Nostalgia

In kind of a 'blah' mood today. Which is pretty amazing, actually, considering how the day has gone so far. I'm only in town for the next day and a half or so, until I head north again to help out withe calving in one cold place, so that I can later go to a colder place and do it again. I'm pretty excited to cut my in-town stay to less than two months. I digress.

This morning, I needed to go to the DMV to get my license renewed. Finally I won't have that "UNDER 21" statement in bright red under my birthday. So, I go outside to the actually sort of warm-feeling morning to start my truck. Back in December I purchased a 1999 Dodge Ram half ton with the 360 in it. I love the truck, despite all the problems I've had with it. It had a manifold vacuum leak, it's still got a leaky timing cover (so it constantly drips antifreeze) I failed my emissions test the first time, had motor mounts that weren't mounted to the motor, and a few other small problems. Nothing I haven't been able to live with. Until this morning. Five minutes before I had to be leaving, I tried to start it. 'click.'
'Dammit, truck. This isn't the morning to have this problem.' So, I ran out to the barn and grabbed the charger, then had to wrangle up seven different extension cords just to reach my vehicle. I set the charger for 'engine start' and waited a few seconds. four cranks later: 'clickclickclick.'
I nearly lost my temper, until my father told me to take his truck. So I did, and managed to be seventh in line at the DMV. Everything went well, so I decided to go to Interstate Battery and get mine checked out. Within a second of hooking up to my battery, they said 'Yep. It's dead. You need a new one.' I suspected this, but hoped that wasn't the case. So, a hundred twenty dollars later and my truck will almost start up just by thinking about it.
Anyway, life isn't too awful, I suppose. I'm not out of money (which is pretty atypical for me this time of year) and things are looking up. I regret not being able to prowl the pages of Litnet for another few months, but on the flip side I'll be making money to replace what I've spent thus far.

I was up in Cherokee Park last weekend, covering a few night shifts of calving for Mike and Niki, due to the fact they've both been horribly sick for two weeks. While I was there, Niki told me she had put in a good word with the Meyring family, up in Jackson County. The Meyrings are a five-generation ranching family, I believe the oldest in the area. Mike worked for them, (I'm pretty sure Lucy is his aunt) when he was a teenager. A few hours later, Mike told me that Lucy wanted him to train me so that I could go up there next month and work for her. Needless to say, I was pretty stoked about it. Having one of the most respected ranchers in Northern Colorado want me to work for her makes me feel like I glow. Maybe not quite glow, but that's a good feeling. And Lucy knows my current boss, Mark, on a first name basis. So if it so happens she wants me for the summer she'll be able to talk Mark into letting me go without a fight.

So, it appears things are looking up! All that hard work and tolerance for dorky dude ranch guests and putting up with grumpy old mechanics paid off! I finally have the opportunity to work for a big-time cattle ranch and learn everything I want to!

On a side note- last Saturday when Mike and I were out feeding the bulls, Mike says "Boy, Skinny. Something gave me gas."
I replied in my typical worthless fact type of way: "You know Mikey, a healthy person farts twelve times a day."
Some four hours later, after we'd gotten all our chores done, Mike looks at me and says: "Skinny, since we had that conversation I've farted sixty eight times."