Last week I spent several days in or traveling to Fort Worth. Wagner Oil, an old customer was having trouble printing their revenue checks and wanted me to come on-site to see if I could get the problems straightened out. I spent a day there week before last when we were in the area for Vivian’s birthday. I didn’t have a lot of confidence that I could solve their problems because they seemed unrelated to FormSprint. I was willing to make the attempt, though, and turns out I was able to solve their problems, which were multiple. We made some progress the first day I was there and I agreed to come back to be on hand when they ran their next batch of checks. I spent the day before the check printing sorting things out further and the next day when they ran checks they were very happy with the smooth operation. I had a couple hours of free time the day before and spent them at the Forth Worth Botanical Gardens, mostly in the Japanese gardens. Besides the lovely gardens and impressive koi in the ponds, the place was alive with monarch butterflies, so much so that I had to duck now and then to keep from getting one right between the eyes. There were some impressively large specimens.
Friday evening a week ago the six of us attended a Gracias Christmas Cantata. Sounds like it would have a Spanish flavor, doesn’t it? Except it was performed by South Koreans. It ran a little long and Abigail and I wished we were in the cave watching movies and eating ice cream, but parts of it were fairly entertaining. The group was touring 20 US cities in 21 days. It was amusing to read down the list of cities, such as Los Angeles, New York, New Orleans, Dallas and so on and see Amarillo listed, the only city of its size on the list. I guess they know their market because they had a pretty good turnout.
Meanwhile out a Wildcat Bluff, we are beginning to get the grass around the buildings mowed down. Vivian the executive director likes the natural look but I suggested to her that over the winter the grass will become dormant and dry and thus become a fire hazard to the buildings when the spring winds start kicking up. I also suggested that the grounds, if they were truly natural, would be grazed down by bison, but I’m not sure I convinced her that we ought to employ some mechanical bison on all of the grounds. Because it is much easier to maintain the grounds than to get them cleaned up, my natural inclination is to keep the grass short but we’ll just have to see how it goes. The powers that be have employed a couple of fellows to repair and improve the trails outside the visitor center grounds. The two held a seminar on proper trail maintenance Saturday which I attended. I came away with a good impression of what they are doing and will do and I think that will go a long way to making WCB a good place to come spend a couple of hours communing with nature.
Back on SA, the grass is rapidly going dormant because it has gotten dry. I’ve got the place mowed clean and it would suit me to not have to mow it again this year. I probably won’t at the rate we are going. Joyce and I are working on staining the playhouse. If the weather stays dry, we should just about finish this week.
Thank y’all so much for taking on the play set project! Your efforts are very much appreciated!!!
It will look better, don’t you think?