Where I've been...where have I been?

Well, I have been flowing all my data stream into forums for a while now. Have come up on Facebook upon request of the wife who needed a friend. Her sister and brother also needed friends. Our combined ages balance out the rest of the Facebook population. Apparently no one was graduated from my high school, or even lived in my home town, before 2005. I'll be found under the name "Mike Tracy". At least I think I still have that passport.

Ran into one of my dog brothers at work on Saturday. He's a real quiet guy, slight build, red hair and tattoos. Remember a pre-deployment, Combat Lifesaver course we did together three years ago. Smart and steady. He can tap my veins or reduce a tension pneumothorax on me any day. Did right well in injun country that last trip.

His daughter was born around three years ago too. He was with her(a little red-headed doll), his wife and another family with two little ones. I put the kiddies up on the seat with me and as there was a light rain blowing in under the wagon top, I spread my oilskin slicker across their laps and handed them the tail end of the drive lines to hang onto. We headed out to the farm and every time I gave the horses a voice command, the kiddies would pick it up and repeat it and turn it into a song. It was like a nest of little birds singing, or music from heaven. I am blessed.

Drove stagecoach today with my son Wayland to help people get in and out. He is solid with the horses too and can groom and harness and muck with me and is not at all intimidated by animals in the two thousand pound range. Unlike some adults that we have had kicking about and hanging around for years and never... and will never come up with the confidence to have a one-on-one equine relationship.
Don't like the stage much because it is difficult to have a conversation with the passengers down in the cabin, while I'm up on the high seat. And no shade and the sun beating down. Thank goodness for an umbrella-sized hat!

Have finally ordered a new hat. Went to one of the preeminent hatters in the nation, Jack Kellogg down on Douglas Avenue in Delano. Getting a silverbelly Stetson "Boss-of-the-Plains". Not from the Stetson company though, better. Just getting it in the style of the original. Don't plan on completely retiring the old "Sugar Loaf" sombrero. Had it for thirty years and it is so imbued with my personal power that I would be in danger from witches. The new hat is going to feel funny on me and I plan to ease into it gradual.

Going in on my day off tomorrow. My project plan clearly stated that I need eight hours prep time for a wheelwrighting job next week end. Haven't seen those hours on the sched yet. I don't think folks would want to see me doing dis-assembly and making felloe patterns when we could be fitting and tenoning spokes and sawing and mortising felloes and doing final assembly and tyre shrinking. That's what I think anyway. It's just good that I will have Ogre there to help me. If I don't stay ahead of my bosses with projects like these wagon wheels we will wind up with a Mangy Mandala of Mendacity rather than a Brilliant Bora Ring of Bodaciousness.

And that's enough crap from me. Time to hit spell check and go to bed.