Finally a few minutes to catch up the blog.  Took a few days off last week
from work to help Dad plant this year's corn crop.  Good weather held and we
got the crop in good shape.  No injuries and only one mechanical failure (tire
went flat) to speak of.  Now, we get to sit back and wait for it to germinate.
 Dad and I also took and afternoon and went mushroom hunting.  Had a stroke of
good luck in 1 place we searched to come home with 1.5 bread sacks worth of
the tasty morsels.  Otherwise, the timbers have been awfully dry to keep this
year's crop pretty darn low.  Maybe with a rain or two, we can find some more
yet this early May.  Fri. and Sat. I helped my parents babysit my sister's
kids while she got her eyes fixed using the LASIK surgery.  So far, she claims
her vision is better, but still isn't 100% yet.  Although it is still too
early to know what the final results will be.  I even managed to get a little
more firewood work done as well.  But now with the crops in the ground, I
should have more time to work on firewood.  Although this coming weekend I'll
be helping to get the cattle moved out to the pastures.

Just got moved to my 4th location here in 3 years of working for this place. 
This time I'm out on the renovating factory floor.  Just love the sound of
power drills and cutting of sheet metal to help me program.  Only benefit is
that I'm far, far away from where all of the management sits.  We are almost
our own nation out here.  Work is slowing down to the point that I can
actually take 8 hour days and be ahead of the game.  What a wonderful change
of pace.

Not much else to report on at the moment.  Still mulling over the loss of
ancient status to eq.  I understand the motives, but I'm stuck in the debate
over keeping it unclaimed and the premium associated with that status and
claiming and actually using it.  Considering how little I play, the debate is
close to even at the moment.  Don't dare us the eq now as it stands since
can't claim later to get back to max condition.  I'm not even going to go into
sharing eq problems I'm facing at the moment.  Just a harsh tune that has had
serious consequences for many of us that I'm not sure was fully appreciated at
the time the decision was made.  Ah well, I'm not a 24/7 Finn, so my opinion
don't mean shit anyways.  Shoutout to Szilard (woot!)!