"If I had a dollar for every time I got distracted, I wish I had some ice cream."

Michel-Zen Man

I had a conversation this morning that led me to use the word....(gulp)...impactful. I really do NOT like that word. It feels totally made up because someone was too lazy to find a real way to say what they wanted. So when I got here to the office I looked it up and was disappointed to find it included on the Miriam Webster site. However, I did notice its first known usage was in 1939 which tells me it was pulled out of someone's....oh, never mind. It doesn't matter what I think because people are still going to use it whether or not it sounds bogus.
I also hate the word gotten for the same reason.

I hate the "law of unintended consequences."

I've been researching the tasks I will do next on Sally's interior so I can get all the necessary parts pieces, and tools in place before I start. I'll basically strip the interior so I need everything ready to go lest I get it apart, be missing something, and have the car out of service until it comes in.
After removing everything...

1. replace rusted-through front floor pans, which requires new floor pans, panel adhesive w/special applicator gun, riveter, rivets, and seam sealer
2. Lay down sound deadening material
3. run speaker wire from speakers in the back deck to the dash
4. replace carpet (over speaker wire)
5. install new shift console
6. re-install seats and other misc. trim pieces.

I'm eager to do this but it waits until finances and weather permit. Barnette is too cramped and we won't have weather warm or dry enough for a month at least. That gives me time to assemble all those items from half a dozen suppliers and have them ready to go when we get a stretch of warmer and drier weather. (It's pouring as I type this, which is too bad because it's time for Buddy's walk and he doesn't understand.) 

The State of the Union speech is in a few hours and we haven't decided if we're going to watch it. It seems a little like watching video of a fatal car crash out on Hwy 126. And there are other options that are probably less distressing, like an old episode of "Say Yes to the Dress."

We named him Charm because our first two roosters died. The first one we chalked up to old age but the second one died under suspicious circumstances. He seemed fine one day and was dead on the floor of the coop the next. We had no forensic evidence and no real suspects, but there he was, dead.

Sunday morning Charm sat on a perch with his tail hanging down (not normal) and seemed lethargic. Yesterday was more of the same. When I went out to put the chickens back in the pen for the night there he was laying dead next to the pen gate. 

All of the hens are fine. If there was a disease or infestation it should affect all of them.

I'll keep my eye on things but at this point I'm thinkin' the ladies worked him and his predecessors to death. 

I'm not too bothered because we're about ready to get new chicks to replace these hens. When the time comes I'll give the coop a very thorough cleaning using bleach to disinfect all surfaces. In the meantime we'll go without a rooster, which will be OK. Too quiet in the morning and unfulfilled hens, but it won't affect egg production.

What lives, dies. (Thanks, Adam & Eve)