Turkeys, Monkeys and Stress

It’s the day after Thanksgiving and our home is a cornucopia of sights and smells. Non perishable pies are stacked on the counters (thank God it’s not 100 degrees these days) and the icebox smells like a corner diner. We simply have no more room for storing food. This happens every year around the holidays. You would think we would learn. We seem to always snatch up the deal at the local supermarket and then can’t get rid of it all. We not only had the rig feed us, we also had a friend bring a dish from home (we babysat their gate so they could have Thanksgiving dinner at home). This year I had an idea things were again going to get out of hand so we did not smoke our turkey. We did smoke a turkey breast. Since I was otherwise occupied, Missy took on the task of smoking the turkey breast. She did an outstanding job. If there was a way I would feed the less fortunate with our leftovers.

We have embarked on the journey of becoming eligible to bid on government contracts. Since I didn’t think this would be easy (and I was right), I am going to document our efforts on this blog. We worked during two summers in the Branson area and of all the places we’ve worked that is our favorite. We both enjoy the shows and the recreational opportunities. We would like to work as gate attendants for the Corps of Engineers at Table Rock Lake. So far I know I have to obtain a Duns number and some CCR thing. I got the skinny from a Corps of Engineers employee which was my first step, especially since that would give me a human to communicate with. Today I went to the website that takes you through the steps necessary to obtain the Duns number. After many hours and failed attempts-something about their site not responding-I have given up for now. A brief excursion on the Google search engine revealed that the CCR thingee is now a SAM thingee. I’ll also pursue that later.

Things of note:

Apparently there are enough foolish people out there to cause an accident involving over 100 vehicles. I don’t know about you, but if the weather ever gets bad enough to where I can’t see I am getting off the highway. Apparently a bunch of folks on I-10 near Beaumont, Texas didn’t get the memo. I remember a memorable drive between Pensacola, Florida and Mobile, Alabama one night where conditions got that way. Fog had made visibility drop to under a hundred yards. The majority of drivers never lifted off of the throttle, at night and in a 70 mph zone. I was terrified before we found an exit.

I hope none of my readers ever react to stress by not only destroying their home; but also over thirty homes of other innocent folks. A couple is suspected of doing that exact thing. Unlike their now deceased neighbors, they were not at home. They tried to blame the explosion on a faulty heater, but the fact that they were not home and authorities feel the explosion was remotely triggered, makes them prime suspects. I can’t imagine that conversation-“Gee honey, I told you not to wait that long” or ”Wow that was a lot bigger than we planned!” You get the idea.

On a more positive note; we actually had a good encounter with a mechanic. We had him install new shocks and struts on our Santa Fe. When I went to drive it, a loud rattling (did I say LOUD?) emanated from the back of the car. A call to the mechanic resulted in him not only coming out to our site to fix it; he also admitted to having left a spacer out of one the shocks. I was impressed.

Finally, please do not ever get so stressed or out of control that you feel the need to go to your local zoo and beat the stuffing out of some poor, innocent monkey. As I like to say I can’t make this up folks. They are out there and among us!