GRAMPa
Although I love him dearly, my father-in-law is a scary man. I don't mean scary in a "hide-behind-this -wall-and-jump-out-at-you-when- you- come- around-the-corner" type of scary. No, it is more that he likes to keep us all in suspense about whether or not he will make it out of the scrapes he find himself in. One of his famous sayings is to repeat "WHOA" five times. It sounds something like this : "WHhoa,wHOa,whOA,wHoA,WhOa". This usually comes out of his mouth about the time he looks to see what disaster he's just escaped.
I am composing a book in my mind about it. One day I may publish the stories of how many times we've thought he was a goner. Or that he should have been a goner based on what he did.
The other night was one of those. To protect the innocent, I won't go into much detail. But I will say this: What he did gave me a quotable quote. "You can't drive forwards when you are looking backwards".
Had we all not been there, he very well could have taken out the fence post, the lights, the hay bales, and the barn doors as he drove the tractor and wagon filled with hay into the barn. "GRAMPA" was heard on a regular basis. "GRAMPA, you're going to hit the fence." "GRAMPA, you're going to run over those lights you left on the ground." "GRAMPA, the wagon's going to tip over and take out the door if you drive any farther". You know, little phrases like that.
This all came because Grampa was driving the tractor forwards while looking backwards. I do acknowledge that he was concerned about the hay on the wagon. After all, the back right tire had exploded about three quarters of the way through the haying. So he was driving on the rim that had begun to look like a pretzel..kind of like this...only in rubber.
And the wagon carrying over a 100 bales of hay,
weighing 50 pounds each, was tipped over at about a 40 degree angle. So he had reason to worry that it wasn't going to make it into the barn before all the hay fell off it.
But still, in observing him on that tractor driving forwards while looking backwards, and seeing all the close calls he had with various objects (movable and immovable) I realized that he was providing me a metaphor of life. I plan to crawl into bed with a cold cloth over my eyes while I ruminate on this valuable lesson.
I am composing a book in my mind about it. One day I may publish the stories of how many times we've thought he was a goner. Or that he should have been a goner based on what he did.
The other night was one of those. To protect the innocent, I won't go into much detail. But I will say this: What he did gave me a quotable quote. "You can't drive forwards when you are looking backwards".
Had we all not been there, he very well could have taken out the fence post, the lights, the hay bales, and the barn doors as he drove the tractor and wagon filled with hay into the barn. "GRAMPA" was heard on a regular basis. "GRAMPA, you're going to hit the fence." "GRAMPA, you're going to run over those lights you left on the ground." "GRAMPA, the wagon's going to tip over and take out the door if you drive any farther". You know, little phrases like that.
This all came because Grampa was driving the tractor forwards while looking backwards. I do acknowledge that he was concerned about the hay on the wagon. After all, the back right tire had exploded about three quarters of the way through the haying. So he was driving on the rim that had begun to look like a pretzel..kind of like this...only in rubber.
And the wagon carrying over a 100 bales of hay,
weighing 50 pounds each, was tipped over at about a 40 degree angle. So he had reason to worry that it wasn't going to make it into the barn before all the hay fell off it.
But still, in observing him on that tractor driving forwards while looking backwards, and seeing all the close calls he had with various objects (movable and immovable) I realized that he was providing me a metaphor of life. I plan to crawl into bed with a cold cloth over my eyes while I ruminate on this valuable lesson.
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