Sunday, April 01, 2007

Blogging is like a chore. Some days you feel like doing it, other days you don't. But when you don't do it, at first you feel pressure like you should be doing it, then gradually you get over it and time just s-l-i-d-e-s on by. But you're always glad when it's done, and you realize afterwards that it wasn't so bad after all!

We have been back from Delaware for a couple of weeks now. Jerry has gone back though, to finish up a job. He worked there on Saturday and needed to be back there Monday, so he had originally planned to come home last night (Saturday) and go back early Monday morning. Well, he stopped to put fuel in his truck last night while we were on the phone talking, and he exclaimed about how $20.00 only bought him 7 gallons of diesel. That's when we figured we'd better do the math for him coming home for one day. Turns out it would cost him $80.00 round trip in fuel. Now, don't misunderstand - I love my husband dearly and I miss him terribly, but $80.00 is a week's worth of groceries, for heaven's sake! I didn't tell him that, of course! I left the decision up to him, but in the end we decided that he'd be home soon enough, so I'll be seeing him about mid-week, with $80.00 intact.

Some time next week we'll be going to visit an Amish farmer in St. Mary's County. The pick-up point for the co-op where I get my milk is quite a ways down the road. Since Tom had class on Thursdays, it was right on his way to stop and get it on his way home. Well, this class semester he doesn't have class on Thursdays. The thought of going 30 or so miles down route 4 at rush hour in the evenings does not thrill me, to say the least. I had to go to the bank at rush hour last week for Jerry, and I came home a quivering mass of mush. Route 4 is terrifying at rush hour! People were actually passing each other on the right shoulder of the road, and twice on the way home people cut across the road from intersections and the entire bumper-to-bumper lines of traffic had to screech to a halt to avoid a pileup. Not once, but twice! I realize that I have my thing about driving, but this was just NUTS!

Anyway, I wrote to the coordinator of the co-op and asked if there was any need of a host pickup point down in this end of the county, as I would be willing to do that. What that means is that I provide a place for the delivery driver to drop off the coolers with the farm goods and then people pick up their stuff, leave their checks in the bag provided, and then I mail the checks to the Amish farmer the next day (and I also get a discount on my stuff - that doesn't hurt!) I don't even have to be here when the food is dropped off or picked up by the co-op members. I just need to get the checks in the mail the next day (or have a neighbor do it for me if I'm away). What I was trying to do was avoid having to travel so far just to get my milk, but I didn't know what I would be getting into. She wrote back that it was such a coincidence that I asked that question, because she had met and was working with a farmer in St. Mary's County who wants to start selling his products (because the group has gotten too big for just the one farmer in Pennsylvania) but they didn't know of a pickup point that would be convenient for him and potential customers. You guessed it. I kind of walked into that one. They are leaving it up to me to go and meet him and see what he has to offer and discuss prices and such with him and then the coordinator of the group will post his item list (once I get it) on the co-op board and make it known that there is a group that will service the southern end of this county and St. Mary's, and that the pickup point will be here. Jerry said he would go with me to talk to him (he's the business person of the family!) Since the farmer is Amish, he doesn't have a phone but he told the coordinator who met with him that I could come by the farm any Monday or Friday. It feels kind of rude to just show up like that, but Jerry said that's how they do business. He and his uncle get their chainsaws worked on and sharpened by an Amish man in St. Mary's and his uncle has had some furniture made and Jerry has gone with him to see about that, and he says that is how it's done. Without phones, they expect you to drop by. Well, except Sundays, of course!

Whew! See? Blogging is therapeutic. It seems overwhelming just thinking about it, but before you know it you're blogging on and on and on and on and ............

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