Down On Ferry Farm

The sound of a plane flying overhead woke me up. I stumbled to my feet and checked the clock – 9:23. I put a pot of water on the stove to make my tea and walked out the front door to get the mail. Looks like it rained last night. The air was humid and stuck to me like a spider web. A couple pieces of junk mail and a plain white envelope were all I found. I threw the junk mail in the can to be shredded. I opened the plain white envelope and read the simple message inside: “When you’re needed, you’ll see the red sign” I looked for a return address – there was none. I tried to read the postmark but the humidity and rain must have gotten to it and was unreadable. I read it again: “When you’re needed, you’ll see the red sign” The pot of water began to whistle so I made my tea and got on with the rest of my Saturday. I ran some errands, did some shopping and walked around the mall. In the back of my mind I kept looking for this red sign but never saw it. I went out with some friends that nig

Dear Diary, My neighbors have had their house condemned. I don’t know what happened but there’s a sign on it from the city saying it cannot be occupied. I’ve seen some of the teenage sons sitting on the front porch – it’s almost like they’re running ‘security’ on the place. I feel terrible about their plight but it would be kind of cool to see it torn down. Trust me -- it's not much to look at. Trust me, neither is mine. I got a call at work I’d like to share because it’s so incredibly funny I just can’t stand it. I got a call from one of our salespeople saying he was trying to convert a PDF to a Microsoft Word file. He has this software installed on his laptop to do the job. He tells me that he ran the software by the PDF but all he got was a bunch of garbage characters. I told him that it’s never going to convert the document 100% accurately. He says that nothing is readable. I ask him to try it again. He tries again while I’m on the phone with him to the same result. I ask him “

When I was in 5th grade we had a sporting event called “Field Day”. It was a bunch of track and field sports where you sent the best from each class. In the days before were ‘the trials’ – individual heats for each class that decided the fastest, best entry for each category. I was best at the 50-yard dash. They allowed us ‘athletes’ wear more athletic clothes (shorts, running shoes, etc) instead of regular school wear like jeans and nice shirts. I wore the coolest shorts I had and my sportiest t-shirt that morning. Some of the girls in class had made us competitors a ”lucky rabbit’s foot” with our name on it. It was made of construction paper so we each slipped it into the bottom of one of our shoes. The school provided each one of us a chocolate bar for an extra burst for our races. They suggested that we eat some pasta or rice the night before for extended energy. I don’t recall what I ate the night before. My event was about 1/3rd the way through the competition so I had to wait a

My sister Dee was working until late on Monday so she asked if I couldn’t take her son to his Boy Scout meeting. It wasn’t a regular meeting, it was a “let’s get on the same page” meeting about an upcoming leadership training course the scouts will be going on in the next few weeks. He was the only one from his troop (pack? den?) Anyhow, we’re supposed to meet at a church. As we’re driving in we see a bunch of scouts in an outdoor pavilion – I was assuming that it was going to be IN the church… you know, one of the ‘activity’ or ‘multi-purpose’ rooms. No. So my nephew checks in and we sit at one of the picnic tables. The scout leader comes by and talks to my nephew and one of the other guys comes and shakes my hand. “It’s nice to see so many fathers here tonight” he says. “But I’m not—“ “Good to see you!” and he walks away. So I don’t correct him. I mean, it’s not like I’M going on this leadership course. So each of the youth leaders gets up and discusses his part in the planning. My f