It's a matter of personal taste

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Time out! I mean, well, time out for me to rest up from all the ball games and crowd noise!

I have not been watching but my private TV has been tuned in to each and every football game possible since two weekends ago. My close relative has even stopped her cooking and “straightening up” to sit down and watch with her apron on and a dust rag in her hand.

Yes, my close relative’s grandson, the one who has had a case of the bronchitis and missed almost two weeks of school, is here. Yes, he is mine too, and I care a great deal about him but not his addiction to an oblong ball. I try to understand the joy of the game. I listen to the rules as he explains them over and over and I still can’t make myself become interested. Of course, the rain is wonderful but I was sorta penned up with the constant roar of a crowd.

Speaking of the rain, Iam thrilled out of sight over the two and a half inches that fell out here on the rock pile! The grass started growing the instant the first drop fell. We need the hay and we can’t even offer to sell one bale to the needy ones in the southern drought areas.

The pictures from the stricken area are enough to make a strong man weep: A feller holding a 20-ounce bottle of water in the mouth of a downed cow, and you know he was praying, trying to save her; Fires destroying homes and all the barns and hay in front of them. It is, sure enough, time to be on our knees for our neighbors.

I guess it ain’t illegal to gripe about football but after thinking about the ills of the rest of our country, I feel a little foolish. I did find a slicker and decided to saddle up and ride around the heifer pasture. I had already been there twice that day but you never knowhow fast one of the ladies will decide to calve. And I needed a way out!

Have to haul Snip to the heifers. He thinks he is going rodeoing and hops into the trailer in high spirits. He snorts around at the smells and gets wide-eyed, looks plumb broncy. Nostrils flared and the sclera showing around his eyes, he appears to be about four again. We made a pretty salty team when he was four and I was a few years younger! Can’t say we could even salt eggs now days, but we would try!

It is my opinion, and everyone has one, the time and place of a feller’s joy is a matter of personal taste! Some guys like to work on cars. I hate the smell of the grease and the grime. Some people like to sell stuff. I would run away from a job like that in a second. Some folks want to work in an office. I would probably bleed to death from paper cuts. Some like to watch football. I would rather ride pasture in the rain! Go figure: Human nature is very unpredictable, and I am sure glad!

Bill is a pen name used by the Gravette author of this weekly column.

Opinion, Pages 6 on 09/28/2011