My gas bill is going to go way up and going to putting a lot more miles on the car.  Twenty-two miles of driving to get to her house and back.  But the drive to Shreveport is going to be around one hundred miles round trip per day, five days a week.  I was putting about 130 miles per week on my car, now it's minimum 500 and that's just going to work and back.

That in itself may be enough catalyst to find something closer to home.

The only pic I sent through UPS showed up today - totally trashed.  Glass busted out and pic itself ruined.  This was not the prized dog pic, I brought that in my car, I wasn't about to take a chance with that thing.  No great loss on this pic, really, it is completely replaceable but it's about a $300 pic with the special no glare glass, frame and pic itself.  Fragile written on both sides, do not lay flat printed on the side and the special styrofoam corners installed with the strap to hold them in place.  The styrofoam corners were still intact. The strap still holding them together.  Everything as it should be.

But you could see in the cardboard itself where the cardboard had been smashed by something and yes the glass was shattered into thousands of pieces.  I'm sure the dude or dudette that delivered it must have heard all that noise as they left it there beside the house.  Whatever, it's the reason I didn't ship the dog pic, I figured there would be a good possibility of this happening and that pic is not only a very nice painting or actually appears to be a very elaborate pencil pic, it also holds a lot of sentimental value.  Having some shipping company throwing it around all over the place hardly a palatable thought.
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UPS coming tomorrow to pick it up and then do their "investigation" and come to their own determination.  If they find anything but for me, there will be no end to the harassment I will give them.  I insured it $250, ;which is fine as long as I get all $250 of it.

As I say, no sentimental loss there, just was a beautiful picture.  I have another one of the same kind at my house in Phoenix,  dunno.

Got up this morning at 3am Phoenix time - 5 am here - trying to force my body into recognizing the time difference and get used to it.  Halfway through the day, though I was toast.  Had to sleep for an hour and a half.  I only got 4 or 5 hours of sleep last night.  I intend on waking up early again in the morning.  I can't be trying this next week and going to work for 10 hours a day, I need to get some kind of routine that is cognizant of what's coming going now.

It was fun though hanging with the 3 little ones.  They love me and I love them, what else can I say.  We went out to the pen at the top of the hill where you corral cows to either load them up on to a trailer and haul them to the butcher's or you hold them up to - in this case - cut their nuts off and turn them into steers.  M"lady has a barrel of feed out there and wanted Josiah to go out there every day to get them to come and eat and get into that pen so this process can be done without a lot of trouble.  Well he hasn't but i did. Those cows were at least 1,000 feet away at the bottom of a hill. All sitting together under the shade of some large trees.

So, I took a metal object and started banging on a metal rail and at the same time whistling like I would a dog to come a running.  They just stood and laid down there, looking at me.  They were a LONG ways off, really.  I kept banging.  Finally, they all started stirring.  One of them started moving my way all alone.  The rest of them saw that loner heading up - at quite the effort to do so I must add - and started following behind.  Others just stayed down there looking - stupid, lol. I stopped banging and they stopped coming. What?  I didn't ask anyone about the banging, I just wanted to get their attention. Figured if they saw us up there they would equate it with something good to eat.  So I started banging again.  This time, the ones halfway up the hill started their slow pace but the ones at the bottom started a mini-stampede, storming up the side of the hill which got ALL of them going.

They finally got in there and eventually all but 2 of them were in the pen.  I dumped feed and salt out.  I know nothing about cows, don't claim to.  Just know that if they equate me with food, they will come up and come into that pen and when it comes time for castration - 7 of them on Friday - or hauling off to butcher - 2 of them picked out for that - it won't be too much of a hassle to get them in there.

Water Moccassins.  Well went down there with the 3 little ones again today,  had them stand well off and I was going to shoot them things if they were out.  One of them was and I could have taken a shot but I forgot my hearing protection.  This ain't some life or death home invasion situation, I didn't want my ear drums exposed to that much noise without protection and I forgot, so I blew it off.  Don't matter, Josiah is the expert snake killer in that house and he's all over that. He's been killing them things much of his life and has it down to a science.  That's nice but if one of them things gets their fangs into him, he's in for a world of hurt.

Here's half my problem. I just got home from church an hour ago but I have to have wind down time so it's 10:45 here.  My brain/system telling me it's 8:45.  But I haven't been able to get back there to my abode early at all.  I don't have to be over there until 7 tomorrow, so that's enough time to get some sleep if I can even do it. This whole situation has thrown my system into disarray and I have no idea how long it will take to get used to it. Duke is loving it but obviously also taking it's toll on him as well.
So, plenty more I could go into, but not now.  Time to go to bed!

G'nite.

ben