Just about the first thing I did this morning was run over a bull snake. He was coiled up in one of the tire tracks of a pasture trail road. I was driving faster than I ought to have been and didn't see him until the last moment. I couldn't go around because of the topography and geometry of the trail road. I slammed on the brakes and the anti-skid did the rest.
I really feel bad about killing that snake. Never would have happened if I hadn't been in such a big hurry. Just part of life, but I still feel bad.
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The qualities which make steel wire ideal for fencing applications are the same qualities which make it tough and sometimes painful to work with.
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| Close! |
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A long time ago I was involved in ditching one of the taxpayers helos at sea. Impact was rather a hard wallop, seat collapsed, and I bit the hell out of my tongue. Also managed to break my left elbow (radial head).
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| Wooly Verbena |
Now in my advancing years whenever the barometer bounces around in the 30.20's and 30.30's the elbow -- and pretty much the whole arm -- aches like sin. The last couple of days it's been spectacularly sore.
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| Field Sunflower |
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| Prickly Poppy |
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I've been more than a little disappointed and impatient with the way my physical endurance has been recovering following multiple months stuck on my arse with a bone infection.
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| P. Poppy close |
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| Field Bindweed |
I am making progress, just not as much or as fast as I'd like. Before the infection 8-10 hour fencing days were tiring but routine. The last week or so I've been hitting the exhaustion wall at six hours.
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| Sunflower mit bugs |
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| Lots of bindweed |
Of course the wall was located at four hours a month ago, and two hours the month before that.
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| Coneflowers and clouds |
It took seven months to get so weak, so I shouldn't expect it to come back instantly I guess. I'd be happy to settle for quicker though.
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| One of them lavender ray flower thingies |
While I'm whining, not-quick-enough is far better than not at all.
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| Little rocketship coneflowers |
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| Yucca with new pods |
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The weather guessers are absolutely baffled at today's high cloud cover. Not at all what they forecast, not at all.
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| Scarlet coneflowers, my favorite |
I'm pretty happy with the clouds, which have taken a lot of the smack out of the pounding photons and have kept the mercury out of triple-digit range.
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| Cows and calves eating lush summer grass |
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For all my whining it's been just a smashingly beautiful day.
Pity about the snake, wrong place, wrong time.
ReplyDeleteAs to the endurance, ya know there's a chance you won't get back to where you were. It's an age thing. I know, I know, you're still a young'un, comparatively speaking. And ain't nobody as old as old PLQ yet!
No, I'll never get back all the way, but I will get back as far as I can. There's still gas in the tank.
DeleteSee there, if you had those bump gates you wouldn't be driving so darn fast. Poor ol snake wasn't bothering nobody. I know they keep moving, but tell me you chopped his head off to end it.
ReplyDeleteWow, too close to your eye, dodged one there. Head cuts always seem to bleed like no tomorrow.
You get to the fitness level your going to be at, eventually. Keep plugging away, the whole bunkhouse crew are root'n for you!
PS: The wild flowers are pretty, and the girls & their calves are slick & health, YAY!
DeleteYes I did, chopped it off and smashed it with the flat of the shovel. Just a reptile with a brain the size of a pea but no reason to let it suffer.
DeleteI could tell my head wound was superficial because, well, it was my HEAD. 😉
Cattle are thriving and being able to see that is a blessing. Thanks for the well wishes!
Ft Leonard Wood Engineer School NCO teaching us to string barb wire says to me, "Son, you've done this before. I'm going to make you an assistant instructor".
ReplyDelete"Yes, Sargent. So when they over stretch the wire and it breaks, it will wrap around my legs instead of yours?"
"I KNEW you are experienced".
Hahaha! You we're the man!
DeleteWhen I was 21, I slipped on some wet grass, and discovered that under the right conditions, knees can also move side to side. For 35 years, I have known about storms before they arrive.
ReplyDeleteI heard about/read about barometric joint pain in my youth. It's an interesting phenomenon until something on your own body starts to ache.
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