Possible Pepto in the Pipeline

Written on Friday, December 15th, 2006

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Well, if you are a regular reader but didn't check for updates in the last couple of days, you missed a couple of serious tirades.

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To put it mildly, we had 'issues' with part of the energy industry out here. Much to our surprise, the involved parties have come back with apologies and promises to set things right. Accordingly, I have magnanimously decided to withdraw those commentaries. We are still trusting and forgiving at heart so it seems like the right thing to do at this time. Mind you, we instituted a policy of 'one per customer' after the last decade of a parade of Lucys pulling the football out from under us time and time and time again. Watching our neighbor get jerked around shamelessly by another pipeline company did not help our level of faith going into this. She may not be the most pleasant entity to deal with but what is right is right, regardless, and her requests and offered concessions in return for their at least partial adherence to their original handshake agreement were really quite reasonable and generous. So there really are genuine corporate weasels out here in the sage - we just haven't had to deal with them yet, very thankfully.

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Accordingly, today was a good day out here, one of pleasant conclusions. I was ever so relieved to see some return of Mark's usual placid nature. And as if in a shared celebration, we saw the return of our jet fighter sortie. We had sorely missed their flyovers but today they made up for it. The lead jet executed a joyous low-level strafe-quality run over the rat trailer, heralding a heads up only a second before with that familiar eagle/wild cat hybrid's thundering scream. The rat shuddered and the hair on the backs of our necks stood straight up as we excitedly raced to the windows to catch but a quick glimpse of the banshee. He nodded his wings ... perhaps in a Christmas greeting? Rather than follow on his tail as usual, today his partners converged from opposing flank points over the mesas, dropping sharply down to join him. Now, with all flying below mesa top level, they flawlessly joined rank and negotiated the canyon's next big curve, wings perpendicular to the ground in a graceful pirouette and disappearing completely in less than a second. It was an awesome and inspiring display and I wished that our buddy Red could have been out here to enjoy the show as well - it would have given him a serious rush back to his FB-111 days. I also wish that the flight crews could have seen our wide smiles and my usual wild applause and know what it means to us. They can play in our backyard any day ... and may the angels fly guard over them always.

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