Day 20?

Today was my 20th straight day of work. Or was it? Does it qualify as a day of work if I dedicated 3 hours to doing work but never got the chance to? Every time we got to the field there would be a clap of thunder, and safety regulations require us to stay indoors until 30 minutes after the last lightning bolt is seen or the last clap of thunder was heard. Today, we came in to work at 7 and played the waiting game until 9:30. We sent the summer workers home but the full time staff decided to come back in when the corn had dried. We all rolled in around 2 (after it had stormed all late morning), got to the field vehicles, and heard thunder. We spent the whole day waiting and weren't able to get any work done. And to think I could have caught up on some sleep. Working the weekends isn't so bad since it's usually not the whole day, but it is exhausting.

The past 10 days have been pretty rough. As I'm sure most of you know, I work for Pioneer and I grow corn, which means that when the corn is growing, I'm outside. And, as I'm sure most of you who live in the Midwest know, it has been excessively hot the past week or so. The temperatures have been hovering in the high 90s and the heat indices have gotten as high as 115. Not only am I personally working outside, but we also have 12 part-time workers (mostly high school and college aged) that we need to care for. Luckily, because it has been so warm, we have been able to start early in the morning and that gets us out of the fields before lunch and before the severe heat sets in. That being said, it's still really hot and uncomfortable and I never knew my face could sweat so much.

Aside from being tired, things have been pretty slow around here. Rick went to Puerto Rico for work this past week leaving just me and Darby on the home front and she was pretty protective of me while he was gone. It was surprising and nice at the same time. Also met some new neighbors, went to the last Des Moines Derby Dames bout of the summer, and hung out with family and friends.

July is almost over. And as much as I love my job, I hope that next weekend is the last weekend I have to work. The vacations on the horizon are getting closer and looking better every day.