Welcome to Cotton Country  *sniff* *sniff*

It's early morning at the in-laws.  I'm the first one up.  I've already had a bowl of cereal and a cup of coffee.  Why is it that, on the days I able sleep in, I can't?  Charles will probably be up in 15 or 20 minutes, so, I guess that leaves me some time to write.

They don't even have a computer, much less an internet connection.  I can't surf and I can't post this directly to the blog.  I reactivated my old Netzero free dial-up account before came on this trip.  I may try later to upload this.  If you a reading it, you know I managed.

I'll be leaving tomorrow to go back home, while Lynn and Jenna stay here for a week or until they can't stand it anymore.  From the looks of the in-laws' living room, I think Lynn has her work cut out for her.  Lynn's middle sister decided before labor day that she was going to re-decorate Mom and Dad's living room for them.  The only thing that has happened since labor day is that the wallpaper border has been removed, a new couch has been delivered and all the furniture is sitting in the middle of the floor.  It looks like Lynn gets to help paint this week.  I'm pretty sure that is what Nancy was counting on.

We are going to the Reelfoot Arts & Crafts Festival today.  We will probably leave at about 10 this morning.  I'm looking forward to it.  The mild weather should make it really nice to be outside.  I'm just glad there is not a lot of cotton near Reelfoot Lake.

I could feel my sinuses clogging up and my head beginning to pound as I entered Crockett County last night.  The cotton gins are going full bore, 24 hours a day.  At 9:45 last night I passed several cotton fields with two or more pickers still running.  They will do that this time of year all over cotton country, 24 hours a day, as long as rain holds off. 

At least it is not quite as dangerous around here this time of year now as it was when I grew up here.  It was not unusual to top a hill or round a corner to find a very slow moving, unlit cotton trailer in the middle of the road.  At least two people I went to school with were killed in separate car accidents with cotton trailers shortly after we graduated.  You still have to watch for cotton pickers traveling from one field to the next, but they move pretty fast and are very well lit.  

Now, they compress the newly picked cotton into a huge truck-sized bale in the field and leave it.  Specially equipped trucks, operated by the cotton gins, go to the field to retrieve the bales and transport them to the gin to be processed.  These trucks are fully road worthy and, although they operate day and night, they are well marked and lit for night travel.  They also don't waste any time; they have a lot of bales to transport.

They only real danger left for the average joe in cotton country is just being here.  The air is full of microscopic and not-so-microscopic cotton fibers and dust churned up by the equipment.  While not toxic, it just plays havoc with the upper respiratory system.  A lot of people blame that on the defoliant that is sprayed on the fields a few days to a week before it is picked.  This is a chemical that causes the cotton plants to lose their leaves and they bolls to open up completely.  This makes it easier for the machinery to pick the cotton without getting a lot of trash that has to be ginned out.  (A farmer's production, and his pay, is based on weight after it is ginned.  A ginner will weigh the cotton before it is ginned, but will penalize based on the amount of debris and moisture content.)  Although, the defoliant can be smelled strongly after it is dispersed (usually by aircraft), it doesn't stay in the air long.  I personally believe it is the cotton itself, or, at least, the process by which it is picked and processed.