Hey Hay Dude! You are SO wrong.

Whether you have horses or not, I'm pretty sure all of you will relate to this one way or another. We spent a large portion of the past week shopping for hay (yes, you read that correctly). We are down to the last three rolls from the hay we purchased in July. Sadly, our little corner of the state is running a close second to Texas with this terrible drought (so we've gone through far more hay than planned). In any case, the man we bought the hay from lives right up the road - literally (in Southernese "right up the road" can be anywhere from a couple of miles to: gosh I hope you packed a lunch ;o) Anyway, when we told him we would need about 30 more rolls to get us through the winter, he said he'd be glad to put us down for that (he was trying to presell as much as he could) and he would give us a call as soon as he made the next cutting. He and his wife own a local business and have a very good reputation in the area, so it was a huge load off my mind that we wouldn't have to worry about hay this winter. 

DH drove by the field earlier this month and noticed that they were in the process of cutting it. I called our new best friend (herein anonymously referred to as "Hay Dude") and he assured me that he had not forgotten about us and would call me back in a day or two as soon as they had finished in the field. He mentioned that someone had already stopped by with a flatbed wanted to buy the entire field, which caused my heart to thump painfully. Thankfully, he told the man that he could not sell it all because he had already promised some of it to two other customers. Relieved that he was not going to go back on his word, I thanked him profusely and we hung up. Well. After several days passed without a word, I got twitchy and called him back. Uh-oh; voice mail. I left a message. When a few more days went by without a word, I began to get this terrible sinking feeling. You know the one? I called again and this time left a slightly panicked message, even though I had already surmised what had happened. Sure enough, he finally called me back a day later full of apologies and explained that the man with the flatbed had returned and offered him enough money that he just couldn't turn it down. Sold him the whole field. Surely I could understand (um, no dude, actually I don't; you shafted us). So here we are with temperatures dropping rapidly and without any winter store. I think (I hope, I hope) we may have found someone else. The hay is more expensive than what we would have gotten now that winter is looming large, but that's how it goes with supply and demand. Now the only thing left to do is to repent all of the very ugly thoughts I have had about Hay Dude. This is one of those things that makes it hard to remember I'm supposed to be a Christian. Workin' on that forgiveness thing. Since he's supposed to be a Christian too - and don't even get me started on that part - I can't help but wonder if it means there's a free slap in there for me somewhere (I mean wouldn't "turn the other cheek" mean I'd get to take another whack at him?). Okay, I'm sorry. I forgot I was supposed to be repentent here; the whole thing just really frosts my cookies, is all. I'm slowly working my way toward forgiveness; but since I still have the overwhelming urge to haul off and slug him, I may have a little ways to go yet...*sigh*

I spent more time than I care to admit yesterday, paintstakingly reinstalling all of the bazillion fonts back on my PC. I suppose I should go ahead and confess: I have a font fettish (it's just terrible :o) I love them! If you remember the sunrise maze book I made for my friend (this post), you may have noticed that each of the quotes was done in a different font. I love little touches like that; it makes things just a little more special - you know what I mean? Anyway, I'm sure all of you know about DaFont (here). They have fonts for just about any occasion you can imagine and they are grouped categorically, which is great. Some of the names are funny and some alarming. I got a kick out of "Girls Are Weird" (which I'd already had), and laughed out loud when I found the new follow up font of "BoyzRGross". Somebody's got a good sense of humor. *grin* Now I just have to find my Creative Lettering CDs which are AWOL. Bet most of you know about that, too (here).

One of the things you may not know about, however, is a marvelous little program called Font Wrangler. If you are a Fontophile (and yes, I just made that up ;o) you'll love it. You can print out this handy-dandy little reference list of all the fonts - complete with typeface sample - that are on your computer in alphabetical order. Now I have a pretty good idea of most of the fonts in my system, but when you have over 500 of them (and eek! Do I really have THAT many???) it's hard to remember the name of every single font. Most of the time, I use this little printed list when searching for inspiration and/or the appropriate font for a specific task. It's really been a lifesaver, though, when I am hot and heavy into a creative bender and have the perfect - but nameless - typeface pop into my head. For me, it's far easier to grab and scan this printed list than it is to try to scroll through every one of the fonts on my computer. You can download a free trial (which is what I did for the second time yesterday after I'd finished reinstalling all the fonts) through Cnet here if you're interested.

Well, I finally caved one day last week, and threw my camera in the car before heading to work. It has been killing me every morning to head east and see God's glorious handiwork in the sky over and over again; and me without my camera. I just couldn't stand it any more. Although I left extra early to compensate, I was (of course) late for work. It was the second church steeple that got me. I did manage to get some wonderful photos to share with you though, would you like to see them? These are straight out of my camera; I haven't even erased the date stamp yet.

Here's the first church steeple; it was just before the sun crossed the horizon and the sky was absolutely unbelievable (isn't it beautiful?)

Below is the second church steeple, after the sun broke the horizon. It's kind of weird that the blue stayed almost exactly the same, but the rest is dramatically different. This is the shot that made me officially late, but you can see why I just HAD to stop, can't you?

I think I will add some scripture to either this one (or the first one) from Isaiah 60:1 "...and the Glory of the Lord is risen upon you."

The last one I shot on my way home; it's a field of cotton. I used the poster setting on the camera which adds a slightly surreal quality to it. Although I really miss the first snow each time winter rolls around, I've decided to look at it from another perspective. I'm entitling this one "A Southern Snowfall" (or something like that - ideas anyone? :o) This is as close to snow as this misplaced Yankee is going to get, I think.

That's all for this week; 'cause now I'm late for church. *slaps head* Have a blessed week everyone!