Thoughts from the Middle of Nowhere

My Darling Wife caught this picture of a moth the other day and I found it interesting. Taken 8/15/2007.

I'm tired, that's for sure. Last night the weather forecasters said there was going to be a frontal passage that would bring 40 MPH winds and with the hot temperatures and low humidity gave us a red flag warning in the area. Then to top it off they said there was a chance of dry lightning with the frontal passage. Guess what, they were right.

About 8:00 last night I heard some rumbling of thunder and went outside and looked and sure enough off to the north was some lightning. Damn, that worried me. We jumped in the pickup and took off to start driving around to check for fire when the wind hit STRONG. I'll believe it was 40 MPH, it was really blowing. We got a couple of miles away from the p[lace and was cresting a hill when My Darling Wife calls on the radio saying that someone to the north of us said there was a fire between us somewhere. We just crested the hill and I told her that we could see the smoke and there was definitely a fire north of our place and to start calling the fire department and the neighbors because it was putting up a lot of smoke. Maybe I should start calling My Darling Wife, The Dispatcher any more. She seems to be doing that a lot.

The way the wind was blowing I was really worried. The fire was not on my place but the wind was really blowing it that way and it was in some really rough country to get to. The Hired Hand wanted to get in front of the fire and try to put it out so it wouldn't advance towards the place. I told him that he was crazy. I was not getting in front of a fire that was putting up that much smoke, it was really thick by now, with the winds behind it. That was suicide and not what to do in this situation. My goal was to circle around it and start there. I was also gambling that the weather forecasters would be right. They said that after the frontal passage the winds would die down after a couple of hours and the humidity levels would come up which would give us an opportunity to get around the damn thing. With the amount of smoke the fire was putting out it still worried me but that's all I knew to do.

So we circled around to the west of the fire to get to it. It was in the rough, timbered country and we were the first ones there. This wasn't going to be fun. The Dispatcher had people coming our way and there was a guy showing up from the north at the same time so we started on the backside of the fire working one way putting out and the other guy went the other way.

To maker a long story short, about 6 hours later we got around it and the fire and it was not growing anymore. A couple of hours after the frontal passage the winds died down and the humidity levels definitely came up to give us the edge we needed to fight the damn thing. The county was trying to put a line around it with a road grader, awful rough country for that in the dark, and we were getting the edges cooled down. I had kept hearing rumors that someone had spotted a fire on my south end so with this fire under control and enough people around it, we headed out to check this rumor out. It was wrong, I could find nothing else but I was sure glad to have looked around, it made me feel better.

It was a damn long night with little sleep but the fire should be under control if the landowner just watches it. Do you have any concept how hard it is to fight fire in the dark on somebody else's place? I had a vague idea how the country laid but was not intimately familiar with it like I was our country. This made it really tough on all of us but the neighbors and the county were champs and we got it out. I've had enough of this shit. I am not a firefighter and My Darling Wife is not a dispatcher. I just wish it would get wet again and that the fire danger would ease so we wouldn't have to do this. Eventually it will happen but at this point, not soon enough for my taste.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish My Darling Wife a very big;

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

How does the old saying go, you are not getting older, just getting better with every passing year. I love you.

I remember one time when I was in the Navy, I gave some haircuts to some guys. What happened was that we were out at sea for around 3 months, unexpectedly, and when we were getting ready to pull into Japan the Skipper decided that no one could leave the boat without a regulation haircut. There was some hair clippers on board but not a soul knew how to use them. I told the guys in my watch section that I would cut there hair for them but I wasn't responsible for the results. The only experience I had was cutting hair on show cows and that is a little different than humans. I butchered a bunch of the guys but got there hair cut so it fell within regulations. I couldn't get anybody to do mine so I chopped on it myself until it would pass inspection, it helped that I was in charge of inspections for my watch. It wasn't pretty and most of them got it fixed by the base Barbers while we were in port, but they were able to leave the boat. I swore I would never cut hair again.

Well, you know how life sneaks up and trips you up sometimes. The boy, who is autitic for those who don't know, just hates getting his haircut. We gave up a long time ago having it cut by a professional since he fought so hard. My Darling Wife tried to cut his hair, with me holding him, but was real uncomfortable with this and then one day she nicked his ear and itr bled and she won't even go near his hair now. That left it up to me to cut his hair with her holding him. We've been doing this for quite a while now and he does not like it and does fight us fairly considerably when we do it.

This afternoon I sat down to let My Darling Wife cut my hair, yes she still does mine, I don't bleed as bad, and the boy came over and watched with interest and started playing with his hair. When I was done I asked him if he wanted his hair cut and he indicated he did in his own way. I started by asking him to sit down but he would have none of that so I started cutting his hair with him standing up. He let me give him a full haircut with nobody holding him just like a big boy. It was so great. I won't say he didn't give me any trouble but he did so good from the days of kicking and fighting that it wasn't even funny. It's hard to describe to you how this made me feel. Joyous, relived, ecstatic, proud are some of the words. The boy is getting big enough that he can be hard to fight so the willingness he showed for having this done was wonderful.

I still won't claim I can cut hair but I am getting pretty good at it anymore. I challenge any non-professional, and most professionals, to do any better on the wiggly, jumpy, moving target I work with. He's getting better though which I am so happy about. Maybe we are making progress with him. Maybe we are doing right. I can only hope. The boy got a treat of ice cream and home made hot fudge sauce for dessert for his good job. He was thrilled.

It's great to have something you can be proud of. Robin Trower

Time has a lot of meanings and connotations. It can be a representation of the exact time you are going to do something, I'll meet you at 1:30, or something more general, it's time to go to lunch. I always give my kids a bad time this way because they will ask me what time it is and I'll tell them something smart like, not quite supper time yet or not time to leave yet. That's probably why they always ask there mom things to prevent answers like this.

But why do I bring up time today? Fifteen years is why. When I was twenty years old fifteen years was like a lifetime. Now fifteen years has went by so fast I can barely believe it. It's funny isn't it. Time can pass by so quick you don't even recognize it. You live it, enjoy it and love it but it passes like a flash without you even realizing it.

Fifteen years ago I married My Darling Wife. It doesn't seem like that long but it has been. Not a decision I have ever regretted that's for sure. I have always told My Wife and I will say it again today, "If I had to do it all over again, I would in a heartbeat." My Darling Wife always says the first year of our marriage was tough but since then it has all worked out pretty good. I don't remember that first year being tough, might be my rose colored glasses though, at all and I don't know about the description of pretty good. I think great would be better.

Happy Anniversary Hon. I love you dearly for now and ever.

A large patch of yellow sunflowers. My Darling Wife loves these flowers so this picture is for her. I don't think much of them. Taken 5/17/2007.

I see there has been some cases of Rocky Mountain spotted fever down in Wyoming, just south and east of me. This doesn't surprise me with the number of ticks I have been seeing around here.

I noticed when we were branding our calves that they had quite a few ticks on them but more than that, they had huge scarred areas on them from where ticks were at one time and were now gone. It is the rare day I don't pick a tick off of me for that matter. My darling Wife, the woman who hates dogs, picked up another stray dog a couple of days ago and saved its life. She said it was full of ticks all over it. At least 12 to 15 ticks. Instead of bringing this dog home, she took it straight to the Vet who is also the local animal shelter. I told her that was a good idea as we really didn't need another dog. All these things together seem indicate that tick levels are up but the article is just calling that "anecdotal evidence." Just call me Mr. Anecdotal I guess.

I wonder if this large number of ticks could have caused a few cases of calves being sick that I have had earlier and couldn't explain. Lethargic and dizzy calves that did not want to eat who had an unexplained fever that I never could get under control for everything I tried. I had about three of them and they all died on me. I think I will have to talk to the Vet about this. It never occurred to me until now that maybe the tick activity and these sick calves were related or maybe this dumb cowboy is just grasping at straws. Who knows.

All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure. Mark Twain

My Darling Wife took this picture while she was waiting for the bus. The cloud bank in the distance really looked threatening and gives a great contrast between sky and land. Taken 1/5/2007.

My Darling Wife always claims the place is held together with baling twine. At times I think she might be right.Taken 1/25/2006.

Reporter's Notebook: Mean mom spreads her anti-cheer

The Grinch has nothing on me.

I'm surly, cranky and mean, and I certainly don't understand how hard it is to be 10 years old with a houseful of toys and somewhere upward of 1 million Pokemon cards.

Just ask my son, Stephen.

If I'm not losing his toys (picking them up), I'm interfering with his intellectual development (making him pick them up).

I really wonder if Lorna Thackeray is giving away any secrets of the Mean Mom Coven here. From the description she gives My Darling Wife must be part of the coven. My children are convinced she is evil for always losing their stuff. I keep telling them to put the stuff away and it wouldn't get lost which brings the response, "then Mom just looks it up and loses it on purpose to be mean." Children have a wonderful way of looking at things, don't they?

Any attempt to toss some of the excess sends my son Dumpster diving. He is well schooled in the art by his father, who can't bear to part with a magazine less than five years old or shirts less than three sizes too small. They always check after I've been to the garbage can.

I will in my own defense say this is not true here. Where the kids got the ability to root through the garbage to find broken toys that mom has thrown away is beyond me. I never root through the garbage making sure My Darling Wife hasn't thrown any thing away I want. I learned early in my marriage that if I want to keep something I don't let it in the house where My Darling Wife can find it. She can't throw it away then. Simple solution to that problem.

The only thing I would really like to know is where My Darling Wife keeps her broom. Maybe if I hid it she wouldn't attend the Mean Mom Coven meetings any more. The children would really like that.

Sarcasm: the last refuge of modest and chaste-souled people when the privacy of their soul is coarsely and intrusively invaded. Fyodor Dostoevsky

I have an external hard drive sitting on my computer desk that I use for picture backups. It gets very warm and one of the cats has discovered it and loves to lay on it to keep warm. This morning I told My Darling Wife, "There's a cat laying on my hard drive."

She gets this really funny smirk on her face and says, "Does it feel good for you?"

Some people's children just have a dirty mind.

If I asked for a cup of coffee, someone would search for the double meaning. Mae West