Heat, Fire, and Nazarenes?

It’s a beautiful, sunny, cool day in Maryland. Perfect football weather, if you’re into that sort of thing. I went out today to price a couple of jobs. The wind a couple of days ago took down two pine trees in a friend’s neighborhood. It is going to take a while to trim them, cut them up and load them. There’s no way to get the truck near the work site without really ticking off the customer and leaving some nice ruts in their respective front yards. I am still tempted … but discretion is the better part of value.

That will keep me busy for a couple of days. I’m also staying on horse duty. I’m taking the morning shift this coming week and switching to afternoon feedings when I start working for Lockheed Martin. I think I have the pleasure of cleaning stalls on both shifts. I’ve often wondered how people have any authority at all with large animals. I can imagine them talking about me. “Oh, him. Don’t mind him. He’s our domestic. He gets our meals and cleans our rooms. But don’t say anything. He thinks he’s in charge.”

Nemi, the mare with a taste for Dave, is going bye-bye. She and Taffy are being sent somewhere. Gunner and Tribby will be staying. They, along with Li’l Bit and Patty will be weaned soon. Also, Image and Slipper, who have been at camp (on loan to a therapeutic riding center in the next county), are coming home today. I’ll miss Taffy. Nemi would make some very nice glue. Or horse d’ouerves.

Tonight we’re going to a campfire. A friend built a fire pit, obtained a permit, and is inviting several families from church out for wieners, s’mores, marshmallows, etc. It should be fun. By then, the heating man who is in our basement even as I type will be through and the house should be warm. Of course, to my way of thinking, the house should have stayed warm after the first and second repairmen came out. The good news is that the technician who is here now is the installation supervisor. Our unit has a brand new blower and is getting a second brand new transformer. Even at 20 years old, it should last at least another five to eight years. Hurrah! That beats the heck out of buying a new one.

Katie’s becoming a Nazarene. I’m just teasing. But she has begun attending their church and youth group. Tomorrow it’s my turn to take her. The church is about 30 minutes away, not far from where Joan used to work in Gaithersburg. There are 40+ kids in the youth group. Somehow Katie prefers that to the two who attended ours. The youth group is called Deep Impact. I don’t know, but I figure if you skip youth group and know that overall attendance has dropped by 50 percent, that’s a pretty significant impact. But we just call ours “youth group.”

That’s the day thus far. I may write later. So long.