Five Years Gone

Brother John in a photo I took about 40 years ago. He's sitting on the back of my old 50 Chevy truck I fixed up. Those were good times back then. Johnny's been gone 5 years now as of today. It's always a shame when someone is taken from this earth too early but to me it seems especially bad when you're so close to being able to retire and enjoy the fruits of your labor.When you finally have time to relax a bit and spend time with the grand-kids, go fishing, travel or whatever else that brings you joy. In John's case, he squeezed a lot of living into his time on this earth - just as it should be.

Me? I'm spending way too much time dealing with raccoons. I left the doors of the shop open the other day, thinking I was going to go back out after supper and do a little something. The wife went up town, I fell asleep in the chair and when she came home she said she heard something in the shop. Groggy old me heads outside to close up the shop and put the chickens away and sure enough there was another coon up on top of the shop. It went down inside the wall somewhere and I locked things up. I didn't notice anything the next day but if it went out, that means it could get back in again. The only place I can think of is a gap along the front of the wall and the roof. I made a couple of sheet metal pieces to close things up. I'm hoping that will do it finally. 

I made some rhubarb bread the other evening. The loaf on the right side is missing a couple of pieces. As soon as it was cool enough to eat, I cut a slice off, buttered it up and chowed down. Tasty. So tasty in fact, I made a couple more loaves the next day as well. It freezes well.

I need to get the SV uncovered and operational sometime soon. It's time to ride. Past time, in fact. Same thing with the fishing pole. I haven't been fishing in a long time. Need to re-order my priorities a bit. And quit the job. 

I spent half a day trying to get my contract for summer school taken care of with the new electronic signature jazz. I finally gave up and went to school to try and resolve it. I pulled it up on the computer there and the secretary tried to make it work but didn't have any better results than I had. She finally gave up and just printed me off a copy to sign and then sent it on its way. We've also got a new learning management system going into effect soon. I went to an orientation meeting and wasn't at all impressed with the change. If it wasn't for the fact I promised my boss to finish out the year, I'd just drag up at the end of summer and be done with it. I've been down the "change for the better" road too many times without things really improving much. I'm pleading ignorance on this new change. When someone other than me gets it up and running, give me a shout. In the meantime, I'll wait in the truck.