I felt so good running through the snow. I had parked the loader tractor and was headed back to the pickup. The cold wind was pushing me, so I broke into a trot, then a jog, and then miraculously, it seemed, I was almost running. I’m going to stop here a moment to explain something to all the young folks who may be reading this. When I say, “Man I feel good.” or “I feel 25 again,” something bad is about to happen. It will happen to you someday, but right now, consider it akin to saying, “Here, hold my beer.” So, there I was, muck boots, coveralls, gloves, and hat on, but I felt great. I thought about running behind the trailer to get to the driver’s door, but I spied the trailer tongue, and I was suddenly finishing the 300 meter hurdles at the conference meet. I drove my lead leg over the trailer hitch just like old times. I snapped my trail leg through and the bit of momentum I had built up came to a sudden and dramatic halt. The trailer hitch has a little lever that locks it on the ball. It’s broken and sticks up a bit. When I pulled my leg through, the lever went through my brand new muck boots and into the top of my foot. Common sense says that I then face planted into the snow, but physics says that my momentum flung me into the tailgate of my pickup like a cartoon character. From there, I slid down and bounced off the bumper, and THEN I face planted in the snow.
The casual observer would never have guessed that it had been an attempt at hurdling. It most likely appeared to be an over dressed farmer slowly tumbling to the ground. I laid there for a bit, my foot slightly injured, parts of my body somewhat damaged, and my ego destroyed. I brushed the snow off and crawled into my truck. A baseball game was on the radio, so I quickly forgot my little mishap. Sometimes, having attention deficit is a good thing. The rest of the day passed with hardly a thought about any delusions of grandeur
I got up at 2 am to check heifers, and was reminded of my afternoon escapades. My foot was throbbing and my hip, which has been bothering me for several months started talking to me. I’ve heard about ‘nagging’ injuries, but I’d never really had one until tonight. I always wondered what a ‘nagging’ injury would be like. My hip says, “You’re old enough to know better.”
I said, “What are you talking about?”
“Well, if you’re not going to grow up, this stuff is going to happen.”
“That’s not fair, you were in on it just as much as I was.”
“You think you’re so……
It was getting pretty heated and I heard 763 lean over and whisper to 744, “He’s talking to himself again.” I think the heifers must be worried about me, because none of them had babies in the snow. However, as I was limping through the lane back to the house, a low chorus of voices, thirty concerned heifers, started singing.
The sun’ll come out tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, there’ll be sun! Great, calving season just became a musical.
Farmer Dan's Food For Thought 