OPINION: Being appreciated and other stuff makes a closer and better home!

Here I sit drinking more coffee and the pot is now empty! Daylight is creeping in and the sun will be rising soon. My close relative will beat the sun as she always does and starts my coffee perking, so I'd best fix another pot real quick so she won't know how much I've already had!

I woke up at about four and decided I'd had enough sleep and dressed for the day. I looked at the clock in the kitchen and thought about going back to bed! Well, I was already dressed, so I'd have to start all over and decided against it! Now I am full of coffee and the sun ain't even up!

The day's work was worrying me when I went to bed and that's the reason I woke so early. Today, I am going to the town that is way bigger than my town and look for a baler and maybe a rake or even a big tedder. I have been using baling wire until it is all used up and I am tired. I am tired because, as hay season approaches, my old body is another year older than the equipment was and we are both worn smooth!

I made a list of jobs for the offspring to finish for the day and they will not pay much attention to it and do what they want to. I guess it is their business to get it done and when they feel like it, but I am still Boss! They are going to run this outfit when I am called up there and it is sometimes hard to turn loose of things you have worked so hard for. Now you know how old I feel today!

Did morning chores and cleaned up as she was getting ready to go somewhere. I hadn't asked her to tag along with me but I was beginning to realize I should have! The thought ran through my head about leaving her here and I quickly thought of the things such frivolous actions could bring about, arched eyebrows and other things of that nature that could happen, and I simply yelled for her to hurry! We did finally make it to town.

I drove straight to the tractor dealer and asked her if she wanted to get out with me and she did. The salesman showed us his best first and we certainly looked. All the new action on the new stuff was amazing to me and she commented on all the ways it would make the hay season so much easier on the farmer. We sat in the new tractors and talked while the salesman took a phone call.

I sure didn't want to make payments on a tractor the rest of my life and one of the big ones might take two acres just to park. My very own wife insisted we go back to the one on the lot she liked. I wasn't sure she had ever liked a tractor, but we backtracked and crawled in the finest one she really liked. She really liked it and made the man tell us the price, and all the other stuff she could think of. Being shocked was keeping me very still and also pale!

We bought the tedder, baler and, of course, her favorite tractor! I felt for certain I would never pay for it but she insisted I should write a check on that account that I never used and it was enough to pay for all the stuff! Did she have it planned? I suspect she did and I settled for dinner at a salad place!

Well, another lesson learned and one I had not even thought about. I knew I was gonna go to the dealer, but I sure thought she would stop off at the big dollar store and have me stop to get her on the way home. We sat still and pretty quiet on the way home and she finally told me she wanted to keep the farmer instead of the money in the bank for the heirs to fuss over or spend on fast cars. Boy, was I surprised and thrilled, to say the least!

Well, we celebrated that evening with a bonfire and wiener roast. All the kids came over and we told the story of our extravagance for the year. We told them to expect gas cards for one fill-up and an orange for Christmas! All laughed and said the necessary and approving things before leaving, and the female offspring helped us put things away.

Lessons learned: life is brighter and being appreciated and other stuff (can't write that) makes a closer and better home!

You can aim at all the skunks and blackbirds you find in our hayfields, keep your aim true and practice! Remember the Alamo!

Bill is the pen name used by the Gravette-area author of this weekly column. The opinions expressed are those of the author.