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Dylan was going over the work schedule in the cab of
his pickup truck. The cheese and milk shipments were booked, and he
was counting that as money in the bank. He had forgotten about scheduling
extra workers for shearing, though, and his dad was sure to bring it
up at the next staff meeting. "If you had only stayed in school,
I would have put you in the back office," Dylan mimicked his father's
voice out loud. "But noooo, you couldn't put up with the b.s. of
college life, 'I'll never use any of this crap' you said." Dylan
snorted out a 'harumph' that was a fair imitation of his father's most
commonly used expression of indignation and continued. "Fine, people
without college degrees work in the fields. Now go labor, that's what
you get for not graduating." Dylan sighed bitterly.
Dylan had dropped out of his second year at Chico State because his professors kept spouting theory. He had returned home, hoping to do a little honest hard work on the family sheep farm while he got his head together. His dad had other plans, though. Keppen Sr. didn't want his boy slaving shoulder to shoulder with the hired help. Dylan was made a manager on his first day of the job, something he was ill prepared to do, and his father let him know it every time production slipped or the books didn't quite check out. "If Dad hadn't gotten that Masters in Civil Engineering and then figured out how to save northern California from the ravages of El Nino induced floods, he wouldn't be thinking he's god or something." Dylan muttered as he looked over the bills for equipment repairs. |