Wow

Harvest season turned out to be an adventure. It seems like everything does for me - but I really hadn't seen this one coming. I mean, how hard can it be to dump a few trucks and push the occasional button on a grain dryer? The better question is, how naieve can I be???

I kept thinking in my head, "This isn't my fight - I'm an agronomy guy." The truth is, the cooperative system is full of issues, but in its ideal form, it teaches the employee base that everyone does everything, and no one is better than anyone else. I don't know... Enough nights spent next to the grain dryer doing the job I probably would have attributed to someone else made me believe this premise isn't so bad. Now, if the rest of the world would take a minute and think about it, we might be somewhere.

My personal interests took a real beating during all of this. Obviously, it's hard to keep relations with my wife at the level they should be while for all intents and purposes being gone for a month. I believe I'd just met Jean Valjean in my reading of Hugo's Les Miserables, although I hadn't gotten far enough for him to be named by name. My personal writing pursuits? Well... I actually made just a bit of headway, beginning the layout for a story that has been in my head for some time.

I'm a little the worse for wear physically. I saw the doctor just before the beginning of season for my shoulders (left, in particular, but both in general), and was offered some anti-inflammatories and the advice that I should bulk up a bit. The pills dont' help much, so... I'll have to do what I can for the other A.S.A.P.. But all of my bodyparts are still firmly attached, so... I'd like to think there are always possibilities.

I'm starting the off-season by entering a diecast truck-building competition. No prize, except for bragging rights and sticking my nose back into a community I've enjoyed from time to time. I'll never win, but... I enjoy the experience.