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so Ratchet is here for a day or two. I am just dumb giddy about that. He's been annoying the Herd, BSing with the neighbors, all the usual things that aren't usual, anymore. Yeah, I am a total dummie for being like this but, damn! He's home!
Spent the weekend with Ratchet and had a lovely time. Went out for dinner Sat. night, overate, met sis for lunch Sunday, overate. It was just great. Hauled my butt back home and the house is still here. That's always a good thing. Gotta say leaving the Thundering Herd to their own devices for more than twelve hours will guarantee a surprise of some sort when getting home. Actually, there's usually more than one. Dishes stacked up in the kitchen, nothing at all left clean.... good thing the wishwasher works. For sure! Someone was using our bathroom. Soap is gone, towels are all dirty, messes in the sink and elsewhere. That's OK, it cleans. Ran out of here so fast Sat. a.m. that I didn't do our laundry. That must be done, plus all Ratchet's clothes I brought back plus all those towels from our bathroom. No problem, have a super-gigantic frontloader that will do all of it in a few hours. Pop cans, candy wrappers, messes and dirty clothes strew all over the living room, dining and the Caves downstairs. So what? Will pick the messes up here and the Herd will clean their own crap downstairs after school. Some of the messes look like the two adolescents were having one of their "disagreements" this weekend. As long as they're both alive and there are no parts of their anatomies that are broken or premanently scarred... its fine. All of it, the hours-long drive down and back, the housework and laundry to be done, every last thing, was worth it. Just to see the look on Ratchet's face when I pulled up to the truck to pick him up, to watch him unwind and relax, have a looooooooooong hot shower, enjoy a couple of great meals and laugh and joke with him, just to be together. I'd spend a lot more time and effort cleaning up than I will for those hours. I may just dust and vacuum, on the off-chance that Ratchet won't have a load tonight and can come home for a couple of days... that would be even better but, if not, the 36 hours was worth more than I can say. Much more...
think i will go do something else...
Ok, I worry. DD called a while ago and asked if I had heard from Ratchet. Well, no... why? Friends of hers from out along I70 in KS emailed her to tell her that rigs were being blown over.  I'm glad she is thinking about Ratchet even if the results are less than reassuring for me. She retired recently from the Army and has friends all over the country, some retired, some still active, that keep her up on weather conditions wherever Ratchet is going... That's quite handy but, as in this case, can be unsettling. Been running for the phone every time it rings, just in case. I think if he had some trouble he would let me know, but maybe not.... Wahhhhhhhhhhhh. Cripes, the weather channel showed a snippet with rigs overturned in KS. Haven't showed it again and don't know if it was out on 70 or 35 or where.... whoever those drivers are, I am praying they are OK.
Gotta be, to adapt to this craziness. Ratchet did make it home last night, after all. Not for very long but 5 hours of sleep in your own bed is better than 8 in that bunk. Drop at 7 a.m. so, up at 5:30. Quick coffee, slippers, bathrobe and winter coat, out the door delivering Ratchet to the truck so he could deliver his load. He's currently still waiting for the lumpers to finish unloading him. He'll know within the next hour or two where, or if, he has a load today. Since he was only 10 miles away, I ran him over some new batteries for his v.r. and picked him up some McBarf muffins. I had a breakfast burrito and it has to be one of the worst things I have eaten in months. The chemicals they put in the stuff gives me a blinding headache. Doesn't seem to bother Ratchet, he just thinks the stuff tastes bad.
I am wishing I could go back to sleep for a while. Will stay up until I hear from him. If he doesn't have a load until tomorrow (please??? pleasepleaseplease) will go pick him up and then we'll both go back to bed.
Kids are fine, looks like it will be a fair day but windy. (another reason why it would be good to have him home) Got a lot done yesterday so can take it a bit easy today.
The cassoulet turned out great. Couldn't tell I used chickpeas rather than cannolini. Ate so much I got tired and went to bed. So tired, in fact, that I didn't hear Ratchet call at 11 p.m. saying he was 5 blocks away. He just walked back. Boy, was it a nice surprise when he walked in the bedroom door! YeeeHA! (well, after I realized it was him. a few muddled seconds there. good thing i don't keep a gun under my pillow.)
Barometric pressure must be changing, elbow and hands aching badly. DS2 says he has a backache, too. The younger ones were fine. Age catching up with me?
ETA: Truck is being fixed. Triangles issues resolved. He's off to pick up at 1 then gone again. After that drop? Who knows? Will just wait and see.
things are going pretty well. CPA says to relax about the mess with the IRS. It's been beautiful and almost warm today. Cassoulet smells great. Vin is yummy. 2 dorky kids almost missed the bus this a.m. but they managed to get it flagged down and I didn't have to drive them 20 up and then myself 20 back. Still must get new battery cables for that cursed car... will take care of that tomorrow. For tonight? I am happy to be alive and glad Ratchet is working. Life is good. 
Bet every indy can relate to Ratchet's day.... Got load confirmation at 11 p.m. last night. Load time 7 a.m. Ok, no problem.... until he is almost loaded and gets The Call that the split has to be in Fridley at 1 p.m. This will be tight but is doable. The second half of the load took until 10 a.m. You can't get from there to there in 3 hours. It's an hour on back roads to the interstate and 3 hours minimum to dock from that point. So, Ratchet started getting calls at around 1 asking where he was. "I'm almost there." Arrives at dock, temp check on part of cargo. 20 degrees warm. Boxes 34F , contents 54F. Duo-temp set just as it should be. Baffles intact. Everything fine. Turns out shipper/producer hadn't cooled the stuff before boxing and shipping. He is still at the dock waiting for the squabbling to be over. Has to be at his next load by 5 p.m. Dock time at 7 a.m. 11 hours is 6 p.m. tonight. He hasn't had anything to eat and will need to get some sleep somewhere. Yup, another day...
Finally found out that the whole tax mess really isn't my fault. The former bookkeeper was filing returns under 2 socials, when there should have been 2 socials and two TINs. Have no idea how this will work out, am just hoping for the best. Got up this morning and it was snowing. Last I checked this is April? Right? April. I had the idea that this is supposed to be spring. I'm just glad I don't live in Duluth. Ugh.
Got the staff at Cornell all excited. Sent photos of a Ross' Goose that is down here on the river hanging out with a flock of Canadas. Emailed back and wanted to know what my location was, they would like to observe the interaction. Had to let them down gently. I'm halfway ocrss the country from them... LOL this is the Ross'. Not a great photo as it was about .25 mile away and had to use the 75-300 zoom.
Had totally spaced off keeping my observation records at eBird up to date. Not much to be done about it now as I'm a year behind. This is an unusual mix of habitats, part riverine, verge, forest, marsh and lake. Birds have varied foodsources and environments so we get all kinds of interesting visitors. Year-round population of red-tailed hawks, cooper's and sharpshinned hawks, bald eagles and an occasional golden eagle. Sometimes they sit on my deck rail, scaring the daylights out of the other,smaller, species. Expecting the white pelicans to show up pretty soon and, along with them, the cranky swans. Beautiful birds, but mean as hell. They were killing goslings last year down here. One pair of Canadas had 8 little ones and a male swan killed 5 of them. Red in tooth and claw, indeed.
This is the immature bald that was sitting in a tree at the bottom of my back yard, along the river. Taken 2-14-2008. He looks to be around 2 years old. Just a baby but impressive, none the less! The beak and eye are sure distinctive.
The otters moved upstream quite a ways. I suppos they got fed-up with their burrows being flooded every spring. They left late summer in 2004 after the river was high all summer. Now they are up by Plymouth, right behind Bill's house. The rat stole my otters... muskrats just aren't the same.
It's been raining off and on since yesterday. Had tornadoes south of us last night. DD says St. Joe got hit by one on the south side of town. (maybe it took out that damned stupid one-way-don't-get-off-here mess on I29 northbound. Also had some south of DM and around CR. Too far north to get them very often here. Last F5 was in 1968. 2 came together and pretty much wiped Charles City off the map. The river is rising and all kinds of crap is floating by. Trees, branches, unidentified stuff. I expect to look out there one day and see a body cruising down river...
Ratchet is at the terminal reading the riot act to the fill-in mechanic. Truck needs an air filter or something like that and the mechanic has been sitting on his thumb. My Man told him that if he didn't get various parts of his physical person into gear there was likely to be some arse-kicking. Ratchet could put the thing in himself but if he has to do that, he's gonna be p.o'd. Things are going smoothly for the most part. Mess with the IRS just keeps getting weirder. Somebody dropped the ball big-time. We don't know who, exactly, either the attorney or the former bookkeeper. It's a relief to know it wasn't me, after all.
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