The Friday Evening Wind Down

T G I F ! What a week I've had at work. Not that the work of a rural postmaster is extremely hard. Usually it's pretty steady and sometimes, when the the truck is really loaded with heavy bags, it can be fairly physical, but this week has been a one-thing-after-another scramble. I've had to deal with everything from the furnace not working to the computer playing tricks on me and a conference call that went on forever, along with all the usual customers at the counter and mail to sort.

Not that I'm complaining. I really feel privileged to have this job. For a small town job it pays well and comes with a nice benefit package, but what I like about it the best is the contact that I have with the people of the community. If I ever won the lottery I don't know if I'd want to give that up. Oh well, with my luck (and the fact that I only buy maybe a dozen tickets per year) I don't think I have to worry about that.

Having had such a hectic week as this one has been, by this afternoon I had started planning what I would do when I got home tonight. It was going to be just like they do in the movies ... sit down and read the paper, pour myself a relaxing cocktail of some kind, order out for supper ... What an imagination I have!

What really happened was that I changed into a comfy sweat suit, started a load of laundry, and made myself some toast to curb my appetite until 7:30 or later when Glen will get home from work; supper is in the slow cooker. The drink would still be a nice relaxer, but I just can't bring myself to drink alone ... oh well, it would just be empty calories anyway.

I can't believe that February is almost over. That's two months gone out of the year already; where does the time go? The big day of March 7th is coming up. Will the United States actually open their border to Canadian beef? There are lobby groups down there doing their utmost to stop it - not because they don't trust the saftey of Canadian beef, but because they are in a position, or are trying to get themselves into a position, that they will be able to more money. There was an article in the Western Producer a while back that told of one of the big feedlots in Alberta about to sell out to an American company. The Canadians who owned it had to sell because the BSE crisis was breaking them, and it was the American's who had the money to buy them out. In no way can I picture that scenario being a good thing for the Canadian beef industry.

Glen has been keeping a close watch on calf prices at the auction mart. We have to sell our last year calves before this year's batch starts to arrive. There's just not enough pens out at the barn to keep everything sorted out and as they all get fed different rations, they all have to have their own place. That probably means we'll spend at least some time this weekend sorting cattle and getting them ready to load for their trip to the auction barn.

If I thought my workweek was tough, sorting cattle with a farmer who expects me to read his mind (and that of at least five cows at a time) will have me just as happy as heck to get back to the grind on Monday morning.