little blue pill

I'm a sucker for a diet pill so when this new little blue pill came out. I gave a days wages to get the little blue wonders. So here is the thing. you only have to take them when you eat fatty food. If you are eating low fat you don't take them. It is a fat blocker so what it blocks has to go out.

I don't know that I had a typical reaction but it was definitely memorable. I decided to eat something fatty and see what was up. I took the blue pill and ate chicken mcnuggets. within 5 minutes I was screaming in pain, rolling on the floor and then oh me oh my oh my running for the bathroom. flush flush. hmmm that didn't seem so bad So I eat another mc nugget becasue was sure it was out of my body. uh no. oh my I was sure I was dying. between surges of pain I said a hail mary and three our fathers just incase this was it and I wasn't going to make it. but minutes later flush flush. I feel fine. and soon I hear the rest of the chicken nuggets and surely this was the end of my unconfortable pain. I ignore the urge to eat. I drink water, brush my teeth. but soon I think oh gosh that was bad pain but as much as I flushed I had to flush out the pain.

uh no no no. good mary, I was in so much pain I couldn't even think of a good swear word. I crawled to the bathroom and prayed for mercy. I decided to go to bed to keep myself from the rest of the food. I threw the mc nugget greasy little so and so ento the garbage. I dreamed of a skinny deano. I thought that pain wasn't that bad. At 3 a.m I woke and had a pain of hunger. I search the kitchen for something . I found all kinds of hearthy things but guess what called my name. Yes I hate to admit it but I dove into the garbage can for those nuggets. better than gold at the moment. They were stil in the container so not too bad. I ate them and nothing happened. I watched a little TV and thought hey not bad at all. Finially went to sleep. woke at 5 got ready for work at 6 and was doing fine until about 10:30. I felt a grumbling in my stomach so I headed for the bathroom. One downside of working in a giant warehouse is that they bathroom at at the end and I work in the middle. A good 200 feet to the nearest bathroom. I had to stop twice on my way to the bathroom. finially mae it without a mess. thank glory I won't take another pill for a while and I will only eat low fat foods. sure I will

i hate good-byes

My friend Carol emailed that she is moving to Florida. Has her house on the market. I'm not sure why I don't embrace change. I like it eventually and everyone knows that we don't grow without change. I don't like going through those feelings, I know totally well that if I didn't have awesome friends I wouldn't miss them when they were gone. I know that I keep getting older and everything changes. I know that change is good. My heart says don't say goodbye.

Dad always said I was the emotionally one. And it was and is true. I don't know if I feel things deeper or if I have less control than the rest of the world. I know things I think should be ok just hurt me through to the bone. I know that if I did not feel happiness I wouldn't feel sadness. I know I know but what I feel hurts. It is not that I don't want people to go on with their lives. Lord knows that if they had not gone on with thier lives I wouldn't have met them, know them and grown with them.

If I am at a get together I just get up and leave. I hate hate hate that good bye feeling. I don't like the end of open house at school. I don't want to say there all night. I just don't like the process. Just leave and be done with it. We as a people have many traditons about beginnings and endings and change. A funeral is that final change. When grandma Tenny died so long ago. I cried, I screamed, I cried. She lived in oregon and I hadn't see her in years but I cried for the loss for the life for the love. All ove the wonders she had given. I knew she was in heaven. I was happy for that. but my world changing hurt. I remember my mother saying that pain was message that your are alive. I remember Rita saying she didn't cry because grandma had lived a good life . I agreed with her fully and then I cried.

For Carol my friend, when I started at Webster School I was a young man. I was welcomed to Webster School with open arms. what a wonderful family. I learned last names then first. The teacher before me was a computer expert and so I took his spot and loved helping others with their computers. The double innitials made it easier to learn names. Lorretta Lighthall, Norma Nichols, Gary Gullone, all became my quick friends. Ed and Frank had bus duty with me. Back in those days the principal didn't think women should do bus duty Nancy would make sure my fly was zipped and my shirt collar was turned correctly. Carol listened and we co taught several subjects and activities over the years. What a wonderful heart she had. She was always ready to try whatever sily thing I came up with and always ready to include my special education students into whatever she was doing. What a blessing. Now I am the old guy at work. I love my job but it is different. And I have to decide how to make Webster a fun place for the new teachers. I figure I hae 10 years left and I'll enjoy it.

Carol listened outside of school as well. And I haven't taken her up on her inviations to visit but I miss that opportunity. But a trip to florida sounds like a nice idea for next summer. maybe stop by georgia and see my friend Connie.

I won't say goodbye but I will miss her.

babies home

My sons have returned from their trip to Ireland. Joel reported that everything was wonderful. He is now looking into Masters programs. He would like to teach Math. I'm trying to tell him that the job market is for special education but he isn't sure that is his calling. He will substitute this year. I am just so thankful that he is happy. Josh is planning on leaving his electrical engineering job in Chicago and moving to Ireland to work for his great uncle on a dairy farm. Again. I'm thankful that he is independent and happy.

My fun working with the seed corn just gets better and better. I was in charge of re-tagging bags of corn. Taking off this years tags and putting on next years tags. same corn just new tags. but when others starting stepping on my toes I decided to do their job. Which is probbing. The bags of seed corn say things like 1493 kernals in bag. we I shove a poker in the bag and take about 50 the bag still stays the same and I put a sticker over the hole that says quality assurance. It should say I just stole some of your corn. then the corn is bagged and labeled and sent for testing. I probe about 1000 bags a day. I of course enjoy every opportunity. The directions say bag choice has to be random. so I spin myself in a circle and stabb the first bag I touch. The fork lift drivers enjoy watching me. Then when I have probbed say 30 bags from a batch. I have to stir the corn up. before I bag it. Again assuring that the sample is of all the bags. once I picked up a kernal from the floor I thought I had dropped and put it in my bucket. I heard a yell from across the warehouse. The man said I bastardized the whole lot and I had to start over. I reached in the bucket and threw the darn kernal back out. I'm sure I got the right one. New fork lift driver started today and they put him on my team for the day. He was a good worker As I talked to the bags of corn he asked if I was OK. I said I thought OK was a relative term. for and elementary teacher I'm only mildly crazy. As a warehouse worker I might me a little more crazy.

I went to see my mother today. There was a cat meowing in the corn field next to her house. A somewhat wild cat. I thought of the generations of kittens we had as children. I was always trying to make a pet out of every other creature I encountered.

My brothers would rattle the rafters in the barn and hit sparrows with a base ball bat. I would find the birds and nurse them back to health. I made pets out the farm animals from calves, pigs, my milk cow. Once or twice my farmer would give my father young lambs that whose mothers would not take them and we would bottle raise them. When I was 10 we got two day old lambs. We named them Mike and Mary Anne. I would spend the day with them and they had full run of the yard. They followed us everywhere on the farm. They were still quite young when the tornado of 1968 hit our farm and the villiage of Wapella.

We has regular storm drills in school. They did help us prepare. When the rain began to fall that day I was about a quarter mile from home. I was at the end of the creek. It was really a beginning of a creak as on our land it was field drainage that came out of two large tiles that was the beginning of the creek that flowed across my parents 40 acres and on across other fields to the larger creeks and rivers I'm sure. I have floated on an intertube for maybe 5 miles as a child with a duck but that is a different story.

I was playing with the lambs in the pasture that bordered both sides of the creek. When rain began the lambs were frightened. It was not unusal for me to travel around the farm. I had the run of the farm and for the most part tried to stay on the 40 acres. It took me a while to get the lambs to the house I put them in the shed and hurried to the house. The sky was looking bad and I hurried to the living room. My mother was at a neighbors wall papering. Mom was famous in the neighborhood for wall papering. Wallpaper was a cheap way of making a rental house look clean and new. It also hid all kinds of problems. Dad was in the farming away from the house.

When I got to the living room I found my sibling in a circle on the floor. Rita was in charge. I sat with the group for a bit Then when the sky and our world turned green I ran for the basement. everyone followed. Shortly after we got to the basement the living room window blew through the house. My sisters wer great entertainers and kept up occupied as the wind blew and the house shook. In the basement we only had small windows which we could see that the storm raged. When the storm ended we knew only that we survived My brother Dale went out to find distruction everywhere The trees were damaged. Fortunately none of the main building on the farm were dammaged. Dale came back to the basement to tell us that Mike and Mary Anne were up in a tree. I screamed and demanded details. It was all a joke. one I did not enjoy. The lambs were fine. I spent the night with the lambs. One of the buildings that was moved was the building that we kept our new chicks in. Dad usually bought 200 chicks and we raised them and had the hens for eggs and the roosters for meat. So soon sisters were returning for the chicken yard with laundry baskets filled with chicks. This was my speciality working with enjured birds. we got a heat lamp and lots of newspaper and soon the basement was converted into a brooder house. We lost about half of the chicks but I was allowed to have 100 bet chickens in the basement until they put the brooder house back on its foundation. I was determined to teach the chicks many tricks. I did get them all to running when they saw me but none learned to dance. The lambs and I had a wonderful summer and they were sold in the fall. The tornado left destruction everywhere but we had summer work picking up rubble. I was short for my age but my brothers would put me on the tractor. I couldn't reach the peddles so they wired 2 X 4 on the peddles. It was an old tractor and the gas was next to the steering wheel and I could opperate the clutch and brake. They also wired me to the seat to keep me from bouncing out. The system worked quite well until one day I was traveling down Carl Springs road which crossed Highway 51. I was heading from the farm to Jim Town which of course was not a real town only an area who earned it's name because several men named Jim lived in the area. As I approached the highway pulling a rack wagon I slammed my foot on the clutch the 2 x 4 slid out of place and I could not reach the clutch so slammed on the breaks the breaks were separate for left and right wheels but licked together I sweaved out of control. As I corrected I headed for the highway. I held my breath released the brake and went across the highway. two cars were heading for me but were able to avoid an accident. When I got to the bottom of the hill. I cut the engine. Left the tractor wagon and load where it was and walked 5 miles home. When I got home I told my father I would not drive the tractor again and I didn't. My father always called me the emotional one. He rarely questioned me when he knew I was upset. He knew that usually he could say something was too difficult for me and I would kill myself to make it possible. Like the time I moved 200 - 50 lb bales of hay from one side of the barn to the other just to prove I could. It didn't work with the tractor. Fortunately for me my younger brother Darrell had already grown bigger than me and he loved driving the tractor. I'd rather drag sheets of metal across the field than drive the stupid tractor.

Easter Past

Work becomes more like work every day. Man the age of my sons has been working for the last couple of weeks and worked here in January. Today he was zooming around doing my job. I felt myself get frustrated as he ran his behind off doing my responsibilities. There was a bit of walking to the office to find Brian doing my job. Then I took a deap breath and thought good gravy who cares if he wants to do twice the work, more power to him. I went and helped another worker. Now if he had tried to take over my classroom I would have suplexed him ( a wrestling move where you throw the opponent over your shoulder. I had a classroom aide a few years ago that tried to do exactly that. I don't know that I ever got her to understand that I was paid to do my job and I didn't want her to do it for me. but life goes on.

My aunt Nola went to Washington DC as a college freshman to work for the war department. She never married or had kids. She was ve she very generous with with my sibilings and I. At easter she would send the girls new dresses and hats and the boys white shirts. I didn't care much for white shirts or shoes for that matter. I only wore them when appsolutely necessary. Easter was one of those times. One easter when the water was high in the creek do to rains Peggy and I went for a walk down the road to the bridge to watch the water. We had just gotten a new bridge and we stood on the concrete and leaned over the edge. Peggy gave me her new hat to hold. Peggy was a year older than I and always tried to be bossy. I rarely listened. I already had my shoes off and tied together and over my shoulder. Holding her hat I leaned to watch the dark water rush under the bridge. I must have gotten her hat too close to the water and Peggy yelled. "Well, just throw it in why don't you" I didn't understand sarcasm. I threw the hat in. it floated on top and rushed down the river. Peggy was in instant tears and ran for the house to tell mom. I ran with the hat and it floated along. I grabbed a willow stick and reached for it but he kept swaying out of my reach. I didn't know how to swim but I wadded in several times. the hat just kept getting a head of me. I ran ahead of it grabbed a willow tree that was in the water and tried to wade out further. I had already lost my shoes and when my pant cuffs filled with mud they were the next to go. The catch was unsuccessful I climbed the muddy bank and had given up. I decided it was time to go home a face whatever punishment I would be given. Mom rarely gave out punishment. It was more of talk to me about it. uggg. I rather be dragged by wild hogs though the pig lot. When when I climbed out of the weeds I discovered I was almost to the next road over. a 1/2 mile from home. I thought I would take the road. I think I was thinking of the longest route home. When I got close to the road I look back at the creek and there glory of glories was the hat. It was caught in the low fence that farmers some times hung over fences to keep their cattle from going into the creek and excaping. I climbed across the fence retrieved the hat and headed for home. My white shirt was shedded my pants and shoes were somewhere. and off I trudged with the little white plastic hat hanging on my willow stick in my little tighty whities. I found my shoes near the road when I approached home. and I took the ribbon off my easter bucket to replace the one that was on the hat and had not survived the swim. I don't know that anyone paid attention to my clothing or lack there of. It wasn't really that unusual. I gave Peggy back her hat and by this time she had forgotten that she even wanted the hat and just told me not to ever do it again. Mom never talked to me about the hat and I didn't go looking for trouble. I found some pants and a shirt in the basement without having to into the house. the basement had an outside entrance. I spent the rest of the day in the barn with a cow that was suppose the calf. She was the cow I milked and we had stopped milking her to get her bread. We still let her in the barn so she wouldn't get out of the habbit. I would often sit in the pasture with her and she would lick my head. The barn swallows had begun to build a nest and I'd watch their progress.

I must have been a teacher's nightmare. 'cause I always was out with the cows and rarely took a bath. When my sisters would be upset with me I would run to the middle of the cow lot ankle deep in cow manure and throw dry chunks at them. I did usually hose down before entering the house.

I remember grandpa.

I'm at work at the hotel. The place is quiet and my mind is winding back to when I was 3. Both of my grandfathers died when I was 3 a week apart. I remember them both. I can't tell you what I ate yesterday. but Grandpa Frank Karr I remember well.

My mother never got to meet Grandma Karr. She died of cancer after having 15 children. Dad was in the airforce stationed in St. Louis when he met mom. and Grandma died before mom had made a trip to Wapella. Then when dad went over seas. Mom went to Wapella to live outside of Wapella in a small house on a hill near Long Point Cemetery. When dad's grandparents passed. He was able to borrow from his brothers and grandpa put in what he could and they bought the farm where mom raised the rest of us. part of the deal was that grandpa would come to live with Mom and Dad.

What a blessing Grandpa was. Dad was one of his younger children so his was older. But what I remember of him he had patience unending. He was mom's extra pair of hands. And the Lord knew she needed them. I was mom's 14th child. I had a rough beginning I was premature, small and when I was two months old got nemonia, It was a rough winter and the furnace gave out. My sister JoAnn tells me she walk the floor with me many nights. But once I learned to walk I was hard to slow down.

Bails of Hay were tied with bailing twine. a thin rope. when they fed the hay to the cows there was always spare twine laying around. grandpa used to tie twine around my waiste and tie the other end to his belt. Then when he worked in the garden I wasn't far away. And as you can tell from my previous story. They needed to keep an eye, hand, or rope on me.

We had about a 1/2 an acre garden. At the back of it were fruit trees and grape vines. The corner of the garden had a huge corner post. Grandpa would stand me on the corner post and talk to me while he worked in the grapes or garden. As most small children I was full of Why Why Why. He would answer my questions one by one. I believe I learned my patience from grandpa. Even at that very young age. I just stood or squatted on that corner post, and talked the morning away.

Grampa would spend time in our basement in a rocking chair and keep the furnace stoked with coal. He was in his 80's and would have fainting spells. One of the times mom sent me to get him for dinner I thought he was dead. And came up the stairs whaling my head off. That is the last time I remember seeing grandpa. He died on a Thursday. My maternal grandparents had moved to Wapella after grandpa retired at 65. My grandparents were watching my cousin Tom and me. We were playing on the breezeway (the part of the house that connected the house to the garage and had lots of windows thus breezy) the following thursday when grandpa walk in to the room. grabbed his chest and fell over dead, straight toward our block castle. (we were very fortunate to have wooden 2 x 4 blocks) Grandma was a short round woman. She came out tugged and rolled grandpa over. felt his neck, felt his mouth for breath. Then told Tommy to go get Mrs. Burk (the neighbor) grandpa is dead "God Bless him" The then returned to the kitchen and put on a pot for tea. After I inspected grandpa I went back to my blocks. Shortly there after Aunt Alice (my dad's sister) showed up to sit with grandma. No one ever closed grandpa's eyes. I remember laying on my back to see what he was watching on the cieling. I remember men gathering in the yard and women gathering in the kitchen. I had my blocks put away before the men came to take grandpa away.
When they had the funeral. I remember feeling bad that I couldn't get close to grandma when she was feeling so bad. Whichever sister was in charge of me was keeping a tight hold on me. She took me up to the coffin to look in. I went back and reported to the rest of the cousins (there were cousins everywhere) that they chopped off grandpa's legs. News of this injustice soon got back to grandma. She came and took me by the hand and had the men open up the lower half of the casket. For all of her loss she was so loving as she showed a 3 year old the sadness in life. Grandpa Tenny was different from grandpa Karr. Grandpa Tenny's hands were soft and he wore wire rimmed glasses. He spent his life working as a recorder. Grandpa Karr had earned his living working with his hands. I would talk to both grandpas after their death. No need for an imaginary friend I had grandpas. It still amazes me how much my father came to be like his father in his old age. Dad has been gone for seven years and I still take a second look when I see someone in bibbed overalls or hear a bad joke.

Snapping Turtles.

My life has always been an adventure. Some have asked why these things happen to me. I have always felt fortunate to have caring people around me to save me. I believe that GOD works through people. Those times when there is no time to decide if you should put yourself in danger or just react. My sister Rita is the hero of this story. When I was knee high to a butterfly. ok a bit bigger. I was very small compared to others my age. I would follow anyone anywhere. My father was a road commissioner and before the days of township buildings all of the equipment was stored at our farm. One of the pieces of equipement was a road roller. When they would build a new road they would pull this multi-wheeled cart down the road to flatten it. The cart was huge and when rolling they would fill it with water or other heavy stuff. but then they moved it from place to place they would empty out the cart. Well my brothers would alway catch, or trap any helpless creature they could and this time they had caught several snappin turtles. They decided to keep them in the roller cart that was filled with water. So they have 6 or so snapping turtles in the cart and I heard them telling someone else about this so I'm sure I was planning on saving the turtles from their plans of soup. or at any rate getting a good look as these turtles. so I climbed right up the end of the cart knelt on the edge. I couldn't see them well enough so I leaned in. And of course fell in. I didn't know how to swim. Lord I barely knew how to climb up the side of the thing. My sister Rita saw a flash of color as I fell in. She ran to the cart, climbed up and grabbed me. The only thing she could reach was my hair she grabbed on a pulled me out.
My guardian Angel was kept quite busy.

Lasagna

You know when you get a craving for something and it gets worse the more you ignore it. Luis had a craving for lasagna. We went to Bob Evans and had eggs 'cause they didn't have Lasagna. We went to Perkins, Dennys. Cheddars, O'Charleys. all no lasagna. we had some great meals. This was all over about a month period. I even bought hamburger helper Lasagna It wasn't lasagna. Barb Gullone promised me a couple of years ago some lasagna. but she is a busy woman. Somewhere in the past I remembered my nephew Jason ordering Lasagna in Heyworth at the family restaurant. So I called and the woman said "Let me check" when she returned she said Yes we do. whoooo hooooo happy dance happy dance.

I called mom and asked her if she would like to join us since it was in her side of the country. She said yes and when we got the farm she had invited my sister Liz and family to join us. cool cool lasagna party. Liz showed up just and we were heading out the door so the world was good.

We got to the restaurant and after looking at the menu discovered no lasagna. good gravy I thought. when the waitress came over I asked and she said she would check. She came back and said "no" no??? huh? what?? I told her I had called. She said well the cook was a mexican and she wasn't sure he understood what she said. I turned to Luis and said how do you say Lasagna in Mexican. He said the same way you say it in English. Lasagna is italian not mexican. I asked if she would ask her manager. About the time I was ready to throw nicely folded napkins in her direction. She returned and said yes they had lasagna.

Lasagna for everyone. happy dance on the table. no no I just smiled and said please bring us some. The portions were huge and the lasagna was wonderful. Why would they keep this meal a secret. You think they would at least tell their waitress. And this was real lasagna. no something he threw in a pan. The cook had to of prepared it in advance.

the bread was less than wonderful but who could complain when they just had their craving satisfied.

Spending time with Liz's children is always wonderful. Caleb is 6 and has a mind that doesn't miss anything. The other day he said Hey Dean, have you see this cat comercial. I told him I wasn't sure. He said it was the one where the cat litter was so great that the cat could not find the litter box. Caleb thought that this special litter must be some kind of cat torture. can you imagine the cat running around the house, having to use the litter box and not being able to find it. poor kitty

Kim Carpenter, a young teacher who teaches across the hall from me. got married this Saturday. beautiful wedding, beautiful reception, uneventful.

Josh and Joel are in ireland for 14 days. They started out the trip with the grandmother Bridget's family (both of the boys maternal grandparents immigrated from ireland in 1950)
Bridget's family do not drink. I'm sure Joel will feel this is a cruel trick. To be in ireland and not be drinking. Josh has irish citizenship. if your grandparents immigrated you can file. Joel doesn't plan on leaving illinois so he didn't file. Josh plans to quit his job in Chicago in September and move to ireland to work on a dairy farm.

Friday they covered all of the seed corn with plastic. They are going to exterminate all the mice. Poor things. I told the boss that they should call the piped piper. I thought it was cheaper. He said hmmmmm I don't think so the piped piper took away all of the children from the town. ok second thought gas them.

I got the floor finished in the half bath off of Pippen's room. Then installed the new toilet (well a used toilet from the hotel) I flushed and it worked great. I still need to install the sink. I went to get my cleaning supplies to give it a good once over and when I flushed it the water wouldn't go down. upon further investigation I found one of Pippen's toys in the pipe. Ah Pippen just looked at me. I'm sure he thought it was a new type of toy cleaner. Pippen is hearing impaired and so he works very had at reading me facial expression. When I was sitting on the floor of this small bathroom trying to figure out what was wrong I must have looked terrible because Pippen started crying. He laid down on the floor with his paws over his nose and made a terrible cry. This dog is unique

Last year my sister Alyce came to town from Canada. She stayed with me and work on the sister quilt that the girls are all working on. I would lock Pippen up in his room while I was at work. Alyce was working away on a piece of quilt when she heard someone call her name. Allllllyce. She said yes, who is there? She went outside to see if someone was at the door she looked out the window to see if someone was there. finding no one she returned to her quilt square. A few minutes later Aaaallllyce Alllyce. Then some scratching noises. Alyce checked the bedrooms and the bath. finding nothing she returned to the kitchen and this time she heard her name she located that it was coming from the utility room. When opened the door she found a very happy Pippen. She dicided if Pippen could cry her name he deserved to have run of the house.

Sweep 9

My summer job like any job can be exciting one day and boring the next. Every day is somthing new and I love a challenge. I started out working with Darron. Darron is developmentally disabled (retarded) 30 something year old that pivot point pays the workshop to send out. They are 5 or 6 workers. Darren and I were given the job of walking around the plant and sweeping up corn. Complicated sounding I know. I wasn't sure I could handle it at fist. then Darren explained it to me. It is all about the 9. When you sweep you do it 9 times. You can count to 9 easily if you think Three blind mice, Three blind mice, see how they run. ( I know that is ten words but Darren swears that is how you count to 9. ) and each time you sweep you do it two short sweeps and three long ones. the mice are the long ones. and you always sweep in 9's if the job isn't done is 9 sweeps then you do nine more. until the job is done. When we had swept for 3 hours we pretty much had the corn picked up. but lunch wasn't for another hour. Darren said not problem. you just keep sweeping. I told him that we could do the same job in 5 sweeps. He said maybe so but 9 sweeps makes everyone think you are doing a good job. I suppose some 25 years ago some well intensioned teacher taught Darren how to sweep. Little did she know that she taught Darren for life.

Lunch time Darren pull out is monster lunch box and took out one boiled egg. one pickle. a mason jar of Ice tea. and a piece of beef jerky. I pack it myself he told me proudly. All I had was a bologna sandwich and a can of diet coke. Darren told me that coke will rot your insides. He knows because he used it to clean a coke machine once.

Darren and I spent the afternoon pulling tags off bags of seed corns. and then stapeling new ones on. After awhile at the new job Darren caught on. but he was visible frustrated. I asked him is there was a better way. He said the way is ok. we are just going the wrong way. Silly me I went around the pallets in a counter clockwise direction. Darren perfers to do everything clockwise. ok lesson well learned.

today we started out the day probing (sampling) bags of seed that don't sell have to be sampled to make sure they still germinate at the right time. The terms they use made me a little unconfortable. words like probing, physical and rubber gloves.

A guy named Randy works right next to me and complained about everything but the weather. It made me think of how I must sound at times. When the guy who prints the new tages came out singing some old song. I thought what fun and spent the rest of the day singing three blind mice.

My baby finch that is in my porch is now learning to fly. just 14 days ago he hatched out of a gumball size egg and now he is almost as big as his parents. Natures wonders.

Lava soap does wonders

It has been awhile since I have been this dirty on a regular basis. I might have gotten dirty playing in the yard, but this is dusty nasty dirty. Hands so dirty they don't come clean. Sharon found a liquid Lava and it does wonders. I try to wear gloves when I can but then my hands peel from being in the rubber type gloves that the work gives your. The safety glasses that I have to wear are giving my ears issues. I might have to actually wear my own glasses. That is of course if I can find them.

I begun looking at things in relations to how many hours of hard labor it takes to buy them. for instance when we go out to eat and spend $25 bucks easily that is two hours of throwing heavy bags of corn. or a movie with popcorn is at least a couple of hours of work. so I think I will pass. Which would you like two hours of free time or a movie.

I do love to go to the movies. I want a new bath tub to replace the pink one. But when you are talking $500 or more for a jacuzi tub. That is more than a weeks wages. Pink isn't so bad.

But yes it is. Joel helped me tile my half bath off of the landry room. I wanted a bath for guest while I tear those pink bathroom up. I still need to grout and put in the sink and toilet. But by the time I get home from work I'm not worth much work and when you have to be at work at 6 a.m there isn't much time for working in the morning. Maybe Sunday. Or one of these night when I can't sleep.

Joel also got the first coating of poly on my spare bedroom. Yes Jason has moved in with his mother in Bloomington and is slated to go to heartland in the fall. He is doing fantastic. I'm very proud of him. I can't say that I miss the oder. But he was pretty self sufficient while he was here. That said I'm not inviting any more nephews or nieces to move in with me.

Nephew wedding in Chicago this weekend. both of my boys will be there with their girlfriends. Then they leave for ireland next Wednesday for 14 days.

I turned my screan porch into an avariary for the summer. I have 4 finches. both pairs have set up house keeping. One pair hatched out one and it is almost ready to leave the next. The other pair has two that are about a week younger. Both are a riot to watch. I have a small bubbling fountain when I turn it on they all come down for a bath. Pippen also enjoys the birds. He watches them Pippen has mastered the screen doors. He goes out one side and in the other. quite an accomplishment for my special ed dog.

Today at work I was put back with the first crew I worked with. A ocupled of guys that daily joke is turning off each others gas line on the fork lift. At the end of the day they told me I needed to work slower. I told them it wasn't in my nature. They made a 10 minute job last for 35 minutes. They didn't want to start unloading a new truck. I told them I didn't understand the logic. but they have been at it longer than myself. so I just do as i told.

well most of the time.

scream like a girl

several have asked if I would share my stories. I do enjoy laughing at myself. but I didn't want to send anoying emails to people that didn't want thme so I thought this was a good way to let you check my blog if you were interested and ignore it if your are not.

I'm working for the summer in a warehouse. It is a seed company and they store seed for syngenta seeds. When a dealer sends back 200 bags of seed corn. The fork lift drivers brings them to me and I physically sort them. I stacks other pallets sometimes as high and 10 bags high and 6 bags to a level. It is very physical but I enjoy it. I also get to tear off old tags and put on new ones. great fun.

Yesterday I was unloading a pallet some are clean but most are dirty and have all types of crap (litterally) on them. some are dammaged but I just count them and throw them.

So now for the screaming. I'm in the back of the warehouse. other guys are doing the same job as me in different locations. but other than the fork lift drivers there aren't a lot of people around me. so I talk to myself and the wall I don't often talk to the bags of corn as I don't want to get attached to a stupid bag of corn. I do see people during break. but they are usually smoking so I tend to sit and enjoy the air. I will tell you that when I sneeze, you know one of those oh my goodness bad wolf of the three little pigs sneezes. I do hear "bless you" from other parts of the plant.

So I'm unloading a pallet and a mouse runs out. I scream. the mouse runs back in to the pile. I move another bag and the mouse runs out and I scream. and the mouse runs back into the pallet. I'm not afraid of mice. I just startle easily and screaming is my gut responds. The screams tend to be a lot like a sneeze if you hold it in you blow up. I walk away from the pallet and do a different one thinking the mouse needs an escape route. Now of course there are 4 sides to a pallet and micky keeps running out on my side. Well I finish the other pallet and return to the mouse house. I thow the next bag ready to jump. nothing. another nothing. a third nothing. I'm tell the mouse he was lucky that he got the heck out of there 'cause nothing good can happen it a bag of chemically treated corn. Well obviously he was chewing on the chemicals 'cause the next bag I move is his home sweet home and I scream he jumps. I stomp on the corn bag. which he had already left. I don't know why it just seemed like the thing to do. cutting off his return to the homefront maybe. I have no idea where micky went. I was too busy screaming and laughing. And the rest of the day I kept jumping when there was nothing there to jump for. When I went to lunch one of the guys asked me what was going on on my side. I told him I was working on a new kung fu throw that required a yell. He said "oh ok Karr"

now there is a question for ya. Why to men call each other by their last names. I have a perfectly good first name. and goodness knows there are enough Karrs around that he could get a little more specific. Of course this may be my opportunity to not answer.

When the taggin women asked me about my sons. I said Joel was a lot like me (poor guy) They asked if he talked a lot.

today the 4th is a day of rest. so I retiled my little bathroom floor.