Sigh, I've gone from almost daily blogging to nearly twice monthly. Guess I'll have to get a bit more energetic about again here in the near future. Major event in my life was Dad's farm sale last weekend. I took Thur. and Fri. off to help with the set-up. Thur. was a nice enough day, sunny, light breeze, temps in the teens. Basically, Dad and I got the used tools and parts loaded out on the hay rack as well as moved out several pieces of the equipment to be sold. We had a neighbor come up with a large 4-wheeled drive tractor with a 12 ft. front blade to push the snow out in the corn field for parking and in the hay field for the equipment parking. He had that job done shortly after lunch which by that time we had the hay rack loaded and could spend time putting the equipment out. Friday was a much colder day, and a stiff NW wind putting the wind chills in around the -15 to -20 range most of the day. Fortunately, my uncles Gary and Earl came out to help along with my cousin Tiffany and eventually my brother. However, due to the extremely cold temperatures, the diesel fuel in the one tractor kept gelling up causing it to stop running smoothly. In fact, in the morning we couldn't start any of the tractors, even after have their engine block heaters plugged in. We ended up having to put kerosene heaters with blowers, like they use in dairy barns, near the engine blocks to warm them up enough to get them to start. By early afternoon, we had everything set-up and a neighbor a mile and a half down the road offered his heated workshop to store the tractors overnight so they would start right off the morning of the sale. The downside, we had to drive the 3 tractors over there, 2 of which did not have cabs to protect from the weather. My brother and I drove the cab-less tractors over and it was a cold ride. I have a pair of aviator goggles that I used to protect my eyes from the weather, so with almost no flesh exposed, it was a tolerable ride. Saturday morning, the day of the sale, and we wake up to howling NW winds again, this time putting the wind chills to -25 and starting temps of -6 below. My parents and I mill around the house, always watching the window, watching the snow blow across the fields, hoping that people will come, worrying that the equipment would sell for a reasonable value. The sale would start at 10:30, and by 9am, we already had our first lookers. We geared up in our winter gear and braved the weather. My brother and I drove the tractors back, and this time, we travelled into the wind. A cold enough day that the exhaust from the tractors hung low in the air and cold enough that the plastic and glass around my goggles became ice cold in minutes. But, we perservered. Quickly, my sister and I took photos from around the farm, our last memories of what we once had. By this time, several more people had arrived. The auction starts off right about 10:30, and our parking lot in the field is nearly full. Hard to believe, but we ended up having close to 200 bidders on one of the coldest days of the year. The first hay rack is a mish-mash of antique stuff that Dad had collected over the years, but didn't want to keep or had no more use for. That stuff sold extremely well. The second hay rack was the aforementioned tools and parts, that didn't sell as well as the first, but nothing stayed behind after the sale was over. After 2 hours, both hay racks worth of stuff were sold off, and we were on to selling my old Camaro off. Due to the cold weather, we couldn't get it started on Fri. or Sat., but that didn't deter the bidding. It brings 2500 dollars. I'm overjoyed!!! I was hoping for 1200-1500 at most. I should have known though, the first item sold on the auction, Dad was hoping to sell for a dollar, and it brings 50. I guess cold people come to buy! After my car, we sell the outdoor stuff, the fencing materials and the like, and then it is on to the machinery. I have a good friend of mine from back home to do my bidding for me. It is bad for business if it looks like the sellers are bidding up their own items to make them sell more, so we arrange for this proxy bidding. Besides, I wanted to own the items, not up-the-bids. We need not worry about protecting Dad's stuff, just about everything sells for the high end of Dad's estimates. I ended up buying the smaller 10 ft. Case disc and the 970 Case tractor as well as the 4-bottom Massey-Ferguson plow for general farm support. I spent a little over 5 thousand for the equipment, with 4750 spent on the tractor. I'm still happy. By three o'clock, everyone has dispersed as well as much of the machinery and all of the hay rack items. A sense of relief is on our minds, the auction has gone well, and no accidents occur. Afterwards, Mom overhears a couple of men talking, trying to figure out why my friend bought the tractor and equipment. She laughs to herself she says. The auction brings in nearly double what Dad thought would have been satisfied with. Besides the auction, my work load has slowly been dwindling down. As of now, I'm out of stuff to work on. I'm hoping I can pick up something to work on. I hate the in-between project time, since I have to have projects to charge to or I'll get punished. And speaking of punishment, I've been keeping up the gym routines, and still can't make any headway on losing weight. Appears my body has adapted to the point that I'm maintaining even with exercising 4 nights a week plus whatever I do on the weekends. Guess it'll take a stricter diet or more exercise or, I'm hoping, the spring weather to get my body out of hibernation mode. Speaking of gym, I tried a yoga class a couple weeks ago. Then, I had to skip it due to auction last week, and working late this week. I'm hoping to make it back again this coming week. I hurt from all of those poses, and it sucks to have to keep watching the instructor to figure out what to do. I need to be like the other members that know the moves and can focus on the move itself rather than me struggling for balance. Alright,just about time to head out for the weekend and slog along in FF12. I've already decided not to do all of the goofy stuff to "see and do" everything in the game after I looked at the online guides. I mean, wtf, camp out an area so a certain game clock can tick down for a 1 in a 100 chance mob to spawn, and then have to kill it a dozen times? No thanks, I'll just play through it normally and see if I enjoy it enough to want to do anything more than main storyline and some of the more sensible side quests. I doubt I'll play any deeper than that. Not exactly enjoying the combat, the gambit system is a pain in the butt for the most part. I want the old "wait till I make a selection" system back. And oh yeah, I'm thinking that retirement loc-reaver reinc is about to happen soon. Tonight's blog entry brought to you by "I Don't Like the Drugs (But the Drugs Like Me)" Marilyn Manson.