Best laid plans.

Classes are chuggin' along as usual. Semester's about a quarter done, and the first exams are comin' up. I can smell the fear. Smells like, victory. I'm up to the early 1700s in one class and the late 1800s in the other. The Government classes are mired in official sounding crud, with me trying to explain the executive branch to one class and the Federal constitution to another. I have three separate government classes getting the same lecture two or three times each week. By the time I'm giving it to the third class, it's starting to get shorter and more cut and dry. Those folks just sit there, take notes and stare back at me, but then the next class is full of cut ups and jokers who wake me up and make the time enjoyable. Try explaining something like the electoral college to a class full of older students who think it all sounds vaguely sinister and corrupt. I end up injecting enough history into the course so things like that are easier to understand. I do my best.

Denise and I will be headin' over to Temple to get dad in a few hours. We'll eat dinner and then sit through about half the Academy/Rogers game. After that we'll head over to a local sporting goods store and see if there's anything she needs for the upcoming trip to Terlingua. I've got enough gear to fit out a squad of troops, but you never know. They may have come up with something new and cool that we'll just have to have. It's all about the gear.

The annual chili cook-off, booze up and freak show down near Big Bend is coming up next weekend. Several of us will be heading down Wednesday and Thursday to take part, and then coming back Sunday.



This is a picture of the wilder cook-off down the road. We'll be visiting this camp, but not camping there. It's nuts over there, with chili wrestling contests and all sorts of fun. Like I said, we'll be visiting... but not trying to sleep there. I don't think anyone sleeps there.

I told my students on the base to take Thursday and Friday off and got Florence to get me a sub for those days. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do. Denise had word last week that her boss wanted her to come in on the Sunday, along with a slew of other folks, so we thought she was going to have to miss the trip. It went back and forth all last week, but she got a few other people to come in and decided to take the bull by the horns and go. She may ketch hell when she gets back on Monday, but again, ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

I was hoping to be able to relax on Saturday, sleep in and take it easy for once. Then I went to the office on base to renew my stickers last Tuesday night and found out that my driving privileges on the base has been revoked. Shocked the shit out of me. Found out that they'd been revoked three months ago when I was nabbed goin' 45 in a 25 after class one night. They've got a speed trap out there where the speed limit goes from 40 to 25 and then to 35 again in the space of about two blocks. It's not a school zone. Something about the soldiers crossing the street from their living quarters. Guess they don't know they're not supposed to walk out in the street without lookin' both ways. Anyway, in order to get my new stickers I've got to spend all day Saturday listenin' to some asshole talk about driver safety. So, think kindly of me as you relax and enjoy yourselves tomorrow afternoon. Toss one back for me.

Sunday is my sisters 53rd birthday. The folks will be driving her over that evening so we can all take her to the Outback Steak House and let her drown her sorrows in booze and a Bloomin' Onion. Before that, a few of us will head out to the class 6 on base to load up on adult beverages for the trip to Terlingua. The dinner will be fun. She usually chugs a Bloody Mary or three when we go. They'll soften the blow as she slips deeper into the winter of her dotage. Siblings.

Well, I hope your weekends are all good. Cheers.