Having just spent a week with my number one daughter, Cricket, in Idaho, Trixie and I had the rare opportunity to get out of the house and into some tall cotton.
Now, those of you who know Ol’ Dutch know that I am not inclined to take my gal out for a high flyin’ life. In fact, the last big date we had included butchering a cow and while that is about as romantic as any woman can want, I could tell Trixie was overdue for the lights of the big city.
Read MoreIf you live long enough to see your male friends lose spouses to either death or divorce you will suffer the unending torment of watching them be sucked into the cauldron of repeat matrimonial hardships. I mean a “happy marriage.”
When a woman loses a spouse she tends to gather up her friends and they spend countless hours consoling one another, eating out, shopping and doing things that she could not do while married or, otherwise, called, “having fun.”
Being a pastor's kid I know that some people believe Paradise is a stopping off place just short of Heaven and I liken this post-marriage phase as close to that place for women.
Read MoreOl' Dutch is a-not-so-willing member of the church choir.
This came about quite by accident due to Mother's Day rolling around unexpectedly five years ago and discovering en route to my mom’s house that I had no gift, so I had to improvise. I promised her a summer of church choir singing and now I am stuck like the proverbial pig in a mud hole, but not nearly as happy.
She is the director of said group which can be likened to the person who runs the torture chamber in a castle dungeon. It's a tad like the old man who told me at work that the “unwilling were leading the unable.”
Read MoreA 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.
Read MoreYou 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.
Read MoreWhen 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.
Read MoreOn 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.
Read MoreDown 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.
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