living in a dirt world

One step forward, Two steps back

2012-02-05T13:41:00.000-08:00

When I first moved back home from college, the day after my 24th birthday, I spent two days moving things from one house to another. I then weight myself and the scale said 238. This was way more than I ever hoped to be and by the time I turned 25 I was closer to 210. Most of the weight was what I would consider "alcoholic bloat." Since then I have slowly gotten closer to 200, with efforts that included spending plenty of time on the treadmill and doing P90X. Those efforts never really got me under 200, but I am now a couple of pounds under that and feel that I could continue losing more weight. After all the effort I had done before it comes down to eating better and eating a lighter meal once a day. Amanda fixes me healthier food to eat that what I was shoving down my gullett earlier. It turns out my diet has much more to do with weight loss than much anything else.

This however, is not sitting well with Amanda. She has stated before that she would like to have a heavier husband and my weight loss is not what she has in mind. She is also doing the natural thing a pregnant woman does and coming along just fine. She is really upset because of some conversations that we have had in the past that don't necessarily hold true. I once confessed that I didn't really want an overweight girlfriend or wife. We also talked about how pregnant women looked once, but I don't really remember what stance I took. Whatever stance I took, she thinks it applies to her and whenever I try to complement her and be a loving husband she doesn't believe me. Couple this with my current weight and I have an unhappy wife who doesn't want to hear anything I say.

In other news, I am now using financial software to keep track of my spending. I had a dog scratch me on stomach while delivering mail, and the incoming money is helping with the home improvement, which is nearing some conclusion pretty soon. We are going to find out the sex of the baby on our next pre-natal appointment. After the conctracters finish up, we are going to start cleaning out and fixing up some more aspects of the house. I plan on going to a job fair in march for teaching jobs in KY, but am not sure what I really want to do. I will probably make more money here as a farmer, but have more stability as a working stiff.

time typed "oftern" -0

Bengals in the playoffs

2012-01-07T19:29:00.000-08:00

Things have been really busy for me the past couple of days. Working full time is cramping my usual pace of daily life. I am now making good time on the mail route, which gives my mind time to wander. This results in me thinking of all the things I need to accomplish when I get home. On one hand, I am getting things done around the house, but on the other hand I am more tired than usual. By the time I get home I am pretty amped up abut what I can do that evening.

I am getting really anxious about having the home ready for the baby. My contracter gave me an estimate that was out of my spending capability, so the home improvement is going to be on an incremental basis. I think we can afford to get all the floor done, and install and finish a bathroom and hallway. After that, the new bedroom and drywalling and trim work will have to wait. I am really getting apprehensive about Amandas future dreams of a "new"house. By the time I have this house paid off, I will have at least 60 grand in it. That seems like a big number to bulldoze to the ground one day. I would much prefer to constantly add rooms and buildings and additions. I have some good plans for the future, hopefully the house will be comfortable as the family grows.

We bought or more accurately financed a new mattress and box springs this weel also. The deal I had previously was worn and getting to be less comfortable, especially for Amanda. What we bought is much better, and I can feel a difference when I lay down. However, when I wake up I don't feel any more rested. I am glad we have a nicer mattress though, it was time for a change. We still have the old mattress as a guest mattress. I am not sure where it is going to go though, since we don't have a guest bedroom and really only have one bedroom at the moment. I am guessing it will go in the room that our baby is getting eventually, but that will get less ideal as the baby grows in size.

My grandparents are wintering in their Florida residence for a couple of more weeks. Some of their friends think I can get a job with my science teaching certificate. I would hate to move away and start all over, but I think Amanda would like such a change. The salary is in the bottom half among states, but Florida is nice and sunny. I don't know what I would do with myself if I got away from being a farmer.

times typed "oftern"-0

In which I am not being very smart

2011-12-26T18:39:00.000-08:00

My wife has picked up a trend that I have not yet realized. I get stuck on an idea in my head and commit to doing that idea without fail or others input. The issue is that I ask for input, and then purposefully ignore it. I don't know if this is something I learned from my dad. I have talked about our relationship on the blog before and Amanda has mentioned that he seems to do the same to me when he gets an idea. I am upset that I am doing this to her. On one hand, she wants me to make decisions and be the man of the house. On the other hand I want to involve her in decisions, but all she seems interested in doing is being polite and deferring an opinion. I haven't figured out how to negotiate such situations yet. Things progress around the house, she has a schedule in mind but is only willing to say the schedule once. I can't comitt them to memory right away and we get in the spot we are in now.

On a more exciting front, the baby bean is getting bigger and better every day. Amanda talked to the Dr. at the last appointment about her insomnia, and things have seem to have got better for her on that issue. It probably has more to do with the second trimester starting than any advice the Dr. gave her. I wish there was more she would let me do for her, but I am usually at a loss for when or where to offer assitance or comforts. We are planning on renovating the upstairs part of the house to better suit a third person. This means a bathroom, some closet space, and more bedroom square feet for us when the baby person grows into their own room. I am getting more excited about the baby as it gets closer and closer. The best part is how excited Amanda is to give me the updates and all the talk she has about everything else happening with her. We got some baby gifts for christmas this year and it is all becoming more and more exciting.

I am getting some full time work at the post office starting at the end of the week. The lady that I usually sub for is having some type of surgery and will need six weeks of rest. I like working and doing the mail, but after this committment I am going to have to consider full time work. The postmaster wants to train me on the other routes which will mean continuos work if I want it. I can't think that mail delivery or teaching is better or worse than the other. I think I might have an easier or quicker time with the teaching route so that will be researched more heavily. Mail delivery might be more dangerous due to all the miles on the road, but teaching is probably more stressful.

I also managed to piss off my mom on christmas. Amanda wasn't up for more Hauke family time after all the thanksgiving and christmas events we attend. I talked ourselves out of going to one of her families events, and she wasn't up for anything more that day. I thought she needed more time and she would want to go to my parents last event. So I lied to my attending/wondering callers and said Amanda was sick and we would come by when she felt better. This lasted until about for about three hours before Amanda got angry and told me to go on my own. By the time I showed, most everything had happened, and my mom is now pissed at us for not fullfilling her desires to their totality. The worst part of it is mom was real excited about the gift that she had got Amanda and now neither one of them wants anything to do with the gift. Mom was also excited about the blanket that her aunt made for me when I was still in the womb. Mom gave it to me as a gift, but Amanda is indifferent to anything that occurs in such a manner. It has been setting in the box on the table ever since she told me didn't want to hear anything about anything that happened while I was there. I don't know when any of this will be resolved.

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Clocking In

2011-12-09T19:05:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since I have last blogged. Things have been busy around here. The main busy part is between being a good husband and working up to being a father. Amanda and I are expecting a baby the first part of July. We have known since the end of october and have been making plans and working towards having as much ready as possible when the time comes. I am looking forward to it, being more of a family man and father is going to be a great challenge and thrill. I know that I have many responsibilites towards my wife, but a child that is dependent on someone else for everything is going to be a great experience. I think the best part of this whole deal is that I am going to help Amanda with her dream of being a mother. I think that is the most exciting thing of all this, getting to watch my wifes dream come true.

We have also finished all our crops and are having a really good year in that regard. I think I might end up losing money I my beans that I delay priced when the price was high. The way the market looks now, it might be lat summer before they get back to a price I would like. I need to be more cautious with my money if I want to wait until then to get how much I would like. My tobacco has been all worked over and sold. The tobacco sold real well and we got the new big baler that all the modern burley farmers are using. My brother and I pushed real hard for the monetary incentive and the labor savings. So far those seem to be holding up.

times typed "oftern"-0

the smartest man

2011-09-28T19:14:00.000-07:00

My wife has said on more than one occasion that I am the smartest man she knows, after her dad. Despite my status, I keep making mistakes that upset her more than I care to see her upset. I can sit on the couch for two days and do very little, which was taken two ways. I was either relaxing after working strenuosly to get the tobacco in, or consciously ignoring her honey-do list. I can also manage to take her up on an offer she suggested and then having her be dissatisfied with that decision.

She has taken this inaction as a sign that I don't consider her at all. The occasions I described are not limited to those two, and likely won't be the last two. I fell into todays trap when she said not to worry about coming out to see her, and I didn't come. I used the word bellyache on the phone today and its going to bite me in the rear end for some time now. She thinks I am choosing myself all the time. On occasion I have been put in the place of choosing between doing what she is saying not doing what she is saying. I am not sure how to react to such an event now. She did preface today phone call with an important event that she hoped I would come to and was all set to hit the road and get to, but I mucked it up when a choice came my way.

The worst part is I don't get the chance to talk to her as I'm blogging like this. She regards herself as highly stubborn, and I can't compete with that. She's willing to sit in silence and then run down everything I try to say. I love herand all I know how to do is forget about what happened and try to enjoy the time I get with her. I watched the movie hall pass tonight and the lesson was once you have that person in your life, willing to be your spouse, you need to put them above all else. The guys didn't realize that until after they saw what was out there. I don't know whats out there to be seen, I have what I need in Amanda.

Most often when she comes home I can't really decide what type of mood she is or might be in. She is usually exhausted from driving nearly three hours every day, and working at a job she loves but really dislikes her boss. I can't wait to see her and engage her about all the topics of the day, but its a real risk to be ambitous and try to over-engage in daily life with her. I usually lose my desire to blog after getting to pick her mind for a while.

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Getting by

2011-09-21T12:20:00.000-07:00

We finished up the 2011 tobacco crop up, harvest wise last saturday. We had a pretty good year, we kept enough help hired that the work wasn't unbearably hard at any particular time. I started looking for a big baler on craigslist, but haven't found any luck with anything affordable yet.

I spent the last two days prepping for an interview to win grant money for a new piece of equipment for the farm. I am pretty excited about having new tillage equipment on the farm, and having a big percentage of the loan paid off by a grant would be a big help. I found out I had to be interviewed last week, but didn't really have any idea what type of questions would be asked. It turned out they wanted to know about the piece of equipment, why it would be useful, and how long it would stay on the farm. I think the interview went well, but I have to appear better than eight other people who were granted interviews.

Speaking of farming, I don't know how much longer I will be farming. I am looking for full time work as a teacher, and may have to move away to reasonably accomadate that ambition. At first it may just be as a resume builder until a local job opens up. Amanda doesn't really like moving and changing homes all that much, so we'll just have to see what happens.

Two months in, marriage is going pretty good. Its really nice to have a partner for the rest of my life such as Amanda. Things are a little different than before, when we were cohabitating, and I think they are for the better. The stress of her work and commute is starting to get to her though. I imagine I would be pretty unhappy if I spent nearly three hours a day on the road, and had to work in the conditions she has to. She had the chance to work a little closer to here over the summer, but decided that the offer wasn't for her and turned it down. This is apparently now the slow season so now not many places are looking for any extra help. I am optimistic that things will get better, but I don't think Amanda is holding out as much hope.

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The Proposal

2011-08-06T20:09:00.000-07:00

The proposal happened nearly just the way that Amanda had unknowingly described to me just how she thought a great proposal would be. I had casually thrown some questions in from time to time about how she thought a good proposal would be in her eyes. With that in mind, I found a free afternoon/day and went ring shopping.

I had FB messaged her sister a couple of days ahead and we agreed to meet at a pre-shopped place in good ole Chillicothe. We meet and had lunch, and then headed over to the store. Luckily they still had a ring that Amanda liked on a previous visit still in stock. The ring came in under budget for what I thought an engagement ring was going to cost, so I was pretty encouraged about that. Mee's had to clean up the ring some, so I headed over to a store and picked up the new lonely island cd. After some time we went back and picked up the ring. Her sister had recommended that I stop and talk to their parents. We stopped and made some small talk, showed off the ring, asked permissions and then went on my way.

Since this was the middle of May, and I had been requested to wait until after Amandas nephews baptism at the end of the month. I had at first planned on waiting another day or so, but eventually got to excited and did the proposal first thing Monday morning after the baptism. I got out of bed ahead of Amanda, retrieved my ring from its hiding spot, and then set the box down on the table where Amanda would discover it. She at first walked by it, so I had to keep an eye on her and watch if she had ever spied it. She walked by the table another time, and went into the kitchen, so I had to pick up the box and get behind her and get her attention. When she turned around, I presented her the box, she asked what it was, and I responded by asking her what she thought it was. I then let her think about it for a moment, and asked if she will marry me and be my wife. She said, "yes, of course." From there she tried it on, and we had a normal day from there on out.

I tried to call my mom, right soon after the proposal, but she didn't answer. Amanda called her parents, told them the good news, and got in contact with the rest of her family also. She wanted to surprise her co-workers so she didn't say anything on the FB until the holiday weekend was over. I still had to show up for work at the greenhouse, so off I went. I told my grandmother since she was there, she wished me the best of luck. I kept busy making some boxes, and kept up with the latest news sports radio. Eventually I got tired of waiting on my mom to call back so I texted her the news and then she found the time to call me. Eventually she called my other siblings and had them call me and ask me what the news was. I told them the news, and kept with my day at the greenhouse. I eventually had to drive out and pick up dad from the fields, so Amanda and me went and picked him up and gave him the news. Sometime later I told my grandpa and from there on out the word spread that we were an angaged couple and the wedding planning commenced.

Married life is great thus far. Amanda seems more concerned about financial considerations than what I thought she was going to be. This will get worked out eventually, I have faith that it will be.

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The honeymoon

2011-07-27T18:36:00.000-07:00

I realized that I forgot to talk about our honeymoon in my last posting. Sometime this spring, we had decided to take a vacation that got us away from the house and as much else as possible. Amanda didn't or wouldn't give me any ideals as to what she would have liked to do, so I checked the reds schedule and thought a vacation in pittsburgh when the reds were playing the pirates would be a good vacation. I wasn't sure that such a destination was what she had in mind, but she agreed and we settled on that. After the proposal (good idea for another post) we blended the vacation into a honeymoon, more at my urging than hers. That was one of the reasons the engagment was such a short period, her time away from work and my leisurely mid to late july's worked out just right for 7-17-11.

We arranged for my youngest sister to come in and lord over the cats a couple of times, walterdog went to my parents for the week, and the rest of the dogs were sent to her parents for some of their own vacation. Monday morning we loaded up and took off. I thought she would like to go to bob evans down in Rio Grande and see some of the sights there, so after we unloaded at her parenst, us and the gift card headed down 35 and took in the sights. I had never realized that bob evans meats had such a prescence in homes as it did, the restauranteering never took off until the 70's after a unreliable pig market.

After the delicous dine and tour, we made our way to Pittsburgh, arriving just in time for a storm front to move in and delay the start of the game. We hadn't figured out the driving in Pittsburgh and were relying on taxis and hotel shuttles to move us around. This got us to the game just as the first rain delay was over, and in time for the first inning to start and then get delayed again for rain. Luckily we had ordered seats way in the back, under the overhang, so we stayed dry the whole time. Unfortunately, before the 7th inning stretch, it was after 11 and we were both bed ready. Tuesday we slept in, hung out at the hotel pool and caught the second reds loss of our trip. Wednesday I gambled and decided that driving and parking would be an okay thing. Parking and breakfast went good, we had an excellent breakfast at a place called pamelas. Then we attempted to get parked for the game and that was a nightmare. My gps doesn't know which bridges are closed, I wanted to get close to the stadium, and I can't pay enough attention in bumper to bumper traffic. Finally we made it to the stadium, saw the reds win, and got back to the hotel and ordered in pizza. Thursday we had to ourselves to do more touristy things. The bird sanctuary we saw was really cool, but a bit smaller than I had imagined. It might have been better if we were able to see the shows that had been cancelled for the day. We then went to a jerome bettis sponsored/themed restaurant, Amanda had the best meal she has had in a long while, some type of flat bread with marghereta toppings. Afterwards we did some shopping, and then seen what was probably the second best part of the trip, a distant second to being newlyweds, the andy warhol museum. Admittedly, I was more interested in the history of the person than the art, and I was glad we took the time and did a 2 and a half hour walking tour. We stopped at the store on the way out and picked out what the clerk thought were the best two books. This escalated into an evening at a very fine dining seafood place, a scary ride on an incline, and then going back to the hotel.

I had considered taking a detour to canton for the football hall of fame, but when the time came I was more interested in getting home. The trip home went fine, all the critters were glad to be back in our company and we had the majority of the weekend to continue on a lay around lazy time. It was great.

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Married

2011-07-26T08:46:00.000-07:00

I am now part of the married community, thanks to the efforts of the now named vet assistant, Amanda. I bought the ring back in the middle of may, proposed on memorial day, and was married on 7-17-11. Amanda made a huge effort to plan nearly everything in that six week span, and it turned out really great. We found a convenient venue, a pastor for a civil ceremony, decorations and food in all that time. Amanda looked great in her dress, and she even said "I do" when the big moment came, even though she had some tears during the ceremony. I sure did get nervous when she was teared up, I couldn't tell what was going on with the glare from the sun.

We settled on a civil ceremony after talking to Father Mike one friday morning. He assured us that being civilly married was fine, as was all other aspects of a civil marriage, in the eyes of the catholic church. Once we get the paperwork done for anulling Amandas previous marriage, we can go ahead and have a religous ceremony and be married in the eyes of the church and God. Now that we have surpassed the crunch of that shortened schedule we will be able to get that done.

We agreed on such a short engagement time for a couple of reasons. The main reason being that being engaged for a long amount of time seems kind of silly to me at least. I had already decided that marriage was what I wanted, and I didn't see the reasoning behind waiting several months.

Amanda is really looking forward to having childeren also. I think her greatest ambition in life is to be a great mother. While I do look forward to having kids, I would like to be more financially secure. I think a child would be a great blessing, and I am fairly confident that some families have children with less that what we have. Farming keeps the bills paid for me and one other person, but getting up to three and four people is going to be very tight. With that being said, I have been much more aggressive in job hunting. I applied for a Kentucky teaching license, looked at jobs elsewhere, and am keeping on the ball with other states also. A full time teaching job most likely means a move at this point. I am not opposed to moving, but I haven't decided what that would mean for farming ambitions. If I moved could I keep my stake in what we do? Would my two brothers take over and become more involved? How permenant would a job be? Would I move back if a more desirable teaching position became available after a couple of years? Are we going to expand our acreage or keep the status quo? Does my dad still think doing things the hard way is the way to maintain a healthy physique? Would I be willing to come back if some ideas aren't implemented? The post office job is great, but I spent five grand on a car and have only made about 25 hundred thus far. They also have to make cuts and aren't hiring full time help for the past several years.

I also want to get some thoughts out about some conditions Amanda implemented. The first condition I am fine with, but the alcohol thing is getting to me. I thought I did a reasonable job of moderation, but Amanda was discontent with my moderation so I am now a sober personality. The more I think about it, I realize that I shouldn't be to upset. I have a happy wife who goes to church with me. I don't spend any money on booze. I can take up other money making interests when/if I get away from farming, such as officiating whatever else I might think of. I have a reason to be like I was pre-21, staying home and not being social. The best reason that I had to tolerate some social events was that I could drink and enjoy myself, but that is gone now, so I can be a hermit with a wife.

I am also now an uncle. My pharmacist sister and her husband had a baby girl on 7/14, named Alyssa. When Amanda and me first started planning the wedding, the due date was the 3rd, and as time went along the baby never came. Due to the proximity of the dates, they weren't able to make the wedding, but the care of a newborn is more important than attending an event.

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An Interview

2011-06-27T05:59:00.000-07:00

This morning I have a job interview at HHS. I saw the posting last week and got my application in the last day that applications were allowed. I'm really hopeful that I can get this job for several reasons. The main reason being is that I will be more able to support a wife and family. Farming is a nice little hobby, but a steady paycheck and additional benefits has its rewards. Secondly, I need to find a way to univolve myself from farming some. Dad and grandpa think they are genuises of the farming world, but I look at how much they struggle with things and the physical shape they are in and I don't want that for me. I also miss the structure of having regular work. Around here I can sleep in and do what I want most of the time without any consequence.

I have also been given an ultimatum that I am accepting. Between alcohol and being with someone I love, the chance of love wins out. Sure, I am going to miss some things that I enjoyed doing and having a few adult beverages during, but those times are out the door and new past times are in.

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Comics

2011-06-19T19:38:00.000-07:00

This weekend I went and seen a superhero movie at the drive in with the now fiance vet assistant. As I was watching Green Lantern, I had to wonder why I missed out on all these good stories that have been in comic books for the majority of my life. I remember when I was younger being so excited to watch x-men and spiderman cartoons on TV, not because I wanted to get out of work, but because I thought the stories were so great. How would my life be different now if I had decided that sports weren't worth the effort and instead buried myself in the literature of superhero fiction? I wouldn't have gotten a free pass to be on my own at the house, and would really have about the same access to comic and reading materials. I think I would have been happier though. Even today, I can't usually wait to get in the house and read the new Naruto comic. The story lines and intrigue really get to me. I usually enjoy the new movies about the characters I don't know all that much about.

Wedding planning has moved forward also. We met with my preacher this past friday and he was very helpful and had useful information for the both of us. As we expected, an anullment will have to be granted before we can have a religous ceremony, but we can marry as a civil couple and still be in good standing in our church. I am very optimistic that our Pittsburgh vacation is going to serve as our honeymoon also. The guest list is going to be very small, I don't want a large crowd to deal with. We also agreed that a long engagement period was not for us, which is why we are planning on such a short time span. Thats all for now, I wanted to get a couple of thoughts down on the blog.

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What to do

2011-06-03T18:32:00.000-07:00

The past three days have been very busy and revealing for me. Lets start with my engagement and marriage thoughts. Me and the vet assistant sat down last night and talked some things over. We both are in wanting of a small wedding. We had to take a break for me to think over how important it was to be married in a church and so forth. I think I want to have my religions blessing on my marriage. I'm confident an anullment will clear up any issues, but don't want being married to the girl I choose to be impeded by such an issue. I was optimistic we could have something official accomplished before our Pittsburgh vacation, but am not sure if things will be rolling enough by then or not.

Farming wise, relations have took a downhill. My grandfather told me I might as well quit farming if I can't listen to his novel non-sensical spoutings and complete them to his liking. My dad has insisted on asking if I am stupid yet again. I can ask my grandpa the simplest thing that I think makes sense, and grandpa acts as if all logic is beyond my comprehension. My mind has settled on I have a college degree and a graduate degree and don't have to listen to them belittle me. As soon as I can find a teaching job just about anywhere, I may be having a new address. I may still have obligations to my landlords for the 2011 crop, but once those are done it might just be a teachers salary and a hard budget for us. For me, the advantages of being my own boss are starting to be outweighed by the advantages of a defined schedule and pay. Why do I need to put up with such incosistent practices and poor attitudes towards mentoring and fostering someone that shows up and helps them everyday.

Because of the recent events, I was reminded of an awesome song that I think is about growing up and learning to be your own person. The song is called "Wind" by akeboshi. I first saw it at the end of the naruto anime and grew to really like it. Wind as in wind a watch, not the wind is blowing.

Cultivate your hunger, before you idealize
Motivate your Anger, to make them all realize
Climbing the mountain, never coming down
break into the contents, never falling down

My knee is still shaking like i was twelve
Sneakin' out the classroom, by the back door
A man railed at me twice, though
But i didn't care
Waiting is wasting, for people like me

Don't try to live so wise,
Don't cry 'cos your so right
Don't dry, with fakes or fears
'cos you will hate yourself in the end

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Engaging

2011-06-01T03:51:00.000-07:00

Monday morning I started a new chapter in my life. I proposed to the vet assistant and she said yes. She had picked out a ring several months ago while out shopping with her sister, and the ring was still available when I went shopping at Mees. We haven't really set the date or size and scope of a wedding yet.

The return to the dirt world also happened yesterday. We worked over the tobacco ground and are going to get a good start today. We haven't done anything with any beans or corn yet. At this points planting corn is going to cost us more money than the final yield will bring in. Luckily or not, our insurance policy is based on county average yield. So if we can grow an average crop, we may be able to collect from our policy.

Well that is it for today, I have several things to do this morning before we get started setting tobacco.

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Vacationing

2011-05-18T05:39:00.000-07:00

I am planning a vacation with the vet assistant for the end of july. She usually takes time off about every six months or so and allowed me to put forth some ideas as to where we could go. I had thought about pulling my dads camper out to Shawnee State Park. I had also always been interested in seeing baseball games at other cities. In the end, we have decided to go to Pittsburgh and catch the Reds-Pirates series at the end of July. My ultimate ambition is to try and catch all three games, not have to drive all over the place, and catch most of the area highlights. I'm not really interested in nightlife all that much, maybe some museums or attractions would be just fine. Just from looking at a map of nearby hotels near the stadium, I can see several park areas, and a couple of museums. We might be able to see even more if taxis become accepted in the mind of the vet assistant. I am really looking forward to it. Hopefully by then all the farm obligations will be satisfied for a couple of days. I am also expecting that my niece or nephew is born by then and that the old folks will be thoroughly distracted by the attention of a new member to the family. The vet assistant has got her sister to agree to come house sit for us also. I would eventually like to get out to St. Louis and Busch Stadium, but that might be another time for another year.

In other news, a family member has died. My grandfathers sister in law died this previous sunday and things are in motion. It was a pretty bad situation really. She had some form of alzheimers and eventually kidney failure sent her to the hospital this past weekend. Boy(his nickname), isn't all there either, but is in relatively good condition for being in his 80's. The thing I don't get is what my grandparents and such are thinking. They are wanting to blame the one daughter for not taking better care of the two, while the two boys seem to be off the hook. I can't or don't really see how parental care is strictly an woman issue. If I was capable and my grandparents were in bad shape, I wouldn't wait for my sisters to show up and interact with my grandparents or parents. As the vet assistant said, it might be more of a generation thing, with them thinking the women should be president of such concerns.

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bunch of questions

2011-05-14T21:40:00.000-07:00

I just finished watching the social network movie and thought it was really good. I have to wonder what I would be like if I had a good idea such as Facebook and was able to capitalize on it. Would the stress of maintaining and building upon an idea be something that I could do? Could I weasel my way around people like that and feel okay about it? What would I do if all that money was coming in?

I'm having enough stress now with all the rain and worrying about the effort needed to get the crops out. This time last year, we were over half done and really just coasting along. At this point, we need a week of no rain, high winds and even then we won't get done until june. The longer it takes us to get the crops out, the fewer days we will have for a full grown crop. The biggest question is what will happen if we don't get any crops out? Is my insurance good enough to cover such a loss?

Things are looking bad that way, it seems the past few years have been good and it wasn't really enough to give me the financial security I would hope for. I have to wonder what my life would be like if all I had to do was come home after work and not do anything. Would I be able to seperate myself from everything and free myself from such extra work? Really for me the best part of my day is getting to be done for the day. I can't wait to get home and do what I want to do. I could excercise more when I wanted and finish/work on any other projects I would like to get done.

It would also seem that buying a diesel truck was a good idea. Diesel fuel is cheaper than gas and has been for the past week. So, not only am I driving the most fuel efficient truck on the farm, it is also the cheaper fuel at the moment. If I could figure out or decide why my exhaust temperature gauge isn't working, I'd be in good shape.

times typed "oftern"-0

rain rain go away, come again another day

2011-04-27T04:49:00.000-07:00

The record setting amount of rain we have recieved this april of 2011 is really disrupting everything. Last year we had all the corn in the field by now and were preparing for bean planting. This year we haven't got the first tractor in the field. The planting season is going to get to the point where things are going to have to be rushed to get done, and I don't particularly like being rushed and working in the dark. I can't really see all that well with my night blindness, and by that time its a struggle to stay awake and alert anyways.

The greenhouse business is also suffering from the wet weather. Our annual sale was very hampered by the wet weather. Not being able to get in their flower patches and being able to work would keep people away, I'm not really surprised by the lack of customers. For the first time in the 20 odd years the greenhouse has been going, the annual sale also happened on Easter weekend. This likely had something to do with the amount of customers that showed up also.

Otherwise things are looking up. I've seen some info about some full time jobs nearby and the post office job is getting a little easier. I haven't been subbing near as much as I have in the past, but when teachers need time off is really out of my control.

Things with the vet assistant have been going really well. I'm able to laugh and enjoy myself around her all the time now.

I'm also ready to get out of my current phone contract. The advantages offered by todays smartphones are being outweighed by the ability to use a walkie talkie. I still have at least eleven months left with nextel and would like to get an iphone. I have some version of a droid for nextel now and am not all that impressed with the interface and operating system. The network that nextel uses to get data to my phone is just very slow and inadequate.

times typed "oftern'-0

fasting and mailing

2011-03-17T17:50:00.000-07:00

Two wednesdays ago I did something that I had not did to my knowledge in my lifetime. I went to Ash Wednesday service per my catholic committment and father announced at the end of the service that I/we should be fasting for that day also. I had already ate breakfast at this point, so I quickly ascertained that I had to skip the next three meals and only drink water. No snacks, not even eating fish that I thought I was going to be allowed to. At first it was more diffucult than I thought, especially since I had to go to Athens and stat up a basketball game. By the time morning had came around, I wasn't really all that famished and was doing fine with the fast.

I started my post office temporary rural carrier job this week also. So far the first couple of days of training have been a struggle to stay awake and sit through safety talks and defensive driving videos. Next week should be more engaging since I will be taking some rural academy driving course which should be better all the way around. The more I learn about the USPS job the more excited I am about starting and thinking about a career in the job. Right now I can't think of any reason why driving a mail route is better or worse than teaching. My decision may come down to which job I can get on for full time first. With driving a mail route I get to listen to my satellite radio all day long, but could get run over at any of my potential 500 plus stops. I don't have to deal with kids all day long, but I do have to work until after 4 or later in the day. I am a bit enamored with how the mail is actually sorted. The whole process is automated, even the letters that can't be coded by the machines. The machine unreadable items are photographed and sent to a relay screen where a person types in their best guess of the items destination.

times typed "oftern"-0

Vacation days

2011-03-01T14:24:00.000-08:00

Well this past weekend I snuck off and took what would be considered vacation days. I don't really know if I deserve vacation time though. I have not been actively working and spend a fair amount of time on the couch, doing very little of anything. At any rate I took off and went down to Shawnee State for a 3 day 2 night lay around. All I managed to accomplish was eat breakfast with the vet assistant and watch season 1 of dexter in its entirety. While I did enjoy this, I could have done this at home. I will have to choose a more active location next time with better weather. The weather was at least heavy hooded sweatshirt weather all weekend.

I have lately been crunching numbers for our tobacco crop this past year. Knowing and determining how much was paid out is not the problem. The issue I and by default my bosses are having is who paid what and when. I kept good records of my harvest back in late august and have all I need to know. The stripping is fine up until we started stripping my dads pounds. The general rule of thumb is that we pay for all of our labor out of the greenhouse account, then write a check back when all is said and done. I know grandpa took out 5 grand before him and grandma left for florida, and then dad used up all the remaining cash and started using from his own account. So in effect, I now have to calculate how much is owed and spent where. This wouldn't be so bad but the bosses are just going to make me do it all over again and then not read any single thing I have prepared for them.

I am also starting a job with the post office soon. I applied and passed a driving test, so I am in for as long as I want. I am not sure how this will interfere with my attempts at being a substitute teacher. The postmaster I interviewed with acted as if I should keep my day free until after 8:30 am. I am usually subbing at school by that time. If I try and do both, eventually someone's proverbial toe is going to be stepped on. I am still going to attempt to look for full time work, really in either job oppurtunity. I am going to go ahead and get a car that I can drive on a mail route. On craigslist I can get a car with high miles on the engine for under two grand, so it won't be that much of a hit on my money account.

times typed "oftern"-0

All done for a while

2011-02-10T14:24:00.000-08:00

Well we have finished up the tobacco stripping. It turned out to take longer than I thought it would. With the help we had we didn't need to push them for more hours and aggravate them. As my dad said, "We're lucky to have help." The worst part of the season is that we aren't going to qualify for insurance payments. We had tobacco that PMI didn't want to buy, sold that for less than half of our usual price and weren't able to have a claim. I don't see why I need to spend money on such an elaborate policy if the end result is I have a claim and the insurance guy says no I don't. Dad also seems to think he/we aren't going to quit growig tobacco. I was/am planning on fullfilling my three year contract and am not sure what I am going to do after that. Ideally I would have a full time teaching job by then, or have saved enough money to buy some farmable land and not be dependent on such hard physical labor.

In other news, I am taking a job with the post office. It is for a sub type position job where I will work someones route on their day off. It is hourly pay, and I will likely have to buy my own mail car. The job does have no benefits and pays hourly. It may not be much, but work is work and if I find a full time job, I can always quit or resign when I find better work.

In other news, I have decided to buy an aluminum flatbed for my truck. Last week I made a mistake and got a wagon up against the side of my truck bed. I called my insurance company, they took a look at it and wrote me a chech for enough to cover the purchase price of the bed. All I am going to have to cover is the cost of installation. The truck is going to have a real nice look to it, and it seems like I have got the highway fuel economy up also. So all in all I am going to be done spending money on it for a while.

I also read a good article when I got in today. This guy decided that he needed to take a break from drinking and realized how it hurt his dating potential. All the women he went out with drank to much for him to morally try to make a move on them. He didn't feel right about going in for a kiss with a woman who was several drinks into her night. He found that he couldn't even date or go to bars and be social anymore. It became very difficult for him to feel relaxed and comfortable around people when he was sober. All of the anxiety he would normally have was put aside when out being social and he lost that when he would ease up and imbibe.

I have recently gone sober also, but the reason is to prove that I don't need or have to drink alcohol. I planning on going until at least June, and then will get back on my usual one or two drinks at home a week schedule, and occasional no more than a six pack of beer on the weekends at home thing. This also extends to the beer or two when I'm out to dinner. The only real issue I am going to have is two events this june or very near to it. My youngest brother is graduating undergraduate school soon, and my youngest sister is turning 21 and wants to have a three kegger party somewhere somehow. I have an empty keg in the basement that is doing me no good, so I may get it filled up and then taking it in to get my refund after the party season.

times typed "oftern"

not the best week

2011-02-06T14:43:00.000-08:00

Well this past week is not going to make my top 5 weeks by any stretch of the imagination. Tuesday I took a pickup truck load of tobacco to the tobacco warehouse and ended up bringing most of the load back. I had another appointment scheduled for the next day and ended up taking all of my tobacco out in a last ditch effort to sell the last of it. That did not go all that well and I ended up selling the last of the tobacco at the open market warehouse. This was not all that terrible, but it brought about .90 cents less than what I was getting at the regular warehouse. Then the next day my dad took a load down of his own tobacco and was able to sell most of it.

In another fit of bad luck or poor planning, I also wrecked my truck on thursday. I was driving up a lane on a hill, and my front wheels started to slip. I stopped, put the truck in 4x4 drive, and then procedded to slide down the hill backwards and was ultimately stopped when the wagon I was pulling got turned around and lifted the rear driver side wheel off of the ground. This also bunched up the back corner of my truck bed also, causing a need for some body work to be done in the near future.

I also decided to spend some time on the treadmill today. I hadn't been on in a while, and was starting to feel a llittle heavy. I have been standing around and stripping tobacco and overeating more than I should also.

times typed "oftern"-0

Starting a streak.

2011-01-20T04:46:00.000-08:00

Well last night I seemed to have made a big mistake. I was at my parents and saw they had a four loko drink sitting in the fridge, so I asked dad if it was his or anybodys that he knew of. I then made an effot to further decieve the vet assistant and got to drink about half the can before my loose lips sunk that ship. We then had a talk about the events leading up to dinner, and why I feel the need to imbibe alcohol whenever I am out of the house and have the chance to drink. That is true, I do enjoy having a budweiser with my restaurant meals. I can't think of the last time I had more than one tall glass of beer while out to eat, that is now besides the point. I have now decided to start another sobriety streak, similar to what I last did in the summer of 2009. I poured out all the liqour I had in the house, and am now going to drink water 90% of the time. I now have to wonder what the lethal upper limit on water is.

In other news, I decided to get a new phone. My blackberry wasn't holding up to all the dust and dirt I was around. The trackball kept getting stuck in one direction, and I was down to one friend on the bbm. I found a new phone from nextel, that has direct connect, qwerty keyboard, and is rugged. It should be in by either today or tomorrow, so my blackberry era is going to end by the end of the week.

times typed "oftern"-0

Resolutions

2011-01-02T19:19:00.000-08:00

The new year has started and as with tradition, I need to resolve to do something differently. I personally have decided that I need to spend less on my credit card. I looked through all my statements and spent a reasonable amount on eating out, didn't spend a great amount on groceries, and will probably spend much less on home improvements this year. Depending on how I look at things, two items accounted for 12% of my CC spending. I think the biggest cutback will be walmart and other such stores. That was a big chunk of my spending, and will be the biggest cut this year. However, the biggest addition may be automobile spending. Diesel fuel will cost more at every fill up, though fill ups should not be as frequent in my future.

What I really am looking forward to this year is being more of a mechanic on my new truck. I can't help but look up how to do repairs and improvements on my new automobile. This may mean spending more on my own parts and supplies. I also will likely be struggling to learn all the ins and outs of what to do and not do, but there are several guides and such material on the internet for me to study and learn. Once I get all my current loans payed off, a garage will have to be in order to do all of the maintenance. I will have to be more like my relative who doesn't have cable either and just goes and works on something else instead of watching TV in the evenings.

times typed "oftern"-0

A year of Walter

2010-12-26T19:18:00.000-08:00

Well it has been a year and a day since I have begun ownership of a dog. Before this time last year, I was content with the dogs around the farm, playing and throwing the stick with them given the chance. At first I wasn't sure what I was going to do with a dog in the house. I thought my dad and grandpa decided that a dog wasn't the best choice for my brother when he was working for someone else. I was going to be gone for most days and he was going to have to be caged up and left alone. Either he was going to tag along with dad and grandpa, or stay in the house. I didn't really want a dog that was going to be in the house all day long, and I didn't want one that was going to wander around all day long like some rogue wolf.

All in all though, Walter has turned out to be a pretty good dog. He will run around with CJ and Mitzie when I let him out there, has learned to keep his potty habits outside, and doesn't really bark all that much when he is indoors. He sleeps well in the evenings, is a little wound up in the mornings, and seems to come when I call him to come in from outside. When I first got him, he couldn't jump onto the couch, and now he can jump all the way up on my truck tailgate from the ground. He was as big as Chloe the pug, and now weighs more than Captain Morgan and is slightly smaller than Stella the dog. He still can't get CJ to play with him very often, but still pulls and rolls around with Mitzie to his hearts content. He now has some doggie companions in the house, and is going to meet some feline companions once the Vet Assistant gives them the run of the square footage.

In other news, I have been especially busy as of lately. Two basketball games a week that keep me from home for up to 4 hours. Stripping tobacco for around 8 hours a day, and having to figure out a new truck are all keeping me very occupied. Last year we had a crew of Amigos doing all the tobacco work, and I am beginning to wonder how they were able to work all the hours they did everyday, 7 days a week very often times. I will be glad to finish up the tobacco, and am looking forward to what we might be doing when the tobacco industry retires itself from the Hauke name.

times typed "oftern"-1

7.3

2010-12-25T07:41:00.000-08:00

Well I went ahead and bought the big pickup truck that I had long been longing for. I finally got to the point where I had seen enough on the internets and was lucky enough to not have to do much driving at all to find a truck in my price range that was what I had in mind. Initially I had a silver truck in mind, but when I went back a week later the dealer had a truck that was the same year, same motor, same price, a nicer interior, and fewer miles. So I signed the papers and was driving home a 2001 crew cab F-350 long bed truck with a 7.3 liter diesel motor on monday night.

I preceded this purchase by perusing the internet message boards by reading all about different Powerstroke engines and decided the 7.3 motor was not all that bad. I couldn't expect to get great fuel mileage, but with enough modifications and care, I might be able to get 20 mpg highway driving and hopefully 15 or so on short farm drives and such. This means adding fuel additives and keeping the oil changed often enough. I may have to do more mechaning on my own also, every oil change that someone else does for me might cost more than 80 or 90 dollars, whereas if I do it on my own, I should only have to spend 50 or 60 and spend the time to do it.

I also have a few modifications that I need to do. First will probably be a 5th wheel or gooseneck trailer ball. If I can get a good enough price on a flatbed for the truck, I will go ahead and spend the money to get that done also. After the trailer ball is put in, I need to change the exhaust also. I need to put a larger exhaust on the truck so the exhaust has an easier time getting out. I have read all over the place how the stock exhaust on these trucks backs up some in the smaller 3 inch pipes and a 4 inch exhaust lets that job be done much easier. I have also read about some modification for the fuel tank that lets it fill up easier, a bumper mod for the heating unit so I don't have a loose cord hanging out, and some part I can put on the oil line to help changing the oil move along faster.

I sold my red F-150 to my brother. He was looking for something a bit more reliable at OSU, and he said he would match whatever the dealer offered me. The biggest issue we have had is the radio. I moved faster than I should have, and signed off the truck to his name before getting my satellite radio and equipment out of the F-150. I now have a box of jargon and the stock radio still in my F-350. We had a little back and forth about the subject matter, as he offered to buy my radio, and in the same breath convince me that I shouldn't bother my radio in my new truck. He was however, unwilling to pay me back for my sirius speciallty parts and subscription, so out they came.

times typed "oftern"-1

Loose Lips SInk Ships

2010-12-14T06:29:00.000-08:00

Well it has happened again. Much like previous times I dared to have some ambition and talked about it, naysayers have shot me down. This time there was no "I only do things that make me money" phrase to latch onto, but there might as well have been. I opened my mouth and talked about getting a bigger truck, but have had no supporters and am in a mood of doom and gloom. As of now, as soon as I keep my word to my brother and sell him my truck, I am going to go and buy a small single cab truck, likely without 4x4 and if I'm lucky a manual. If everyone wants to tell me a big truck is a bad idea, what does that say about my current "not small" truck? Any leftover money I have will go towards buying perishable farm supplies and I am spending very little on luxories in the coming year.

I tabulated my Credit Card expenses for the year to date and have found that I have spent 43% of my CC bill on possibly unnecessary goods. That is going to come down in the 2011 year also. Soon I am going to go see the H&R block folks and then tabulate my planned 2011 expenses by month and for the year.

Hopefully spending less and having less will get me to pay off my loans. My student loan isn't going away, and the home loan is looming also. Those will be paid off in no time once I cut some of the fat.

I have also done something to make the vet tech less than happy. She does not want to celebrate the Advent sesaon and two things have happened because of this.
1. I am unable to convey why to those who ask.
2. Those who ask can't seem to let it be.
So it is going to take some more effort to work through this, but it can be worked through. This is partly due to my loose lips sink ships ideology, and the ideology is holding true.

times typed "oftern"-0

Tobacco Troubles

2010-12-04T21:23:00.000-08:00

The past three weeks I have spent several hours everyday stripping tobacco. We were unable to secure any amigo help this year, so I am at work as are some of the hired hands that help put the tobacco in. I have also took it upon myself to be in charge of the statistics and payroll for the year also, so I have a pretty good idea what is going on.

The trouble part is that we are likely unable to sell any of the tobacco we have. This drought level fall season has left our tobacco with a color that the buyers and graders and anyone associated with the purchasing of tobacco at our local market don't want anything to do with. They did send a letter out saying that if the tobacco has not cured, let it stay in the barn. We are apparently illiterate, as we took no heed of the letter and are now in a position to not be able to sell our tobacco.

So the point of this is that I am unlikely to be able to sell my tobacco. I don't know if any of our tobacco will sell at all. Dad and grandpa are seemingly unable to wait and see if the tobacco is going to cure out or not. They can't stand being idle for a single day. Sure, we have weeks of work ahead of us once the tobacco cures and is able to be sold. Our help may not lounge around waiting on us to call them when the tobacco cures out. We need to do as much as we can when we have the help we do.

Financially, I should have enough money to pay the bills and get me through the last month of the year. I am expecting at least 18 grand the first of the year from my soybean sales. I have more bushels to sell that I can hopefully get over twelve dollars a bushel for when I decide to sell. I had been wanting to sell my pickup truck and buy a larger truck but am not sure I should do that if I don't get the income from my tobacco crop. I will have enough money to pay my mortgage. I should be making payments on my student loans next year also. I can't say or think for sure that I can afford truck payments if I don't have tobacco income. For the 2009 year, my profit from my tobacco ended up being what my tax bill was. I need to get my tax record book in shape and go see an advisor to plan ahead what I may have to spend. I wanted to get a new truck so I can deduct that expense as farm expense. I can do such a thing with my self employed life style.

The other issue is the letter the warehouse folk sent out. They say the market will be open as long as needed to sell all the crop. I keep pointing this out to my bosses, but who know if they are listening. The tobacco will cure out, we just need to give it time. Even if it takes until late spring, I would be willing to do it. Grandpa seems convinced it will never change color.

I also need to get something looked at eventually. My neck gets really stiff when working. I don't notice it at all during work. My neck only get that way when I try to lean forward some, or point my chin down. If I treat this as a stretch and slowly work it loose, things are okay. However, the same thing happens when I also drive the tractors all day during the spring. I must focus to much on staring straight ahead. As long as I know how to treat the stiffness, I should be okay.

times typed "oftern"-0

Turkey trotter 2010

2010-11-29T17:24:00.000-08:00

This past thanksgiving I returned to a race that I ran in last year on thanksgiving day. I think I ran a worse time then last year, and worse than the uc clermont 5k a month ago. I have been unable as of now to find an official results page, but I do believe my time was 27:56. I didn't feel really well the whole race. I had to stop a couple of times to walk. I didn't run as much as I could have during the week to prepare myself. I wasn't even able to get a race day T-shirt to wear around like a badge of honor. The lady that took my money said they would mail me the two I ordered.

I am also seeming to aggravate my grandpa more than usual nowadays. I got into two arguements with him today. The first was because I wanted to put a tarp on the trailer so that my dad could more easily unroll it when he decided the time was right. The tarp was up on a balcony in our barn and grandpa refused to let me go to get it. So when I agreeed with him that we would do what he wanted to do, and quickly conceded to doing what he wanted to do, he got angry at that also. Then later in the day he got mad because I had set out to much tobacco near the end of the work day. When everyone had left after we had gotten everything done, about 5 minutes after quitting time, I got to be chastised again. Apparently it is impossible to let people leave at the hour mark when they want to leave when there is tobacco on the bench. The way he wants to do things, no one leaves until the bench is empty. I had in my mind, that we needed enough on the table to work and not let them leave early. What is the use of paying a person for a full hour and letting them leave ten minutes early so the bench would be empty when it needed be? The real issue is that I have to ask him all sorts of questions to try and get into his mind because we cannot figure each other out by observations.

I had some other topic in my mind today stripping tobacco, but it has now escaped me.

times typed "oftern"-0

Movember

2010-11-17T17:48:00.000-08:00

I have been growing a mustache since the first of the month. Attempting to grow might be a better qualifier, since my mustache is more laughable than commendable. I got the idea from reading the clubtrillion blog and decided that I would try it this month. The idea behind the mustache movement is to raise prostate cancer awareness. It would seem that prostate cancer is to men as to what breast cancer is to women, but those pink ribbons get all the press.

I am now at a turning point with my mustache. I need to make a public appearance and don't really want to do so with a crummy looking facial hair feature. I had considered carrying around some cards explaining my cause, but don't really want to do that now. I had discussed with the vet tech keeping the 'stache all month but am now going to sleep on it and decide to keep it or not in the morning.

times typed "oftern"-0

Game time

2010-11-15T05:06:00.000-08:00

This weekend I went to the Penn State vs Ohio State game. The game itself was much better during the second half than the first half. There were some key interceptions that really turned the tide to OSU favor. I seem to remember a better game my sophomore year though. Both teams were ranked, and an interception that was broght back by the OSU defense ended up being the deciding score. That season has not quite been repeated. They have made the national championship games since then, but haven't gotten a win like they did against the hurricanes back in 2002. Maybe the reason that season holds so much appeal to me is because of how novel all that was for me. I had never gotten into football so much before, and seeing how it all takes place and progresses was really fun.

I also took the chance to do a little bit of drinking saturday also. I had kind of hoped that I would be able to hang around for a little while after the game and head home. However, the vet tech also decided that she wanted to stay around after the game, so we got to drinking and ended up making an overnight trip out of it. I got to see some of my old friends from college and hung out with my brothers most of the night also.

I am also going to be especially busy here in the next couple of weeks. I finally got my paperwork on some of the sub list for the county. The tobacco is also going to be coming in case here soon hopefully. Since we have been unable to find any help thus far, I may have to strip a bunch of it by myself. The upside of this is that the biggest cost of putting out tobacco is hiring someone else to strip. So the more I do myself, the more money I keep for myself. This should help out when I want to go and buy that truck I have been thinking about gettting. The downside is that I may have to put in 12 hour or more days to really make any progress. I think I will end up buying a small TV to put in the stripping room to help pass some of the time. Just something that will get the HD channels and that I can put a DVD player to if I want to watch a movie and work at the same time.

times typed "oftern"-0

Home Improvement

2010-11-08T05:04:00.000-08:00

The past month or so has been busy with improvements to my home address. I'll start with the upstairs renovations. I had the room worked over and it is now livable. The wood paneling is gone and replaced with drywall. The floor is been redone with a dark colored laminate and looks way better. I did have some issues with the corners being way out of level, but got the corners close and pushed the trim down far enough to hide the flaw. The track lighting does an excellent job of illuminating the room also. The paint turned out real well, the vet tech did an excellent job of picking the color scheme and doing the painting. Once all that was done, the long dresser and bed fit in the room with room to spare. I was beginning to worry that those two items would take up a great deal of the floor space and not make the room much of a bedroom. My dad was in the "only good for a walk in closet" camp, but the room turned out to be way more than adequate for that. The added benefit of all this is that the room I put carpet in two summers ago is now freed up for couches and dressers that were cluttering up the downstairs a bit. I may have only renovated 150 square feet, but likely gained twice that in overall space. I am now using room next to the bathroom as a type of staging area for my work clothes and that frees up the laundary room so nicely. I don't have to trip over and lean around work shoes now to wash my hands.

I also bought my parents outdoor wood furnace and had that installed to heat my house with. It definitely keeps my house nice and warm now. I am not sure if I am burning too much wood or not, but the electric bill should be cheaper. I added up the bills for the year and am averaging about 165 a month for electric in this house. That average includes a low of 50 for one of the summer months, but I don't remember the high from that run of bills. With the four grand I spent on getting the furnace and installation, it may take some years to be ahead overall. I'm not really concerned about that though, the electric furnace didn't really do a good job keeping the house warm. The wood furnace is.

I also went ahead and bought a new TV for my big living room downstairs. I decided to move my other TV upstairs and bought a 50 inch plasma for downstairs. The only issue is that I now should buy some better cables and a decent DVD player for the TV. The five year old thirty dollar DVD player from walmart isn't playing in color on my new TV, so a change is to be in effect.

times typed "oftern"-0

East Run v.2010

2010-10-23T20:55:00.000-07:00

Today I took the oppurtunity to run in a 5k. I ran again in the UC clermont 5k that I ran in last year. Last year I wasn't all that sure what to expect from myself, both in overall time and my actual conditioning level. This year I had a better idea of what to expect. I knew that I was in good enough shape to complete the event. Running on the treadmill is a great way for me to hide and not have to spend much time outdoors. The surface stays the same, and the weather is what I want it to be. Running outdoors can be very varied. Rocks can be ran on, the weather may be cold, dogs may want attention. Last year I didn't know how my I would react to running in such a different environment. This year I wasn't as worried. I forgot to wear my wristwatch so I couldn't keep my own time/pace. I was wanting to finish under 29 minutes, but came in at 26:44, so I was pleasantly surprised. I was even faster than my time of a year ago, which was 28:04. Neither of those times are spectacular, but this event is not a real draw for running folks apparently. I managed to finish 23rd overall this year, but was once again 3rd in my age group.

While I was running I kept wondering if I could push myself to do even better. Back when I was actually competing back my high school XC days, I would want to focus on catching up to the guy ahead of me. I don't seem able to do that in an event nowadays. The person ahead of me doesn't seem important. I am really indifferent to the person ahead of me. I also can't really find a reason to try and run faster. I don't feel that I could run faster, but know that I probably can. I think what may have helped me some is varying my training routine. Up until last month, all I would really do is a fat burning routine on my treadmill, or P4. I decided to try out some different things. I did a cardio workout, an interval workout, and a speed workout. They all seemed to help, but what really helps running or any fitness level probably is the situps I do. Having a good stomach does more than anything for being in a good physical condition. I almost think if I did the 250 situps in 10 minutes routine, I could still run just as well. That might be enough to keep me in good enough shape to adequately finish a 5k.

I am also staying up later tonight to watch the Kings of Leon on SNL. They came out with a new CD this week, but I never managed to get out to a store to pick it up. I read a review that described the album as good, but not their best work. I also hope I can find the Mumford & Sons album with lion of a man on it at the same store. I heard some other song from the album on the radio and I am looking forward to hearing more of thier stuff.

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Wedding TImes

2010-10-19T19:12:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I went to absentmindeds wedding and had a great time. It was really cool to see someone I know become married when I got to see some of the early relationship. I remember the first time I meet his wife, we were at a bar and everyone else kept saying that Sara was coming. I was confused, because we already had a friend named Sara, and she was bellied up to the bar with me. The whole thing happened when I moved away from C-Vegas to start teaching. I leased out my room to absentmindeds cousin, who was dating Sara’s sister. By the time the spring rolled around, I was sitting in bar confused as to who some of the new people were and trying to make random bets with Sara. They had just done random bets in an episode of the Office, and Sara was bored so I bet her Kobe would get 30 points in the game on TV. I lost that bet but the night did get fun when absentmindeds cousin got thrown out of the bar.

At any rate, it was good seeing some of my old college roommates. They are all just as fascinated with tobacco and the process as ever. I must have spent ten minutes telling them how the market was going away in three years in Ohio.

I also took the opportunity to drink too much. While the main issue is that I overdid it and drank more than needed, there may be an underlying issue. Most of the time, or at least recently, I have had a known amount of alcohol to drink and stopped at a reasonable amount. At this wedding, there was an unknown amount of beer to drink, as to which I thought I needed to drink as much of as possible. It kind of reminded me of what I did this past New Years at my sisters place. I bought a small bottle of whiskey, and know that I wasn’t going to drink more that that. As a result, I nursed my whiskey and 7-UP drinks all night and didn’t even finish the bottle. If I could figure out a way to do a similar thing at future occasions, I might not scare my DD and punch the dash of my truck.

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Farming days

2010-10-11T18:26:00.000-07:00

Well the farming season has left me dulled to blogging for some time now. The year is going pretty good, my corn was slightly above average. Initial figures put my beans at lower than what I hoped for, but the market is going up and I managed to capitalize on that some. It's like the one manager of the elvator said, when fuel goes up, so does the grain market. I don't mind seeing the higher fuel prices this time of year, it means my grains are bringing in more money.

Speaking of high fuel prices, I can't stop thinking about if I should buy a newer truck or not. My current truck is in good shape, but I would like to get a diesel truck that that would be more of a farm truck. This means a flat bed that can pull our gooseneck trailers and has enough pull behind it to haul or heavy loads. I think I might be able to get something decent for under 20 grand and sell my truck to my brother for a good price. What I really need to caution myself on is the tax break though. I may be able to afford a high tax bill sometimes, but that doesn't mean I should just admit defeat and get nothing for my money. If I don't stand to gain anything by buying a tax write off for farm use, then I will wait things out.

I'm heading up to a wedding this weekend also. My good friend from college, absentminded, is getting married to a girl he met after I moved out to start teaching. The big issue is that the drive is about 4 hours there and then 4 more back. That will be a fair amount of driving. The last wedding I went to I drank enough by 10 to want to head to bed, but I imagine this wedding is going to be worse in that aspect. I am not sure how many of my old drinking buddies are going to be there, but I imagine it will be a fun weekend regardless. My stories will be just as boring, so I will likely drink just as much back as I did back in those days.

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NOVA

2010-09-21T19:30:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons that I don't mind not having an expanded TV selection is the PBS channel and its programming. Between this free tv and not as free internet, I don't feel like I need to pay that extra bill for internet every month. Those activities provide me enough entertainment to fill my days.

I just finished watching an episode of NOVA that dealt with evolutionary genetics. Apparently evidence has shown that most development of life depended on when an activator gene told your body to grow what. From this, it can be shown how the finches on the island that Darwin studied can be different and have the same genus and such. From this it can be inferred as to how all land based forms came from a fish that developed strong enough limbs to escape to land to be safe from prey. This also explained how our brains are as developed as they are. Nearly half of the start stop activators in our DNA are based or centered around brain development. The NOVA epsiode said we a monkey has 1 different gene from a chicken that controls brain development, whereas we humans have 18. I found this all very interesting, but I have to reflect on a topic I have been reading lately.

I started reading a book about a New York guy who decides to live as close to the Bible as he can for a whole year. I haven't finished the book yet, but it is very good. He finds the rules and so forth in the Bible that should be practiced. The part that I have found the most interesting is the rules that people follow because they are in the Bible. The most common answer is that they are done because they are in the Bible and God must have a reason for including them. As a Christian, I am not as obligated to follow the rules as the Jewish followers are. Since Jesus's death was the ultimate sacrifice in our eye's, we aren't obligated to blow a horn at the end of the month and or bind money and the ten commandments to our bodies. The author considered himself an agnostic, and has not quite found himself a true believer in God as from what I have read so far. The author has found praying to be quite useful, which I should probably be doing more of in his model or any fashion anyways.

The conflicting ideal here is that God created all of life in the form that it is in today. Science is working hard to disprove this based on the findings from the NOVA program. I am not sure which side of this argument I am on at this moment. I don't think it is impossible for God to have set up all this evidence that we are finding. The techniques we use to date the rock materials indicates things are much older than the beginning of life as described in the Bible.

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Corn, Corn, Corn

2010-09-19T18:05:00.000-07:00

This past week has been corn dominated. I started off last sunday by going to the Corn festival in Wilmington with the Corns sisters. The festival itself was a mixture of the antique machinery show that I used to frequent, and a flea market. The food was what I would have expected from a fairgrounds based event. It was however nice to get to hang around with the vet assistant and her sister. Sometimes I may dominate her time with much. Seeing her interact with her sister was pretty cool.

We also started our corn harvesting for the year last monday. My crop has been the highlight of the season thus far, outpacing dad and grandpas fields by nearly 30 bushels per acre. All this adds up and with the market at a high, I went ahead and sold all my corn. This turned out to be a big payday for me, I won't have to worry about selling my beans anytime soon to have more income. I should have enough to finish off all my agriculture based bills, get my savings where it was last June, and do some home renovations. As I was telling the vet tech the other day, we are lucky to be making the progress we are. The fields are especially dry, the corn is ready early, and the tobacco is all done and put in. We are planning on finishing by the middle of this week with corn, and I don't think any of the beans will be ready for another week or so after that. The bean crop looks to be below average by my novice eye, but the price is currently high enough to be profitable. Hopefully the price can maintain until we are finished this season.

Speaking of tobacco, we did exceptionally well harvesting this year. In three weeks we put in 20 so acres, and found time to take a week off between and finish the week of labor day. I was impressed with our effort. We hired nearly everyone that came by and said they would work which turned out pretty well. Dad was impressed also, but grandpa didn't know what to do when he had twenty people to keep an eye on to boss around. It was however like dad said, when we had mexicans we wanted to stretch out the work to last as long as we could. With a larger crew we weren't responsible for after work hours and when the work was done, and as such we did the work as fast as we wanted to.

I also recently finished my graduate degree/program. Now that I have a new certification, I need to renew my teaching license. Right now it is expired and I am not sure if I am allowed to sub without one. I should have the paperwork in the mail in the morning, but schools have not called at all as of now, so I am not very worried.

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New Era

2010-09-02T09:02:00.000-07:00

The divisional realignments were announced last night for the new look big 10. Overall I was indifferent towards what was decided. I wasn't going to protest if they moved the osu-um game earlier in the schedule. I wasn't going to protest if the teams were in different divisions or who was in the division with them. To me, Ohio State football is more about staying with my team than who is on the schedule. With my current occupation I can rarely plan ahead that many weeks with certainty that I will have a clear conscious to get away. So as it is, I just get to watch them on TV and be proud that my alma mater is playing.

I am also getting more work done on my house today. The furnace wasn't working correctly and and my guy said he had the whole day to make some upgrades. So I will now have vents upstairs and functional return vents on the 1st story of my home. I might end up spending a grand to have everyting put together, but its only money and I can't take it with me. Running the AC has not proven to be as expensive as I thought it might be, but I cannot confirm that my meter was read last month. My electric bill was lower than I would have guessed, so AEP likely estimated the bill. I did decide to use a clothesline, which means I won't have to use my dryer as much. This should save me some billing, but the AC use will likely override my bill some.

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Gone With the Wind

2010-08-30T11:23:00.000-07:00

This weekend I took the oppurtunity to watch the great classic movie version of gone with the wind. I wasn't terribly interested in vieiwing the movie, if there is something you haven't taken the time to see by the time you are 28, then it doesn't interest you all that much. At any rate I sat down and watched the movie with the vet assisant this weekend and enjoyed it. I did have a bit of curiousity about the movie/book. It would have been hard to get through life ignoring all the great works of literature. I did enjoy the movie and didn't really think it was all that long in duration. The Scarlett character was interesting and good. I can't quite figure out how she got herself so stuck on that Ashley fellow, even after she was married to Rhett. I think I would have stayed around at the end though if I was Rhett. After waiting that long for her to come around and become his wife, he just decides to leave after she has revelation. Some guy he turned out to be, thinking he could leave to London to make Scarlett jealous, and then having a nervous breakdown after the death of the daughter. I do however now have a better idea of the context of the not giving a damn quote. I had always knew it was from the gone with the wind series, but now know how it was better used.

I also finished my tobacco late saturday evening. We started cutting on tuesday, finished cutting on friday, and had it all hung by saturday. I wasn't really wanting to play around and hired just about anyone who showed up. I am not entirely sure how much I spent in the process, but I don't see the point of paying a low amount towards labor and a high tax bill. I can take what I pay out in labor in taxes, but I am not entirely sure how that ratio is determined come tax time. I will be visiting my tax people in december to see what I can expect this coming fall. I am glad to have my tobacco done, I can't ever remember putting in more than five acres in two days. From the numbers I wrote down, I only spent about 200 hours putting in the crop, which came down to about 38 hours per acre. I am pretty satisfied with that. The other two crops we put in were closer to 50 hours per acre to put in. The best part is that I now have most of this week off to get some R&R since we are ahead of schedule.

I also finished my graduate program this last week. I had a phone interview with my advisor, and she didn't tell me that I failed. I can't decide if the work I did was a good enough quality, or if she passed me so I wouldn't hurt the schools graduation statistics. At any rate I passed and don't plan on doing any more acadmic work for a long time. I will be getting rid of most of my school items from my house after I get more confirmation. My office room should be plenty cleaner when that day comes. I have a fold out couch in there now that is likely on its way out soon also. I put a couch in there because my brother asked if he could stay at my place sometimes if he was home during the summer. If he starts up school without taking the time to hold up his end of the bargain, the couch is going somewhere else. I can't decide if I should try it out on craigslist or just set it in the yard with a free sign on it and wait for the couch to disappear. One one hand, I could get some cash out of it. On the other hand it would be gone quickly and without question.

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The Ad

2010-08-26T19:13:00.000-07:00

Wednesday morning I placed an ad for tobacco help on a popular website for posting ads. I have recieved about a dozen calls from people looking for help. Most calls I received were of the variety for general labor. Being able to cut tobacco is a pretty specific skill that we have not been cultivating on our farm for the last dozen years. It is no surprise to me that there are very few decent tobacco cutters out there, we ran out that skill as an industry when we started looking away from home. In the morning will be the litmus test of my ad. Plenty of people called saying they could help hang and load, so I told them friday morning and where to be. Hopefully plenty of people show up and we can get done in a short amount of time. We are unable to start cutting dads patch for at least 10 days from now. If we finish in a shorter amount of time, that equates to more R&R for me.

Doing so kind of reminded me of last weeks sermon at church. Father Mike sermoned as to how God was generally testing us to see what kind of person we are. When the time for the afterlife comes, we are going to be evaluated on how we treated others. Hopefully I do enough good and treat people well enough from this posting and do the right thing for those who ask.

I am also doing one of the final tasks for my graduate program tomorrow. I have an oral defense of my capstone project. The interview is supposed to last a hour. I am graded on pass/fail conditions. I am not sure what is going to happen if I fail, and I am even more unsure of how much money I have to put into tuition if I don't pass and finish everything. I don't have a teaching job waiting on me, and the greenhouse and agriculture industry is right at my fingertips when I quit lazing around with my graduate work.

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farming time

2010-08-23T19:02:00.000-07:00

Tobacco cutting seems to be more exhausting than I remember it being. I spent most of the day cutting and didn't even get 500 sticks. Last year we had an amigo that could cut 1200 sticks on an average day. The work is harder than I thought. We have found a new source of help around, one of my brothers friends from high school that has nearly caught up with me cutting speed wise. This is a good sign for me, I don't neccessarily need to be known as our fastest cutter. We finished our first field in what amounted to 4 days, but Dad is keeping a pacing that I don't quite understand. He likes to keep cutting toacco when I think we should be hanging. If I was in charge, we would completely finish one field before we moved on the the next. He is ready to go and start cutting my field tomorrow. I may not be the expert sage that my grandpa and dad are, but the more tobacco we have on the ground, the faster we have to work if a rain is in the forecast. I think we should take it easy and get everything off of the ground before we put more on the ground. Muddy tobacco doesn't sell at the market at the end of the year. I did make up a nifty book that should help me get an idea of how much work each acre of tobacco is. From the first field we finished, it seems we have about 1300 sticks per acre and have to pay about 50 hours of labor per acre to put the crop in the barn.

I also took the oppurtunity to watch food inc. this weekend. While this doesn't put farmers and agriculture in the best of light, I thought it was very good. Our farm doesn't do the extreme feeding practices that are seen in the field. Our farm has 30 cows that are currently pasture grazing on grass. We are feeding our calves a corn mix with supplements, but they also have hay given to them everyday. What really surprised me is the leadership roles in our government. Many of the rule writers so to speak seem to have come from industry. This is very suspicous at first glance, but the more I thought about it the better it seems. If someone who wasn't in our industry was given the job, farmers in general wouldn't be happy. We want and need someone in the know who knows our needs and wants. They may be putting money in thier accounts and getting paid off from their former employ, The seed industry run by monsanto thing is the most worrysome to me. Hopefully I can navigate our farm into practices I am more comfortable with. Being pursued by monsanto and running up legal fees would be no good for anyone.

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Newtown 5k & more

2010-08-17T16:28:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I took the oppurtunity to run in the 28th running of the Newtown 5k race. I remember running in this race back when I was starting my senior year of high school, and ran about a 23 minute time. This year I ran about a 25 and walked a 5 getting my time up to around 30 minutes. This is almost embarassingly slow, but my workout is a bit lax nowadays. I think the actual running might be fine, but I need to be doing my situps and pushups. That should help me just as much as running. Besides, my goal is to be more healthy, not be able to run a set amount of time.

In other news, we started cutting tobacco yesterday. This is the first year since I was 16 that we haven't had any amigo help. We are going to get the first 3 acres in at a leislurely enough pace, and then move on to my 5.5 acres. My dad did mention that we might try and get some amigos for my field, so hopefully that works out pretty soon. It would seem that I am the second fastest cutter out of all the help we recruited for now, right behind my 48 year old dad. This is not all that surprising when I take into account the overall experience each of us have cutting tobacco. We have three guys that have never cut any at all before, two with slightly more experience, and then my dad, my brother and me.

I also now have a back patio and some furniture. I am a bit surprised that I have as much debris falling down as there is on the new patio. It would seem I am going to have to exert some effort to keep it clean. I also installed a clothesline and turned on my AC the other day. I decided that since I am going to be running the dryer less, I can run my central air some now during the summer. The house didn't get as air conditioned as I thought it would, but it was under 80 so it was relatively cool for my house this time of year.

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28

2010-08-11T20:59:00.000-07:00

I had my latest birthday yesterday, turning 28, and just now got to blogging. I haven't really wrapped my head around being this old. A decade ago I was getting ready to start my senior year of high school. The highlight of that time of my life was being 2nd on the cross country team at the league meet and also staying up to watch SNL, even when I knew it was a repeat. Not really has changed much since then. I run a bit slower and its harder to stay awake that late usually to watch TV. Five years ago I was starting what would become my last year of college life. I only had one quarter to actually finish up and graduate, but decided to hang around and get some more science classes on my resume. I also apparently wanted to gain nearly 50 pounds from drinking and eating like an idiot. Only two short years from now I will be an official three decades old.

In other news, I am pouring a concrete pad and will have a patio soon enough. My parents bought new patio furniture and are giving me the old stuff. All I have to do is repair a chair or two, and I'll have a shady place to lounge in the evenings. I may eventually need to get myself a plug and a light out that direction so I can listen to a radio and so forth out there, but having the concrete pad needs to be more official. I had the form ready for more than a week now, but Dad kept putting off helping me. He said last week that getting the concrete delivered and poured would be more than I want to pay. But after giving that ideal some thought, I put all the pros and cons together and decided that I was willing to pay what they wanted. Dad wants to spend all day mixing and moving things by hand, and I don't want to work that hard as hot as it is outside. I want to pour it all at once, and move my thoughts to finishing up my grad program. Dad accused me of being lazy, but I like to think I should be working smarter, not harder.

Speaking of which, I have turned in my final paper. I doubt the version I submitted will be quite right the first time. I have learned to use the system to my advantage and submit things, get feedback on what I need to do to pass, do those things, and then resubmit. All I have left to do now is a short powerpoint and one other form. After that I have an hour long phone interview in defense of my work. I had held off renewing my license in the hopes that I can get everythign done and have a fresh license that has two certifications on it. I may have to go ahead and pay the fee to get the license renewed anyways, school is coming up and I am not sure if I can sub without a current license. Even though I primarily only work in two districts, I should get that done before september rolls around and I have consistent work.

The tobacco season is looking to be a real bear also. We don't have any amigos as of this writing. The bosses seem to think that my brothers and me are going to be enough help. I suggested that I put an ad on craigslist looking for any help, but the bossman didn't like that idea. He thought I would spend to much time answering calls. I would much rather spend time ansewring calls than working my butt off to get the tobacco in. Especially when I can take labor wages off on my taxes. Why should I have to work twice as hard when I can hire someone to ease my burden? The bosses are crazy if they think I am going to not hire any help to put in my tobacco. We may be able to get away with that for grandpas three somethign acres, but that business is not happening for my six acres. I will work as much as I can or am able to, but harvesting tobacco is really a numbers game. The more help we can throw at it, the faster we can get done. We don't even need good qualified help. All you have to do is show up if you ask me, preferrably all week and on time.

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Dentist after 3 years.

2010-08-02T13:29:00.000-07:00

This morning I finally took the time and got to the dentist for myself. I haven't been since 2007 when I ran out my insurance from being employed. I wasn't terribly worried, since I had a spotless record at the dentist. Even when the doctor first came in, he said he wasn't terribly worried about me. He mentioned that I am probably a once a year person at best, even though I hadn't been in nearly three years. Well those three years might have been a detriment, since I now have a cavity. All the way back on the left side of my mouth, I had a gum line cavity that was also covered by calculus. Once he got done scraping that away, he informed me of the bad news and I scheduled my next appointment sometime in september. So hopefully the trend continues, one cavity in nearly 28 years isn't all that bad.

In other news, I went to two reds games this weekend. They beat the braves 2/3 and had record attendence. It really is exciting to be following a team in the hunt for a division title and go to their games. Sometimes at the games, I do lose interest and nearly fall asleep. When I am at home I can go and do something else for a little while at least. At the games I am nearly restricted to my seat and have to entertain myself within the range of activity at the game.

I also really need to get to the optometrist soon also. My eyeglass aren't strong enough anymore, I can feel my eyes being strained at times. I only have one usable contact and my glasses barely sit on my ears. My current struggle is that the insurance I bought applied to my old dentist, but not the optometrist. I need to decide if I want to visit a new doctor or see try and visit my old guy anways.

Well thats it for now, I am going to go work on a patio area for my house. My parents bought some new patio furniture and I inherited the old table and chairs. So I need to take possesion of them before their mind changes.

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1000 marbles

2010-07-18T17:13:00.000-07:00

I heard a good sermon today at church. The moral was that you only have a so many weekends remaining in your life and spending those working to make money may not be as satisfying as spending that time with your loved ones. I kind of have to agree with this reasoning. I would like the oppurtunity to work more given the chance and be more financially stable than I am now. With farming there are risks that are necessary. Back on subject, making the time to listen and be with others is important. Consistently saying that someone else is not worth your time is not the way I want to go through life. As much time as I spend alone or have spent alone, making time for other people is worthwhile. The thousand marbles relates to how much time you have left. I am thinking about buying a jar and a marble for every saturday I might have in my life expectancy. As I get to watch the jar get less and less full, I should be more urgent in getting to do things with others. Then if I get lucky enough to see it empty, thats another week of life God has given me.

The before part of the story was where Jesus was visiting a house with Mary and Martha. One of them was busting her hump to make this spectacular meal in an effort to please Jesus. She was disappointed when she saw that her sister was lazing around at Jesus's feet, taking the time to get to know Jesus. I like to think of myself more as the sister taking the time to learn and get to know someone. What matters in life is how you treat the people you know and meet, not what you can do for them.

I also took the time to watch knocked up again today. The first time through, I didn't much think it was all that funny and didn't like it. The second time around, I am picking up on more of the themes and enjoying it more. The part that I am really thinking the most about is the marriage ideals being tossed around with place. The women think they have all the burden, the guys want to continue being guys, and neither group can get that out of each other. Hopefully one day I can get to the point where I can get in a good relationship and marriage where any problems and issues that come up can be resolved.
In some ways the movie isn't much of a comedy, but more of a study on relationships and how they can work or won't work.

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Mojo Tom Petty Concert review

2010-07-16T18:42:00.000-07:00

As with other concerts I have attened since starting this blog, I am going to do my conert review blog post.

Last night I went and seen Tom Petty and the drive by truckers play thier music. I didn't really get into the drive by truckers that much. If I knew any of their songs to anticipate, I might have enjoyed them some more. As it was however, I didn't really know any of their songs and didn't much enjoy them. You can throw all the tough and bad ass things you know into a song, but I'm not young enough for that to impress me. It seemed like I should have thought they were good because they sang about drining too much and getting into fights. All in all, not the type of music I enjoyed.

The main event however was a different story. Admittedly I don't know Tom Petty's whole library and wasn't entirely sure what he was going to play. After freefalling, the mary jane song, the song about solving mysteries, and one other one song, I don't know what music is his. The first half of the show, he played his hits and the riverbend audience was loving it. The second half of the show they played some good music, but it was from their newer mojo album and I really couldn't get into it. For the encore they did play some more of their classic hits. I remember wondering what they could play as an encore that they haven't played yet, but then they played that mystery song and refugee. So overall it was a good show. My brother ended up going and buying lawn seats. The crowd back in the lawn area was as crowded as I had ever seen it. I don't know of any better concerts that I could go to. Newer bands would just have a bunch of young hippies running around. Country bands would have too many rednecks going around drinking and spitting. I'm glad I picked out this concert to go to.

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he innovated something

2010-07-13T22:21:00.000-07:00

I was actually surprised a bit the other day. My grandpa put some of his noggin to use and innovated something that helped us clean out our grain bins faster. Apparently when he says he is making a "patent" it means he has an idea for our work details. He aslo took a slam at me, saying if I feel energetic in the morning, I should take a wagon to the elevator and sell the beans. I told him I would eat a big breakfast and see how I felt.

We got another good dose of rain today. It would seem this year we won't be in any type of drought. This should be good news, it might help my crops have a better yield. The downside is the market is a bit lower that what I had hoped for. I am thinking about selling all my corn right away this fall and keeping my beans on DP. Hopefully the bean market will reach a high when I want to sell. Even more hopefully I can plan well enough to not spend double digits on taxes this year.

I am going to have to get into my savings account to keep me going until we start harvesting this year. With the bills I have this month, my account will be under a grand. That would be fine, but my mortgage needs payed, so I better put some money in and be safe. I don't know if I will be able to afford to do any remodeling of the house now, I might have to wait until this fall to consider it.

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july is afoot.

2010-07-05T12:01:00.000-07:00

I don't know what it is, but fireworks aren't that exciting to me. Maybe in my view of the world and what can be considered exctining or exhilirating, they pale in comparison. Watching them in the sky isn't that much fun for me.

I did take this weekend off and laid off the booze. I kept having to explain that hangovers last to long nowadays and got away without drinking anything. The way my stomach feels still, I think a single beer would be enough to make me feel worse. The only problem is that I have about a dozen budweisers taking up space in the refrigerator now.

I also found a really cool song that I have been listening to some lately. "lion of a man" by mumford and sons is really great. It seems to be about a man asking for forgiveness, and the lyrics and music being really great. The mandolin playing really does it for me, I should be getting more time on my banjo playing, but I don't.

A family emergency happened today. My great uncle in law was having chest pains and some calls were made and he ended up going to the hospital in an ambulance. As of now, all the test have came back that things are okay, but he is going to stay overnight for observations. Grandpa and me were the first on the scene, and my great aunt was very upset. Understandibly so, she thought he was having a heart attack. I was able to get to her and talk to her some and then go into the house and talk to him some more. By the time we got to the house, the no slowdown town ambulance sirens were wailing and they got there a moment after I did. Our family family doctor arrived by the time they had him in the ambulance and things look okay as of now.

I have to wonder what my role will be here in the future after todays events. If I am staying close to home and am going to be a person answering the phone for those types of calls, what I am going to see as my years advance? Who else am I going to be the first upon the scene for? How will I need to react in similar situation? What calls am I going to have to make to my family members? Having me and other family nearby helps in such situations, but as of now, I am not a trained emergency response person. I had thought before that I might be obligated to be a bit of a caretaker for my grandparents if they get to the point where they can't drive. As well as they have taken care of all of us growing up, how could I turn them down if they need a ride somewhere or help with something? Most of my other siblings have found other vocations, but I have decided to remain close to home for now. Maybe my vocation will be unofficial caretaker.

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remembering why

2010-06-28T21:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday (sunday) I spent the day remembering why I quit drinking like I was still 22 or 23. Hangovers now happen, and because of how much I drink when I get going, the hangover last nearly all of the next day. I drank about seven beers while watching shutter island, and then probably drank another seven between the time I went to my brothers campout and eventually went to bed around three in the am. In my younger days, fourteen beers would barely affect me at all the next day, and I could function and be normal for a day. I guess I need to take sobriety more seriously than I do now and not drink more than one beer on any occasion. I really don't have the budget to drink like that anymore anyways. I had been thinking that I wouldn't be able to drink enough to make myself sick enough to throw up, but I did manage to accomplish that saturday night.

I am getting excited about the reds season now. Ever since I have moved back home from college, I have been listening more and more. This year they are playing pretty well and its exciting. I have already been to three games this season, and have tickets for two more games. It would be cool to have a team in the baseball playoffs and be excited about a team at the end of the season. They have a tough schedule the next two weeks, but after that the all star break is happening and then they have a weak schedule. So all in all I am looking forward to it. I am going to have to remember to show more restraint the next time I go to a game, eating a whole bag of peanuts seems to make me a little sick. The worst part was I had the whole bag down by the start of the fifth and was too cheap to buy something to drink. So I had to wait to get home to drink some milk. It helped, but now it seems I have a sore throat and runny nose.

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friending them all

2010-06-23T06:14:00.000-07:00

I have recently been tasked with deciding if I want to be facebook friends with people from my graduating class and high school. One of them graduated with my sister and is ~20 years old. I didn't mind her when I was her teacher, but don't really want to open up myself to being on facebook with that crowd of people.

The graduating class folk is a bit of a study on how they turned out. The one girl had asked me out as a boyfriend when I was a freshman, but I wasn't really interested in being social outside of school. The other girl I remember talking to a bunch in spanish class and having a bit of a crush on. Now they both have kids, and have nearly switched their body types with each other. The skinnier one is not so skinny any more, and the not so skinny one is much more slim from what I seen. I was also refriended by a girl that I thought I was already friends with and another girl that my sister graduated with. This puts me over 150 friends, so I may have to cull some of the ones I don't want to be on FB with anymore.

I remember when I had first signed up for FB after I finished my student teaching in january of 2005. There must have only been fifteen of us from my high school and the first wall post I had was from my new roommate telling me not to puke on his door. I am not sure what he was so worried about.

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rainy update

2010-06-21T13:21:00.000-07:00

Well we decided earlier today to try and replant some of the fields that weren't coming up. Grandpa finished one field and then a surprise pop up shower came that surprised us all. We should be able to get back at things later tomorrow, the overall rain wasn't that much. Hopefully we can get everything in the ground and growing here soon, we do depend on such a thing to make a living.

The dealership where I bought my truck keeps sending me incentives to come in and buy a new truck. I wouldn't mind doing such, but I don't think I can afford one this time of year. If I buy a truck, I can use that on my taxes as a farm expense and get a bit of a tax break. I don't know if I would want to trade in my current truck though. My youngest brother has expressed interest in buying it from me to use as a college truck. I would just as soon sell it to him than get a low trade in value at a dealer. From what I can find on the website, they don't have any chassis cab diesel crew cabs on the lot. Oh well, those are going to set me back about 50 grand new anyways.

I am also considering more of what I should do with my savings. I had thought about using it to buy a wood burning furnace to heat the house with, but think I might use some of that money to work over my upstairs some more. The wood paneling room is letting in too much heat, and a drywall work over would do it some good. I did get all the junk out of the unfinished part so now all I need to do is shop vac up all the debris and put down some plywood to walk on. I don't think I can spend the money to fix that part of the house like I should now, so it might have to wait another year or two.

Cabrio

2010-06-15T07:12:00.000-07:00

This past week the washer I inherited when I moved into my current place finally decided to quit working. I suppose I could have done a little work and saved some money by investigating as to why it quit, but in the end I decided to have a fresh start with a new washer and bought a new one. It seems pretty easy to work and operate, and has a glass lid so it is possible to watch what is going on while the laundary is being laundered. I haven't figured out how to adjust the load size though, I just had a handfull of whites that needed washed and the machine thought it needed 63 minutes to wash them. I think I did okay buying the machine though, lowes was having a 10% off everything sale, so a thousand dollar machine cost me only nine hundred before taxes. Now I just have to figure out how to get rid of some more of my stuff by taking it to the recycling center. Since I have moved in, I have now replaced the dryer, washer, and stove. I have all three of the old ones around and need to just load them in the pickup truck and get a handful of cash for them at the recycler. I also have an old fan I replaced that needs to go now.

I may be falling in an old habit that I need to quit again. I went to a work party with the vet assistant last weekend and didn't drink an extraordinary amount, but probably more than I should have. My sister and her husband want me to go to lake cumberland with them this coming weekend and my brother is having a DTS fraternity campout before the end of the month also. I think I can easily not go to cumberland this weekend, but may have to get more creative with something to during the broheim weekend middle brother is planning. I don't mind the occasional beer or so, but a consistent weekend thing is not what I want to get into. I think the reduced eating schedule I have created is helping some with the weight I am pulling around, but still need to get on the treadmill more. I find it hard to wake up and spend time on the machine, and then think I will get on later in the day. Neither are happening right now, and I think I just need more structure in my daily life. When I was subbing at PHS last fall, I was able to wake up and get 30 or 40 minutes before I had to get ready and leave. Now that I don't have to get out of bed by a certain time, I don't.

I am now closer than ever to being done with my graduate program. I have two classes left to complete on taskstream. One of them I have already done most of the writing for, and I am not sure what the last task will be. If I can get most done by this month, that will still give me all of july and the free month of august to finish up things for good.

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Senior Crawl

2010-06-10T19:24:00.000-07:00

About this time five years ago, when I was 22, I particapated in one of the great Ohio State Traditions. I went on Senior Crawl. The tradtion was started mainly because Ohio State students like to drink and the thursday before graduation after all the classes were done was a good time to get so drunk you had to crawl home. The idea is you start at either the north or south end of campus, depending on where you might want to finish or how far you had to crawl. You would also wear a white shirt and get drink tally and have all your friends you see on the way sign their name or such. I still have both of the shirts I wore on my senior crawl.

My first senior crawl started really without a plan. I wasn't technically graduating at the time, so I wasn't planning on crawling. I was planning on digging into my 30 pack of busch light that I got started on the night before and having an easy night. That is until absentminded called me up, asked me what I was doing, and then told me I was going on senior crawl with him because I was an awesome friend and drinker. So I put on my most plainest white T, and waited on absentmindeds arrival to my apartment. He came with a girl that I already knew and one I didn't. Anyways we shotgunned some busch lights and headed south to the panini's and got further started. The idea is you drink at least one drink every bar you stop at and then move on. Most of my companions drink at about half the rate I do, so I drank at least two beers every place we went to. I can't recall the exact order of events, but I can recall some highlights from my pov.
-ordering three pitchers of beer from mama's pasta and brew and drinking one of them by myself while the rest of the party drank the other two.
-passing on a shot of sake from bento go-go
-finding 40 dollars on the ground right before we went to the last bar, we used it to buy shots, which I puked up right after I left mianis. The shot was the three wise men.
-going to almost every bar along the way.
The lowlight of the night was when I tried to get back in my apartment building. I couldn't get the key to my back door to work, so I had to go around front. For some reason I walked around so I could see my explorer, only to realize it wasn't there. Panicking, I called the hotline from the sign, and then went to check the internet and call some police. After some time, I found out my car was parked on the street on street sweeping day and was towed. So I had to wake up in the morning, and go and get my car from the tow lot 45 minutes away and downtown. Not the best way to end that year.

I had a more official senior crawl when I was actually graduating in fall of 05. Nasamatt, and TexasKyle were graduating with me also, so we attempted a crawl. I had a girlfriend at the time, and she ended up being not so happy about the whole thing. I stopped at the first three bars and chugged down my drinks real quick like. I then went back to her place, talked things out a bit and headed back out with her. By that time, nasamatt had overdone it and was ready to call it a night. So me and the girl walked/drug nasamatt back to the place. I was in such a hurry to leave that I had lost my keys, and needed nasamatts keys to get in anyways. It turns out I lost the keys in our parking lot, but it was hard to decipher that after some drinking.

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Redleg runner

2010-06-06T07:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had the morning off from farming so I made it to the downtown queen city and signed myself up for a 5k. This 5k edition was sponsored by the cincinnati reds and drew a big crowd. I got to finish near the visitors dug out and was on the field for a little bit. My time was in the thirty minute range which was about what I had expected since I haven't been doing much running at home. Afterwards I meandered around the stadium area some, picking up and eating some free laRosas pizza and a banana. I then walked out to meet the vet tech where we agreed to meet at after the race was over. She liked seeing all the different people of all shapes and sizes come in and I think she may have a 5k in her future now. By paying the race fee, I got a pretty cool reds shirt and a voucher to the game this coming monday against the giants. I don't know if I will go or not though, we migth be busy farming.

Speaking of the nameless as everyone else on this blog vet tech, she went to church with me yesterday afternoon. She was a bit anxious about going to a new place and interacting with a new group of people, but I thought she handled the whole thing pretty well. She said she liked Father M, and thought we spent to much time kneeling. I was a bit disappointed in that we had a guest speaker to give the homily though. Usually when Father M prepares his lesson based on the Bible reading, the sermon is a bit better. The speaker we had was trying to raise money of behalf of some medical mission for africa and such. She ended her sermon by asking how are we going to share our fish and loaves, which is a pretty good lesson. I prefer Father M's messages to the congregation though.

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A year of blogging

2010-06-01T19:24:00.000-07:00

Well it would seem that a year has come and gone of my excercises. I was in nearly the same spot the last two days where I decided I would start a blog and decided what I would call it. I can't say that the blog has been a success or failure either way. On one hand, I was at one time on such a pace, that I thought I could do a post a day and made a goal. I didn't reach my 365 post in 365 days goal. On the other hand, it would seem that my readers have a better understanding of who I might be. It is probably pretty lame to have to rely on such an item to let people inside of what you are as a person, but oh well.

The last couple of days have been pretty busy. I have been out of the house before seven every day since friday, and not getting back in until after nine most nights. We have most of the tobacco set, and the beans will all be done here before I know it. Then we immediately move into hay baling time. Hay baling time is just as time consuming and probably more difficult.

It may just be the stress getting to me, but I have to spend most of the day wondering if I can make a career out of this. I only own the yard around my house, and will need much more to make it as a farmer. I need to buy some land, but might have to spend up to three grand an acre to get any. That will put me in a tremendous debt and take twenty plus years to pay off. Not to mention buying and owning decent equipment that I can use to farm with also. I am not even sure if buying more land would be the thing to do. We struggle now to get in all of our crops in the fall. This time of year is just as bad getting things out. If my younger brother decides to work on the farm after college it might help, but I don't think he will come back. Especially if he gets an MBA and keeps getting internships and keeps his grades up. Some company is going to offer him a heck of a salary and that will be all for him. I could take on some more risk and buy a second tractor and planter to get things out with, but that wouldn't help any with the fall harvest. I suppose if I owned some land, I could invest in some decent storage, but that is a bit away. Really it all comes down to what happens in the winter of 2013. Are we going to busting ourselves over twenty acres or are we going to be out of the tobacco business and focus more on other revenues? More importantly, can I save enough until then to invest in the right decisions? I mean as of today I have saved over ten grand from subbing for a year and a half. I want to spend it on a wood burning heating system for my house, but if I start saving the right way, I can make a down payment on some ground or equipment by 2013.

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Pants

2010-05-24T18:37:00.000-07:00

I am having a conflict lately. All my jeans that I wear for work, are not suiting me lately. I tried out some pairs that I left on the floor over the winter a couple of times, and remembered why I left them on the floor. I don't know what it is, and I'm not insuating anything, but the zipper on a couple of the pairs of pants won't stay up. I need to just throw them out, its as annoying as can be when I have to spend half the day trying to zip them back up. I need to figure out a system to mark them. I put them in the wash and forgot which ones they were so now they are back in the rotation.

I also have several pairs that are worn down and are getting worse. I had a pair on today that I thought might get me through the end of the summer, but now the right leg has more breaks and holes in in than I can reasonably expect to tolerate. I have another pair that I ripped near the crotch that needs sewing or retiring also. I can get away with wearing a pair of running shorts under them, but that is really kind of a lame thing to do as a daily wear feature. Most of my pants

The issue is that I have other pairs of nice jeans, but I don't want to ruin them by wearing them on the farm. They may look good for a while, but eventually they will get run down and not usable as social wear jeans. This won't be to much of a problem, the last pair of good jeans I bought was from the goodwill store and didn't cost very much. So, I might not be losing out very much by wearing a pair of once expensive jeans, but feel bad about doing so.

I also have another new issue with my jeans. I apparently have lost some inches around my waist and can't or shoudn't go around without a belt. I spent most of the evening today pulling up my 'britches and wondering why I didn't put a belt on. I may have to buy a whole new set of pants again soon anyways. I do have two belts that are adjustable to a very small size, but one of them is a nicer belt that I wear out subbing, and the other pair I have had for almos nine years now.

I did do some yard work today and gave myself a blister. I had been lobbying to use the roto-tiller to till up my flower beds, but my grandpa didn't want to budge on my using a hoe that he bought last year. I worked my beds up pretty well, but got a pretty good blister in the process. I did manage to pop it later when I was shoveling later in the day, but I am apprehensive that it is going to be real sore.

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near graduation

2010-05-20T16:19:00.000-07:00

Well tomorrow is the last day of my student teaching. The kids finished up thier research aspect today, and I convinced a couple of groups to do a short presentation. Tomorrow I am administering the post tests and will have those evaluated by monday. The student teaching part was probably the easiest part of the process so far, and I now have until the end of july to finish my thesis and such. I already have much of that put together. so if all goes well I might finish early and by early I mean before four years pass, which is longer than it should take to get a degree. Especially since I am not goign to be a doctor.

I also get to go to UC's graduation sunday. Dr. Weber is graduating and asked if me and the lady would like to come so I said sure. Being a yes man is fun sometimes. At first I wasn't sure if he had anyone coming because they would be driving from Akron, but he did say his dad and uncle would be down also. Hopefully The weather holds off and the day turns out well.

I am also really tempted to go out and buy super mario galaxy 2 this weekend. It comes out sunday sometime, but I don't really want to spend 50 bucks on a game when I should be doing school work and have other games to play. I think I will make myself play through super mario galaxy 1 as luigi first and get all 120 stars as him. I should also play that resident evil game that I haven't even played yet, and get some more practice time in with grand slam tennis. So it would seem I have plenty of video game ambitions to last me for a while.

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club meetings.

2010-05-18T07:37:00.000-07:00

I was watching sherlock holmes the other day and was trying to decide what group might be the bad guys in the movie. There were a secretive society, and had some odd things that they had going on. I had guessed free masons, but that turned out to not be the case.

My dad has been part of the mason club or group for as long as I can tell. I never really got into all that business, it seems a bit outdated to me. For me, and I may be wrong here, clubs that hold meetings such as they do are outdated. Meeting monthly for no real purpose other than discussion seems pointless nowadays. Up until the age of internet and cell phones, clubs and meetings were the best way to socialize and get out of the house. Nowadays, finding out news and happenings takes hardly any effort. I can't see the point of rushing out and sitting with people that live in my address for an hour. Back when it was much harder to communicate, I could see that happening, but nowadays my entertainment is a phone call away.

I was also surprised to read something on the catholic answer forums regarding the free masons. Apparently the masons take their belief system farther than the catholic church would like. As such, I would have to decide between the two if I were to consider joining the masons. As such, I never have considered becoming a mason and much enjoy being catholic so its a moot point for me. I have attened masonic events and was beginning to think that they treated themselves as more than a club of sorts. I will still likely attend such events at my dads request, but am not going to search those events out.

I am in one club that I think is differentiated from my treatment of other clubs. I am in an azp alumni group which is a fraternity I was in in college. The goal of this club is to serve our active chapter, not meet weekly and become chatty kathys. While we are just starting out, we have only had two meetings so far and it looks like the rest of those will be quarterly. Hopefully this club is doing something worthwhile.

In other news, walter has been acting sick lately. He has made a mess in his cage the last two nights and has resumed making messes in the house. I haven't gave him anything since yesterday evening, and will see if his diet is part of the problem. I may have to take him to the vet if he keeps this up. I am going to keep him in the house as much as I can and not give him much food.

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getting close.

2010-05-16T19:03:00.000-07:00

Well the weekend has been prettty nice. Friday I went to the reds game with the vet tech, saturday I helped around the greenhouse, then went to church and came home. Today I went to my grandma's place and got to help with the yardwork as it is a bit of a family tradition to help grandma get some of her yardwork done this so she doesn't do it all herself and bust up her shoulder again. I spent the majority of my time riding the mower around and pulling a lawn roller around in an effort to flattern out some of the hills and spots like that in her yard. After I got done we hung around for a while and then left to go see the new krogers out in mt. orab. I wasn't all that impressed with the new store, all that many groceries in one place seems a bit excessive to me. The lower prices don't really beat any convenience that I get from the grocery store that is much closer to my house. My local grocery offers enough to satisfy me.

I did get to put a check in the bank that put me near to a goal I have. With my next subbing pay check, I should get over that and then have to decide if I want to spend it or keep saving. If I do spend some of that money from my savings, I am going to keep at least enough to pay for my mortgage for a year. I don't want to make a mistake and not be able to pay that.

I also have some prospects for jobs. I started my grad project last week and should finish by this friday. If I can get my paperwork done soon after, I can apply to some science based teachign jobs. One job came up nearby with a retirement, and I seen some decent sounding jobs on the ode web site also. I have always kind of thought that I wouldn't be a career teacher, but if I can bet a couple of years in a savings account, then I might be able to make a down payment on some land if some farmers decided they might be willing to sell. I don't know if its much of a career plan, but I really can't see myself working for a boss my entire life. Maybe it is the fact that us Hauke's all have been self employed, but I am not a big fan of working at other peoples discretion.

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back in the saddle again.

2010-05-12T17:52:00.000-07:00

Well tomorrow I get to the chance to do what I consider some real teaching. I get to be in a class and direct my own lesson plans and grade on what think should be occurring. I finally got enough of my masters work together and am going into a classroom tomorrow morning. This also means I will get to do my teacher routine, and wake up at 5, shower and shave, goof off on the computer and fix lesson plans until I need to leave and leave. If I thought I could get in the building, I would be there at 6 in the morning, but as it is, I am going to have to wait until my usual show up time to get there.It's exciting to be able to go in there and be able to say and do and direct the kids how I want. As a sub, I don't want to over step a boundary and pretend that I know what the lesson the kids are doing is. I am worried about a student saying "well mr. hauke said we could do it this way" when the teacher has their own reasons for doing the lessons the way they do. If I am not lined up with the contracted teachers goals, I could be frowned upon and blacklisted. I know that won't happen though, because the only question I get asked is if I am available. I don't get asked if I like math or english or what I feel comfortable doing. I am working because I say yes when the call comes.

I am really lucky in some regards. The teacher I am cooperating with has agreed to let me in sight unseen and is willing to cover my classes I am subbing for the duration of the work. I don't think I will need the six days I asked for. I think the students will settle on a fix quickly and be done within four days. I am going to pay her for covering for me and also give her a gift card to the greenhouse.

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I pledge...

2010-05-04T18:59:00.000-07:00

my head to clearer thinking,
my hands to greater service,
my health to better living,
and heart to... well i can't remember.

Well that is what I remember from the 4-H pledge. With all the propaganda there is about voting to support 4-H, I don't think it will continue.

I was big into 4-H, but a little bit less after I got started in FFA. I really kind of lost interest when the group decided they didn't want to vote me as president. I was good enough to be the FFA president, but the 4-H group wanted a girl who projects were photography or some lamer project.

One of the reasons I am not in support of the vote is the youth involvment. Not many kids are taking the core projects such as livestock and crops. Sure, many young people enjoy taking projects, but for the most part the fair is a big expense that doesn't apply anymore. Schools have to let kids out a week, parents have to give out all kinds of money, and neither of those support agriculture, the basis for a county fair.

The county fair is to commercial. The basis for such an event should be agriculture, and not enough kids are involved in agriculture nowadays. I don't think our tax dollars are worth pumping money into that fund. Use them for something else. The kids that do live on farms and have an interest in livestock will just have to go on some independent program until they get to high school and join FFA. That is if FFA is even around and not cut from high schools by that time.

I don't think enough kids live on farms to justify having a solid 4-H program. I can only think of three I graduated with that did real farming that would have projects to show off their work. I don't know what those numbers are for the rest of the area, but it can't be all that high. Why should tax dollars be forced into that program when the youth around will not get that benefit?

Another reason is who is going to administer the 4-h program? Money keeps getting cut for the ag departments county wide. The person who was in charge when I was around is now doing two counties and the job likely won't be replaced when she retires.

Most of the projects now a days at the county fairs are small household animals and photography. Gun projects and 4-wheeler safety also seem to dominate. Sure the kids are interested, but I don't think making a fuss for those is worth the effort. Youth today are going to park themselves in front of computers and TV's, and saying or acting like 4-h is going to help will not help.

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Diet regime change

2010-05-03T17:51:00.000-07:00

One of the websites I can get on while subbing and bored during some classes is runners world website. I like to read the training tips and see what shoes are out that other runners recommend. I'll read the 50/50 authors blog on that site and some other blogs also. The training tips are good, and I find the articles about motivating myself to run good also.

The other day I was reading the diet section and decided that I really needed to change my diet if I want any type of physique. I have seen the future and I don't like it. My dad recently started wearing suspenders and a belt. His "we get all the exercise we need from working hard on the farm" belief is not doing him favors. The thing is, when he was in his late 20's like me, he was skinnier than I am now. I am ahead of schedule to look like him and be overweight if not obese.

So, the point is I read an article on runners world about dieting as a runner. The site put up a list of things a runner should eat, so I wrote them down and am going to take it to the grocery store So far, the things I have tried aren't bad at all. Almonds are good, whole grain bread isn't as bad as I thought it was. I just had a thing of yogurt and it was okay also. Eating good while I am at my house isn't going to be much of a problem. The issue is going to be moderation at my parents and grandparents house. I eat so much when I am there, its not funny. I play and do so much cleanup. I am going to have to force myself to eat just one plate of food and cut back that way. I am going to get some questions, but I don't think I should be carrying around as much weight as I am.

The good news is that milk and eggs are in for such a diet. One egg is about 10% of what I would need in a day, so that is good news for me. Milk might be the thing I drink the most of, followed closely by water. I would really like to put a water fountain in my house like they have at schools. When I was in the dorms, my room was right next to a water fountain and I drank water all the time. When I was teaching at EB, my room was next to the water fountain also and I drank water all the time. That really is what helped me take off some of the weight I had put on from the previous year. I was down to the two-teens by christmas break.

times typed "oftern"-0

Self Doubt

2010-05-01T21:38:00.000-07:00

Tonight I watched a movie called special where the main character takes medication that removes his self doubt. In this movie, he ends up thinking he has super powers until he pissed the wrong people off and gets a beat down by people he can't see. He then locks himself in a convenience store bathroom, goes through with-drawl and grunts a bunch. Even after the with-drawl, he still walks around saying that people can't tell him to stop. Wasn't a real exciting movie, but I did like it.

This caused me to think about what I would do if I could do anything. If my self doubt was erased what would I do? Would I work more? I already feel pretty confident about the amount of income I have. I don't think I would even want a better job or more work if I didn't have any self doubt. Not many people get the oppurtunity to work this close to their family as I do. Sure they make me angry sometimes, but people I am not related to can just as easily aggravate me. I think I would try to find more land to farm around here, but that will come eventually. I am still young, and all the older farmers around aren't going to want to farm forever. I have found a girl that likes me, so as long as I can maintain that, self doubt isn't really an issue. Once a person has managed to find work and people they enjoy, what more is there to look forward to in life? Maybe one day I will have a family of my own to not have doubts with, but as of now, I feel pretty good about myself. So in effect, self doubt would be good to get rid off, but without self doubt, I don't think I would be doing much different. My life is pretty good when I think over things and I can't think of any situation I would prefer to be in.

times typed "oftern"-0

little overdue

2010-04-26T14:25:00.000-07:00

Well it has been a while since I got to sit down and blog. Up until today, things have been busy and I haven't been able to sit down and blog around like I have in the past. Three weeks ago, I subbed every day of the week and came home and did some farming. Two weeks ago I ran a tractor and a disk every day of the week until dark. Last week we were rushing around getting the corn out, and finished on thursday. On friday we started our opening weekend in our greenhouse and that kept me busy all through the weekend. I had to wonder how I had time all last fall to keep up the post a day pace I was posting.

With the rain, we have finally been able to slow down some and catch our breath on all the activities of agricultural pursuits. Hopefully all the rain doesn't soften up all that corn we put out and kill all the seeds. Replanting will be a bear, especially if we have to go in a muddy field. It would be real nice if the weather was going to be sunny and dry things out, but that doesn't seem to be the case for the week according to apuzzo over on 9.2.

We also have caught up to where we thought we would be last year at this time. The people that bought the paylake at the auction last year decided that they were willing to sell us the properties. I don't think we are going to try and run a paylake. The lake was run poorly last year, and not many customers will be back soon. I have heard people say that many of the fish died over the winter because the oxygen machine wasn't running because the electric was shut off. I have heard that people were stealing fish all summer and however else long also. One of the people who used to help run it thought we might have to re-invest 10 grand just in fish to get people back and fishing. I hope we don't do this, I'm really for the idea of using the lake as irrigation and growing some niche crop during the summer. If I am going to make a living and be a respectable non-bum of a person, I would like to invest in a niche market. The tobacco market is moving away in three years and after that we will need a way to replace the income we garnered for being cancer merchants.

In other news, I was finally able to do something cool for the farm. I used the software dad been buying for the past six or seven years to make a map of all our fields. With the binders I put together, we can take field notes in all the important equipment and have a better managed farm. Hopefully this translates into spending less money on the farm and making better decisions.

Dad did mention to me that he would like to clear out a part of the woods we bought with the lake. The woods is right behind my house, and would translate to plenty of firewood if I wanted it. This means I will very likely push ahead with the outdoor furnace I want to install to heat my house with. Most of the money for the furnace will have to come from my saving account, but as long as I leave enough in the account to make a years worth of mortgage payments, I do feel comfortable about taking money out. I turned off my furnace about a month ago, and that dropped my electric bill by about 90 dollars for the month. I have paid for that though, the house is just about as cold as it is outside. That's fine though, I do have plenty of warm clothes to wear. I think I will have to spend some money installing some heating ducts to the upstairs. Right now, there is no heat upstairs, so I might as well spend some money if I am going to be pumping heat in my house as soon as the fifties hit next fall. This may cut back on the renovation I wanted to do on the other room I have upstairs. I would like to put the room in drywall and get rid of the wood paneling, but time will tell how much I have to spend and invest in my estate as I see fit.

I also found out one of my cousins is losing his teaching job near here. His family thinks they were lied to about the whole deal, but the more I look at it, the less appealing being a teacher is. All I ever read is how schools don't have money and have to cut things they saw fit to have before. What incentive do I have to invest in a career as an educator if I can't make a living doing so? My skill set isn't limited to that area, so I am lucky in the sense I don't depend on that area for an income. Some people such as my cousin have invested that much of their schooling and education to being a teacher. He has to scramble around for a job to provide for his wife and daughter. On top of that, he mentioned to me when we worked construction together that he wanted to coach and that was one of the reasons he wanted to get into teaching. Hopefully things can work out and DDJ and others I know job searching can be gainfully employed sooner than later.

times typed "oftern"-0

SMV

2010-04-14T19:04:00.000-07:00

Today I had to do one of my least favorite things to do as a farmer. I had to drive a huge of machinery across a highway and down two miles of another popular stretch of road. This sucks big time as the driver of the machinery. Todays bigger machinery can easily take up a whole two lane highway, meaning that if I meet any traffic, I have to get over and preserve any good name the farming community has. Most cars see a tractor on the road and panic, getting over as soon as they can. I can't take the risk of driving by a car that is stopped and doing any body damage or personal damage. If I see a car heading my direction, I get over as soon as I can and let them decide when they can go around. Then after everyone has gone by, I look behind and then let the cars stuck behind me around. Today a 10 minute car drive took me an hour in an articulated 4 wheel drive tractor with a 12 foot wide disk with the wings folded up. By the time I got where I was going, I think something had burnt up on the clutch and may find out tomorrow when I get back in the daylight and have dad give the thing a look over.

The tractor I just mentioned is also not doing me much good. Its an older tractor that has a cab, but the air conditioning doesn't work at all. This means I have to drive all day long with both doors open. This does let some fresh air in the cab, but it also lets all the dust and noise in from outside. I have to cover my "fancy" phone so it doesn't have a layer of dust on it. I can't hear it when it rings anyways with that much noise around. Texting or navigating is no easy matter either.

Speaking of which, my brother may be an asshat. I'm not sure what exactly my dad asked him to do, but I was not impressed with the results. I imagined that he asked him to escort me and the tractor to the field I was going to by driving my pickup truck slightly ahead of me with the blinkers on. Instead he went out of sight as soon as I crossed 32, I seen him next when he was heading the other direction and then he just went down the road and then he showed up again behind me. I would like to ruin some favor he might ask me for in the future, but I like to think of myself as a good person and will just be a do as asked.

times typed "oftern"-0

Two direction time of year.

2010-04-12T19:25:00.000-07:00

Well Dad and Grandpa have hit their stride and we are in a busy season of farming now. Dad decided that if I am going to be among the percentage of the greenhouse profits, I should be there by 8 am everyday. This is fine with me, as the only real reason I usually have to leave greenhouse activities is for church on saturdays. Going on saturdays this time of year lets me get in and watch over sunday mornings so that grandma and grandpa can go to their church activities. The only other issue is that dad also has to pull me his direction to help with farming details. He might decide that he wants a pop in the middle of the day, or that I need to go work somewhere else while I should be at the greenhouse. I should be doing those things anyways, but it would be nice if he was able to plan ahead enough so that I could plan some.

I am trying to fit the greenhouse details on the farm works software and am not sure how it is going to work. I need to put all of our flowers in as supplies, but I can't distinguish all the groupings like I want to. It looks like I am going to have to keep an inventory and put in sales and expenses that way. It would be nice if I could describe our benches as fields, but I don't think it will work out that way. We don't "harvest" from the greenhouse like we might an actual field, so listing everything as a supply might be the way to go.

It was about this time of year a year ago that I started my sobriety also. I realized that I had or was going to buy a house and that I could save money by not drinking. After the auction I bought a 12 pack, and once it was gone, I didn't have more than one beer on any occasion until the fourth of july. I also had recently read around the same time that a man who doesn't drink, doesn't party and has faith would be very desirable or was being sought out. It turns out more was implied than what I could do, but reading that was a good kick start nonetheless.

I think I will be starting another such sobriety streak here soon, but I have a couple of beers left in refrigerator to get through first. No reason to throw them out or let them go bad, I just know what drinking does to my body and want to knock it off again.

I also watched the movie "Fireproof" tonight. I very much enjoyed it and will be looking for it on the store shelves in the future. The movie had plenty of good messages, but I can see why it didn't have commercial success like other blockbusters might. I remember hearing Kirk Cameron on some news program and thinking it might be okay, but am glad that I watched it now. I hope and pray that if I ever get married, I can do the right things for God and my wife to deserve the benefits of a good or blessed marriage. I did watch "drag me to hell" last week also, but it was a bit goofy or over the top for me. I did like the overall story, but it wasn't my favorite horror or scary movie flick.

times typed "oftern"-0

a year and two days ago.

2010-04-09T18:23:00.000-07:00

I wanted to do this post yesterday but my stomach was bothering me after eating 3/4 of a large pizza hut pizza and then running on the treadmill for 35 minutes. So I went to bed instead.

A year and two days ago, the auction happened that defines where I am today. My landlords family had the estate sale and we got enough of what we really wanted to get. All the farmland around near to us, and the house I had been renting. The whole family was really nervous about what could happen at this auction. We didn't know who was going to show up and decide they wanted to own a paylake. We had some interested parties come by and scope out the place in the time leading up to the auction. We got to hear about the auction style and how it might be disadvantageous to us. Luckily all turned out well. We were bidding on everything nearby here until the landlords one daughter and her family, the p-uuhs, as I will refer to them, got our total bid up to over 300 grand. We had already offered them that before they decided on an estate auction, so we weren't interested in going above that. They ended up paying about 150 grand for the lake and woods nearby, and spent last summer being pay lake folk.

Yesterday my mom told me that the p-uuhs called us and told us that they are interested in selling. They didn't mention a price, only saying that we know what they have put into it. I think we are going to buy it, but not at the price they bought it for. We have talked about using the lake as a irrigation source if we decide to grow a niche crop as an alternative to tobacco and gaining more acres to grow soybeans. Dad doesn't believe we are going to make it as a farm with the current amount of acres we grow and try to make profit on.

I was really relieved that we got the house and I wasn't going to be moving back in with my parents. I had been half joking about getting evicted to just about whoever would listen. If we hadn't got the house, I would have likely given up on farming and moved to wherever I could find a job as an ag teacher and then work until I was able to work as a science teacher and make my living as a teacher. I think I would enjoy teaching if I had to rely on it as a career, but that is not a necessity as of now. As of now, I might even give up subbing after this school year and be more of a farmer career wise. That means getting involved in the greenhouse more and fine tuning the farm works program to see where we can afford to spend less money. It will also mean deciding what we are going to grow as a niche crop and getting that established and finding buyers and creating a market for the area.

times typed "oftern"-0

up to date

2010-04-06T19:29:00.000-07:00

Well it has been a while since I put the last blog post out. Not much has happened since last thursday. I mowed my yard for the first time, sent Walter to the vet to get neutered, and cleaned up the floors in my house some more, the bean market is down and we are getting ready to work the fields.

I did knowingly skip church on easter sunday. I don't usually like competing with large crowds and the C&E crowd was going to be in full effect on easter sunday. I will double up on my donation next time I go to church. I need to try and go to the saturday service this week also. My AZP group is having their initiaion banquet this weekend and I think I will go up on saturday to drink and socialize some. I have gotten back to drinking more than usual lately. I haven't been downing 12+ beers like I would do in the good ole days, but do need to cut back here again soon. After this weekend I will finish all the beer I have in the house and cut back again. Really as long as I get on the treadmill at least every other day, I'm not worried about how much I drink. When I was drinking heavily, I rarely excercised and put on 50 pounds the year I was 23. Now that I burn up some calories and drink sparingly, I doubt I put on any weight and ballon up.

It also looks like I will be heading into greenhouse management soon. If I don't get a teaching job, I will committ to our greenhouse business at 25% this year and increasing more year by year. I really don't mind this but the idea of managing a business scares me a bit. I think we bring in about 30 grand a year from the greenhouse and that isn't bad for the time we put into it really. We start getting supplies in at the end of february, have our opening day the third weekend in april and close shop by the first part of june. I don't know how much work grandma does in terms of ordering supplies, but that is going to be the diffucult part for me. Luckily for me she keeps very good and detailed records that should be easy to decipher.

I also have some terrible thoughst about a recent news event. I don't really feel sorry for a young man who needs to go to spring break, drinks themselves dumb and then has an accident and dies. When I was 17, I didn't need to do those things to feel good. I spent time with my family worked because that is what we did. What kind of adults were that 17 year old listening to that going on a made up holiday and drinking in excess is the example to follow? The only good thing is that this situation can be an example for other young kids who think they need to do similar things. Maybe I am in the minority here, but I don't want any kids I have influence over thinking those are cool things to do.

times typed "oftern"-0

Manzannas

2010-04-01T19:26:00.000-07:00

Today we planted about 20 fruit trees on my dads place. Him and his cousin decided they were going to have more trees to buy cider with, so they bought a bunch of apple trees. He did buy one pear tree for some reason, I guess he thought he would just see how it turned out. I do like my apples though, so I didn't mind helping out to plant the trees. I would have to say my favorite type of apple prep is baked apples. Warm sugary apples are hard to beat, and they can be cooked in the microwave relatively easy.

I also have to recant a little bit. I was at the CTC again today, and the teacher left me a well prepared plan for a substitute. She typed out a page of what she needed each class to do, had a roster, extra copies if I needed to make some extras and extra extra work if the class got out of hand. If all the teachers put that much effort into being out, I would have much more work to do. I do have to wonder if she is going to be satisfied with what the kids got done though. I hear way to many kids plan on just saying they don't understand it so the regular teacher goes over it when they get back. I know that I can't force them to do the work, all I can really do is present the material to them. If I ever get a full time job, I think I would be really tough on the work kids done when a sub was in for me. I would want them to have a bit of fear about doing what the sub gives them.

I also got to open the windows in my house today and let some fresh air in. Hopefully I will get to keep the air circulating until late fall. Tomorrow I am going to shut off the gas to my wall heater and just tough out any more cold weather I have. Its good to have the warm weather back.

times typed "oftern"-0

CTC considerations.

2010-03-31T19:13:00.000-07:00

The past three days I have subbed at a vocational school, and the atmosphere in that building is way different. The students constantly have their phones out, all manners of cussing are happening and very little effort is being put towards learning or achieving anything academic. For the most part, the teachers I seen tolerate this for a reason I don't know. They may stress academics more when they are in charge or present, but the past three days, I have gotten less than 50 words of what the students should be doing. I do think most of the kids are benefiting from being in such a program, but have to wonder how desperate things are for them on the weekends. I overheard all kinds of drinking and sex partners comparison stories from the students and really felt sad. As young as they are, and they are out rushing around doing things as if they planned on not living much longer. I sure hope that if I get to be a parent one day, I will have more control over my brood than what I am hearing from those students.

I also had to do some handiwork around here. My two flusher post must have been a bit of a premonition to what happened, but I spent all afternoon working on my toilet. As the great Red Green says, "if the women don't find you handsome, at least they'll find you handy." I can't decide if my house smells funny or not now, but if the weather holds up, I will have the windows open letting all kinds of fresh air in anyways.

My mom had her birthday today and hit the century mark. We finally went to a restaurant around here that didn't serve alcohol and had a nice meal. I thought we might go to the old y, but went to the country inn out by the new clinic instead.

times typed "oftern"-0

For the fun of it

2010-03-30T04:24:00.000-07:00

Sunday six of us went to the masonic temple down in cincy to watch or attend some type of easter holy hour. Afterwards we all went to the newport and had a nice meal at don pablos. My dad and brother had more than one alcholic drink so it was decided that I should drive home. The first issue came up when the not sober people decided that I was incapable of deciding for myself which direction we needed to go to make it home. Keep in mind, both of them never lived in a big city and had to drive around on highways when they needed to go somewhere outside of their living area. So anyways, after being told and having the route changed about three times, I decided that I was going to purposefully drive in the opposite direction and ask way to many questions. I kept this up for about 10 minutes before they finally got their heads on straight and got me pointed in the right direction. One thing happened that really pissed them off. After I drove by a left turn lane, they decided that I should have been in that lane. In order to get in that lane, I was going to have to hold up all the cars behind me from their business, which I was unwilling to do. Dad and Glenn nearly threw a hobo fit when I drove ahead, made a left at the next business, and then got on the road I needed to be on.

I had to laugh a little bit yesterday also. Two summers ago, I was lectured for 15 minutes by my grandpa about how we should always put the new lawn mower away clean. I spent plenty of time cleaning up the mower when I was done with it, but apparently was the only one. Yesterday grandpa started complaining that the mower was dirty and had been put away dirty all winter long. I had to laugh. The two people who I knew always put the mower away dirty were standing there dumbfounded as to how that happened.

times typed "oftern"-0

BB user

2010-03-29T16:36:00.000-07:00

A week or three ago, I made a change that may stick with me for a long time. I had been seeing the commercials on TV for a sprint/nextel plan that offered unlimited everything for a family plan. I realized that I could sign my dad, grandpa and me up on a family plan, get unlimited everything and pay about the same as I was before. I was also conveniently up for a new phone, so I went into the store and made it happen. I was considering either the clutch model with its rugged features, or a blackberry with its does everything feature. I went with the blackberry mainly due to being on the new plan, I would be able to text and web browse all I wanted and that would be easier on a blackberry. So far that has proven to be true and I am pretty content with it, minus two accounts. First, the web browser is a bit slow, but that has more to do with the nextel network needing an upgrade, which I have read is happening. Second, I can't seem to get my sirius app to work, which has more to do with my network than anything else. Other than that I am pretty happy. I bought a good case for when I inevitably drop my phone, I can now send text messages and even discovered that a blackberry gets me in an elitist group of messenging that I didn't know existed. I can check the grain market and do some browsing when I want. I can walkie talkie my bosses limitlessly now and even do free group connect which will be cool when they realize what is happening. I do have to worry about how much dirt and grime I might get on the keyboard. With the case I got, the keyboard is exposed and I have way to much dirt and hay chaff to mindlessly ignore what could happen to that. The charger port is also exposed, but is a usb style charger so I don't think I need to worry about it as much. My dad and grandpa have lower model phones, so they don't get to advantage the new plan in quite the same way, but they are spending less so I don't see why they would complain much. I am also getting used to typing with my thumbs. It is going okay, but I have big hands and digits that have been able to palm basketballs since the 7th grade.

I also have a bit of a gripe now. I came home today and decided that I was going to get my work desk all set up and cleaned off some. I put my PC laptop in its spot and started PC'ing away. I was doing some simple browsing and upgrading and kept getting constant interuptions and unexpected shutdowns. I now remember why I went over to a mac. The typing seems a bit easier on my PC, but the mac does everything else better.

times typed "oftern"-0

Seminar Semantics

2010-03-28T19:09:00.000-07:00

This past week has been awful busy. I spent four days this week at a software training seminar for a farm record keeping system. I learned a couple of new tricks, and seen some things that I already knew. The main point with the program is simply going to be putting the time into it to get back out of it what you can use. Dad and Grandpa have farmed all their lives by deciding what they were going to do when they wanted to do it. No records or recording were kept until everything was said and done for the year. If I am going to use the program, I am going to have to committ time to it everyday, as if it were an actual job. I could treat it as a full time job if I wanted, keeping all the financial records and activities of all our families as like an accountant might for a large company.

It was pretty tiring really. Tuesday and Wednesday, I drove to Dayton and back both days. It seems that whether I go via 32 and 275 or via Wilmington and 35, its abou the same 80 mile distance from my house to that hotel. Thursday and Friday I went to Columbus, but stayed at my brothers place Thursday night to save on some driving. I also got to sleep in some Friday morning, which was nice. I woke up to about three inches of snow on my truck. I got to meet up with a friend and his fiance also. I asked them how they arrived to one of the conclusions they did and recieved conflicting answers from the two of them. It was really pretty funny, but I was glad to see them none the less.

I also have found someone to be a little hypocritical. A little bit of research and I saw what I thought I had seen earlier. It would seem that when I justify something, its an excuse, but they are free to do nearly the same when the situation presents themselves. I thought about confronting this person, but feel that vaguely blogging about it is enough for me.

In other news, I have seen several movies since I last blogged. District 9 was good, Dogma was as funny as I rememberd it, Land of the Lost was okay, Religulous gave me a look that I wasn't scared or worried about hearing. I have seen some more, but my internet is slow right now so I am going to not look them up. I also got in my wii sreaming netfix DVD, so will be putting that to task soon also. I doubt that I can download a full movie with my internet service, but do have unlimited data from 3 am to 6 am. So I will wake myself up early once, see if I can download a movie, pause the playing off it, and then go back to bed.

times typed "oftern"-0

Palm Sunday

2010-03-28T09:26:00.000-07:00

Today was Palm Sunday in the catholic church. Per tradition, we started mass by going out of the church, being handed a palm leaf and commencing mass out of the regular church confines. One of my favories parts of the Palm Sunday service is the retelling of the Passion of the Christ. I brought my palm leaf home and put in over my doorway with the one I got last year this weekend.

I have never seen the Mel Gibson movie, for no good reason at all, but I have a different reason for liking the Passion. One of the things that we did in my old parish was an acting of the Passion, that was put on by the youth group. My freshman and sophomore year I didn't play very big parts, but I stepped it up some for my junior and senior years. I played Jesus those last two years and can remember many of the lines from that role. It was a bit of an untstated rule that one of the male seniors took on the role of Jesus, but after signups none of the fellers ahead of me had signed up. After about five seconds of thought, I volunteered and then went ahead and then recommited my senior year. At first I was a bit intimidated by playing a role that had so many lines. The narrator had more lines, but they got to use their script the whole time. All in all I was glad I was able to do it for those two years. I learned more than I would have if I didn't do that role, and became a source of inspiration. For the next 7 of the 8 years, either me or my brothers played Jesus in the play. I was the role for two years, Glenn was for three years, and my youngest brother was for the three years after Glenn graduated. It kind of worked out funny with my brothers, whenever one of us was a senior, the other was a freshman.

Next weekend marks the end of the Lent season and we are going to have dinner at my grandparents down the street. I have succesfully given up FB'ing for Lent, but did find a technicallity once. My brother used my computer once and I got back on and viewed my page, logged in as him. So while I was on FB, I wasn't technically individually logged in so it didn't count that way. I was mainly worried about what my youngest brother and his buddy had put on there about me giving up FB for Lent and getting raped by the government this year, but it was relatively tame.

times typed "oftern"-0

the same moon

2010-03-22T18:25:00.000-07:00

I have a cousin that was born four days before me. He lived just down the street, but in another district and another school from me. We both played basketball and now work with our dads. One summer we went to a basketball camp and played on the same randomly chosen team together that made the championship game in that camp. His parents started him in school a year eariler than me, so he graduated in 2000. I was 18 my whole senior year of high school, he was 17. Our brothers that were a year apart in age came to the coclusion when they were all three working together that we were a lot alike. My brother commented that Chad sounded just like me in many things, and near as I can tell we are alike in many things.

I was reminded of this today when I was talking to my cousins dad. I mentioned that I was kind of seeing someone named Amanda, he said the me and Chad are really alike. Chads wife is named Amanda. He is also married for about two years now with twins. So I am a bit away from that, but fate may be chasing me down.

times typed "oftern"-0

tourney time/bad luck

2010-03-19T13:29:00.000-07:00

Tournament time is upon me now. I remember in junior high getting the sports page and looking at all the scores to see who had wone and was advancing. At the time I was a UC fan, back in the day when they were in the conference USA and were winning the league title year after year. I loved the bearcats and hated the kentucky wildcats. I would get excited whenever the wildcats were losing.

Historically I never have done very well picking a bracket. This year is not off to a very good start either, I picked minnesota and texas to do well and they lost right away. Half of my final four is done already, and the first weekend is not even over.

The worst luck I can think of was my junior year of high school, or kenyon martins senior year of college. He broke his knee or leg somehow in the conference tournament and was done for the year. UC had a real good shot at being the national champions that year, and still got a 1 seed despite that injury. I couldn't believe it when our assistant coach came to basketball practice and told us the bad news. I didn't believe him.

One year I had to watch the NIT because ohio state made didn't make the big tourney. I tried to figure it out, but all I know is that the teams have some home games and OSU ended up winning the whole thing. Last year as soon as OSU was upset in the first round, I quit watching. I plan to do the same thing this year.

In other news, I had a very easy day subbing today. For some reason a principal thought he needed a sub and aparently I was just the guy for the job. I got to finish my big red machine book, and took it easy nearly all day. Subbing is usually easy money, but today was especially easy.

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My middle name

2010-03-17T21:59:00.000-07:00

I have a unique link to St. Patricks day. No, I don't claim to be any particular part irish. No, I don't drink dark beer all day long or on any other occasion. No, I don't follow St. Paticks ideology to the T. My middle name is Patrick, my mother named me that after the saint. All I really know abou the person is he introduced christianity to a large part of ireland, and used the three leaf clover to as a type of pnemonic device to remember the holy trinity of the father, son, and, holy spirit.

Speaking of saints, I have had some thoughts about all the saints. Now, I do like my chrisitanity, esepcially being a catholic. I do wonder why we need so many saints for so many seemingly small things. A quick google search gave me an entire list of saints to pray to for special purposes. I have to wonder why praying to God won't fulfill any of those needs. I know or at least think the saints did some outstanding work for God during their life, and mabye this is how they get rewarded. I prefer to pray to God for any and all of my issues, at least as of now.

My favorite St. Patricks day was back in 2006. I was dating someone who was working in illinois at the time, and I decided to surprise her for the weekend. So during the week, I tried to convince her to buy some extra groceries, and then drove up to her place on a thursday to surprise her. Unfortunately for her, I got there an hour or four early, and it was St. Patricks day. So after a while of waiting in my car, I realized there was a sports bar across the street that had green beer and the start of the NCAA tournament. So I went in and got good and lit, let her in on the surprise after a while, and enjoyed the rest of the weekend with her.

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not liking the change

2010-03-16T19:21:00.000-07:00

Well I officially don't like the time change now. I didn't get home utnil nearly seven and then it was dark before I knew it. I thought I might cook some hamburgers, but by the time I got settled in, it was to late to cook and watch LOST. So now I have a reason to not eat in the evenings and wonder where they went again.

Something I knew would happen, happened today. I got a call to sub for next week and all of the days I could go in and sub, are the four days I will be at that farm works software seminar. I did however get booked to work this friday, but I'm not sure what exactly I am going to be subbing as. The principal told me to bring a book and he acted like I might be subbing in his stead. I guess I will find out what he meant on friday.

I also got to join a tourney bracket with a bunh of old pals from college. They must really think highly of me, I missed the email list and got made fun of for not having a good messaging phone. They also put a picture up of me as the group picture, and named the group the brown county bendyhands. What great friends I have.

I also just realized that I will be in columbus next week with nothing to do when the NCAA tournament basketball games are going to be playing. I am wondering if I might just get a hotel room and see if I can do the "24 on the 24th" drinking game. I don't think my brother will be in town, and drank too much of absentmindeds fiance's stoli vodka the last time I was at their place.

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Insured.

2010-03-16T06:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I committed to being health insured for the next six months. I bought a base, hospital, and accident coverage plan that will last for six months for less than 800 dollars. I alos bought a dental and eye plan for 125 that last for 15 months. I'm not sure if I will need all that coverage, but after hearing about my ex girlfriends sister's car wreck and condition, I think having that in my name will be a good thing. What I really need to do though is get out to an optometrist. I have been wearing the same pair of glasses since before I turned 25 and honestly they strain my eyes sometimes. I don't know if I can still wear contacts or not, but will try to get a pair or two to have for the summer when I work outside in the sun much more.

In other news, we have started seeding our tobacco plants for next year now. We can get all of our stuff done in three days and move on to the rest of the greenhouse work. The rest of the greenhouse work has been kind of slow, but we do have plenty of vegetables that are coming up that will need transplanted soon. It would be nice if we would be able to get some sun here the next couple of days, but the cloudy weather may just hang around for a while.

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Boogers

2010-03-13T10:50:00.000-08:00

I have a bit of a nasty habit. I pick my nose. I can't help it for some reason. When I am alone, I will really dig around there for some reason. I don't know why I do it. I think I don't like having a big hunk of whatever it is up there. This issue has really been compounded lately. I can blow my nose in my handkerchief, and ten minutes later I will have some dry material to dig out. I know that this is not socially accepted, but I don't always have a handkerchief to blow into. Sometimes I even eat what I pull out of there. Its more curious-ness than anything.

I also forgot about the no meat on friday lent deal and ate part of a strombolghi for lunch yesterday. I like eating fish as much as I can, but I completely forgot about the day being friday until about 30 seconds after I finished my sandwich. Its a good thing Lent is voluntary and I can ask for forgiveness on anything if I ask and am truly repentive.

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my resignation

2010-03-11T17:30:00.000-08:00

Well today was a pretty good day. I got some work done on my prospectus, heard some encouraging news about crop insuracne and had a good dinner. I didn't do anything in the greenhouse, but things have been relatively slow for the first part of the season here.

In other news, I heard some less than good news from a friend today. The news casued me to reflect on the only real job I ever had that I lost. About this time three years ago I was called into a principals office to be told I wasn't working there next year. At the time I was 24, and the principal and building rep thought I was much to young to get hung up and not think I wouldn't work again. He told me that he spent a couple of nights aganizing over the decision, but finally had to do what was best for the school. I can't fault him to much though, that was part of what they pay him for. I could have done a better job and kept my position, but I had a couple of things stacked against me. First, my licensure was in agricultural education. I can work in such a capacity teaching out of my license area, but only for a limited time. I was working on my progress in that area, but here I am at 27 and really having to push to finish up. Secondly, they were worried about losing students to the PSO program. That is an epic fail and part of the problem schools are facing today. More on that later. Thirdly, they had a replacement in mind when they were getting rid of me. They had me turn in a letter of resignation and then sign it so I couldn't rescind it when I found out who they were hiring to replace me. Then that friday I went to columbus and got drunk. The next week I told my grandma that I wasn't getting re hired and she told me that when one door shuts another opens.

In other news, I believe schools are letting to many students do PSO. With fewer students around, they don't need as many teachers. If all the students who are willing to work and get A's and B's go to school somewhere else, the C and lower students are left to wait out their time until they can graduate. So if a school has 20-30 less students, that is the salary or at least two teachers. (Count week gives 5 grand per student.) This means they need fewer CP teachers and subjects. And when a school has to look to cut money, those subjects may go. I am going to be doing an independent survey and findind out how many PSO kids are out of schools soon.

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Handkerchief

2010-03-11T05:57:00.000-08:00

I have gotten into the habit of having a handkerchief with me nearly all the time. At one point during the last summer, I had about seven or eight that I could rotate around and keep fresh. I have now noticed that I am down to about three for some reason. All three of those are ripped also, so they almost don't count. I just need to go out and buy some more really. I don't only use my handkerchef to blow my nose or as a snot rag. If it is clean and fresh, I use it as a wipe for my glasses, or to wipe the sweat off of my brow. Even if the handkerchief did have some snot on it, I don't finish my day and decided I don't need a shower. I usually have some amount of grime or dust that necessitates a shower when I get in at the end of the day. So if I decide to use a less than clean handkercheif to wipe off my forehead, I am okay with it because I know I will shower at the end of the day. I also have used my handkerchief to wipe off my hands when I get grease on them or some other type of grime. They are very useful when I am out farming.

I also heard my dad comment once that my namesake used to always carry around a handkercheif also. I wonder if that habit is hereditary now, or if we both just had that much common sense.

I am also making a return to my alma mata and former employer as a sub tomorrow. I get to sub in the ag class. I think I will do my best to not eat lunch with the rest of the staff though. I usually eat my lunch based on when I can get to classroom. I am a bit phobic about students beating me back to my sub room after lunch and being unsupervised. If I fell that the room is close enough to the teacher lunch room, I will eat lunch in the teacher room. If not, I usually eat lunch in the classroom. I am not warranted the use of a key, and I shouldn't be, so I try to be in my sub room when I can.

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Plumber pants

2010-03-08T18:18:00.000-08:00

I have decided that most of my work pants don't fit me right. Part of this is that I have some old 36 pants that I bought because they were on sale or because I inherited them from my dad. Even some of my good jeans don't fit right now unless I put my belt on as tight as I can. My dress pants usually fit pretty well, but most of them are too small waisted to move around much on me. I really feel weird trying to adjust my shirt all the time. Maybe that is the burden I have to pay for losing weight from not being a regular drinker and exercising some.

Not much else to comment on today. Me and my new lady friend are talking about plenty of things and my throat is still a bit sore. I did turn my furnace off tonight. I hope I can make it the rest of the winter and spring without turning it back on. I am still going to run my propane heater, hopefully it will be enough.

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sickness

2010-03-07T06:02:00.000-08:00

I think I have gotten a cold from subbing in the kindergarten class last week. I woke up saturday with a sore throat and little bit of a headache. I spent most of the day sucking down cough drops and finished off all the orange juice that I had in the house. That helped some, but I did wake up worse this morning. My throat was pretty stuffed up and my nose was just as full of snot. This was really to be expected though, I usually get sick like this about twice a year. When the weather changes from warm to cold or vice versa, I usually get stuffed up for a day or two. Being sick will pass in a day or two, I just have to get plenty of rest and wait it out.

I also went out with a friends parents last night for dinner at applebees. Dinner was good, meeting her parents was kind of cool, they were pretty easy with the conversation, but plenty of the conversation was really on another subject. I would have been more hungry and might have even had a beer or two, but the sore throat had me down.

I also messed up with Walter last night. He was at my parents most of the evening yesterday and I neglected to realize how much he might have eaten. I also didn't take him outside before I put him to bed, and ignored him when he started barking this morning. Well when I got out of bed this morning he had shat all over the cage and I had some cleaning up to do. I was just thinking the other day that I had him trained pretty well, but last night proved I still had a way to go.

fish fry

2010-03-05T16:43:00.000-08:00

Today I went to my first fish fry ever. My old parish either never had them or I was always to busy with the rest of the family to go. The fish I had was good, but I thought at seven dollars the meal was a bit overpriced. Especially since I didn't have anything to drink because I didn't pay extra. At least the money went to what the church is calling their mission, funding the school program.

I also might be buying a new phone here in the next week. I am thinking about buying a blackberry, but need to read some more reviews first. I keep reading on their paraphrenelia that you can't send text messages. I also need to convince dad and grandpa to switch over to a family plan so we can get unlimited everything with the phones and pay about the same still.

I have been dog sitting my sisters dogs at my house the past two days. Chloe and Chrissy are housetrained enough that I don't have to put them in a cage at night. Chrissy will sleep right by my head, and Chloe the pug will root around and crawl under the covers to go to bed. Its kind of funny when she starts rooting around, she doesn't have much of a nose, but has to try anyways. Walter seems to be getting along with them pretty well, they do all three sleep on the couch together. I have had to give all three of them baths both days they have been together here, they get very muddy after spending much time outside. I used to think Chrissy was getting a bit bigger, but now that Walter is around, she seems very tiny again.

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Jeremiah

2010-03-04T19:41:00.000-08:00

I finally got around to reading and finishing another book in the Bible. Jeremiah is about the last and longest book that was left for me to read. I found a website that lists all the Bible books by the order of appearance and lets you go directly to each book and verse you want to go to. It is pretty convenient, and I don't think my bible gateway site will be blocked by any school filters I go to. I also read Jeremiah exclusively online, and am not sure that I liked reading the Bible that way. There is something to be said or had in reading a printed version of something, especially the Bible.

I did have a couple of thoughts about Jeremiah. For one, I thought the books of the were in some sequential order. I thought the nebuchadnezzer character was long and done with, but sure enough, he showed up again, presumbably doing the same thing he was doing the first time I read about him. It is a bit confusing to read things when they seem out of order. However, after I typed that I decided that the order of the books is likely very deliberate and I should take it as is. On a side note, he is one of the characters I remember because that is the name of the ship that neo is part of in the matrix trilology. Maybe I should start paying more attention to the Bible and less to movies. I also thought God spent to much time telling what he was going to do and not enough time doing it. I can understand wanting to preach and give some warning to your people, but constantly telling your citizenry that they will be destroyed seemed a little redundant to me. I would tell them once and let them stew about it then let it happen. I know God has his reasons, and what I read is rewritten from a source. I also have to wonder If I am doing the things to keep God enough on my side. There are several sins that I have never committed and I haven't committed any intentional sins since my last confession and forgiveness of sins at mass.

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Housesitting

2010-03-03T14:35:00.000-08:00

Well this week I volunuteered myself to housesit for my parents while they are in pennsylvania watching my sisters basketball teams national tournament. Its not to bad a deal, they now have a wireless internet so I can waste time on my computer as effeciently here as at my own place. My only real responsibility is staying here so that Ebru has a someone watching over her ant the house at night.

Part of staying here is finding a place to sleep. I don't want to sleep in my parents bed as that would seem too oedipus like or something. There are some beds upstairs, but the upstairs is poorly heated and I don't want to sleep any where near a 17 year old girl. I don't think I could ever do anythign immoral in terms of that, but much prefer to sleep on the couch. Last night I slept on a couch, and it might have been better, but I had three dogs that wanted to cozy up and act like dogs all night long.

Today I also subbed for a kindergarten class at the elementary school were my mom teaches 5th grade. The tikes were tiring, and I was bombarded with questions all day long. I must have been handed 50 pencils to sharpen and been handed about 20 handmade knick nacks from the tikes by the end of the day. I was surprised by how bit the kids actually were. I always thought kindergartners would be smaller, but alas, they were not as small as I thought they would be.

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three more years

2010-03-02T16:01:00.000-08:00

Well today I signed a contract to sell ten thousand pounds of tobacco each of the next three years. I recently said here that I don't think the tobacco market is going to last, but I now have a buyer for at least three more years. I now have to consider if I want to buy a large bale baler for the tobacco bales. The warehouse is offering an incentive to bring in big bales, but at my contract it would only be a hundred extra dollars per year. A big baler would likely cost two or three thousand dollars, and I would have to buy a forklift to move the bales around with. That adds up for only three guaranteed years.

In other news, I got back on the treadmill today. It felt good to actually break a sweat and know that I did something. I only ran 25 minutes at a slow pace, but I have to ease into running. The last time I ran was back in december. I still have some p90x workous left, but they will come along eventually.

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I started the fire

2010-03-01T15:12:00.000-08:00

Today I got to do something that I did about 51 weeks ago, therefore making it a yearly tradition. I burnt up a bunch of garbage from the greenhouse on a pile of brush that I accumulated in the past year. I think I was able to burn most of it up this year, I even worked over most of it to throw in the brush that didn't get burned up the first go through. The only thing is that I still need to go through my yard to pick up branches that fell over the fall and winter. I will probably also take a chainsaw to some of my trees that give me the most trouble when mowing also.

Last year I did this burning on the warmest day of the year up to that point. I was able to wear shorts outside that day last march. I started the fire in much the same manner, burning some garbage from the greenhouse. Only last year, the grass around was much drier and I found out that it was able to spread more than I wanted. The fired ended up burning down some tall weeds and would have made it to the road if I didn't put it out in that direction. In the other direction the fire found plenty of dry stuff to burn. An old fence post burned up in an interesting way. The inside of it was hollowed out and the embers were coming out the top like a mini volcano. The fire caught one tree on fire and burned out the base of the tree and it eventually fell over. I had to stay up all night and eventually rounded up some houses from the greenhouse to put the fire out. If I hadn't done that, the fire would have spread to my neighbors fence and caught who know what else on fire.

The fire was really a bit of a catharsis that day also. I found out that day that the estate from my deceased landlord was going up for auction in april. That meant I could and should be looking for a new home within the next month. An auction is not a very certain thing when it concerns your housing. If I remember correctly, I also found out some encouraging news at that time last year. I have mentioned on this blog before that I got nosy one day and ended up finding a blog that I probably shouldn't have been reading. Well anyways, I read on the blog that this girl had recently quit seeing whomever it was she was seeing, which would seeminlgy open up the door for me. As it turns out, her availability didn't allow any room for me to be an vialbe option, but it was encouraging to read about at the time.

I also had some things on my mind today when I was burning my garbage. I'm still mulling them over and they will show up in some later posts.

I also have to wonder about these so called "UC" fans. While I haven't been on FB to show my support for my buckye basketball team, I can't help but notice all the noise about UC being so great doesn't apply to their mediocore basketball team. It would seem that the basketball team was the point of pride for the school for many years, and now the role has reversed. I am a fan of nearly all OSU sports, but really just apply that fandom to the football and basketball teams, the most visible sports of the school. If everyone had such a hard on for UC back when the football team was having such a great season, why aren't they on the bandwagon now? Why is UC suddenly not worth them cheering for or wearing around t shirts saying they are the best team in Ohio? Its because UC is second rate and so are there fans. I don't even remember seeing UC stuff at many of the basketball games this winter. I almost always wear OSU paraphernalia when I go out, it is called school pride.

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Magazines

2010-03-01T14:02:00.000-08:00

I really enjoy reading magazines. Currently, I have a subscription to nintendo power and also discover magazine. I probably read more of nintendo power from cover to cover, but really enjoy some of the articles in discover also. Discover has a wider range of articles, so I don't go back to it as much as I really should. I do occasionaly get some farming magazines in from my parents, but those usually just get a once over before I throw them to the burn pile.

Today I inherited a small stack of Sports Illustrated magazines from my grandparents. Apparently grandma signed up so she could get a free bengals jacket for my grandpa. So now I have something to read over for the rest of the day. Hopefully I can find some good articles, but ususally don't. There is only so much old news I am interested in reading now. If I was stuck in the tractor or on a long trip, I would read them from cover to cover, but an mont that bored now.

I also inherited the 2010 SI swimsuit edition with the stack of magazines. I haven't looked through that particular edition in some time and can't remember the last time I did. This issue wasn't all that great in my opinion. I don't get a thrill out of looking at girls in magazines nowadays. Thats not to say I don't enjoy the double issue, but one look was enough for me.

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basement upgrade

2010-02-26T14:09:00.000-08:00

Well tax time has came and gone, all I have left to do is send the check in the mail on monday. I think I will be getting certified mail.

Walter now has his latest set of shots and has the rabies vaccine. He seems to be getting the hang of the pace of being in the greenhouse, and he is pretty tired when we get back. Playing with the labs is a bit tiring for all parties involved.

Today I made and printed out an excel spreadsheet to keep better track of what I spent on bills last year and this coming year. I really have to cut back on my credit card bill, but the rest of them were reasonable. The only issue I have is with the electric, but its just going to be high until I buy a wood burning heat source for my house. I don't know if I will have the gumption to get that done this summer or not. I certainly don't want to spend money on electric and propane to heat my house when I can burn wood for the cost of me getting off of the couch and swinging an axe when I have nothing else to do.

I really don't know what I am going to do to spend money this year. I want to buy a wood furnace for the house, might buy a bigger truck for the farm, could buy some farm machinery. I could see making improvements on the house. The house could use some more insulation, but if I just blast a bunch of heat in from burning wood, I don't need much insulation. I might make a mudroom on the back part of the house, or I could renovate the attic to a room and a bathroom part. One thing I am sure I want to do is run some new wiring and clean out my basement. Right now it has an old furnace and some other junk. Since I got the windows put in, there is much more light, and I think I might need a place to keep canned vegetables after this summer.

In 2009 I payed off my truck and bought a house and neither of those did me much good. I have to find a way to spend money and still pay off all my bills and loans. Saving the money doesn't do me any good when the tax man wants all my money I didn't spend that I don't have.

PWNED hard

2010-02-25T12:31:00.000-08:00

Well this week has been especially busy. Tuesday night I went to a tobacco meeting with a free meal, and then wednesday night I went to a crop insurance meeting with a free meal. Tonight I am going to a baskeball game, and will get a free meal if I ride with my parents.

The worst news that I got since my last blog post is that I owe the fedearal government over 16000 dollars. I should have spent more money last year beyond paying off my truck and buying a house. Mabye in 2010 I will buy a newer farm truck and buy some more farm equipment. I might as well spend it on myself if the government is going to take it away.

I also really want to branch out of what we are doing here on our farm. Tobacco is going to be out of a market in my lifetime, and all the thinking that has to go into grain crops is a bit much. The quaker college is having some niche market meeting here in a couple of weeks and I want to go to it to get some ideas about what we can expand into. I want to be a farmer, I just don't think I can make a living with all the ground we have now and the crops we have now.

Well I need to get going, my busy body self has returned from winter break.

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money matters

2010-02-22T12:13:00.000-08:00

Well I finally added up some numbers for the purpose of my 2009 taxes. It would appear I grossed more than 90 grand last year and spent more than 30 grand on farm bills. This was greatly helped by a 20 grand crop insuracne check that will probably not happen again for a long time. I really was surprised by how much I paid in bills, I expected that number to be lower. I also thought I would have grossed more, but was under the 100 grand I thought I got myself in. In all likelyhood, or my pessimism, 2010 will be a worse year. I won't have any income from wheat this year. I can' count on crop insuracne to write me a check that I used to pay off my truck and make a downpayment on my house. The grain market might have reached its peak in 2009 and not reach the price level it was at for most of 2009.

I also feel good about what I am offering to my church now. I started off last year giving 20 dollars every week, but have been giving an offering of 45 dollars a week now. Since I don't have a salaried income, I wasn't sure how much I should have been giving. I know or knew that the Bible says to give either 10 or 15 percent, but I settled on 1 percent of the churchs weekly need, based on their bulletein. In effect, if 99 other people were as giving as me, the church would be okay week to week. Surprisingly, the bulletein rarely reports enough offering from the last week to cover their 4500 weekly need. I find it hard to believe that a church that has three sermons or masses every week can't or doesn't have enough people attending to reach this amount. I am going to have to consider giving more. I really feel good about giving money to the church though. I feel that I have been very fortunate the last year or so since I started attending services at hillsboro. Despite not having full time employment, my life is really good as of lately.

Well tomorrow morning I have to go to get my taxes prepared. Should be fun to find out how much I owe my government now. Maybe I will get lucky and get a juror discount.

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Authorti

2010-02-21T12:27:00.001-08:00

I felt a bit relieved after mass today. One of the things Father M mentioned is that we should love one another and trust in God. I have been worrying myself too much lately about what I read on the internet. All that I read and hear from other people really is their interpretation. There are many rules and regulations that should be followed, but I am not the only one who is ignorant of all the rules and what basically comes down to traditions. Claiming ignorance does not absolve me of any less than in the faith activity, but my only jobs are to trust in God and love others. If I am able to do those two things, I think I will lead a fulfilling life.

I have a desire or willingness to teach and am unable to find full time teaching work. Meanwhile I hear too many news reports about the lack of teachers statewide and so forth. If the state really wanted to solve the problem, they would ease all the hoops and tricks teachers have to go through to be qualified. I think prospective teachers should graduate with a certification in either k-4, 5-8, or 9-12 qualification. After that what subject you teach should be based on your desire and what classes you took in college. Sure, not everyone can teach or want to teach a subject that are not comfortable with. With all the students who are apparently able to do PSO for the last two years of high school, why does it matter if the teacher is highly qualified and trained in those areas? The students who are willing to work are taking PSO options, and the ones who are left don't demand a high level of skill from their teachers. Elementary teachers are interchangable. They get the job and fill in the need that is wanted within their grade level. I think all teachers should have this option. I would be willing to teach in just about any class or subject that I could find a job in. I couldn't do band or art or special education though. The rest of the subjects I feel I could learn well enough to teach to students.

I also now have a position of authority. I attended an alumni meeting for a group I was did in college. The group is in its 11th year of activity. So we have a small alumni group and really just want to get something started and established. We did decide that one of the goals or our alumni group is to serve the active chapter. I fell this is good, but we should also be able to focus on something for the alumni. I don't know what that something should be, and I don't really have an agenda. I like being part of a group and getting together. One of the first things that we are going to try and do as a group is put together a database so that we can network with each other for jobs and fellowship. If an active member is considering an internship for a company, they might find one of our alumni work for that company and be able to get some advantage or soemthing from being in our elite group.

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Snow

2010-02-20T17:11:00.000-08:00

I actually kind of like snow. It's fun to drive around in, and invites kinds of fun that can't normally be had. You can't go sledding in the smmer. You can't throw snowballs or make a snow fort in the summer. It is pretty hard to go to to the local college and do donuts in the empty parking lot without snow. You can't laugh at the dogs trying to move fast through the snow. School doesn't get cancelled on account of good weather. I kind of like it when the sun comes out and melts the snow a little bit. The snow melts away from the sidewalks some, it melts just a little bit lower on my OSU block O sitting on the ground (comparison pics to come later).

The biggest downside I see to snow is the cold associated with it. If the temperature didn't have to be in the low teens for snow to happen, I wouldn't mind have snow all the time. I don't think I would like living in a place where the season never changed.

In other news, my truck turned over 99,000 miles on it today. I was on 71 north, right at the 62 north overpass when it happened. I bought my truck with aobut 48,000 miles on it back in october of 2006.

times typed "oftern"-0

pot worker

2010-02-19T05:54:00.000-08:00

Well the start of our greenhouse season has officialy started. We got serveral plugs in this week and things are getttin done. Yesterday I spent almost the whole afternoon filling pots and carrying them to the back part of the greenhouse. I am not sure exactly what we had come in, I didn't look. We were kind of waiting on another shipment of boxes to come in. I filled almost all of the individual pots we use for our geraniums, but now we need to wait on some more stuff to come in.

Maybe my favorite part of working in a greenhouse is how warm it is. It was at least 75 where I was working at most of the time, and had to have been warmer in the part where we keep the flowers. We put up a piece of plastic to divide the greenhouse in two until we get the first part full. This helps us spend less on heating, and keeps the one section warmer while the outside temperature is plenty colder.

I also am going to have to wear gym shoes or something to work in there. Yesterday I wore my insulated red wing boots, and my feet were sore after standing all day. The bad part is that my worst gym shoes aren't all that bad. I would like to have a pair that is a bit run down, but all those types of gym shoes I have are beyond wearing now. At least the pair I am going to start wearing is well cushioned my feet shouldn't be sore at the end of the day now.

times typed "oftern"-0

Ash wednesday

2010-02-17T15:04:00.000-08:00

Today I had the time, so I went to an ash wednesday service. The sermon was about how we should focus just as much on what we are increasing as what we are giving up, all in the name of Jesus. I easily gave up something for lent this year, but am not sure how I might increase my activity level for lent. I would like to volunteer my services to serve or help the church somehow, but I can't ever really get a clear picture of my work schedule. I might be readily available in the winter and spring, but during the summer, I can't rely on any free time. The worst part is that my dad and grandpa like to bellyache when I tell them I am taking time to go to chuch. They act like I should go to a church four minutes away simply because its four minutes away. I like the church I go to now, even if I have relative anonymity and low expectations.

I am also getting pulled in two directions a bit. I found a girl that seems very good for me, with the exception of two things. Maybe three if I want to be annoyed by her lack of OSU fan-dom. The first issue is going to be resolved, hopefully sooner than later. The second issue is a bit touchier. I don't feel it is right for me to criticize someones belief system, but we do have conflicting beliefs right now. She has agreed to attend services with me and give my catholicism a chance. I had her read the nicene creed as a basic synopsis of the catholic faith. I think at the very least we can work out an understanding. I spent part of this afternoon looking up answers on the matter and feel confident that things can and will work out for us. The issue that I saw the most was with raising children.

The other direction I am hearing is really disbelief. I can understand the point of view that married is married until the right paperwork is done. I am working in the constricts of what my preacher told me. I am not looking to violate any thing that could be considered beyond friendship. It may take a while to get the civil divorce and anullment. I spent most of the afternoon after church today looking up answers and scenarios on a catholic answers site. And, well honestly, I have to spend more time thinking still. I found answers that didn't agree with what I had been told, and am not sure how I should be reacting to some things. I still like the person in question and don't think I am settling or being easily satsified.

Hopefully I didn't make this mess of a post to confusing or insulting. I started this around 2 and its now after 6.

times typed "oftern"-0

My lenten sacrifice

2010-02-16T16:48:00.000-08:00

With Ash Wednesday being tomorrow, I thought I would get some of my experiences with Lent on here. Most of the time in high school I would give up pop for the 40 days. I remember giving up hats a couple of times in college. I think last year I gave up playing my DS, but did buy a DSi the last week and play that some.

I remember the only time I went to church when I was in college was the Ash Wednesday when I was living in the dorms. The sermon was about practicing your faith in a public place and not being a type of closet follower. I really liked that message, that is one of the few sermon messages I remember.

I thought for a while about what I was going to give up for Lent this year. I don’t drink pop all that often. I haven’t drank any alcohol since new years. I don’t cuss excessively. I don’t eat a bunch of candy or a bunch of junk food. I go to church more than ever and now donate 1% of the church’s weekly need every service I go to. I am pretty good about not eating meat on Fridays, I really like cheese pizza and fish type foods.

After some deliberation on what I should take out of my life to show how appreciative I am of what Jesus did for me, I came up with something. I decided that I am going to give up facebook for Lent. I spend to much time on that site not doing anything anyways. The only friends I really like or want to talk to have my number or instant message screen names. Tonight I am going to make such an announcement on my status, and be absent for at least the next 40 something days.

Times typed “oftern”-1

Thinking faith and relationship

2010-02-14T10:07:00.000-08:00

This week I read two books that made me wonder about my relationship to God and my faith. One book was from the perspective of someone who was in heaven and watching those she left behind. I thought the book was a good read and got me to wonder what my heaven would be like. I don’t have a particular place that I enjoy, or a particular thing that I like doing. What is going to be waiting for me if I should get to go to heaven? The second book I liked better. Even though it was a work of fiction, or at least fictionalized, it explored how God interacts with his children. The book showed God as three individuals, which I recognized as the holy trinity. It really caused me to wonder and explore what it means to love someone and how I treat other people. Am I making the time to listen to my friends and acquaintances? Am I judging people unfairly? Am I forgiving when I should? Am I talking and or listening to God enough? Am I putting to much confidence in man made institutions to guide my life? I really liked the second book and am going to have to read it again when I finish my Bible reading. It had a really good message behind the story.

My list of questions turned out pretty well also. I didn’t get anything thrown at me, and there seemed to be plenty of concurrence with the answers I gave.

I also have some movies to review this week. The haunted airman was pretty well awful and I am not sure how it ended up on my queue now. The ending managed to make even less sense than the plot of the movie. I also watched Smart People this week and thought it was okay. I was expecting it to be funnier and it wasn’t really funny in any direction that I enjoyed. It was slow and maybe could have been some dry humor, but I really just didn’t enjoy it.

Times typed “oftern”-0

and also, 265 post now, only 100 from my goal. I don't know if I have a hundred days left to completet my goal, but that doesn't really matter. My posting has slowed some, but I guess maybe life is to good right now to get on a soapbox and sound off about things everyday.

50 answers ASAP

2010-02-12T16:03:00.000-08:00

Today I read an article in which 50 questions were asked by women for men to answer ASAP. Here are my 50 answers, with the questions purposefully omitted.

1. No, I didn't think any of them were great
2. I want to get as much out as I can.
3. An adjustment is necessary sometimes.
4. Bar soap.
5. Can't think I have ever done that, I always call the number if your nice enough to give it out.
6. Because I thought I was having fun before.
7. I think about it more and initiate more often.
8. Yes.
9. Only if they are an 7 or lower.
10. Less than 25% I would consider.
11. Never had cheated in a relationship
12. They say yes to me.
13. Yes, I remember for my last such first instance.
14. Daily
15. What I should say next
16. Have never noticed.
17. Yes, I usually fall asleep before halftime.
18. Its better than bland food.
19. You wanting to keep me happy.
20. Yours
21. They seem unnecessary.
22. I don't think I have fallen in love yet.
23. If I should be trying harder or not.
24. Wear less.
25. Sports.
26. I think I have gracefully broke off from other girls.
27. I have plenty of pairs of new shoes and options for shoes.
28. Cities want me to get to places so I can be a consumer, being lost is not good business.
29. I want them to want me. Thats what I do for them.
30. I get to escape to another world with problems separate from the ones I have.
31. I live alone, I have to change it.
32. Kind of macho.
33. No.
34. Tulip, I think.
35. I have not acquired a taste for that.
36. Yes, I could forgive and move on. It's hard enough to find someone and then dismiss them so easily.
37. No, my finances are not regulated. I can make as much or as little as I want to work.
38. No.
39. It's as Dr. Drew said on Howard Stern, we see it on porn and think its an option.
40. Yes.
41. Loneliness.
42. No
43. No, thats not important to many people in todays society.
44. Hasn't happened to me, but I think the blood rush would hurt something bad.
45. If this is good enough for her.
46. Don't know yet, don't really care what she thinks on that front.
47. Could have been better.
48. I haven't meet any of your friends, and no.
49. No, it pretty well stays in place.
50. No, I have not considered that option.

In other news, apparently sirloin steak makes me gassy, because that is what I ate for dinner and I had the noisiest session of Yoga to date today.

times typed "oftern"-0

600

2010-02-11T19:39:00.000-08:00

I got to witness a milestone today, one that put a local coach of ours in the top 5 or 6 career wise in the state. He has been coaching since my dad was in school. This summer I put together a career list of all his players and their stats and hope to put together a list of his wins and the schools wins this summer. I have to wonder how long I will continue doing this. If I ever get a job at another school, I might have to quit doing such an activity. I do like keeping the stats, as I have mentioned before. I would also have to figure out who could do the stat keeping after I move on. I also wonder who might be the coach after the current coach retires.

Channel 9 news had a segment on about my coach last night, saying he has been at this school for the last 33 years.

Well today I had to put together a serious list. I have to contemplate some things and how I want to react to them. I made a word document and have written in some of my answers and am looking forward to the other persons reaction when I present these questions to them.

times typed "oftern"-0

Foolishness?

2010-02-09T19:02:00.000-08:00

Today an author of a blog that I read decided to de-technologize theirselves in order to make up for some mistake that was made. I wonder if this blog will ever come to haunt me some day. I have said unfreindly things about my family, mostly my dad and grandpa. I have put some thoughts on here that I have kept hidden from others. I have made confessions that I wanted to make in person but had to move on afterwards. I have used this blog to gain the trust and confidence of a person. I do find blogging fun, its a way to relax and get some thoughts out. Sometimes by the end of my blog posts, I am surprised by what I type out and get out in the open. I never did think of myself as a writer or author, but this is turning into that. One of these days I will be able to get remember all of my thoughts and interesting things that happen to me during the day. As one of my friends in high school once commented, I do fully entertain myself in my own head. I don't know how often I think of funny things during the day that I don't say because I don't think they will be appreciated how I enjoy them. I feel that my sense of humor is underappreciated, but don't really have an audience for it around here.

times typed "ofern"-1