Was standing in line at Wally*World last night with the usual buggy full of Gatorade, MtDew, Tide, toilet paper and kitchen cleaner..you know, the usual household stuff.
The gal checking me out said "Man, I'm tired". I stopped putting my stuff on the counter and stared at her.
My first question: "How long have you been married?"
Her answer: "Oh, I'm not married"
My next question: "How many kids do you have?"
I knew what the answer to this one was: "Oh, I don't have any kids...I'm still in college."
Okay..that threw a kink in me because I had three kids....worked full time..and finished a teaching degree. I remember going into the bathroom just so I could study!
My third question: "How many will be at your house for supper?"
She told me that she'd probably go thru the Sonic drive-in and pick up something for just herself.
So, instead of being scarcastic..I said, so you're in school? (We're in a small university town)
Her response was "Yes, I take a few classes....but I still live at home." Meaning, she still has a mama to answer to.
So, THEN I got on my soap box. I told her that when she had been married for almost 30 years, when she has raised three boys, when she had five people to cook supper for AFTER she had worked a 9 hours shift at a paying job and then went and helped her husband in the field....THEN, she could complain that she was tired.
She asked me what all I had done today: (brave soul she is):
Went to work at 7am
After work, went to the field and took the fuel tank to fill it up....spent $800. on farm diesel
Pulled an ammonia tank to the co-op to be refilled (that's another $2K) and needed to hurry my trip thru the store because I had to fix supper for the guys and take it back out to the field.
Her next question?
"So, are boys easier to raise than girls?"
Where this came from, I have no idea.
I told her that I had no idea, but it's what God gave me...so I made the most of it.
I then told her:
We've only had one broken bone
That the ambulance can get to our house in 8 minutes (they've made the trip twice)
That your heart will break when they put your baby in the helicopter
That you need to learn CRP because one of them will test your abilities
That you need to learn first-aid and you will use a medicine chest full of Bacatricin and band-aids monthly
That you should buy stock (not the cow-kind) in Wrangler, Ariat, Mt.Dew, Folgers Coffee, Tide and Miss Clairol
That we only had a few fingers missing
That red dirt will not wash out of white socks
That you had to learn to do background checks on girls who chased your boys.
She just glared at me and then said "I'm tired from listening to you".
I told her that it was at least an honest tired and that if she ever had some free time to come out and follow me (us) around.
She then wanted to know if I had any single boys. I asked her if she knew how to cook, do laundry or could drive a tractor. She didn't answer. I was hoping just to hire her for a day or two to catch me up!
