Daily Nilknarf Haiku Replenishment oft requires a sacrifice; burn, burn off the dead old growth

I stayed up way too late last night, and I slept until 10:00 this morning, when one of my co-workers called wondering when I would be back to work. Karen answered the phone, and I called back later and told them that it would be Monday.

After that I started packing for my trip. I say "my" because Karen didn't come with me. She's in charge of the spring luncheon for retired BC/BS workers and she really hasn't had a chance to get much done, what with taking care of me and all.

I got on the road about 13:00, after making a trip to Walgreens to get a necessary prescription and a new toothbrush and toothpaste. I made really good time, only stopping three times for coffee... well, twice for coffee, once to take pictures. Because it's range-burning time in the flint hills, and today was pretty much a perfect day for it, not very much wind, and recent rains made the fires burn slower and kinda protects the grass that's already emerged, I guess. There was a haze all over, of course, from the burning, and it gave the landscape an ethereal quality. There were no clouds, at least no real ones, and the smoke was layered in places. Really pretty, even in the afternoon sun. Not sure if it showed up in the pictures that I took.

Which reminds me of the trip last year? the year before? When I drove up from Texas and got the poison ivy or whatever the hell it was. I still think that was caused by driving through smoke from ivy burning. That just a guess, of course.

Anyway, I got to Enid about 17:00 or so, and Mom was hungry, and so was I, so we went to Braum's and had supper. Mom is in the middle of moving to a much smaller single-level house, and throwing lots of stuff away... she's been in the same house since 1969, and that's time enough to acquire lots of stuff.

So the refrigerator and freezer and couch are at the "new" house (which her parents moved into in 1950, I think it was...) and there are boxes everywhere. Her present neighbor, Maggie, is painting the rooms in the little house, which is sore in need of many minor repairs, some of which I will tackle in the next two days. The plan is for me to stay here until Saturday morning, when I will go to Wichita and meet Karen and visit with her brother Chuck.

I always enjoy seeing Chuck, even though he's on the opposite side of the fence from me on a lot of issues. I've always felt that it behooves a person to listen to the other side, even if one has to stifle laughter... And it's after 21:00 now, Mom is sleeping in her chair, and I think that it's time for us to go to sleep. O'yeah, the daily haiku: Replenishment oft requires a sacrifice; burn, burn off the dead old growth

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