FIRE RULES!

November 1st; Today was a day like every other day. Yeah right! First thing at work this morning my package scanner won't work, so I have to get maintenance to come fix it. Then there's a big todo with all these big, flat, boxes that are too wide to fit through the belt system. So I have to pull all of them off of the belt. Then my label printer breaks, and I have to call maintenance again to come fix that. Then primary 4 feed belt goes down, causing all the freight from that to divert to primaries 6 and 8, and causing a big backlog on those. But, everything worked itself out in the end. Not a boring day at FedEx. Oh yeah, by the way, I work at FedEx now. So now, after stuff like this, you need to unwind. And how better to unwind than next to a fire?

That's why I consider this to be me favorite time of year. The oppressive heat of summer is gone. The trees are turning to all sorts of pretty colors. You get to wear your nice clothes. But most important, you get to have fires! No, I'm not talking about California wild fires. Those are bad. I mean the kind of fire where you and a bunch of your buddies go out in the middle of a field, park pickup trucks in a circle, and drink lots of beer! That kind of fire. We had one just the other night. Friends and family all around a big roaring fire on a cold night, listening to the coyotes howl = good times!








There's a song by Chris Ledoux that I always think of at these times...

Western Skies-

My Nashville friends think I'm strange to make my home out on the range
They think it's nothin' but a God-forsaken land
Why don't you bring your guitar and family, move on down to Tennessee
Well, I just smile because they don't understand

But if they ever saw a sunrise on a mountain mornin'

Or watched those cotton candy clouds roll by







Then they'd know why I live beneath these Western Skies

I got peace of mind and elbow room
I love the smell of sage in bloom
Catch a rainbow on my fishin' line
We got county fairs and rodeos, ain't a better place for my kids to grow

Just turn 'em loose in the western summer time
And if you ever held your woman on a summer's evening
While the prairie moon was blazin' in her eyes
You'd know why I live beneath these Western Skies

You ain't lived until you've watched those Northern Lights

Or sat around the campfire and hear the coyotes call at night

Makes you feel alright





So guess I'll stay right where I'm at, wear my boots and my cowboy hat
But I'll come and see ya once in a while
I'll bring my guitar and sing my songs, sorry if I don't stay too long
I love Tennessee but ya know it just ain't my style

I gotta be where I can see those Rocky Mountains

Ride my horse and watch an eagle fly










I gotta live my life and write my songs beneath these Western Skies

And when I die you can bury me beneath these Western Skies!
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Just a couple of technical notes:
-the aurora picture is not mine,
-those mountains are the Guadalupes, not the Rockies,
-and that's a hawk, not an eagle.
But the principle is the same.