Yep, I'm still kickin'

To those of you that have written wondering about my demise .... and to those of you who have wished for it ... I'm still kickin'.  I just haven't had a thought to put down worthy of the bandwidth it'd take to publish it.  And there was plenty of subject matter in the political world to select from.

 

I've even started a few with thoughts gleaned from conversations with Clem, Clyde and Chester about the bailouts, spreading the wealth around or cap and trade.  However, when I censored the language it was always the same, "that's a bunch of bull s*@#".  I could have published a few blogs on what the Stockman coffee crew would like to do to some select members of the administration and/or congress ..... but I'm sure we would have ended up on some Homeland Security watch list.

 

So I have refrained myself from the keyboard and kept my Blackberry in my pocket.  However I guess I can pass on this that happened yesterday.

 

I was down in the Osage, chasing any rancher that might need one more load of feed or looking for new ones I hadn't met yet.  The weather had changed from the spring like sunshine of the weekend to a dull chill aggravated by a very sharp and blustery north wind.

 

A strange pickup with a cake box was pulling out of a pasture ahead of me.  I stopped to meet this new potential as the older small framed rancher was closing the gate.  He was fully bundled up in carhart coveralls, a stocking cap underneath a weather beaten hat and sunglasses fitted to a weather beaten face.

 

"A feed salesman just can't pass a guy with a cake box on his pickup and not stop to introduce himself," I said handing the weathered old rancher my business card.  The statement was met with a smile and I knew I had at least a couple minutes to forge a friendship.

 

I turned up the collar on my jacket as a gust of cold wind howled through the trees.  "Dang!" I continued, "I was just getting used to that warmer weather where if you stopped along the road to take a leak, you didn't have to go through 13 layers of clothes to reach it!"

 

Again I saw the weathered smile from behind the sunglasses and I could feel the friendship building.

 

"Sir," I said extending my hand into a firm handshake, "I don't guess I've ever met you." 

 

"Dennis is my name" I said, firmly griping the extended hand.

 

But my hand went limp as SHE said "Peggy"

 

I guess the commission check will be a bit smaller this pay period.

Dennis