On the Road Again

Almost one year later, I’m headed back to Oregon. I was there last October about mid-month, and I’ll be back again the first week of October this year. I’ll actually head out a little before then to visit with one of our clients and my aunt before my training in Portland the first week of October.

The details are this, I’ll fly out of DFW on September 28 and visit with our client in Bend, OR on September 29. I’ll stay with Aunt Debbie for the weekend, and then I’ll drive back to Portland for training October 2 through 6. Finally, I’ll fly home on October 7.

It’s always hard when I got to the west coast because of the time difference. By the time I’m getting ready for dinner, Leah and the family are getting to bed. It is definitely a challenge to stay in touch, but we’ll do our best to make it work. While I’m there, though, I expect that I’ll get to see some more awesome scenery and have a great time with Aunt Debbie. My only request of her is this: no sheep!

I know. I know. I can’t throw something like that out there without explanation, so here’s the story (with names omitted to protect the innocent):

When I last visited Aunt Sis (as we call her), I spent the weekend meeting her friends, eating great food, playing cards, and cutting firewood. Now, I knew we were going to cut firewood before I even arrived, and I’m not one to shrink away from manual labor, so off into the woods we went. Aunt Sis, me, and some friends of hers that enjoyed using chain saws a little too much, if you ask me. I mean, we had trucks full of wood. Enough to get a small village through a couple of long winters, and the chain saws were still going. It was really pretty funny, and most of us laughed about it afterward. It’s what happened on the way back to Aunt Sis’s house that was really the highlight of the weekend, though.

As we traveled back from the nether regions of the Pacific Northwest in trucks laden heavy with firewood, Aunt Sis thought it would be a great idea to stop by the home of some friends. It was really a cool place. They have a several different kinds of animals that they are sheltering and taking care of. It’s kind of like their own animal sanctuary. As we walked the grounds, though, the sheep hooves were noticed to be in need of care.

A couple of options were discussed as Aunt Sis and I stood off to the side expecting to get a show. I’ve never seen anyone clip a sheep’s nails before, so this should be fun. About that time, I realized that the plan was starting to center around me, though. “He’s from Texas. They do this for fun down there.” Or something like that was the phrase I caught, and the next thing you know there’s four of us (Aunt Sis and I included) walking into the sheep pen in an attempt to catch the animals.

After the first failed attempt, which is when I learned that sheep don’t cower when cornered, they charge like a linebacker on steroids, the alternate plan of enticing them into a stall in the barn was starting to sound pretty attractive. Not everyone agreed, though, and what do I know. Just because you go to Texas A&M doesn’t make you an animal expert. Anyway, we finally caught the first one and clipped the nails. It was amazingly similar to trimming your own fingernails except with the world’s largest pair of scissors.

The next sheep proved extremely elusive, and after a minor injury to one of us, we all agreed with the “stall in the barn” plan. We put out some food to attract the sheep, walked slowly behind to herd it in, and then slammed the door behind. It did still take all of us to hold the sheep still for the nail trimming, but it was much easier than chasing the animals around the pen.

When it was all over, we had a good laugh about our antics and agreed that we’d probably win a few thousand on America’s Funniest Videos had someone been recording. I'm putting it out there now that I volunteer for that job the next time around.

I am really looking forward to heading back up there in a few weeks, and I’m sure that I’ll have more stories to share after this visit. You just never know what kind of crazy things you can get involved in when you spend time with Aunt Sis.