A few weeks ago, I attended an auction for a youth camp near South Fork and, as it happens, in an area where my friends own some property.

Ol' Dutch told them about the auction and the resulting sales price, so they decided that a trip up the mountain to inspect their proximity to the place was in order. They invited Trixie and me to tag along in their Prius.

For those of you who are not familiar with this vehicle, let’s just say it’s a cross between a lawnmower and a toy electric car. And, after this experience, I now believe a way for the Japanese to get revenge on us for their defeat in WWII.

You cannot open a newspaper or look at the recent events on the Internet and not be bombarded with news about how NSA or some other quasi-government agency is spying on the American people.

This got me to thinking, which is always a tad dangerous as using rusty machinery can cause all kinds of accidents. Trixie suggested I leave the heavy work to her but women just don't understand big equipment like Ol’ Dutch does.

When Ol’ Dutch retired from being on call 24/7 more than 30 years, he was suddenly free to enjoy long lazy mornings with coffee and silence. Finally I got to sleep when I wanted and get up when I wanted.

Try as I may, I will never understand the old men around me who pop out of bed at 5 a.m. and hustle down to the local beanery to have coffee. Looking at some of their partners, though, I guess maybe the morning view for those men was too much to handle and coffee sounded pretty good.

On a recent trip to the great State of Kansas, Ol' Dutch had the opportunity to be exposed to what some would see as real “culture.”

Unlike our typical time spent in the boonies somewhere west of the Mason-Dixon Line, Trixie and I spent two weeks in thriving metropolis of Wichita, Kan. which does have some semblance of sophistication to it. Well, they did have a Starbucks anyway.

Down through the years I have heard many a reference to fence posts. Plus, growing up in Kansas, I had quite a few opportunities to set some fence posts too.

Now Ol' Dutch isn’t immune to local dialect and have written about some of that in the past and how interesting it can become.

I can recall the early days of Facebook which may date me somewhat but age is just a number, right? Trixie says that in my case it’s a BIG number but what does she know?

Given that women never age past 39, I wonder if they simply skipped learning to count higher than that?  Perhaps that’s why there are so few women in science fields in America. They are just not good at math. But, don’t tell Trixie I said that.

Ol' Dutch has commented before about how women tend to leave their things around when dating a man.

Now, I’ve considered this a long time and have decided it is so they can mark their territory so that if by chance another vixen comes into the nest she can see there is already a she-cat scratching at this pole.

Plus if they do it slowly and surreptitiously it starts to give an appearance of permanence so the unsuspecting man slowly gets conditioned to having such items around the castle.