OCD* II: Snapshot of a Beautiful Veterans Day

As some of you kind readers may have noticed, I've been a bit spotty in posting over the last week. I guess a bit spotty isn't terrible when compared against the months which passed between posting in the not so distant past. Nevertheless I set myself the task of posting every day, so I'm a bit disappointed in myself. That's just me dealing with ME, though. And just between you and me, ME can be rather a bitch and might have made a good navy nurse. So the difference between a life well lived and a complete feces firework can be very fine indeed!

The last week has been a whirlwind of activity, all of which can be described and ongoing ranch cleanup and disposal of excessive junk inventory.

We moved the '46 Ford Pickup,

The '48 International KB-5,

Various grain carts, trailers, augers, and miscellaneous piles of junk/treasure, none of which are worthy of an image. Or more properly, none of which I made a worthy image of. Okay, okay! Here's an auger.

Flat.

Not flat. Good tubes is good technology!

All of that kept me hopping. Smart phones and texting make the communication thing much easier and faster, but faster means more and quicker hopping and easier means more texting, which I'm barely competent at.

The hopping also largely prevented me from perusing any blogs, So I've got a backlog to catch up on today since I'm under medical orders to "take it easy for the rest of the day."

In the spirit of the post title, I had a very nice chat with the young rancher fellow who purchased the KB-5. He was very interested in the history of our ranch and seemed to delight in the story, particularly how my great-grandparents Maude and Evert, were here farming, ranching, and building while raising a passel of kids, and all before motor vehicles, tractors, roads (as opposed to trails and ruts), REA, power lines, and 'lectricity, and all like that. He was also interested that I'd had a navy career and pried a couple of stories out of me. So this morning, long before the sun came up, I got a couple of texts.

"I love it even more than I thought I would. Thank you."

"Some people make fun of us but we name all our cars and trucks we named this one Evert."

"Thank You for your Service, Sir!"

I find it increasingly hard to be universally down on the young people.

Now this morning I had to venture over to the big hospital in the big city. The task was to get some more steroid injections to quiet down some complaining nerve roots in the area of my lumbar spine. I say big hospital and big city but I imagine that many of you readers would rate it a small hospital in a small town. Compared to Kimball and KImball Health Services though, trust me. It's a big hospital. Just not a Big hospital. And only technically located in a "city," not really big and certainly not Big, so, um, village, perhaps? Butt I digress.

Before today started there was yesterday, which was lovely, sunny, and warm. Until sunset, when a front rolled in with sharply lower temps, a freezing fog, and stiff north winds. Zero degree wind chill, glasses encrusted with frozen fog, wearing a ratty old Nebraska sweatshirt with the sleeves cut off, no gloves... Which were the conditions in which I helped a young fellow load up a tango uniform Dear John zero(ish) radius mower.

Mom was quite concerned about the possible physiological effects of such conditions and such a lack of proper attire. "That's why we're Men!," I replied, "Somebody's got to do the stupid stuff!" She was not convinced, and even less was she amused. But as I said, "That's why we're..."

Then the snow set in. Fortunately a light snow. At 0500 the clouds were fading over the eastern horizon as the same began to show hints of coming dawn. Roads and driving conditions were perfectly normal for November in this part of the country, which seems to equate to completely impassible in many other parts of the country. Including Denver, if the newsworthy morning accident rate is any indication.

Mom and i braved it anyway and this is kinda what it was like.



Mom was along because I needed a driver for the return trip as the injections go in near my spine and there's a chance of transient numbness in the legs and feet and perhaps even loss of motor control. It's a safety precaution. Of course you want to weigh all variables, and between us we determined that I should drive home also, which was a pretty small risk, considering I've had the injections before without any adverse effects. If you're reading this, we survived.

Or my estate has decided to continue publishing the blog.

At the big hospital everyone was very nice as usual, and I was just pounded left and right by many a "Happy Veterans Day" and "Thank You For Your Service!" It was pretty heartwarming, and I felt blessed to be able to express my appreciation for their kind words and throw in my "aw, shucks" reminder that we're all in this America thing together.

After the check in and mandatory donning of the backless gown the x-ray tech with her shadowing x-ray tech student in trail took me back to one of the fluoroscopy room where the radiologist would be able to guide his BFN (big needle)  to the correct location.

Since I properly called the x-ray doc a radiologist I should also properly call the x-ray techs Radiology Technologists. But only the one time, because that's a lot of x-tra typing. The full-up tech and her student were very nice and very competent.

For some odd reason, can't really imagine why, I just happened to notice that the student tech was about 22 years old and a smokin' hot blond put together without any lego whatsoever. Weird how I noticed that. IMO, she was several pegs above the image Sarge's Muse shared the other day. Admittedly the lighting was terrible in that picture and the photog was clearly a rank amateur. Obviously. Where was I? Oh yeah, why did I notice? Hmm. Perhaps it's true that while you can take the sailor out of the navy you can't take the sailor out of the sailor. Who knows?

Anyway, it turned out that the student tech has an older sister who is an actively serving sailor stationed in Gaeta, Italy. She had visited her sister over the summer so I was able to drop some names and locations. "Oh my god, I was there! It was fantastic! We ate at the same restaurant! This so so cool!" Music to my ears. Not unexpected, mind you. I am after all a sailor. I was also able to extend best Veterans Day wishes to my fellow sailor the sister, if you follow.

Someone should probably slap me for I believe I'm on a roll here.

Then the radiologist rolled in, stabbed me a couple of times, and the whole thing was done in less than five minutes. Without any side effects.

Even more quickly than I checked in, I checked out. Strangely the student tech didn't slip me her phone number, but they were quite busy today so I'm sure it was just an oversight. It happens.

When Mom and I rolled back into Kimball we were able to reclaim her now-demoused car after a six-week complete tear-down and rebuild. The bill was eye-watering but covered, save the deductible, by insurance. Mom was sure happy to have it back!

Then I got on with checking cows and various odd jobs before heading home to "take it easy for the rest of the day."

Hope you are all well and enjoying the blessings of Liberty on this beautiful (in many ways) Veterans Day. And btw,

DEYS. (Compliments to carolina TURTLE)

Almost forgot. Remembrance Day Sunday in Herefordshire, Blighty yesterday.

*OCD = Old Corpsman Debacles