It was a Saturday in February, much like many other Saturdays that I have experienced in my astonishing life. I awoke about 6:00am which is a little later than normal for me, and as usual, I vaulted out of bed. Awake, alert and ready for the day I visited the privy. (For that one low information reader, I will explain the word privy, has more than one meaning, but in this setting it means outhouse, even though my out house is inside, most of the time.)
Paper work completed, I then proceeded to the kitchen area for a cup of coffee. I couldn’t find anything challenging to do so I watched the so-called TV news. As usual, every story they presented started with, “Breaking News”. I saw nothing breaking about the so-called news as I enjoyed my coffee.
My wonderful first wife awoke and upon her entry into the great room where I was reclining, she asked, have you already taken the limbs to the city. It was at that moment that I realized I had a task to preform, also known as forced labor or no lunch.
I bounced out of the recliner and dashed outside to the Ford’s Chevy, which was attached to the trailer. I, being safety minded did an equipment check walking around the vehicle and trailer observing such things as tires being inflated properly and proper operation of all lights.
The equipment was in proper and safe working condition, so I headed for the location designated by the city for limb disposal. After a brief conversation with a city employee at the gate, I drove to the site and waited my turn. After only a short wait, a city worker motioned to me to pull up to the chipper.
It is my belief that these city employees do not want to be there, unloading these limbs and placing them in the chippers. Heck, it is a lot of continuous work, no one would want to do this type of work on Saturday.
I also believe, the city employees intentionally place their chipping equipment in a manner that requires the citizen in their POVs, whether it is a pickup or a truck with a trailer, to be in the area where all the excess debris is deposited. The chippers blow most of the chopped particles into the back of a dump truck, but some of this trash misses the dump truck and with the help of a little wind, it blows onto the citizens POVs.
In truth, if I were doing the work of the city personnel, I would have placed the equipment in the same manner. If they would have placed the chippers to benefit the citizens, then all the debris would have blown on them.
Yes, the Ford’s Chevy needs to be washed. Believing the prognosticators, I have not washed the Ford’s Chevy, as they have predicted rain for today. Everyone knows that nature will do an excellent job of washing vehicles with no minerals in the rain water!
Returning home, I parked the trailer near one of the many out buildings on the back 40, at The Ford’s Homestead. I then placed the wooden braces that I had built years ago, on the trailer. These braces are there to support a tarp which helps keep rain off the trailer and provides shelter for animals of all sorts during cold and rainy weather.
It was then that I began to look around, noticing that there was weeds and dead leaves that could be trimmed and picked up. I was relieved when my thoughts turned from more forced labor to, I normally take my wonderful present spouse to lunch on Saturday. Excellent, no weed eating or mowing for me, we need to go to lunch.
Prior to the drive to the deli, I was investigating some of the controls on the Ford’s Chevy, when I came across an item that I had not previously known existed. This vehicle had an adjustable warning device, that when activated, will alert you to the fact that you are exceeding a previously determined speed, set by the owner.
I decided to set the alert and see if it worked on our drive to the deli. I set the speed to 50 mph as I knew I would exceed that speed.
I was listening to an old time detective radio show, when I exceeded 50 mph, there was three audible beeps and that was it. There was no flashing lights, no sirens and no shock coming through the steering wheel. Yes it worked but not as dramatically as I would have preferred.
The rest of the trip to the deli was uneventful. I did enjoy the conversation between my first wife and me, as we commented on some of the articles of clothing that others were wearing. The food was good also.
Returning home, I was challenged with either taking a well-deserved nap, or working in the yard. My spouse of 46 years decided that she needed to go to town for a while, leaving me, “Home Alone”. Being lonely is not fun for a retired person, so I decided to be lonely while I was doing something worthwhile in the yard. Yep, I decided to get the string trimmer out and weed eat. This is not an easy task due to all the obstructions there are in the yard, but being the industrious person I am, I decided I would do it.
During my weed trimming adventure I was attacked repeatedly by the neighbor’s dog. This dog runs up to the fence and jumps up with over half of her body above the fence. I am sure if I were to get too close she would bite me. I am also sure if she were to get into my yard she would definitely attack me, thus I have decided that if she ever gets in my back yard I will do my best to permanently shut her up!
I not only trimmed, I got the riding mower out and mowed / mulched the leaves. I did my best to use the rider to blow the clippings and leaves into four central areas. Then I got the walk behind mower out and using the grass catcher vacuumed those four areas.
The back yard does look pretty good, for now.
On a slightly different subject, it has been said that I occasionally take a cat nap and that I could nap almost anywhere. It is true I have napped on a table at a road side park in the past.
I will attach a photo of a cat nap but it is in a location that I find undesirable, even for me! Charlie has napped in many different places but this one was a surprise to both Donna and me.
Charles Lee, as he is sometimes refereed too, was found sleeping in the sink in the bath room. He has done this several times lately. It must be comfortable, he doesn’t seem to want to get up. Before that one person asks, no I did not teach him how to do that!
Forced labor and all, Saturday was a nice day.
May all your forced labor be rewarding!
Don Ford
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