Off and running

6/9/07 Saturday
We are off and running but not running as we thought. Cherie’s boss, Joe, came by and worked with her yesterday. They spent allot of time going through how to do paperwork and other details of the job. Cherie’s problem is that her personality makes it hard for her to do anything that she thinks inconveniences them. This comes from a lifetime of being scolded and made to feel guilty for every little thing. I talked to Joe for a bit and he let Cherie know that it would be OK for me to travel with her. I have been offering to do this for sometime figuring my presence will strengthen her confidence. I also talked to Joe about the possibility of me working for NASDA. I think I can handle the cotton surveys they do every year. It only takes a week at the end of every month and I can work it around the slowdowns. Besides I will be working by myself. Being around others has been the problem in the past but I think I have improved in that area though it is hard to tell in some circles. I get along great with Janie, Eric, and the gang but seem to have not done well at the first church of Stanton. That whole situation still puzzles me.

So I drove Cherie to a couple of places yesterday evening and that went well. I would sit in the truck while Cherie went to the door. She only got to see one of them. Seems the woman knows Janie. “She’s a firecracker” was her description of the Janie she knew years ago.

I am working on teaching Cherie some of the discipline needed to work this job, which is basically like being self employed. All her other jobs had a time clock and schedule. It is hard to transition to a job where you don’t have that and must be a “Self starter”. I had to learn all the tools necessary to do this starting with being an industrial sales rep and then having a series of sales jobs. Then, with Westbrook Marketing, I taught sales people and organizations these things. It is hard with Cherie as there are so many things around she can find to do thus not getting to the tasks needed for this job.

So we were going to get out the door at 7:00 for an appointment she had but she wasn’t ready on time and when she called it was too late. All the farmers are under the gun as Monday is D-day so to speak. Everything needs to be planted by then in order to meet government requirements for insurances so all of them are pushing hard from dawn to after dusk. Makes it hard to find time to talk with them.

She rescheduled with the guy so there are no other folks to go see today. I had Cherie write a schedule of what needs to be done and told her to pretend she is punching a clock at the job. Bending over I said “Bump the top of my head. That’s you punching the time clock. YOU’RE WORKING NOW”. I told her to schedule her breaks and to not allow herself to do other things while “on the clock”. She is even going to schedule doing things like paying bills and going shopping as well.

I got an E mail from Jimmy Patterson yesterday. I haven’t replied to it yet as I wanted to process things a bit. First I need to do a search of my E mail and the journal to refresh my memory about him. He has a blog or three and I am pretty sure I E mailed him from Toledo regarding us moving here. I’ll go check my memory now on it.

Yep, I E mailed him March 4 2006. Here is a copy of that post;

Jimmy Patterson, the guy in Texas I E-mailed this morning already responded. I think he will be a great asset for us as he already told me where God vacations and God lives down there. That kind of insider information you just can’t get anywhere. (Now I hope that wasn’t offensive to anyone. It was just a tongue in cheek expression he used regarding some great places to visit)

This journal makes for a great memory. So Jimmy was wondering if I would like to be interviewed for his blog. I need to look up which one that is. He told me in his E mail but of course I don’t remember as usual. That’s why I like things that are in writing. I’m gonna say yes. That doesn’t necessarily mean he will as things can come up that take precedence but the likelihood is high I feel. It wasn’t long ago that I said we have reached another pivotal moment in our lives and since then doors are opening and things are happening at a pace that seems rapid to me. A few years ago in this journal I remarked that I felt like a spectator watching as things unfold as if following a script written by that unseen hand that seems to be orchestrating things. I no longer feel like a spectator but a participant. As I said then I watch with fascination for what will happen next. Watch with me y’all. I bet it’s gonna be something else.

Time to get moving. We are heading in to Midland to get some needed items as scheduled by Cherie. Love the schedule thing.

Midland turned out to be a great time of fellowship but I’ll tell of that in a bit, first to one of the joys of country living. Actually it’s nothing different than what happens in the city except it happened out here so I can blame it on being out in the country. Gotta blame something.

So I get up from one of the sleeps I must have after a slow down and decide to go out and water the crops. The corn has been displaying some problems with top leaves drying up and dying so I get into it, pulling the leaves back and looking at their roots. Find several kinds of bugs and a few hoards of aphids. This organic farming makes bug control much harder, especially when I don’t really know what I’m doing. I’ve read all kinds of things to do but don’t remember them and many require buying stuff we can’t afford. I need to go back to research it and this time take notes on this laptop so I can pull them up when needed. One thing I’ve read involves spraying a soap mixture of some type. I did start using mineral oil yesterday but am unsure how much to put on.

So I have the hose out watering the beds recently seeded. It is critical to keep them damp as the seeds germinate. As I do so the water pressure slowly dwindles down to nothing. “Nuts” I think and trace the hose down to see if there is a kink somewhere. No kink so I go into the house and turn on the kitchen faucet. No water. “Nuts” graduates to “Damn”. Thoughts race through my head as I wonder if the well was shot out again or what and grabbing the keys I jump in the truck and race the half mile back to the well. There are no bullet holes, no pressure on the gauge, and pressing the reset button gets no response. Now I am pissed.

I get my cell phone out and call Leroy’s number that is listed on the well. It is hard to hear him through the static so after repeating myself he understands the well isn’t working and I am not happy. Leroy is in San Angelo at some kind of shindig he goes to once a year with several hundred people so says he won’t be able to look at it till maybe Sunday night. He invites me to attend this affair next year, which doesn’t mean a whole lot at the moment, and we end the conversation.

I go back into the house and discover that there is no power. Going outside I see that not a single one of the many oil wells we can see from the house is pumping so this is an area wide problem. I call Leroy back right away to let him know that this was the problem and not to worry about it. I’m going to be talking to him anyway about his charging me more for the smaller tank he put in but that will wait.

Well the power just came on as I was writing this so it was much to do about not much but I seem to be good at that.
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Back to Midland. We were in Lowe’s getting the fitting for the plastic line to the evaporative air unit when my phone rang. It was Janie. “Whatchyadoin” I heard and struggled to figure out who it was but it didn’t take long as I rarely get any calls except from her lately with their recent involvement with us. I told her we were in Lowe’s and she said she had just read we were coming on the blog so asked if we would like to meet someplace. I joked and said we could use a steak dinner and Cherie punched me in the ribs. Sometimes my jokes don’t fit right and come off wrong. I suppose this was one of those times. Cherie said I sounded like a mooch.

Anyway we are happy to meet Janie anywhere and time so let her know that. Janie says “Do you want to meet at Jorge’s (Not sure I spelled it right) or Buffalo Wings”. I’ve never been to either and don’t like making decisions so I put it in her lap “You decide”. We went around that circle a couple of times till she finally said “Jorge’s” and gave us directions on how to get there.

We find the place with no problem and get a table. Just as we were about to order Steve called Janie and decided to meet us here. Cool, that works. It didn’t take long for Steve to get there so we ordered lunch. Steve asked how I was doing on the bob scale and I let him know I was sharp and had been all day. I recounted some stories connected to my checkered past. One of them had to do with a small town in Alabama where they would set up chairs in the bank after hours to hold court. The judge sat behind the bank tellers counter.

As we talked I started having a hard time following what Steve was saying and everyone’s words kind of became a blur. I got quiet and Cherie, astute as always, asked if I was alright. I let her know I was having a slowdown. It progressed to the point I told Cherie she would have to drive. We let Steve and Janie know what was going on and they were familiar with it from reading this blog. With it came one of the bad headaches that can be debilitating. Steve had to go take care of some business so excused himself. Patting me on the shoulder he told me to take care and left.

Janie was concerned as you would imagine and offered to let me sleep on her couch or anything else she could think of to help. She asked if all the noise and commotion of the restaurant was causing the slow down. I told her that I didn’t know and these come without any reason you can pinpoint. I was about done for so we decided to call it a day. Janie had a dog cage she wanted to give us so we dropped by their house. There is some neat furniture they have picked up. She introduced Zack, their bird dog, to us. I’ve never been around a bird dog before and was amazed at Zack’s energy and speed. This guy practically climbs trees, running up the side of a trunk to about ten feet high and pushing off in almost a summersault to land on his feet.

By the way, I cleared up as Cherie followed Janie to her house. The headache was still growing in intensity and I was exhausted as I always am after a partial seizure. So Janie is one of the few who has seen the whole cycle of my being sharp to slowing down where my speech is affected, and then clearing up some. I suppose that is a dubious distinction and don’t know why I brought it up. I am tired despite sleeping a couple of hours when we got home but that’s not unusual. Night all.