[AT] No news these days - long

[Robinson]

         Hi Cecil:
         I have just been skim reading the ATIS mail for some time and 
rarely posting. I've just been so busy I don't know if I'm pissin or 
kissin...   ;-)   My mother has been slipping badly and is about to drive 
me (us) bonkers. I try to be patient, my turn is next, but it can still be 
a chore at times. We already have Diana's mom living with us since she had 
to give up her apartment a year ago June. Her Mom is legally blind and 
pretty hard of hearing but is mentally sharp and gets around fairly well. 
SHE DOESN'T THINK SHE IS HARD OF HEARING!!!!!  EVERYBODY ELSE JUST SPEAKS 
TOO SOFTLY!!!  HUH!!!   ;-)   My Mom gets around with great difficulty but 
sees fairly well and hears a little better. She does manage to walk down to 
my house 4 to 6 times a day and unless prodded a good bit will sit for an 
hour or more repeating the same thing five or six times. The next trip and 
the next and the next is usually a repeat. Like I said it all calls for a 
great deal of patience, I may need it myself someday. Still it can be quite 
a strain. She had a panic attack while we were at Portland and some of our 
kids took turns staying with her until we got home. We were recently at the 
Country Fair event at the Conner Prairie living history museum doing demos 
but since we were home every night she got through that OK.
         Everybody that enjoys old stuff should do one of those type shows 
at least once.  Doing demos for all of those kids and watching the 
fascination in their eyes is well worth all of the work of hauling several 
loads of equipment and stuff there and back (100 mile round trip). One fun 
thing is that almost none of the audience is farm or tractor oriented and 
are almost all impressed by any noisy clanking rusty old hulk doing 
something (that includes me and most of my stuff both).  We even did an 
originally unplanned rear tractor tire patching demonstration.   :-)
         Starting today I am finally getting to having a little shop time. 
It will take me about 3 days just to get it back in shape to work in it. I 
probably won't be combining corn or soybeans for a few weeks yet. I have 
things pretty well lined up for having full time heat in the shop all 
winter this year and I am really looking forward to that. That should about 
quadruple my out put. Winter is when I have the most shop time but if you 
start the morning with a leaky shop like an ice box it takes all day to get 
it warm enough to work in or sometimes you never get it warm. Being better 
closed in and having heat 24 hours will seem really strange but great.
         With all of the rain the eastern part of the country is getting we 
are in a pretty serious drought here. No rain in some time and none 
forecast in the next 10 days. It is too late for a rain to help crops now 
except for maybe a late hay cutting. Right now even some of the hay lots 
are just burning up.  The trees are just turning brown and shedding leaves 
instead of our usual fall blaze of color. The yard crunches when you walk 
across it and you leave footprints as you walk.
         My sister lives in Pensacola FL and she has had plenty of 
rain.   :-)   one of her sons lost his house completely and so did one of 
her daughters.

"farmer"

Francis Robinson
Central Indiana, USA
robinson at svs.net