Sunday March 18, 2012-Caddo Lake NWR

We slept late this morning, 'til after 8 o'clock. Well, I say we, but I meant Stella. I had already been out to go unlock the gates a little before 7 but I came back home and drank some coffee and dozed in my chair until my snoring woke Tramp and he woke Stella. Cassie just looked up as if to say, "y'all go on but leave me alone".

We ate some breakfast and drank a couple of pots of coffee while I watched my car shows on Sunday morning. I used to watch these shows and I'd get all fired up about working on my cars and go outside and open the hood and look at all the wires and belts and hoses and realize that I didn't really know anything about these things any more. I'd just close the hood and come back inside and wait for next week's show so I could get all turned on about working on something again. Sometimes I'd wash the car or truck because that's all I can do any more.

We went out to ride four wheelers this afternoon. Todd and I had been talking about it for a few days, so today we went out and rode around. Stella and I rode on Big Red, a Honda side-by-side four wheeler. Todd and Sue rode on a Suzuki four wheeler that belongs to one of the foresters here at the refuge. We rode on the equestrian trails and removed a surprising number of fallen trees. This is something that the friends group here is supposed to do, but I guess they were having such a good time riding their horses, they couldn't climb down to move the trees. We saw plenty of evidence that the horse riders had been around, you know, tracks and such, but no trees had been moved. Thats okay, because we enjoyed our time outdoors. Stella let me forget my camera today, but I'll get some pictures another time and show you what we saw.

It was interesting to drive down some of the roads that we've not been on before. Its fun to see the remnants of buildings and try to imagine what went on there back when the Army was working around here. Then we went into a restricted area that is still controlled by the Army but please don't tell anyone! I'm sure that they monitor all these areas with hidden cameras and probably have a whole fleet of satellites floating around to record outlaws like us riding around in these restricted areas. There was probably some Army man somewhere peering at a computer screen, watching us ride around on four wheelers. Made me feel kind of naughty!

You know, today being Sunday, made me think of church. We haven't gone to church in a long time. Going to a funeral or to a child's program in church doesn't count. I mean going to church to listen to the preacher talk about hell and damnation. I haven't really missed the sermons as much as the singing. Yep, I miss hearing those old Baptist hymnal songs and I can still sing along with many of them. Or at least hum the tunes. I miss hearing the choir, even the old ladies that sang real loud and off tune. I mss the quartets that used to sing "Give Me That Old Time Religion" and so many others of the old songs.

No sir, I still talk to God, and tell him about the things I've seen and frequently ask him questions but I've felt for a long time that going to church all the time doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in the garage makes you a car. So much for me and my religious beliefs.

Maybe in a little while I'll go out and open the hood of my truck and look around. Its been a while since I've done that and the little check engine light came on the other day. Maybe I'll go look to see if I can figure out whats wrong with it, but I'll probably just take it to the Dodge dealer and let their computer tell us what needs to be done.

So long