nothing. I basically have a catastrophic health care policy. Nothing for preventive care, dental, long term care, etc. I pay EXTRA for all those things. I will now step down from my soap box...thank you very much.

I have begun preparing for my week off from work. I will head out of here tomorrow morning about 8 AM for the drive to Galveston to get on the ship. Then a week of (mostly) fun and relaxation. I will be teaching two classes on the cruise, and I am taking lots of work with me to try and get done while there are no phones to answer. I have the best of intentions, and so I hope things work out as I am planning. I am taking four pieces of luggage, two of which contain the stuff to teach my classes...student handbooks, forms, computers (two) and all those things. I am definitely not travelling lightly on this cruise, but I am still expecting it to be a good time. These cruises always provide time for you to get to know your colleagues better as well, and I am looking forward to that. I wonder what I will forget to take? I will let you know...

I fed the cattle and took another bale of hay out to them. They will have plenty of water (since the stock tank is full) and they have TWO bales of hay, that should last them for LONGER than I will be gone. They were not terribly anxious for the feed when I went out there, and to me that is a good sign, they have been eating the grass and not counting on feed or hay, so they were certainly not starving. It is nice to see them drinking the water out of the tank, and it occurred to me that I should keep the water off while they are in this pasture, just to conserve more resources...no need in serving the cattle treated and chlorinated water when they have a perfectly good source right there in the pasture. What a concept!

Jody and I went into Austin after I fed the cattle, and I just wanted to touch everything in the office one more time before I left town. All was good, and we did not stay there long. On the way back towards the farm, traffic was a little bit crazy...more in just a second...BUT lo-and-behold, driving down IH-35 was the Mascot Himself, Good-Old-BEVO. I knew that he was treated pretty well, but I never realized he had an air conditioned trailer for his transport. It kind of brings back memories of Jim and Tammy Fay, but I will not get into that right now. Further down the road, there was a futon or some other piece of furniture laying half-way in the far right lane of traffic, causing lots of tire screeching and lane-changing. Pretty much chaos on the expressway. Not too much further up was a pick-up on the shoulder with a large load of crap in the bed, with no visible signs of restraint. It looked like they just piled all this stuff up (and I do mean a PILE), and thought they could drive down the expressway and it would all stay there where it was supposed to be. WELL, IT DID NOT STAY THERE, and the guy running down the shoulder to rescue the futon was jeopardizing himself and others in the process. I wonder if this will be on the 6 o'clock news or in the morning paper?

No more progress on the progress front, but there is this (and many other) towers laying on their sides here-and-there around the house. SO, I decided to see how much muddier I could get for the sake of this photograph. It was DARNED MUDDY if I do say so myself, and most likely not worth the trouble, but here it is, up close and personal with a giant electrical transmission tower laying on its side, waiting for its erection. I feel certain there is a punk rock song in that sentence somewhere.

That's it.

Deeds, Actions, Changes, Kindnesses, WHIRLED PEAS, FUN!