The guys and I are spending our memorial day out here at the refinery. Thankfully I’m working my regular 12 hour day instead of the 16 hour days that I worked Saturday and Sunday. This has been a busy holiday weekend for those of us working out here at the plant.

Everyone pitched in for a big meal today. Young Mr. Trahan (pronounced Trah-Hahn [short on the n]) cooked crawfish étouffée for us, and it was very good.

Lisa and I are supposed to go to the Kleinman’s for supper this evening. Folks are supposed to arrive at six, but I will be just getting home from work then, so we will have to be fashionably late.

I have a top operators meeting to go to, so I have to go.

Kenith

This has been a rough day for me, but my work day is almost over. I plan to head straight home, take a long bath (while sipping on a little Bourbon) and then read until I fall asleep, which should not take very long at all.

I had to work the graveyard shift on what should have been my last to days off, but Peter twisted his ankle and I was on call to cover him. That was not to bad, but we had a problem, on the last of the two nights. On that last shift, the potential problem did not happen and I went home and went to bed.

I got up at about 2 PM. (this is Friday afternoon). Lisa, soon after I got up, left for New Orleans; She and a couple of lady friends are going shopping. The big kids took off to Longville and I stayed home with the little boys. We did our thing for a few hours, then I fed them, got them cleaned up and brought them to spend the night with Lisa’s sister (Their dear Reaux-Reaux).

When I got home, I noticed that the refinery had called and they wanted me to come to work at two in the morning. I did what I needed to do and then went back to bed. Of course I had slept until 2PM, so I could not fall asleep. I tossed and turned, read some Dostoevsky, hoping that would put me to sleep, but nothing worked. At 1:10 AM I got up, got dressed and came to work.

I am now coming to the end of a very long work day, and all I want to to do is get cleaned up and go to bed.

Later,
Kenith

Today is a very sad day for me. I am off today so I’ve been working around the house. I cut the grass in the backyard this afternoon. After I finished I came in to get cleaned up. (Now here’s the sad part) I opened my very last bottle of my home brewed beer, then I filled the tub with water, got my copy of the Iliad off the shelf and settled into the tube. Sipping on home brewed beer, reading a classical work, while relaxing in the tub is a wonderful way to end working in the yard.

It's time to get the little boys reading and math work started so this blog must be short.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

After my shift relief arrived on Saturday morning, a few of my buddies and I went to a nearby Circle K for an after graveyard shift beer. We sat on a tailgate, drank our beer, conversed for a while before we headed out for our separate homes.

I had to go by Kroger’s and buy some groceries before I went home. I crawled into bed at about 7:00. Normally I would have snuggled with Lisa, but she is in Houston this weekend. I fell asleep immediately. Our youngest son woke me at about 7:20. He was coughing, so I gave him some medicine and put him back in bed and fell back into my bed and sleep to about 3 pm. That was an unusually good day of sleep.

After I got up, I vegetated in the house for a while before joining the little boys in the backyard. They were playing on their “clubhouse.” I went to check on the blackberry’s that we have planted and found it had a number of ripe berries, so I called one of the boys over to help pick the berries. He and I were steadily picking and eating the big luscious berries, when I looked down and saw a snake coiled up right in front of me.

I was startled and jumped away. I got a rake and picked the snake up and moved him to where I could see him better. It was a hognose snake.

I love hognose snakes. I called my non-berry eating young son over and gave the two boys a demonstration of how this snake acts when he encounters a person. The snake, true to his nature, flared his neck and opened his mouth trying to look as menacing as he could. I then struck the ground next to the snake, and he convulsed a bit and rolled over on his back to play dead.

Next I rolled him over on his belly a few times, so the boys could watch him immediately switch back to laying on his back. Hognose snakes seem to think that they must be on their back in order to play dead. I picked the snake up so the boys could touch him. I then let him go in a rose bush so neither of our cats would get him.

By the time I let the snake go, it was time to head for work again. We were very busy trouble shooting a couple of items early in the shift but things have now slowed down.

When I went to the central control room for our top-operators meeting with the shift supervisors, I found a gecko by the door and caught it. I was hoping to bring it home to show the boys but it got away.

Lisa should be home before I leave for work tomorrow.
Dieu bénissent notre famille! Amen.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

This is my second night on graveyard shift. Last night was a good shift, and we are hoping for the same tonight. My old friend LaCasse is working to with us this evening. He and I are both working as top operators (something like a working foreman) this evening.

LaCassse brought a some Cajun CD’s and I have a few with me, so we are looking forward to hearing Cajun Music tonight.

Lacasse's CD’s include Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys, Richard LeBouef and Two Step , Moe-D , Wayne Toups and I have The Lost Bayou Ramblers, the great Alphonse “Bois Sec” Ardoin and Les Frère Michot.

I have picked up The Shape of Sola Scriptura by Keith Mathison. I’m 100 pages into the book and all I can say so far is wow!!

I’ve gotta go. There is work to do.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

Today was another Lord’s day. Lisa, the little boys and I all worshipped at Bethel this morning. Our niece, Lauren, worshipped with us today. Another niece, Jac, invited her to join us. Lauren was raised in the United Methodist Church. She and her parents are conservative Christian people.

Our older children were not in town and did not worship with us. Morgan just got back to town and Christian, and his cousin Ryan, are spending the night in Longville.

Mike and I were going to get together this evening, but I didn’t here from him. So it ain’t gonna happen tonight. I think I will open a bottle of wine and have a glass or two on my own.

I have a little work to do before going to bed so good night.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

There has been almost constant rain this week. I worked Days at the refinery from Tuesday thru Friday, which is a busy time for us. When our shift got to work Tuesday morning we found that one of our Reformer units was down and the powers that be were trying to decide what to do. The unit came down because the CCR was in trouble. That shutdown kept us busy all week, especially my buddy Craig Cudd.

I assigned him to take care of the shut downed CCR, when I thought it was not such a major task. I has turned into a near full blown turnaround and he is having to work today and perhaps tomorrow (on our days off).

I promised him that I would sign up for overtime next time we are on call so he will be not be on call.

Christian, Morgan and Lisa are at work and I am home with the little boys and my nephew Ryan, who has been staying with us for about a week now. They are all playing with the Game Cube. I’m going to read to them as soon as they finish the next game then they will both have to read to me.

I am going to encourage Ryan to read the Bible while I do read with the little boys.

I’ve finished A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving. It is the first novel that I’ve read in a long time. The man is certainly a talented writer and I though a lot of much of his style, but some of his sexual stuff was, though there is not a lot of it in the 545 page book, still I thought it to be out of place and superfluous to the story. The basic story was pretty good, but I feel the climax was somewhat anticlimactic.

I think Mr. Irving’s religious and political views that appear in his book are certainly on the liberal end of the spectrum (which is not unusual). He is able to express those views through the main character in the book. Irving’s knowledge of recent history is clearly shown in the work. Much of the book was entertaining, but over all I would give it a “just ok” rating.

I am currently listening to Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov. I was hesitant to get this book, because of my past experience with Russian authors. I wanted to read this book because I have heard a good bit about it. So far it is good on tape.

I plan to turn back to non-fiction in my personal reading, which is my preferred type of reading. I may read a biography, a theological work or perhaps both.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

Saturday was a work in the yard and around the house day for Lisa and me. We had to get things ready for today. Lisa’s family came over for mothers day, my paw-in-law birthday and, since the family was here, our sons upcoming birthday.

Sunday morning I got up and made breakfast for the family. I made some pain perdu (lost bread). That’s the Cajun name for what the rest of the country calls French Toast. Lisa requested this meal for Mother’s Day.

After breakfast we got dressed and went to church. The worship service was good. I was assigned to say the offertory prayer. After church we came home. After changing into shorts and flip-flops, I went to the back porch and got the BBQ pits going. We had burgers and hotdogs, along with all kinds of other good stuff.

It was a nice time with the family. Some folks were playing pitch and catch, others were sitting around talking about everyday stuff. We had a good mothers day.

Saturday was a work in the yard and around the house day for Lisa and me. We had to get things ready for today. Lisa’s family came over for mothers day, my paw-in-law birthday and, since the family was here, our sons upcoming birthday.

Sunday morning I got up and made breakfast for the family. I made some pain perdu (lost bread). That’s the Cajun name for what the rest of the country calls French Toast. Lisa requested this meal for Mother’s Day.

After breakfast we got dressed and went to church. The worship service was good. I was assigned to say the offertory prayer. After church we came home. After changing into shorts and flip-flops, I went to the back porch and got the BBQ pits going. We had burgers and hotdogs, along with all kinds of other good stuff.

It was a nice time with the family. Some folks were playing pitch and catch, others were sitting around talking about everyday stuff. We had a good mothers day.

I worked off shift Wednesday morning. I slept all that day. I have tried to get up early in the past but I am both useless and miserable when I do that, so if I go ahead and sleep, I’m still useless but I ‘m rested and feel a lot better. Wednesday was a wash. Did a little around the house and had the little boys read to me before putting them to bed. I pay them for reading, which motivates them to do so.

I was up late that evening. We had a small family emergency that kept me up until about 3 in the morning, I likely could not have fallen asleep much before that anyway. This small emergency seems to have resolved itself to the benefit of all. I hope so, and there seems to be good reason for such optimism.

I slept in a bit on Thursday. My dad called about 10 in the morning. He was on his way to pick me up. We went to work on an old trailer house for my nieces Shannon. It is my late brother Gerry’s old place. It is in very bad shape and we are hoping to make it livable. Gerry and his family moved from there 10 or more years ago. He allowed some of his wife’s kin people to live there for almost nothing. They were supposed to keep the place up. They did not do a good job keeping their end of the bargain very well.

Shannon’s husband is in Iraq. He is one of the those soldiers that was supposed to have returned home but had his time in that bloody God forsaken place extended. Dad and I worked on the place with Shannon. We worked as long as my dad was able. We got a good deal done before dad was to tired to continue. Then we called it quits.

I spent the rest of the daylight hours at home with the family. The boys and I went for a walk. We stopped at the cow pasture to chat. There I sat down in the grass and I explained the Eucharist to them and asked them questions. We then continued our walk.

That evening I propositioned the little boys with a fishing trip. They both wanted to go and Lisa gave her blessing. The boys and I headed to my parents house to spend the night. We got there late, about 10:30, and mom and dad were already in bed. Mom had prepared us all a place to sleep. Grif was asleep before we got there. I placed Grif in a bed and Haden laid on a couch near me.

I stayed up reading until after 1 in the morning. Next morning Mom got up and made coffee, bacon and eggs for the boys and me. After we ate the little boys and I headed for Brian and Sandy’s pond. We fished for a while. Haden was, as usual, the first to become bored with fishing, He went off playing with the paddle boat and other interesting items. Grif and I fished a good bit longer. The fish were not biting real well, but we caught several nice size perch, enough to make a meal for a few people.

Eventualy both boys gave up fishing. and we then went for canoe ride. Then we went for an extended ride in Sandy’s paddle boat. The boys worked the paddle and I worked the rudder. The boys enjoyed this boat much more than the canoe. It is almost impossible to turn over, so I didn't make them wear life jackets. I would never allow such a thing in the canoe.

We had great fun paddling around the pond. We then returned to Mom’s house for dinner (the noon meal). After a good meal of Lima beans, bacon and rice, I then cleaned the fish and we headed back to town. I brought the fish to my in-laws. The boys and I visited with them for and hour are so.

I am blessed with wonderful in-laws. They are fine people and have always supported Lisa and me without the least bit of interference in our marriage. Lisa and I both have very good people for in-laws. This is important. I can’t count the number of friends and family members whose marriages have suffered because of bad (sorry) in-laws.

After a good visit on the back porch with my maw and paw-in-law, the boys and I headed home. Lisa and I worked in the yard for the rest of the afternoon. She and all the boys are now asleep, Morgan is at the college working on an art project, as his her boyfriend.

I am drinking a glass, or two of wine, or maybe three (perhaps four) and watching the movie Rob Roy on DVD as I write this. Rob Roy is a good movie, but it has some very hard scenes in it. Still I like this movie a lot. In it a man, does what he must for the sake of honour. I like honour.

Honour is an old quaint concept lost in the modern, and even more so in the post-modern world. I'm a dinosaur and should not exist in either the modern or post-modern world. I hope to see the return of honour and the death of the modern and post-modern world. (note:My beloved brother Gerry too was a dinosaur. DEO VINDICE)

I will now say a Cajun "bon nuit" (good night).

Coram Deo,
Kenith

Gary and I walked out the refinery turnstiles at the same time this morning (about 5:40 AM), so we went by the Circle K and got us each a beer. Normally we would have sat on the tailgate of my truck, but it was a bit cool this morning, so we sat in his vehicle. We chatted for about twenty minutes while we enjoyed our beer. When we finished the beers I got in my truck and headed for the house. By the time I got home, Lisa and the kids were already up and getting themselves ready. I gave them all hugs and kisses, went to my room and crawled into bed.

I did not sleep very well and woke up earlier than I cared to. I laid there for a good while hoping I would fall asleep once more, but that did not happen. I then picked up a book and read. I was still desirous of more sleep, but instead I read a good bit in the book I picked up and never even blinked.

I finally gave up trying to sleep, turned on Fox News and took a bath. After a leisurely bath I got up and joined the family for a little while and then came to work.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

I’m on my third night of my first set of graveyard shift since I returned to my normal crew. I worked a regular 40 hour straight daylights shift for 10 weeks, so I am adjusting to shift work once more. I have to get back into the routine. I am struggling a bit this time around, but I will be back in the groove soon.

This morning I crawled into bed a little after 6 a.m. I slept until 12:30. I went to the 1:30 p.m. service at church. This is a good thing about having our afternoon service so early. I can now attend worship services when I am on graveyards, which is something I could not do when the service was at 6 p.m.

After worship services I came home. The little boys were all excited when I got home Lisa and the kids came home after the morning service). They, along with the neighbours children had caught a baby blue jay. After looking at the bird (knowing its chances of survival were slim) I encouraged them and went inside. I then ate and crawled back into bed. I was not able to go back to sleep, so I am expecting a long, hard to stay awake, night to night. It will be ok.

I am at work and have other things to do, so I’ve gotta go.

Coram Deo,
Kenith