PACKIN' IT IN

This last week I have spent some time cleaning out my desk and packing my stuff for removal from the office. It seems a little weird to do that but I have way more stuff at work than I had imagined. I know we took ten boxes out of an office I worked at before and I have not once looked back into those boxes. I guess I just need to clear out another place next to those to sit these boxes until I can bear to throw them away.

I'VE BEEN THINKIN'

I have been thinking about the retirement stamement I have been making and it is entirely wrong - and the correct day has now bypassed me.

Instead of saying the date or when I had one bad day in a row I should have been saying the date or when I have a perfect day. Lookin' back that would have been Monday - I got through all that crap I had to do Monday and did the fun horseback trip to a good situation for a perfect ending to a perfect day. Then I came home and ran over my cell phone and destroyed it. Shoulda been the day --- a perfect day and then cut all communications.

OH WELL LIVE AND LEARN

REST IN PIECES?

Well it was inevitable that this should happen some time since my favorite saying is "TECHNOLOGY - DESTINED TO FAIL - AT THE WORST POSSIBLE MOMENT." I think you are all aware that Murphy was an optimist also. I have had this particular cell phone for about five or six years. I can't remember for sure but it has been a great phone and has a huge memory for numbers and information. YUP you are right I have taken full advantage of that memory. I had over 600 work and personal related people stored on the phone and some of them had as many as four phone numbers stored in it.

Saturday night I was sitting at the computer and had the thought "you should type all these numbers into the computer so when you retire you will have them." I went good idea - I'll do that one of these days.

Monday I went back to work and had one of those days where everything goes right. I accomplished every single thing (over 20 major loose ends) and got a huge WIN on all of them. You know the kind of day you have seven or eight times in a career. My last one for the day was to check out a trespass and assure it was closed out - it was - but it required a horseback trip to check. It was a great trip - the horses went good, the sun was shining, the weather was cool (not cold - no coat required), the birds were headed south, and the cows were headed home. You know one of those really nice fall days. Anyway we got home safely and unsaddled the horses, put the tack away and fed them then got in our trucks and headed for home.

I drove out of the yard the way I always do - around the tack shed to make sure all the doors are locked - they were so I went on home. As I pulled into the garage I needed to make a call so reached for my cell phone. It wasn't there. I knew I had it when I was in the yard because someone had called me while we were there so back I went to retrace my steps - NO SWEAT - I AM REALLY GOOD AT DOING THAT - THE THIRD PLACE I CHECKED (RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE TACK SHED EXACTLY IN THE TIRE TRACK I HAD CREATED WHEN I DROVE OUT) I could see the belt case and phone lying right there on the ground. Relieved I picked it up and noticed a tire track dead center across the case. I quickly opened the case and yup the screen on the phone was crushed - exactly in the middle - and there were no lights - there were no tones - there was no way it would turn on - the phone was DEAD. DEAD. DEAD. Inklings said it best - she said it was resting in pieces. I was livid - I had lost the opportunity to retrieve those people and numbers intact - and I feel a little disconnected without the phone.

I am sick about ruining this phone because it had been such a good one. I am sick about losing the people and numbers. I am mad that I didn't listen to the little voice Saturday. But I am glad that I have had the phone so long that I was entitled to a free upgraded phone - which will be here in a couple of days. When it gets here I will see if my provider can take the chip out of the ruined phone and transfer the data to the new phone - that would make me a believer in technology. Will it work? NAH - SEE THE FIRST SENTENCE OF THIS BLOG.

UPDATE

Well I am starting day four of the S'Whine flu and am really feeling a lot better. I felt pretty good yesterday afternoon so painted another room - now there is only one left and I can live with that - even if it doesn't get painted for a few weeks. I couldn't stand having five undone.

This is the first time we have used the satin finish paint and I am not sure if I like it or not. It is hard to tell where you need to add paint and where you are ok. The finish is weird when it is starting to dry...it may be nice when it is dry though - and since I have already paid for it I'll use the rest even if I don't like it.

Inklings and I both had a rough night coughing our heads off every hour or so. Sleep wasn't really possible during those bouts so I think she will be really tired today.

SWINE FLU???

Who knows - but I do have some variant of the swine flu. I came home at noon Wednesday feeling a little queasy. By night I was sicker than a dog. Yesterday I went to the Doctor and he told me yup you have some variant of the swine flu so here are your meds - take them along with the other meds you are on and take those as directed too - and you have to have a chest x-ray to make sure you don't have pheumonia - because you sound really bad in there.

He called about the chest x-ray about three hours later than he said he would but there is no pneumonia but lots of inflamation and trapped air and other stuff.

I came home and took the meds as instructed - seems like an awfully lot of meds to me: one inhaler twice a day; one inhaler four times a day; tama flu one pill twice a day; and some other pill for asthma one pill three times a day. (help I can't keep track of all this stuff)

Just for the record I am into this medication cycle only sixteen hours but I feel a whole lot better - probably just the drugs - I have a guy that works for me that always says it is "BETTER LIVING THROUGH CHEMISTRY." YUP he is correct....

THREE DOWN - TWO TO GO

We have finished painting three of the five rooms that Inklings removed the wallpaper from the past month or so - today when I go home I am going to start on the fourth one. I should be able to finish the first coat of paint on that room today. It is a very small room. I am turning into a lazy man. Time will tell if I get that far along today. I chose not to start yesterday.

WHO IS COUNTING

I just checked my retirement calculator and it is down to 6,285,383 seconds left before I retire. To keep this in perspective I will have been working for 1.2 billion seconds in the 39 years I have worked when I retire. That is 0.0012% of a trillion - just wanted to make you think a little about how much money we have spent in the bail out this year---I can't even think that high!!!!!

I can say and spell trillion though, just like our politicians.

RESTLESS IN SOUTHERN UTAH

I awoke at 2:00 a.m. and tried to lay still and go back to sleep. I layed there until 3:15 a.m. with all the aches and pains starting to show up. I decided that 3:00 a.m. was just two hours earlier than I usually get up so I got up and went to work. Inklings sat up in bed as I was dressing and said you are crazy to even think about getting up at this time of day - yup I am crazy - but ya'all already knew that. I got an amazing amount of work done from 3:30 to 4:15 - and I am serious about an amazing amount. I didn't have one single interruption in that time - nope not one - and I didn't get any new messages I needed to respond to either.

I only have 10 weeks left maybe I'll start work from now on at 3:00 a.m.

BIRTHDAYS

I didn't post a blog on my birthday but just for the record - we did a lot of stuff - most of which wouldn't be considered celebrating a birthday. I stopped doing that when the body started to hurt more each time. Anyway just for the record it was a very good day. It's always a good day when you have your birthday and a holiday the same day.

Just for the record, I have eleven weeks of work left until I punch the clock the final time. SOOOOOOO - LOOKING FORWARD TO THAT DAY!!!!!

CHECKIN' UP

These photos are loaded backward from what we saw while we were checkin' out what has been going on this month. We had a great trip and covered a heck of a lot of ground in the six or so hours we were in the truck. Both Inklings and I were stiff from the ride across the rough roads. It was a beautiful fall day.




Then on to the red road - wonder why they call it that?

Then we checked the fencing around the horse pasture - what a nice fence.

Continued checking obliterations.

Started today checking on road and trail obliterations - looked really good.

PAINTIN' AWAY

We have been re-doing five rooms in the house. Inklings pulled all of the wall paper off from them and now we are in the process of painting. This morning I got up and finished one room and re-hung all of the wall mounted stuff. I also finished the first coat on another room that has been a pain to paint. Now we are out of paint so if we are going to go further this weekend we need to go buy more.

*L* tell your hubby we just ran out of that five gallons of paint he gave us when he finished painting the assisted living center. It was really, really good paint. We painted four rooms with it.

The room that we have just finished looks really good - can hardly wait until the other four are finished too.

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED AT THE OFFICE

One of the ladies that works with me had a little girl about three years ago. She brought her to work with her for six months. She would come in my room and sit on my lap and type her mother notes on my computer and we'd send them to her via e-mail. It was cute and it was fun to have her around.

At six months we require that they retire and go somewhere else for day care. I guess that makes some sense but as far as I am concerned the kids could just as well stay at the office. When she went away she didn't come in for a few months and when she did she was scared to death of me. I keep trying to get her to come see me but she screams and runs until she finds her mom.

Her dad was with her today and she ran screaming to her mom...he laughed and told me "This is so funny that she acts like this when she sees you - when we are home she pretends to be talking to you on the phone all the time." He said it is hilarious to hear her talk to me on the toy phone because she just carries on this little one sided conversation for a long time.

SHE IS A DOLL!!!!

TOO OLD - BULL

Last night Brett Favre got to play his old team the Green Bay Packers as the quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings. All things leading up to the game had Favre saying it was just another game. He had nothing to prove. He could only hope that the team would do everything they could to win.

I called Native Minnow last night when OLD NUMBER 4 scored the fourth touchdown and the score was 28 - 14 Minnesota. He is not a Favre fan. NOPE. NOT. AT. ALL. He is absolutely convinced that Favre should have stayed retired. Me - well I think that anyone that is older (Favre is now 40 - OH MY) that can still do the job should go ahead and do it. Guess Minnesota thought he could continue to do it because they signed him for $25 million for two years. That isn't the highest pay in the NFL but it sure beats HE _ _ outa my paycheck.

So here is the deal - anyone believe that Favre can win a playoff game this year? If he does he will be the first 40 year old in history to win one....if you think he can please respond - IF YOU THINK HE CAN'T PLEASE KEEP IT TO YOURSELF - I don't want you to bust my bubble.

HAVE A NICE DAY

CLEAN-UP

Yesterday we spent some time cleaning up the mess that the frost left us. We pulled everything out of the garden except the tomato plants (that only got frosted on the tips) because we are covering them and the cucumber plants that we have been covering. Everything else bit it, but what do you expect at 21 degrees farenheit. I think we will be able to get a few more tomatoes and cucumbers before the winter season takes it all away.

This has been a good garden even though it started really late because it was so cool and wet this spring. I don't think we took more out of it than ususal but we have really enjoyed it and have eaten a lot of stuff out of it. This was a really good garden - I hate to lose it.

WHO'D A THUNK

I was talking to my college room mate a few weeks ago and we were kind of laughing about what has happened with our lives since we left that college way back in 1968. He said on August 15 he and his spouse will have been married 40 years - I laughed and said well on October 2 we will have been married 40 years.

Neither of us knew when the other got married since we lost track of each other for all of those years and didn't reconnect until two years ago on Christmas day. I googled him and actually found him and his wife who I also knew. There were about 350,000 hits on his name the third way I tried it and I decided I would look as far down that list as I could stand to - they were on the second page. I was tickled and immediately called them - but - no one was home.

I left a message and hoped to hear from them sometime over the holidays. Christmas night late they called and we visited for quite a while and had some good laughs and talked about old times, our kids, our grand kids, our lives, where we had lived what we did for a living and all of that stuff. Anyway that is just filler for this blog. But wanted you to know we had a good reconnect call.

While we were talking this time I laughed a little and said "Who would ever think that the two of us and our spouses would be the ones in all of the folks we went to college with that would stay married for 40 years."

He laughed hard and said "Dee Ice, at the time we were running around together you could get a bet any night of the week that we wouldn't live to be 21." Guess we beat the odds on that.

Anyway tomorrow marks the fortieth year that Inklings has put up with me. I was lucky to get her and am extremely happy that I did. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY INKLINGS!!!!

SUMMERS END

Today marks the official end of summer, at least here, because today it froze in the valley with temps predicted at 21 degrees F. It is also predicted that the next five days will each have temperatures below freezing. SO - we'll try to cover and save the garden but I would say chances are 95% that we will lose it. The really bad part about that is after we freeze hard and lose all the gardens in the valley it always warms up and we have a very nice fall for at least four more weeks. Probably won't happen this year because of the hunting seasons but I would bet it does.