"I installed a skylight in my apartment. The people who live above me are furious." - Steven Wright

Keeping others from stealing your lunch from the fridge at work.

It's Sunday morning and we're settled in at the Starbucks inside of Fred Meyer sucking up their free wifi. In an hour we'll head to church, from there to Harbor Freight, and then home for a day that will probably include a whole lot of nuthin'.

Yesterday morning I did some chores and worked a bit on the weaning barn (really just a shed) and then left for my run about 8:30. I did the planned 7 miles and felt better than I did for last week's 6, but boy, am I slow. I'm running between 10 and 11 minutes per mile and it doesn't seem to make a difference whether it's downhill, flat, or the last 2.5 miles that are all uphill. So, more "speed" work this week and hope to do better this coming Saturday when the schedule calls for 8 miles.

After I got home and had a snack I worked up in Telos. I cut and installed the trim and then primed the whole thing. It's only 7'6" square, so it's a small structure, but it only has to provide shelter for two to four weanlings at a time, and they'll only be there for a couple of months.
I don't expect to work up there at all today because we're supposed to hit 99 degrees and we won't be home until noon or later when it will be too hot to work out in the sun. Plus, I'm feeling more wasted today than I did yesterday afternoon. I'm worried about staying awake and alert through church. So I'll be up there to paint first thing Monday morning.

Which is why we're stopping by Harbor Freight on the way home from church. Priming the 4x8 sheets of siding (officially T1-11) with its fairly deep grooves was a pain, so I'm going to buy a cheap ($20) electric paint spray gun with a 20% off coupon. The online reviews are split between "this is GREAT" and "It's a piece of junk," but I'm willing to take a chance for $16.

I'm thinking about making (or getting) another sign. This one will hang over the gate to Telos (Greek for "end") where butchering and weaning will take place.
Note: Mike, I really like your suggestion, Weenatoir, but it may be a bit to obscure. However, points for originality and appropriateness. And Pam thinks we should use it, so there's that.
The sign will be the famous quote from Dante's Inferno: "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here."

I'm not sure anything in my life (with the exception of my relationship with Pam) brings me more satisfaction than knowing my sons have bested their dad. I think they are better in just about every regard - better fathers, better husbands, more career distinction, just plain smarter, and certainly a quicker wit.
I took some grief from them on Facebook this week over my posts and pics of the pies I've made. Our family has a long tradition of some pretty sharp barbs thrown back and forth but they have stepped it up a notch, and do their father proud.
Dear Michelle, Steve's wife, was a bit nonplussed when they were dating and she was with all of us because of the way we sometimes mock each other. I think she found it almost scary. But she eventually figured out how very much we love each other and are committed to our family, and though her Dutch heritage is just too dang polite to join in she now laughs right along with us.
I really am a bit overwhelmed by the family God has given me and (shhhh) my eyes get wet on the inside when I think about it.
T'ank you, Fadder.

I *think* one reason for how tight we are is because of our vagabond life while the boys were growing up. I was at each of the churches I served for 6-7 years. Not by plan; it just worked out that way. That meant that we pulled up stakes, moved hundreds or thousands of miles away, and started over from scratch. We'd move into a community and church where everybody knew each other and had established friendships...except us. We were the strangers with no friends there. And just about the time we were settling in it was (God's) time to move on and do it all again.
I think one outcome of that life was a tight family bond. We were all we had. I suppose it could have worked the opposite way and we'd have grown SICK of each other, but it didn't. Just the opposite: we always knew we had each other even if there wasn't anyone else there (in the early years at each place), and tho it was an unspoken, even an unidentified dynamic, it knit us together. That's one of the reasons it's OK for us to live 1200 miles apart. Bonds like that stay strong despite time and distance.

Don't mess with my family (including my daughters!). I will go Bruce Willis on you. I (we) don't care about houses, cars!, goats, or any other stuff. It may be fun, but if it all went away tomorrow we'd be fine.
Family.
And it's nice to know with certainty that family isn't going away.

T'ank you, Fadder.