NEVER FORGET

 It's hard to believe it's been 24 years since 9/11 happened on September 11, 2001.  Someone brought in a small television to our break room at the County Auditor's Office where we sat in silence watching the terrorism that we never expected to see in our country.  

I was there just a few days later.  The destruction was unbelievable.  I pray we never see anything like this again in our lives, and I still pray for the families of those lost.  

Sadly, things have not gotten much better, thanks to a political party determined to bring down the current administration, but at least for now our borders are secure.  I hope never to see another event like this the rest of my life, and I pray our children and grandchildren never experience anything like it.  NEVER FORGET.

And so as I safely gobbled down my homemade fried burrito, I tried not to think about the images I saw.  The burrito was okay, but note to self ... add much more spice next time.

The day began with a frantic phone call .... HELP ... I messed up your accounting program.  It's okay ... it's easily fixed.  Well ..... not so much once I got over there and discovered one entire month of entries had disappeared.  Two hours later I called UNCLE and came home.  I'll finish that up another day.

BECAUSE .... the PENDLETON RODEO is on!!!  This arena is HUGE, making for lots of exciting runs for the money.  Not to be outdone by the smaller steers, the bulls garnered most of the excitement.  Yes, that's a PVC fence over there, obviously not enough to stop a bull if he decided to go through it, which of course they did.  

I admit, it's fun to watch the cowboys who have been sitting on the grass watching, scatter like rats!!  On occasion, one or two get run over, but not on this day.  It took SIX cowboys in red shirts and FOUR ropes to get this bull sort of under control.  He was having none of it and they drug him completely around the arena and through the OUT gate.  

On the ranch, I was involved in that kind of stuff a time or two.  Let me just say those boogies are scary!  Bulls are not only big enough to turn your horse on its back, but they are MEAN MEAN MEAN.  They will hook you in a flash if you get too close, besides weighing in at over a ton.  It took four horses to drag this guy back to the holding pen.

That's why I would definitely rather be on a horse than on the BULL!  These kids are exceedingly brave.  On this day however, the bulls won.  Only two out of 15 riders, actually rode the bull.  No worries for the bull ... these guys are pampered and fed like Kings every day of their lives.

Speaking of which, I ate like a Queen at lunch.  I ran another package of bacon through the air fryer and picked a fresh tomato!!  YUM YUM!!

I worked on the last two Veteran quilts for a bit, but was obviously distracted by RODEO.  It took a few minutes to realize I had received a delivery at the back door.  Thank goodness for WOMEN.  Every single time, they actually read the directions and go to the back door.  The MEN just toss things on the front porch without reading anything.  That makes it fair game for thieves.

Lookie here .... my new carrying case for the Starlink Mini.  It's small, lightweight and everything fits perfectly.  By the way, did I mention this one works while you are going down the road?  Hopefully I'll get to check it out in a few days.  

That's when the frustration began.  I finally decided to sign up for Harvest Hosts.  I'm sure you all know what that is.  It's $179 a year, but when I logged on, it said they were having a 25% off sale.  Okay then ... I signed up, but alas (my fault) I typed in the wrong email address.  I DID type in the sale code however, whereupon it blipped and said CONGRATULATIONS on becoming a member.  

Okay, but wait ... where is my receipt?  I want to be sure I got the sale price.  I spent the next TWO HOURS going round and round with the AI guy who needs to go back to school.  There was no way to contact ANYONE to find out what they charged me.

Several hours later I finally got the email changed, and received an email from them saying "here's the link to your receipt".  GREAT.  NOT SO GREAT!!  They charged me the full $179.00.  Of course now I can't get ahold of anyone to change that.  What kind of crappy service is this??

If they do not contact me today, I'm canceling the dang thing and calling my credit card company to dispute the amount.  This is ridiculous to spend all this time on a business with apparently no service at all.

I was pretty hot under the collar, so when I heard Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer coming down the road, I ran outside.  This is a very elderly Indian gentleman who rides a bike, pulling a small trailer with a freezer on it.  

Let me just say he's outrageously expensive ... but you have to give him credit for doing this.  And so I did when all I could find was a $100.00 bill.  RATS!!  No problem he said ... he had change.  Not quite enough change, but enough that I said keep the rest.  I paid a whopping $20.00 for these three bars, but that's okay.  I applaud him for riding his bike around a 5 mile radius in the heat, every single day, trying to make some money.

I'll be back sewing binding on those Veteran quilts today, followed by a Lodge meeting this evening.  Yes, they are having a 9/11 ceremony ... but for once, I said NO.  Hopefully, there are a lot more NO'S in my future!!

P.S.  The ice cream was DELICIOUS!!  No, I didn't eat THREE, I only ate ONE!