Under the Wire

You gotta be kidding? That is my standard response to all the suggestions floating around out there about how I should be spending my “Stay At Home” time.

Seems everyone has an opinion and you know what they say about opinions. Pick up a newspaper, magazine or turn on the radio or television and someone will be expounding the virtues of how they are filling their stay at home hours.

Go for walks, get a dog, do a complete makeover of your yard, take up sewing, baking, archery or learn to play a musical instrument. These are just a few I have heard. It’s also a list of those I immediately ignored. One television comedian said he was going to fill his idle hours by letting his hair grow.

On a ranch there is always something to repair. The bulls tore down a corral fence, a “cribbing” horse ate most of his fence. The baler needs new knives and the tractor that pulls it has a flat tire, caused by running over a nail while fixing the fence the bulls tore down. You will notice none of my activities are on the official list of stay at home past times.

Also not on the list is changing irrigation water, hauling gravel to repair a field road washed out when I didn’t change the irrigation water in time. Was busy changing the tractor tire and forgot.

Honestly, I am glad to have so much to do around the place. There’s always lots of walking to do from one repair project to another, the reason my horse wreck induced hip replacement is killing me by days end. Was once a saxophone player in the school band. The world became a much better place when I lost interest and joined the choir. The globe became an even better place when the choir director suggested a transfer to wood shop.

In my pre-marriage years a missing button on most of my shirts forced me to develop basic sewing skills. When the local cleaners who had been ironing them for me offered to do the job I threw away my needle and thimble.

In summary, no popular past times have caught my fancy except for one I know I will be good at. My choice? I’m going to let my hair grow. I know I will be good at that!