Farm Experience: Monday, 6th December, 2004

"Shearing resumed today. I didn't look forward to five whole days of shearing before I could leave this place! To make matters worse, it started getting hotter today as well. The weather is said to increase to high 30s by the middle of the week. To be honest, I hoped it might rain one day so that we could take a break in the middle of the week, but no such luck, it seems.

We had a new rouseabout fella about the shed today. Apparently Andrew chose to go back to school rather than help out around here. Can't blame him for that. This guy's name is Dave, and he's quite a clown. I really appreciated his efforts to lighten up the atmosphere, but then ever since we found a shrunken testicle from a castrated lamb, he seems to think it's funny to throw them at me every other time he found another. I hear from Gail that although he's the liveliest around and makes everyone laugh, he has quite a dark side to him; he drinks heavily and is quite a heavy smoker too. His temper is pretty bad as well. This brings back memories of a hypothesis I used to have with regards to such types of people. I have come to believe that there are two main categories of people in this matter: the people who alternate between extreme highs and lows, and the people who remain more stable in emotions constantly. True, the happy-go-lucky behavior of the "clowns" who bring joy to everyone are more well-liked in general and as friends, but these are not people you would want to spend your whole life with, not unless you are unperturbed by nothing at all. Just a thought. "