OPINION? Everybody Has One!!

— How come some folks seem to just float through bad times and others, me, have to flail around, call paramedics and pay the vet? Could it be attitude? Maybe, but I still declare it is fate and doomed to be! Poor ole’ me, I done lost it all or at least some of it, and no Santa is standing on the roof waiting to slide down my chimney with a bag filled with gold to rescue me!

Yep, my George Strait truck, barely ten years old and only 159,000 miles on the odometer, has given up the ghost! I had it hauled in from the pasture by a tow truck yesterday morning. I had to walk home, some four miles in the 22 degree temp, wind blowing from the north at a clip of 30 to 35 miles per hour and my Levi jacket was pretty thin. I wantedto job but my body just wouldn’t.

I was ready to doze the truck instead of towing it by the time my close relative opened the door that my cold fingers could not! She was shocked to see she had the Papa Smurf coming in, blue faced and a white beard of frozen breath. Took me about an hour to thaw and get in proper alignment to tell the story.

I told the predicament in glorious detail. The motor running but then not. The coughing spell, not mine but the trucks, and finally the spurt of life before the complete silence of dastardly death. I was enjoying the hot coffee and the warmth of the electric throw, let alone the attention I was deservedly getting.

Then she, my close relative, asked where my cell phone was. A simple question, yes, but not one I was prepared to hear at that particular time. Now I was really aggravated and, instead of blue, my face was blanching white, slowly going to red. That dang new, beneficial and totally forgotten piece of equipment was getting red hot in my vest pocket, branding my hide by now with the word “Sucker”!

I enacted that selective hearing trait that I am so blessed to possess, rearranging the cover and squirming around to reach the coffee cup on the table. I reached for a tissue to wipe my thawing nose and coughed a couple of times for good measure. My close relative began a slight smile, the corners of her mouth just barely turning up but her eyes were crinkling upwith glee!

It is my opinion, and everyone has one, when disaster hits, salt should not be rubbed into the gash. Neither should good decent folks enjoy the episode, the dire circumstances of the sufferers. It is without relish in the escapade that we should offer comfort and assistance to those who have endured the trial and never ever enjoy their pain. That is what decent, God fearing Southern folks should do. And if it has anything to do with the ability of another to think, for the sake of all that is human, do not laugh!

Have a good week, stay warm and I suggest you never forget the ability to enact the selective hearing trait!

Opinion, Pages 4 on 12/16/2009