HAT TIPS
Hello,
I have a great suggestion. If you borrow something, when you are finished, return it. Now, that doesn’t seem like it would be too hard to do. And it shouldn’t really be. But I have a relatively good excuse. I was going to borrow it again, so I just kept it.
I am referring to a loading chute. A portable loading chute. A chute, that up until a couple days ago, was on wheels. It did belong to a friend and neighbor of mine. Now I’m thinking it belongs to me. I’ll start at the beginning.
Last spring we were hauling cows to the Reservation. So we needed a loading chute at the home pasture. And an unloading chute up north. Since we only had one chute, I borrowed one from a neighbor. And it was a very good one. Borrowing is kind of like getting mounted at a rodeo. Get mounted on the best horse available. Or borrow the best chute available.
Anyway, we set this chute up on the end of a dead-end road, right against the pasture fence. Then we set a portable corral up inside the pasture. Worked slick. Worked so slick, we just left the borrowed chute set up all summer. Since we would need it to unload the cows this fall. This plan seemed to make sense.
The other night we received a phone call. Someone had gone down that dead-end road at a high rate of speed, and slammed into that loading chute. I mean they REALLY SLAMMED INTO THAT CHUTE! It totaled their pickup out and pretty much exploded that wonderful (borrowed) loading chute. I suppose I should have been more concerned about the pickup, but since the driver had abandoned it, and there was no blood on the air bags, I figure what the heck.
So, in the ensuing investigation, under intense questioning, I told the officer, “the chute originally belonged to a neighbor, but I guess that as of tonight, I own it.”
That reminded me of a story about one of our young neighbor girls, who by the way, is getting married next spring.
Alex was about four years old and we were kid-sitting. When her folks picked her up, she cried about how hungry she was. Shirley and I felt bad and asked, “Why didn’t you tell us you were hungry?”
She talked with a slight lisp, as many children do. She looked very serious and replied, “The Weeder family is not an asking family!”
But boy, they sure were a sharing family.
Later,
Dean