Ok, I know it's been a week since I posted but what a week it was. After getting home from San Angelo last Sunday, my wife and I did laundry and began packing for our trip to College Station and 4-H State Roundup. The trip to CS was uneventful except for a back road or two that the GPS took us on. That did make the trip a little more exciting. Of course, the best part of the trip down was lunch at Underwood's in Brownwood! Barbeque steak, orange potato salad and cobbler, it doesn't get any better!!
Wednesday morning we were awaken to the sound of thunder and pouring rain. Our luncheon was scheduled for 11:30 but we had to stop at Roundup Headquarters before going to the conference center at the George Bush Library. It was still pouring rain and by the end of the day, College Station had received close to 7" of rain. At the luncheon, state council members announced the awards that were presented by staff and faculty of the extension service. We were the fourth ones to receive our award and to our total surprise, our son Rusty, walked up on stage to announce our award. He had taken the initiative to go get permission to present our award. He had served on state council when he was on 4-H so he was able to persuade the ones in charge to allow him to surprise us. After our luncheon, we took Rusty to lunch then went to change clothes and go to an award announcement for some of the share the fun acts. Our county had three members participating in two different categories. One of our young ladies won the vocal category. After this, we went back to the hotel to change, then Donna's boss took us to supper at Ninfa's then we went to the general assembly where we were to be announced on stage. Thursday morning, I went to an educational presentation competition where another one of our 4-H'ers was competing. She placed first in her category and of course was very excited. I went back to the hotel, picked up Donna and headed home. As we pulled into Lockney, a thunderstorm was occurring and at that moment, the lights went out all over town. I had to stumble in the house, find a flashlight, find a candle and a lighter so we could see. The power outage lasted about an hour and a half so when the lights came on, I had to go to school to restart all the servers especially since I was leaving Friday morning to take my mom to the Putman family reunion.
Friday morning my mom and I took her dog to Plainview to board, then we headed to Petersburg to pay my daughter and son-in-law's rent deposit and look at the house they rented. We then took the keys to Donna in Floydada and finally hit the road to Mineral Wells. After taking one of her cousins to supper, I went back to the hotel to rest while they went to visit. Saturday morning we got our drinks and veggie trays and headed out to Cool, TX to gather with more of the Putman descendants. About 60 Putman kinfolks showed up for lunch and visiting. We headed home about 2 PM and got back to Lockney about 6:30 PM. From Saturday to Saturday, I traveled nearly 2200 miles and spent four nights in hotels. I'm glad I'll be home for a while, at least until we head to Ruidoso in July!
During all of the traveling, I've been trying to keep up with the crazy happenings in college football. What looked like it was going to be a fruit basket turnover, turned into a very mild rearrangement including Nebraska to the Big 10, Colorado to the PAC 10 and Boise State to the Mountain West. The Big 12 will remain minus NU and CU but rumors have it that they'll invite BYU and Air Force and that the PAC 10 will invite Utah. If those three move, the MWC will go from looking like it's going to get the automatic qualification to a BCS bowl with the addition of Boise State to not amounting to much of a conference. Boise State may end up getting the worst end of the shuffle of 2010.
My closing thought for the day: "A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort." -- Unknown
Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. -- Philippians 3:20 (NIV)
