"I only hope that in your stumbling around..."

"You do not wake the dragon" - Londo Mollari, Babylon 5

My professional life comes in definite seasons. Maybe some or all of them aren't what you'd ordinarily look forward to, but they're always looming out there. Tangible to be sure, and unstoppable. Yesterday (and last night) another began, this one referred to as 'Grain Drying'.

Long story short, the crops are coming in horribly wet around here. They must be at approximately 15% moisture for storage, and they're coming across the scale at upwards of 34%. So, the grain must be dried. Like everything else, there is a machine for the job, this a large 'burner' that runs on natural gas, electricity, and tired COOP employees. The technician got the drier moving about 3:30 yesterday afternoon, and we ran out of corn about 1:30a.m. this morning, drying at about 13% of the dryer's discharge capacity (about 400 bushel of corn per hour).

In comparison, we were moving about 4 times faster last year... It's going to be a long season.

From a certain perspective, we didn't HAVE to run so late into the night, but... I guess I've finally learned that work needs to be done when it needs to be done. For example, if I had put it off until this morning, the air temperature today is at least 10 degrees colder and the winds are a good 25 m.p.h. faster. *Grin* I'm a little short on sleep, but last night wasn't so bad after all.

Long night, but... If my crew and I can hang together like this, we'll do fine.

*Taking a photo with a cell phone at night is kind of... Not good. But there's a little to be seen here. The 'bright spot' off to the left is the approximate location of the dryer controls - one might call that 'home port', the blue circles on the right are the burners doing their thing (natural gas at its best).

Sometimes I Just Don't Get It

Listening to the podcast of 'This American Life' is usually one of the high points of my week, but today it came somewhere between depressing me and just plain pissing me off. Well, more precisely, it isn't the show itself, but the story that was reported.

The first act of the show told the story of 'Hell House', one (I believe Pentecostal) church's Halloween event, designed to (I would assume) raise some money for the church as well as raise awareness of the issues addressed within the exhibition. The idea is along the lines of the 'haunted houses' we're all familiar with, except ghosts, goblins, and 'things that go bump in the night' are replaced with depictions of rape, murder, death of people infected with HIV, and whatever else they can come up with to form some type of morality tale according to church doctrine. Evidently, one of the churches originating the idea even chose to re-enact the Columbine Shooting.

Geez... As if the 'Saw' movies aren't enough. And no, I've never watched the trash - the written synopsis alone of one installment was disturbing enough. A friend of mine that has viewed most of the series tells me 'All of the people involved had done something to deserve the end they met', but...

Come on!

It's no wonder that Happy-Pills are prescribed to so many people any more. With thoughts like these becoming so prevalent in today's society, maybe my wife is the one that sees the world the right way, celebrating the Halloween Holiday with a viewing of 'It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown'.

I just don't understand...

People get sick, die, murdered, molested, and all manner of vile things every day. It's unfortunate, it really is. Why would anyone want to re-enact such a thing? What's worse, one of the churches gave out awards after their 'Hell House' had completed its annual three week run for the best actors involved at an 'Oscar-like' celebration... 'Best rape victim', best terminal HIV victim and the like...

I'm not a moron. I understand the world of 'Make Believe' and all that stuff, perhaps better than you might think. But this???

Call me immoral if you want to, for not being moved by this idea, but you'll have to excuse me... I need to go back to playing 'Buck Rogers' on my Grandpa's grain drill.

I miss the good old days.

Hope...

I can't argue with Captain Dylan Hunt/Kevin Sorbo when he said, "You can't hate hope." After a drizzly fog lifted this morning, the sun came out, and so did most of our crew, if only for the afternoon to tidy up the yard a bit. A few customers even showed up with grain in tow, happily in the notion they'd be back in the field some time this week. These people are better at simply carrying on with life than anyone I've ever known.

My Dearest Friend back home was keeping the company of a new Grandbaby when I called to check in today, which made me happy because it made her happy. *Geez* Don't tell my wife I said this, but it's amazing how much the joy of a new life can wash down to the rest of us, isn't it?

I couldn't resist today's picture. I've seen some beautiful scenery in my day. This particular piece of it came with the last task of the day, free of charge.

Well, nothing new from a literary standpoint, either. Last night while continuing 'Les Mis' I learned Monseigneur Bienvenu was willing to stand up to a Senator he felt had corrupt ideas, and that he was unafraid of the criminal element in man's heart. I get the point - he's an upstanding and forthright character. Hey, Victor? Can we move it along a little???

Rainy Days and Mondays...

Farm children are taught to never curse the rain. The reason is of course, once you complain about it, it stops. Generally speaking, agriculture has evolved to the point where it's easier to cope with too much than too little. Unfortunately, Mother Nature has perhaps pushed that generalization to the breaking point this year. I consider myself to be pretty capable at 'making work', but even I'm starting to run short on loose ends to tie up.

My 2IC (2nd in command) and I finished patching up the 8103 Air Spreader this morning. It has been a bit of an extended project, starting last week when a steering tie-rod failed while out on a job and ending two visits from the field repair tech and an emergency trip to Batavia for parts later. Keeping the old girl moving is half of the challenge of fall fertilizer season, I think.

It's hard not to be a bit depressed about the state of things at the moment. Between the issues with the weather, the hard luck our customer base is encountering, and the almost never-ending glitch list our machinery provides... Well, I guess it's best to remember the old saying 'If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.'

On a more personal note, I've learned from my reading of 'Les Mis' that Monseigneur Bienvenu can host ten visitors, or eleven, if he cares to stand. *Grin* Hugo is nothing if not attentive to the details.

As Described

Shopping for a copy of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables was an experience in and of itself. Abridged, unabriged, large print, small print... Finally, I settled on the 'Penguin Classics' edition, ironically enough, because of the size. If I was to set out on the adventure of following a story through 1,232 pages of small print text first published in 1862, then I wanted to know I had read every word by the time it was over.

The introduction describes Hugo as... Inexact, in the path he takes to telling Valjean's story. That, coupled with a slowly firming understanding of the difference between 'Literary' and 'Popular' fiction prepared me for what I might be getting into. I find myself scantly 10 pages into the story, well versed in the altruistic nature of Monseigneur Bienvenu, but with no idea whatsoever how he fits into the legendary tale of Javert's pursuit of Valjean.

*Grin* It's going to be a long book.

At any rate, my personal literary pursuit has taken an interesting turn. Through a friend, a new acquaintance has appeared that is considering illustrating my collection of fictional Christmas Stories. I find myself curious to see what will appear, but through the connection, a little girl has already sampled one of the stories and found it to her liking.

If that isn't success, I'll find it hard to understand what is.

Out and About

The Mrs. wanted to go on a bike ride, and reluctantly, I tagged along. Just across the state line we abandoned the Jeep and started pedaling through the proverbial back yard of my workplace along a Conservation District bike trail. I'd seen the area before, but certainly never like this. I always drag my feet at the prospect of going back outside for recreation's sake. *Grin* I always feel like a fool for being such a grump about it when I get back home again, too... Not a bad day at all for the end of October.

Here We Are...

Several reasons exist for starting this little venture... I thought it would be interesting to log and remember one full year of my work related activities, read another blog that continues to captivate me, thought it would be nice to muse about the book I just started (The venerable 'Les Mis' by Victor Hugo) and a podcast I believe in said budding writers should blog. So...

Hang in there for a bit while I learn my way around this puppy. I hope you'll think about joining me on this little venture. If it's anything like my reality from time to time, I think it will prove to be an interesting time.