Everyone lives next door, with the internet

This morning's sunrise

9/20/10 Monday
Church provided the recharge I needed. It’s so good to have people close we can fellowship with but we sure miss our friends at First Baptist in Midland. Distance is an inconvenient part of our world but through the internet distance is sometimes not noticed. A friend on facebook is getting married and asked online regarding a wedding arch. I told about one that is visible in Stanton at a wedding shop and even gave directions on how to find it. She replied that they live four hours away. Oops. With the internet I sometimes forget about location and everyone seems like they are next door. Oh well, it was funny, kind of.

So it’s Monday, the start of another week. Geese, can’t believe it’s already the twentieth of the month. We’re almost in October. Time flies for me. This morning I am planning on installing the new rear seal on the transmission of my pickup. That’s been out of commission for a month or so now. Had to wait for Cherie’s check to have the funds to purchase the seal. Then I need to find a way to get electricity out to where the big truck and trailer are so I can charge up the battery on the tractor. Finally got that home. Had to wait for the ground to dry up some in order to get it out of Linda’s roping arena.

Spent a lot of time helping Linda with weeds and stuff. Her weeds were about ten feet tall in some places. You know weeds are bad when you need a chain saw to cut them down. I forgot to take the chain oil the first day so only got a few down that time. Forgot the chain oil again the next time I went but used the chain saw till it seemed to freeze up. Nut’s, I thought I’d damaged it but come to find out it was just the safety thing on the saw that stops the blade from spinning. I’ve done this several times before as it’s a bar across the top that locks up the blade when it’s pushed forward. Each time I get confused about it and figure it out after I take the saw apart, trying to figure out why it won’t work. Here’s a classic example of how the short term memory is a detriment as I have to figure out all over again what I’ve figured out before. The chain saw is about four years old and has cut a lot of wood each year as that is how we heat our home. I’ve seen how worn the drive gear is and it has finally given out. Hopefully I can buy a new gear at Lowes. They have chains and other parts there and I really don’t want to buy a new chain saw when all I need is the gear.
Discing Linda's roping arena a second time. It had rained so that meant the disc could cut deeper into the ground that had been rock hard when dry.

At some point I need to run the mower and mow down some of the two acres of weeds that are growing where I planted the Bermuda hay seed. I’ll use the mower with the grass catcher as all the clippings will make great compost despite the fact that it’s full of weed seeds. Most of the seeds will be destroyed through the high temperature composting method I normally use. I’ll put some in the worm bins and the worms seem to take out seeds too, at least from what I’ve read about them.

The Christmas corn is coming up well in most places. I planted four different kinds of corn and some of the seeds didn’t come up as well as others. No surprise there. Other areas, where I planted a variety of fall vegetables and had to use well water prior to the one good rain we had, haven’t done well at all. Only an occasional plant has sprouted, three or four on one fifty foot row, and none on the others. This certainly verifies how bad the well water is and how it poisons the soil. The corn was planted after the rains if I remember right.

Always so much to do and always not enough me to do it so can’t waste too much time writing but do need to keep y’all up to date on things.
One of Linda's horses. Can't remember the name but remembering names is a weak point with me anyway.
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This is, so far, an unusual day. I haven’t used the bob scale in probably two years as my slowdowns are fairly rare occurrences these days. Today everything is a struggle to think through, and as I type my ability to put thoughts together and hit the proper keys gauges how slow my brain is working. So I guess I’m operating at a four on the bob scale, that goes from one to ten with one being the slowest. For you long term readers of my blog, that goes back to September 2005, you are familiar with the bob scale.

It’s been a struggle all morning long. I don’t know if it’s because there is so much on my mind, if it’s due to having to once again figure out and understand what I’m doing as I hook up electrical wire, or if it’s because of the stress and sadness I feel from the broken relationship with the ones we once called “Friends”. Perhaps it’s all of them combined that triggers this. I’ve explained this phenomenon, (the slow downs) this way; It’s as if my brain becomes an old 286 computer that takes much longer to process information and bogs down easily, sometimes freezing up altogether. As far as the “friends” I doubt that they are bothered at all. Seems like they just sloughed us off like excess baggage as there has been no word from them. I suspect one of them contacted some mutual acquaintances and said a few of the kind of words that poison minds as they stopped communicating with us at the same time things fell apart. We’ve seen that kind of vindictiveness before, people who talk about loving God yet do the work of the devil.

My ears are ringing now. Not a good sign. Damn it, I’ve got work to do. It is so inconvenient but I am grateful that this doesn’t happen often. Used to be an every day struggle. Needed to hook up the electricity to the old henhouse behind the garage so I can run an extension cord out to where the tractor is and plug in the battery charger. Now I must proceed carefully because I can get easily confused. I am looking at work I did before to understand what color wire goes where. Everything I learned about electrical wiring I must learn all over again. But that’s the way it is with everything and just the frustrating result of a traumatic brain injury and a price I gladly pay for the privilege of still being alive.
This is, so far, an unusual day. I haven’t used the bob scale in probably two years as my slowdowns are fairly rare occurrences these days. Today everything is a struggle to think through, and as I type my ability to put thoughts together and hit the proper keys gauges how slow my brain is working. So I guess I’m operating at a four on the bob scale, that goes from one to ten with one being the slowest. For you long term readers of my blog, that goes back to September 2005, you are familiar with the bob scale.

It’s been a struggle all morning long. I don’t know if it’s because there is so much on my mind, if it’s due to having to once again figure out and understand what I’m doing as I hook up electrical wire, or if it’s because of the stress and sadness I feel from the broken relationship with the ones we once called “Friends”. Perhaps it’s all of them combined that triggers this. I’ve explained this phenomenon, (the slow downs) this way; It’s as if my brain becomes an old 286 computer that takes much longer to process information and bogs down easily, sometimes freezing up altogether. As far as the “friends” I doubt that they are bothered at all. Seems like they just sloughed us off like excess baggage as there has been no word from them. I suspect one of them contacted some mutual acquaintances and said a few of the kind of words that poison minds as they stopped communicating with us at the same time things fell apart. We’ve seen that kind of vindictiveness before, people who talk about loving God yet do the work of the devil.

My ears are ringing now. Not a good sign. Damn it, I’ve got work to do. It is so inconvenient but I am grateful that this doesn’t happen often. Used to be an every day struggle. Needed to hook up the electricity to the old henhouse behind the garage so I can run an extension cord out to where the tractor is and plug in the battery charger. Now I must proceed carefully because I can get easily confused. I am looking at work I did before to understand what color wire goes where. Everything I learned about electrical wiring I must learn all over again. But that’s the way it is with everything and just the frustrating result of a traumatic brain injury and a price I gladly pay for the privilege of still being alive.