Monitor Duty. Whoopee.

I admit, I started reading JLA: The Greatest Stories Ever Told (ISBN 9781401209322) with the beginning of Justice League #200, a three page retelling of that DC super-group's origins (Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman, etc. met to deal with an alien threat to Earth and figured out after they won that it was a good idea to be able to band together against common threats) from March 1982 … I was bummed I didn't read the rest of the story as I remembered it – this comic book I owned probably got lost to water damage like about three-fourths of my collection, but I digress – at first, but then in there (today's title is the next line in that first story, set in Justice League of America's then present-day) I got to read seven different stories ranging from May 1963 to February 2002 (and one of those actually finished a trilogy for me I'd only read the first part of) and you get the impression that regardless of the writers and regardless of the heroes, the companions, and the villains, you still get a feel, when JLA stories are good, they're very good.

But when they're bad … well, again I digress. So how did I and my family celebrate our country's, the United States of America, two hundred thirty-eighth birthday, you may ask? By sleeping. Remember, we've got that paper route that takes about an hour in itself (not bad once you get the hang of it, granted) starting at four in the morning and since neither Martha nor I had to get up for our weekday jobs, we took advantage of it – yes, even after the wide-eyed stare you have (oh wait, it was ME who had it because I deliver Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays with Jeffrey) about thirty to forty-five minutes after getting back. Dinner was grilling – okay, really cooking – hamburgers and fries before we headed over to my in-laws' house and went out with the young crowd (so everybody but Martha's mom and dad were with us) across from the Minot State Fairgrounds grandstand and after the racing watched the fireworks go up. Since the Fairgrounds are technically considered outside the city limits, fireworks can go up from there! And here's an interesting piece, Martha works with the guy who set them up!

Turns our all the fireworks for that show came from a business in Surrey west of us, and starting Saturday that man and his wife begin to put together the fireworks for next year! Saturday morning, Martha and Sarah woke at four to deliver the papers and some hours later I woke and got to Marketplace to work in dairy by eight. Usually Eli the department manager is working there with me, and we get nigh everything stocked in about seven hours by the time my shift's done, but things happen … Eli had to leave early, and the milk truck that shows up on Saturday didn't show up until four that afternoon so I was left in charge for several hours. I'm honored that Eli trusted me to do that, and also I got to learn how to operate a pallet jack (that's what you move the … pallets on which sit ice cream and creams and various other dairy and frozen food items which I made sure to get to the freezer and keep frozen before I left at five-thirty, putting in ten hours). And if I missed anything – my legs really felt it after ten hours! – I'm sure I'll hear about it, but I hope my errors are lack of experience, not ability.

Sunday morning, I got to read the lessons at church, something I usually look forward to. It will likely be the last time I do so for awhile because starting next week I'll be covering for people who will be going on vacation in the dairy department, so my Sunday days and my Saturday days will be and should be pretty packed! I really won't mind that too much … I may be really zonked when I get home, but I keep in mind that we're using the income from these extra jobs to pay down debt and it will make the family happier. AND THAT WILL MAKE ME JOYOUS. To paraphrase Mr. Ramsey, if you are willing to live like nobody else (by working more jobs and generating multiple sources of income) you will soon be able to live like nobody else (by not having to throw most of what you earn at eager bill collectors). And when we owe nothing, we'll want to spend time together. Not solely delivering papers as the family did yesterday and I and the kids did today, but something we want to do! That makes sense, doesn't it?

 

Just watch the sunburns, David