AS THE WORLD TURNS IN CENTRAL TEXAS

FROM DONNIE: "It's going to be a tense, angry day here at the ranchito. The pipeline crew is nearly done, but not before getting in some maddening last licks. A huge bulldozer is driving up and down the line, up and down, up and down, over and over again, to level the ground. I walked over there yesterday, after about four hours of the growling forwards and the irritating beep-beep-beep-beep of the backwards. The ground already seemed perfectly flat. But that didn't stop the grader from doing another four hours. Linda had pulled a muscle in her leg, and being immobilized, spent the day at the computer, eating junk, which led to a badly upset stomach. By the afternoon of constant dozer noise she was in tears. But late in the day it seemed the job was done, workers standing idle in groups.

Alas! At 7:30 a.m. today, Saturday, the machinery is roaring and beeping again...and any minute now Linda will come flying (or rather, hobbling) out of bed in a rage. We will have to escape the house...but of course now the highway out is also being torn up. Far as I am concerned, there is enough UNemployment on Central Texas!"