Wild Fires
The past couple of weeks have been very dangerous for ranchers in Texas and Oklahoma. Not only have we had a lot of storms with high winds and tornadoes, but we have had a lot of wild fires break out. The fires are very serious and can get out of hand very quickly. When you are told you have to evacuate, you don’t have much time to grab a duffel bag and load up your horses to get them hauled to a safe place. You drive off hoping that the house and all your stuff is still there when you come back.
Cheesecake
We almost never have sweets in the house, but for the past couple days I’ve notice a slice of cheesecake in the refrigerator. Well, I love cheesecake and I was trying to be polite and not eat it since I didn’t buy it and figured it wasn’t mine. So I didn’t eat the cheesecake, but every time I’m in the refrigerator, the cheesecake is there, taunting me. And I ignored it. For three days!
Well after all that deprivation and sacrifice, I find out tonight that the cheesecake was bought for me! And nobody ever got around to mentioning it!
Crazy Drivers
We had some rain and all the drivers lost their minds. It was like a scene from a 1950′s Twilight Zone or Outer Limits show – you know the ridiculous scary stuff they show on cable reruns on the Sci-Fi channel?
But seriously, it was just a little thunderstorm. Only lasted about 20 minutes. but the wrecks were all over the place. The whole town was gridlocked with cars in the ditch or off the road. What is it about a little rain that makes drivers act crazy? Come on people! Slow down, turn on your wipers and headlights, avoid slamming on the brakes. It’s not rocket science.
Lanterns
Won a door prize at the club meeting a couple days ago, and I have to say that it is one of the best little gadgets that anyone has ever given me. It is a small Coleman lantern, called the “micropacker.” It’s so small it fits in your hand and it runs on LED, so it is very bright in spite of its size. The lantern runs on three “AA” batteries and with new batteries should last about 125 hours. I keep it in the truck’s glove box so it is always at hand.
The very best gadget I ever got was when a salesman talked to me for a while in a diner about a year ago. He was pretty down and discouraged and I struck up a conversation with him. I didn’t have anywhere I had to be, so I hung around and talked with this guy over coffee, about all kinds of things: school, farmers, politics, my girlfriend, my truck, fishing. The only reason we broke it up was that I had to get home for supper and he had to head out the highway for Dallas. As we shook hands to leave the diner and go our own ways, he dug down in his pocket and asked me to take this little Swiss Army knife. I tried to turn it down, but he insisted. He said he had others back in his desk and he really wanted me to have it. Let me tell you, that knife has come in handy hundreds of times and every time I use it I think of that guy and wonder if he got his head together and turned things around OK. I sure hope so and hope our paths cross again sometime so i can thank him again for this great knife and his kindness to a stranger.
My Dogs
I have three dogs that are the greatest thing that ever happened to me. I got all of them from the same litter, so they are two brothers and a sister. They are great fun – always glad to see me when I get home and they love to play ball. I can throw the ball all day and there will be at least one of them ready to chase it and bring it back to me.
The challenge has been to find dog toys that last. Most don’t hold up to their chewing for more than a few minutes after I get home with them. The dogs attack them with a vengeance to dislodge the squeaker and then triumphantly deliver it back to me, squeaker either removed or disabled. It’s like they compete for the world record in removing squeakers, and each time is faster than the last.
keep looking »